Q. In
a recent conversation with a family member, the issue of forty divine hadith came up. I was told that the
reason these hadith are divine is
because they come directly from the Qur'an. Obviously I could not take the word
of one person so I tried to research it. What I found was that the reason why
they are divine is because the narration can be traced back to Allah (swt). I have many issues with the hadith to begin with and now I am discovering that hadith exist that take things one step
further by accrediting them to Allah (swt), thereby
giving them a higher status than the Sahih Muslim and Bukhari. Where did this collection actually come from?
I can't seem to find any meaningful information on it. I find it so difficult
to understand that we are supposed to believe that the Qur'an was not
sufficient enough for Allah (swt) to get His message
across that He needed to add a postscript to His message. Your thoughts would be
appreciated on this matter.
A.
This is a common trope to indeed give sanctity to hadith almost on the level of the Qur'an. A "hadith qudsi" is defined as
one that is in the words of the Prophet Muhammad, but which has been received
by revelation from God. This concept appears in many religions, under different
names, and this is the origin of "oral tradition" as it pertains to a
scripture having need for such. As to why God would do that and not send it in
the Qur'an (since the Qur'an is the only thing that God says is protected), one
can pick out a host of reasons, all of them pertaining to contrivance of humans
to put words into God's mouth (not to mention our noble Prophet). We have covered this topic extensively (e.g., see Qur'an versus hadith)
so I encourage you to search for and peruse related material at this site.
Posted
January 29, 2015