I am trying to follow this routine
Tafseer-e-Siddiqui.. with Three Ayat daily
Memorizing Three Hadiath daily(most hadiath are one or two lines so it hasnt been too difficult)
and a chapter of the prophets life.. Ive finished one seerat.. so will repeat so for another to get multiple views.
Oscar why not learn Classical Arabic first & explore the Koran from every conceivable angle by appreciating what the meanings & implications of a word or a verse in the Holy Koran would be by understanding the nuances of the language it is written in & their historical context !
On the Hadith bit - What would you say if I were to make the observation that the first known collection of Hadith (one of the Sahih-al-Sitta), unless I'm mistaken, dates from around 197 After Hijri - Thats easily a 100 + Years after the Prophet (PBUH)'s death ! Furthermore we do know of countless attempts (some successful..others not) of deliberate fabrications of the Ahadith throughout Muslim History.
Even though I'm a Sunni of Hanafi Fiqh, like most Pakistanis, of late I've been drawn to the Koranist School of Thought - the ones who reject Hadith altogether & only try to find the answers in the Koran & the Koran Alone ! Naturally the simplicity of that & the rationale behind it appealed to me but at the same time what I found most irrational was the notion of how one may interrupt the Koran anyway one pleases without any Prophetic context to it ! Therefore what would you say if I said that maybe both we - the Sunnis & Shias & they - the Koranists, are missing the point here; Hadith should neither be rejected altogether, as if we don't need them or that because there are fabrications there & so they'd all be tainted in one way or the other, nor should they be elevated to such a level that we find ourselves utterly bogged down in them. What if we should just treat Hadith, less as a matter of Faith & more a matter of 'History' in that we employ the tools that Historians employ to determine what the Prophet (PBUH) might have said or done at a particular point in time just as Historians tell us what Julius Ceaser or Pompeii said at the floor of the Roman Senate at a particular point in time. Consequently we afford the same 'doubts' & the same 'stringent' criterion that we employ to any other Historical Evidence & instead of making the Prophet (PBUH) 's purported words out to be, perhaps unconsciously, 'another source of Divine Instructions' we treat it as a part of 'Historical Narrative' that may or may not be 'correct' given the same doubt, the same respect & the same 'authority', if we may, as the one given to any other 'Historical Narrative' whether it, allegedly, comes out of the mouth of a Prophet or (say!) a General/Politician from the Antiquity Era ! Which is not to say that I'm somehow advocating the Prophet (PBUH) 's stature & the respect that he holds in our hearts is the same as that of any other Historical Figure & that we value his words & the words of another on parity but that it is impossible to tell whether the Prophet (PBUH) actually did utter those words & did the said things, at a particular point in time, as is being purported or alleged simply because of the inherent deficiencies in determining most things 'Historical' !
I would imagine that maybe such a view could be our salvation out of this incessant Sunni-Shia BS with each side bringing their religious scholars, their own narration of the Hadith & their own world-view that they've developed from the aforementioned two, to advocate the 'righteousness' of their conviction when compared with the other ! Because even when it comes to Shias & Sunnis...we've got dozens of sects within these sects who've engaged in this fruitless competition for 1400 years.
What if we're able to give more currency to the Koran & less legitimacy to the Ahadith as some sort of an infallible source of Islamic Knowledge ? But instead treat the Ahadith as one treats any other 'Historical' piece of evidence - Something that could or couldn't be correct & there isn't a need to assume, at lest unconsciously, that the Prophet (PBUH) came with multiple 'Words of God' instead of the One Book that we all have in common.
I'd like your thoughts too @
Talon @
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niaz @
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Areesh @
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mafiya @
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darkinsky @
HAIDER @
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Pakistanisage @
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cb4