al-Radd ala man yunkir Hujjiyat al-Sunnah
- Author died
- 1403 AH
- Editions
- Maktabat al-Sunnah
al-Radd ala man yunkir Hujjiyat al-Sunnah (Refutation of Those Who Deny the Authority of the Sunnah) is a polemical and jurisprudential treatise written by the Egyptian scholar Abd al-Ghani Abd al-Khaliq (d. 1403 AH / 1983 CE) to refute arguments challenging the binding legal authority (hujjiyyah) of the prophetic Sunnah.
Background and Origin
The treatise constitutes an excerpted chapter from the author’s larger foundational work on Islamic legal theory, Hujjiyat al-Sunnah (The Authority of the Sunnah). Abd al-Ghani Abd al-Khaliq—a professor of Islamic law and former chairman of the Department of Jurisprudence and its Principles (Fiqh wa-Usuluh) at Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University—wrote the text to address contemporary skepticism directed against the necessity of prophetic traditions in Islamic legislation.
Subject Matter and Arguments
The work specifically responds to claims popularized by figures such as Dr. Muhammad Tawfiq Sidqi, who published articles in Rashid Rida’s periodical al-Manar asserting that "Islam is the Quran alone" (al-Islam huwa al-Qur'an wahdah).
Abd al-Ghani Abd al-Khaliq systematically dissects the primary arguments of those who seek to restrict Islamic law solely to the Quran, notably their reliance on Quranic passages such as مَا فَرَّطْنَا فِي الْكِتَابِ مِنْ شَيْءٍ ("We have not neglected in the Register a thing") and وَنَزَّلْنَا عَلَيْكَ الْكِتَابَ تِبْيَانًا لِكُلِّ شَيْءٍ ("And We have sent down to you the Book as clarification for all things"). The author demonstrates that the Quran's comprehensiveness functions through multiple modalities of clarification (bayan):
- Explicit textual injunctions (al-bayan bi-tariq al-nass) concerning fundamental creeds and general obligations.
- Reference to supplementary legislative sources (al-bayan bi-tariq al-ihalah), whereby the Quran itself commands obedience to the Prophet ﷺ and establishes his Sunnah as an authoritative source to detail general rulings and clarify ambiguities.
Drawing directly on classical legal frameworks, particularly al-Shafi'i’s discussion of hermeneutic clarification in al-Risalah, the author argues that accepting the Prophet's rulings is an inherent requirement of submitting to the Quran's command.
Publication
In addition to appearing within the author's primary monograph Hujjiyat al-Sunnah, the treatise was printed under the title Bayan al-shubah allati awradaha ba'd man yunkir hujjiyat al-sunnah wa-al-radd 'alayha as an appended third section to Muhammad Muhammad Abu Shahba’s Difa' 'an al-Sunnah (Defense of the Sunnah), published by Maktabat al-Sunnah in Cairo (1409 AH / 1989 CE). It is also circulated independently under its individual title.
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