al-Difa an al-Sunna - Jamiat al-Madina (Bakaluriyus)
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- Jāmiʿat al-Madīnah al-ʿĀlamīyah
Al-Difaʿ ʿan al-Sunna (Bakaluriyus) (Defense of the Sunnah – Bachelor's Level) is an academic textbook published by Al-Madinah International University (Jāmiʿat al-Madīnah al-ʿĀlamiyyah) for undergraduate degree students under course code IUHD3084, focusing on establishing the authoritative status of the Prophetic Sunnah and dismantling misconceptions raised against it .
Scope and Structure
The book is structured as a university course divided into successive instructional lessons (durūs) tailored for undergraduate study . It opens by defining what constitutes a doubt or specious argument (shubhah) from linguistic and legal (sharʿī) perspectives, framing the defense of the Sunnah as an essential safeguard for Islamic theology and jurisprudence . The text traces the historical preservation of Prophetic traditions across successive generations of hadith scholars and explains the methodologies developed to protect texts and chains of transmission from distortions .
Themes and Methodological Arguments
The textbook addresses key theoretical and polemical topics surrounding hadith literature, including:
- Authority of the Sunnah (Ḥujjiyyat al-Sunnah): The work marshals proofs from the Quran, the Sunnah itself, scholarly consensus (ijmāʿ), and rational principles to demonstrate that following the Prophet ﷺ is an obligatory component of faith . It responds to arguments that advocate relying solely on the Quran to the exclusion of the Sunnah, demonstrating that selective textual interpretation violates sound interpretive methodology .
- Transmission and Solitary Reports (Khabar al-Āḥād): The course examines the conditions of widely transmitted (mutawātir) and solitary (āḥād) reports, delineating how solitary narrations serve as valid evidence across Islamic legal rulings and creedal matters, drawing on the classical frameworks of scholars such as al-Shafi'i .
- Refutation of Fabricated Proofs and Polemics: The text analyzes spurious claims used to undermine hadith, such as the pseudo-tradition instructing believers to reject any hadith not explicitly matching the Quran, explaining why hadith scholars classified such reports as fabricated . It also critiques arguments popularized by Western Orientalists and modern skeptics, such as the contention that hadith literature was fabricated in the first and second centuries AH as a byproduct of socio-political development .
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