Hujjiyyat al-Sunnah wa Dahd al-Shubuhat allati Tuthar Hawlaha

Hujjiyyat al-Sunnah wa Dahd al-Shubuhat allati Tuthar Hawlaha ("The Epistemic Authority of the Sunnah and the Refutation of Doubts Raised Against It") is a scholarly treatise by the Syrian hadith scholar Mahmud al-Tahhan (d. 1444 AH / 2022 CE), written during his tenure as a lecturer in the College of Sharia at the Islamic University of Madinah Hujjiyyat al-Sunnah wa Da…+1. The work defends the binding authority (hujjiyyah) of the prophetic Sunnah as the second source of Islamic law and systematically refutes both classical theological objections and modern critical discourses Hujjiyyat al-Sunnah wa Da…+1.

Background and Purpose

Tahhan composed the treatise to counteract what he identified as a coordinated intellectual challenge aimed at undermining Islamic jurisprudence by eroding confidence in the Sunnah Hujjiyyat al-Sunnah wa Da…. He observes that while the overwhelming consensus of Muslims across fourteen centuries affirmed the binding legal authority of authentic hadiths, doubts re-emerged among contemporary educated youth Hujjiyyat al-Sunnah wa Da…+1. Tahhan attributes the spread of these notions to several factors: insufficient traditional Islamic learning, the cultural dominance of foreign paradigms over Muslim societies, a weakening of religious commitment, and the historical collapse of the caliphate that previously protected Islamic orthodoxy Hujjiyyat al-Sunnah wa Da…+1. The treatise was published in the fifteenth issue of the scholarly journal Majallat al-Jami'ah al-Islamiyyah Majallat al-Jami'a al-Isl….

Evidentiary Basis for the Authority of the Sunnah

The work divides its foundational proof into four categories:

• The Quran: Tahhan cites numerous verses commanding obedience to the Prophet, warning against violating his instructions, and making submission to his judgment a condition of faith, such as وَمَا آتَاكُمُ الرَّسُولُ فَخُذُوهُ وَمَا نَهَاكُمْ عَنْهُ فَانْتَهُوا ("Whatever the Messenger gives you, take it; and whatever he forbids you, abstain from it") Hujjiyyat al-Sunnah wa Da…+1.
• The Sunnah: Drawing from Al-Khatib al-Baghdadi's Al-Kifayah fi 'Ilm al-Riwayah, he adduces prophetic traditions foretelling the emergence of individuals who would restrict authority exclusively to the Quran, including the narration of Al-Miqdam ibn Ma'dikarib: يوشك رجل متكئ على أريكته يحدّث بحديثي فيقول بيننا وبينكم كتاب الله ("A man will soon recline on his couch, and when my hadith is narrated to him, he will say: Between us and you is the Book of Allah...") Hujjiyyat al-Sunnah wa Da…+1.
• Consensus (Ijma'): The author highlights the uninterrupted agreement of the Companions, Successors, and subsequent jurists that the Sunnah serves as an independent and complementary legislative source alongside the Quran Hujjiyyat al-Sunnah wa Da….
• Rational Necessity (Al-Ma'qul): Tahhan argues that the Quran tasks the Prophet with clarifying divine intent, as reflected in practical injunctions whose details appear only in hadith literature Hujjiyyat al-Sunnah wa Da…+1. He illustrates this with fundamental rituals and laws—including the specific units (rak'ahs) and timings of prayer, zakat minimums, the limb and threshold for amputating a thief's hand, and marital consummation rules—demonstrating that Islamic ritual practice cannot function on Quranic text alone Hujjiyyat al-Sunnah wa Da…+1.

Refutation of Classical and Modern Objections

Tahhan classifies the challenges to the Sunnah into classical theological arguments and modern orientalist theories:

Classical Doubts

The treatise examines the historical positions of rationalist groups, identified by scholars like Muhammad al-Khudari as strands within the Mu'tazila Hujjiyyat al-Sunnah wa Da…. These groups rejected solitary reports (khabar al-wahid) on the premise that they yielded only probable knowledge (zann) or rejected hadiths entirely by claiming the Quran was comprehensively sufficient Hujjiyyat al-Sunnah wa Da…+1. Tahhan details how Al-Shafi'i (d. 204 AH) answered these assertions in Kitab al-Umm and Al-Risalah, noting historical precedents where the Companions altered binding obligations solely upon receiving solitary reports, such as the congregation of Quba changing their prayer direction toward Mecca during dawn prayer Hujjiyyat al-Sunnah wa Da…+1.

Modern and Orientalist Critiques

Tahhan addresses the arguments of Western orientalists, foremost among them Ignaz Goldziher and Joseph Schacht, who claimed that hadiths reflected the socio-political evolution of the first two Islamic centuries rather than genuine records of early Islam Hujjiyyat al-Sunnah wa Da…+1. He critiques modern Arab authors who adopted these stances, specifically citing Mahmud Abu Rayyah's Adwa' 'ala al-Sunnah al-Muhammadiyyah, Ahmad Amin's Duha al-Islam, and articles by Ahmad Abd al-Mun'im al-Bahi in Al-Arabi magazine Hujjiyyat al-Sunnah wa Da….

Tahhan specifically refutes their common claim that classical hadith scholars focused exclusively on "external criticism" of the transmission chain (isnad) while neglecting "internal criticism" of the text (matn) Hujjiyyat al-Sunnah wa Da…+1. He demonstrates that the foundational criteria of hadith authentication (mustalah al-hadith) explicitly require evaluating the text itself to ensure the absence of irregularity (shudhudh) and subtle hidden defect ('illah), both of which apply to textual content as strictly as to chains of transmission Hujjiyyat al-Sunnah wa Da….