Quranism

Adherents of Quranic Islam are referred to as Quranists (Arabic: قرآنيّون‎, romanized: Qurāniyyūn), or People of the Quran (Arabic: أهل القرآن‎, romanized: ’Ahl al-Qur’ān).[5] This should not be confused with Ahle-e-Quran, which is an organisation formed by Abdullah Chakralawi. Quranists may also refer to themselves simply as Muslims, Submitters, or reformists.[5]

Quranists believe that the Quran is the sole source of religious law and guidance in Islam and reject the authority of sources outside of the Quran like Hadith and Sunnah. And, citing Quranic verses like 6:38–39 and 6:114–115, they believe that the Quran is clear, complete, and that it can be fully understood without recourse to the hadith and sunna.[2] Therefore, they use the Quran itself to interpret the Quran:[6]

". . . .a literal and holistic analysis of the text from a contemporary perspective and applying the exegetical principle of tafsir al-qur'an bi al-qur'an (explaining the Qur'an with the Qur'an) and the jurisprudential principle al-asl fi al-kalam al-haqiqah (the fundamental rule of speech is literalness), without refracting that Qur'anic usage through the lens of history and tradition."[7]

This method of interpreting the Quran is different from the method favored by most Sunni and Shia exegetes, known as tafsir bi-al-ma'thur (interpreting the Quran with narrations, i.e., hadiths). In contrast to Quranists, Sunnis do not believe that the Quran is fully detailed. They believe that, "the Qur'an needs the Sunnah more than the Sunnah needs the Qur'an (inna l-Quran ahwaju ila l-sunna mina l-sunna ila l-Quran)".[8] This methodological difference has led to considerable divergence between Quranists and Sunnis and Shia in matters of theology and law.

For example, in the centuries immediately following Muhammad's death, Muslims who rejected hadiths did not believe in Naskh.[9] The Kufan scholar Dirar ibn Amr's rejection of hadith led him to reject the belief in Al-Masih ad-Dajjal, Punishment of the Grave, and Shafa'ah in the 8th century.[10] And the Egyptian scholar Muhammad Abu Zayd's rejection of hadith-based commentaries led him to reject the belief in the Isra and Mi'raj in the early 20th century. In his rationalist Quran commentary published in 1930, Al-hidaya wa-l-'Irfan fi tafsir al-Qur'an bi-l-Qur'an (Guidance and Instruction in Interpreting the Qur'an by the Qur'an), which uses the Quran itself to interpret the Quran, he claimed that verse 17:1 was an allusion to the Hegira and not Isra and Mi'raj.[11][12]

Syed Ahmad Khan argued that, while the Quran remained socially relevant, reliance on hadith limits the vast potential of the Quran to a particular cultural and historical situation.[13]

The extent to which Quranists reject the authority of the Hadith and Sunnah varies,[14] but the more established groups have thoroughly criticised the authority of the Hadith and reject it for many reasons. The most common view being the Quranists who say that Hadith is not mentioned in the Quran as a source of Islamic theology and practice, was not recorded in written form until a century after the death of Muhammad,[15] and contain internal errors and contradictions.[2][14]

For Sunni Muslims, "the sunnah", i.e the sunnah (the way) of the prophet, is one of the two primary sources of Islamic law, and while the Quran has verses enjoining Muslims to obey the Prophet, the Quran never talks about "sunnah" in connection with Muhammad or other prophets. The term sunnah appears several times, including in the phrase "sunnat Allah" (way of God),[16] but not "sunnat al-nabi" (way of the prophet) -- the phrase customarily used by proponents of hadith.[17]

Early Islam

The Quranist beliefs dates back to the time of Muhammad, who prohibited the writing of hadiths.[18][19] One of Muhammad's companions and successor Umar, also prohibited the writing of hadith and destroyed existing collections during his rule as Caliph.[19] When Umar appointed a governor to Kufa, he told him: "You will be coming to the people of a town for whom the buzzing of the Qur'an is as the buzzing of bees. Therefore, do not distract them with the Hadiths, and thus engage them. Bare the Qur'an and spare the narration from God's messenger (peace and blessing be upon him)!"[19].

The centrality of the Quran in the religious life of the Kufans that Umar described was quickly changing, however. A few decades later, a letter was sent to the Ummayad caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan regarding the Kufans: "They abandoned the judgement of their Lord and took hadiths for their religion; and they claim that they have obtained knowledge other than from the Koran . . . They believed in a book which was not from God, written by the hands of men; they then attributed it to the Messenger of God."[20]

In the following years, the taboo against the writing and following of hadiths had receded to such an extent that the Ummayad leader Umar II ordered the first official collection of Hadith. Abu Bakr ibn Muhammad ibn Hazm and Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri, were among those who wrote Hadiths at Umar II's behest.[21]

Despite the trend towards hadiths, the questioning of their authority continued during the Abbasid dynasty and existed during the time of Al-Shafi'i, when a group known as "Ahl al-Kalam" argued that the prophetic example of Muhammad "is found in following the Quran alone", rather than Hadith.[22][23] Later, a similar group, Ahl al-Tawḥīd wa l-ʿAdl, "people of monotheism and justice", known as the Mu'tazilites by their opponents, also viewed the transmission of the Hadith as not sufficiently reliable.[24] The Hadith, according to them, was mere guesswork, conjecture, and bidah (innovation), while the Quran was complete and perfect, and did not require the Hadith or any other book to supplement or complement it.[25]

There were prominent scholars who rejected hadith like Dirar ibn Amr. He wrote a book titled The Contradiction Within Hadith. However, the tide had changed from the earlier centuries to such an extent that Dirar was said to have been beaten up by the ashab al-hadith and had to remain in hiding until his death.[26] Like Dirar ibn Amr, the scholar Abu Bakr al-Asamm also had little use for hadiths.[27]

During the Abassid dynasty, the poet, theologian, and jurist, Ibrahim an-Nazzam founded a madhhab called the Nazzamiyya that rejected the authority of oral Hadiths.[28] His famous student, Al-Jahiz, was also critical of those who followed Hadith, referring to his Hadithist opponents as al-nabita ("the contemptible").[29] A contemporary of An-Nazzam, Al-Shafi'i, tried to refute the arguments of those who reject the Hadiths and establish the authority of Hadiths in his book Kitab Jima'a l-'Ilm.[18] And Ibn Qutaybah tried to refute An-Nazzam's arguments against Hadith in his book Ta'wil Mukhtalif al-Hadith.[30]

19th century

In South Asia during the 19th century, the Ahle Quran movement formed partially in reaction to the Ahle Hadith whom they considered to be placing too much emphasis on Hadith.[31] Many Ahle Quran adherents from South Asia were formerly adherents of Ahle Hadith but found themselves incapable of accepting certain hadiths.[31] Abdullah Chakralawi, Khwaja Ahmad Din Amritsari, Chiragh Ali, and Aslam Jairajpuri were among the people who promulgated Quranist beliefs in India at the time.[31]

20th century

In Egypt during the early 20th century, the ideas of Quranists like Muhammad Tawfiq Sidqi grew out of the reformist ideas of Muhammad Abduh, specifically a rejection of taqlid and an emphasis on the Quran.[32][31] Muhammad Tawfiq Sidqi of Egypt "held that nothing of the Hadith was recorded until after enough time had elapsed to allow the infiltration of numerous absurd or corrupt traditions."[33] Muhammad Tawfiq Sidqi wrote an article titled Al-Islam Huwa ul-Qur'an Wahdahu ('Islam is the Qur'an Alone) that appeared in the Egyptian journal Al-Manar, which argues that the Quran is sufficient as guidance: "what is obligatory for man does not go beyond God's Book. If anything other than the Qur'an had been necessary for religion," Sidqi notes, "the Prophet would have commanded its registration in writing, and God would have guaranteed its preservation."[34]

Like some of their counterparts in Egypt such as Muhammad Abu Zayd and Ahmed Subhy Mansour, some reformist scholars in Iran who adopted Quranist beliefs came from traditional institutions of higher learning. Shaykh Hadi Najmabadi, Mirza Rida Quli Shari'at-Sanglaji, Mohammad Sadeqi Tehrani, and Ayatollah Borqei were educated in traditional Shia universities in Najaf and Qom. However, they believed that some beliefs and practices that were taught in these universities, such as the veneration of Imamzadeh and a belief in Raj'a, were irrational and superstitious and had no basis in the Quran.[35] And rather than interpreting the Quran through the lens of hadith, they interpreted the Quran with the Quran (tafsir al-qur'an bi al-qur'an). These reformist beliefs provoked criticism from traditional Shia scholars like Ayatollah Khomeini, who attempted to refute the criticisms made by Sanglaji and other reformists in his book Kashf al-Asrar.[35][36][37] Quran-centered beliefs have also spread among lay Muslims like Iranian American, Ali Behzadnia, who became Deputy Minister of Health and welfare, acting Minister of Education shortly after the Iranian Revolution. He has criticized the government in Iran for being undemocratic and totally alien to the "Islam of the Quran".[38]

Diagram showing the branches of Sunnism, Shiaism, Ibadism, Quranism, Non-denominational Muslims, Ahmadiyya and Sufism.

In the 21st century, Quranist beliefs have spread in various countries. However, in countries that have incorporated some aspects of Sunni law, adherents have faced opposition. For example, a Saudi scholar, Hassan Farhan al-Maliki, was arrested numerous times for promoting political reform and a return to the Quran.[39] Saudi Arabia began its prosecution of the researcher in the Specialized Criminal Court in Riyadh, which was specially established in January 2009 to handle cases of "terrorism and national security."[40] In 2019, the public prosecution, which is directly linked to the Saudi king, leveled charges almost entirely related to Maliki's religious views and has requested that the court sentence him based on "extremist interpretations" of Islam.[41] Other Saudi intellectuals, like Abdul Rahman al-Ahdal, continue to advocate for the abandonment of hadith and a return to the Quran.[42] And in Egypt and Sudan, Quranists have been arrested for their beliefs.[43][44]

The late Syrian intellectual, Muhammad Shahrur, claimed that hadiths do not have any religious value and that the Quran should be Muslims exclusive source.[45]

The spread of Quranist beliefs in Russia has provoked the anger of the Sunni establishment. The Russian Council of Muftis issued a fatwa against Quranism and those it said were its leaders in Russia.[46] However, one of the purported Quranist leaders mentioned in the fatwa, the Russian philosopher Taufik Ibrahim, pointed out that his beliefs were more in line with the Jadid tradition, although there is some overlap between the two groups in Russia.[47]

In Turkey, Quranists have responded on social media to criticism by the Diyanet on their Quranist beliefs.[48]

In South Africa, an Oxford educated Islamic scholar, Taj Hargey, established the Open Mosque. As the name implies, Hargey intended the mosque to be more open to demographics traditionally shunned by Sunni and Shia mosques, like women. Hargey describes the principles of the mosque as, "Quran-centric, gender equality, non-sectarian, inter-cultural and independent".[49] Hargey has also criticized what he calls the "toxic trio" of hadith, sharia, and fatwas.[50]

• Kassim Ahmad (1933–2017) a Malaysian intellectual, writer, poet and an educator known for his rejection of the authority of hadiths.[69][70] He was the founder of the Quranic Society of Malaysia.[71] At the time of his death, he was working on a Malay translation of the Quran.[72]
• Rachid Aylal, Moroccan author
• Rashad Khalifa (1935–1990), an Egyptian-American biochemist and Islamic reformer. In his book Quran, Hadith and Islam and his English translation of the Quran, Khalifa argued that the Quran alone is the sole source of Islamic belief and practice.[2]
• Irshad Manji (born 1968) a Canadian educator and author
• Ahmed Subhy Mansour (born 1949), an Egyptian-American Islamic scholar.[73] He founded a small group of Quranists, but was exiled from Egypt and is now living in the United States as a political refugee.[74]
• Chekannur Maulavi (born 1936; disappeared 29 July 1993), a progressive Islamic cleric who lived in Edappal in Malappuram district of Kerala, India. He was noted for his controversial and unconventional interpretation of Islam based on the Quran alone. He disappeared on 29 July 1993 under mysterious circumstances and is now widely believed to be dead.[75]
• Ahmad Rashad (born 1949), an American sportscaster (mostly with NBC Sports) and former professional football player. Ahmad Rashad studied the Arabic language and the Quran with his mentor, the late Rashad Khalifa.[76][77][78]
• Mohamed Talbi (1921–2017), a Tunisian historian and professor. He was the founder of the Association Internationale des Musulmans Coraniques (AIMC), or International Association of Quranic Muslims.[79][80]
• Edip Yüksel (born 1957), a Kurdish American philosopher, lawyer, Quranist advocate, author of Nineteen: God's Signature in Nature and Scripture, Manifesto for Islamic Reform and a co-author of Quran: A Reformist Translation. He taught philosophy and logic at Pima Community College and medical ethics and criminal law courses at Brown Mackie College.[18][81]

• Liberalism and progressivism within Islam
• Non-denominational Muslim
• Karaites
• Sola Scriptura

• Aisha Y. Musa, Hadith as Scripture: Discussions on the Authority of Prophetic Traditions in Islam, New York: Palgrave, 2008. ISBN 0-230-60535-4.
• Ali Usman Qasmi, Questioning the Authority of the Past: The Ahl al-Qur'an Movements in the Punjab, Oxford University Press, 2012. ISBN 0-195-47348-5.
• Daniel Brown, Rethinking Tradition in Modern Islamic Thought, Cambridge University Press, 1996. ISBN 0-521-65394-0.