al-Rudud al-Mufhama ala Munkiri al-Sunna al-Mutahhara
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- al-Rudud al-Mufhama ala Munkiri al-Sunna al-Mutahhara
al-Rudud al-Mufhama ala Munkiri al-Sunna al-Mutahhara (The Decisive Refutations Against the Deniers of the Purified Sunnah) is a contemporary polemical treatise authored by the Syrian Salafi scholar Adnan al-Arur (Adnan ibn Muhammad al-Arur), aimed at refuting the arguments of modern Hadith rejectors (often referred to as Quranists) and establishing the indispensability and divine preservation of the prophetic Sunnah in Islamic theology and law .
Background and Purpose
The treatise was written in response to recurring modern movements calling for the abandonment of the Sunnah under the pretext that the Quran alone provides sufficient guidance for Muslims . Al-Arur characterizes such calls as deceptive schemes disguised in religious language that ultimately undermine Islam by separating the Quran from its explanatory source, asserting that undermining the authority of the Sunnah leads to explicit disbelief (kufr bawāḥ) .
Content and Arguments
The work is arranged as a sequence of systematic points and deductive arguments addressing those who reject the authority of the Sunnah :
- Source of Transmission: The author argues that the Quran itself reached later generations exclusively through the conveyance of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and the transmission of his Companions; discarding the Sunnah logically invalidates confidence in the Quran, as both rely on the exact same transmitters .
- Divine Preservation: Al-Arur maintains that God's promise to preserve the Reminder (al-Dhikr) in إِنَّا نَحْنُ نَزَّلْنَا الذِّكْرَ وَإِنَّا لَهُ لَحَافِظُونَ ("Indeed, it is We who sent down the Reminder and indeed, We will be its guardian", Quran 15:9) encompasses the entire religion, including the Sunnah, because a complete religion cannot survive if only half of its revelation is preserved while the explanatory half is lost .
- Necessity for Practice: The text points out that practical rituals—including the precise mechanisms and numbers of units in daily prayers, rates of zakat, rites of hajj, and specific dietary prohibitions (such as domestic donkeys and predatory beasts)—are absent from the Quran's concise text and can only be known and practiced through the Sunnah .
- Hermeneutical Role: Citing the early jurist Makhul's statement that "the Quran is in greater need of the Sunnah than the Sunnah is of the Quran," al-Arur explains that the Sunnah clarifies the Quran's ambiguous passages, qualifies its absolute statements, and specifies its general rulings .
- The Concept of Faith: The author argues that true faith in the Prophet ﷺ entails accepting his commands, prohibitions, and legal verdicts, rather than merely acknowledging his historical existence or person without obeying his instructions .
Summary of the Stance Against Hadith Rejection
The book concludes with a dedicated section summarizing seven critical implications of rejecting the Sunnah: alienating Muslims from their religious duties, diminishing the status of prophethood, disobeying explicit divine commands to obey the Messenger, breaking essential pillars of faith, emulating adversaries of Islam, contradicting the requirements of following the Prophet ﷺ, and demolishing the structure of the religion . Al-Arur illustrates the relationship between the Quran and the Sunnah as akin to that of the soul and the body, concluding that separating them leads to spiritual demise .
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