Why Are Most Prophecies in The Hadith Corpus And Not The Quran?
Answered by Mawlana Ilyas Patel
Question
The Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace), has many fulfilled prophecies that at the time amongst the Bedouins would have been fanciful.
We believe the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) was not omniscient; this attribute is exclusively for Allah Most High, and therefore these prophecies must’ve originated from him.
My question is, if Allah Most High only ever ‘communicated’ to the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) via Jibra’il (peace be upon him), did everything that revealed to Jibra’il (peace be upon him) the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) have to be in the Qur’an?
If yes, why are most prophecies in the hadith corpus and not in the Quran?
If not, how did the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) distinguish what would and would not be in the Quran?
Answer
In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful and Compassionate
I pray you are in good faith and health. Thank you for your question.
The Quran is a brief explanation of Allah’s message to humanity, and the hadith is a detailed commentary of it. This is how it is. Allah Most High chose the prophecies to be told by the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) instead of mentioning them in detail in the Quran.
Obeying the Prophet
Allah Most High says, “Nor does he speak of his own whims. It is only a revelation sent down to him. He has been taught by one angel of mighty power.” [Quran, 53:3-5]
The verses tell us that the Messenger (Allah bless him and give him peace) can’t forge lies and ascribe them to Allah. Nothing he utters is of his wish or desire. He only conveys to the people what he was commanded to convey, in its entirety, without additions or omissions. An analysis of the various Traditions in Bukhari indicates many categories or types of wahy (revelation). Type one is that the wordings and the meaning are directly from Allah. This is called the Quran. Type two is the one in which only the meaning comes from Allah, and the Messenger (Allah bless him and give him peace) expresses the meaning in his own words. This is called Hadith or Sunna.
It is not possible to follow the Quran without following the commands and prohibitions that the Prophet Muhammad (Allah bless him and give him peace) himself made. This is for the straightforward reason that the Quran commands us to obey him in countless verses.
Many commands would be impossible to apply from a merely linguistic point of view and whose interpretation is only possible through a secondary source, such as praying, performing Haj, etc.
Quran is Under Divine Protection and Was Memorized
Allah, Most High, promises us unequivocally that “We have, without doubt, sent down the Message; and We will assuredly guard it (from corruption)” [15:9], and that “No falsehood can approach it from before or behind it: It is sent down by One Full of Wisdom, Worthy of all Praise.” [41:42], and finally, ‘That this is indeed a Qur’an Most Honorable, In a Book well-guarded.” [Quran, 56:77-78].
The Quran was ordered and preserved during the life of the Beloved Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him and give him peace) through the memorization of the Companions–which was the primary means of preserving and transmitting the Quran. The writing was a secondary, confirmatory means of preservation.
[Shafi, Ma’rif al-Quran]
Authenticity of the Hadith
The hadiths of the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) were recorded in the presence of the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) and also memorized by the companions (Allah be pleased with them all) due to their phenomenal memories.
Some of them out of the many are as follows:
- Al-Sahifa-al-Sadiqa
This was the hadith compilation of Abdullah ibn Amr ibn al-Aas (Allah be pleased with him). Abu Huraira (Allah be pleased with him) narrates that none of the companions gathered more hadith than I besides Abdullah ibn Amr ibn al-Aas. That is because he used to write, and I would not write. Abu Huraira’s (Allah be pleased with him) narrations are approximately 5374.
- Sahifa Ali
In this compilation, the laws of blood money (diyat), compensation (fidya), and penal punishment (qisas) were written by Ali (Allah be pleased with him).
- Kitab al-Sadaqa
This is a compilation of hadiths about charity (sadaqa) and compulsory alms (Zakat) dictated by the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace), which was passed over to Abu Bakr (Allah be pleased with him).
Many hadiths are traced up to these written compilations of the companions. Furthermore, it is a well-known fact that every companion is honest. Many companions narrated hadiths through their memories, which were supported and collaborated through the narrations of other companions.
[Rafi Usmani, Kitabate Hadith]
I would like you to go through the valuable answers and links below. You will receive guidance and direction in sha Allah.
Related
- The Compilation of the Quran: A Reader – SeekersGuidance
- Was the Originally Compiled Qur’an During the Era of Abu Bakr Incomplete? – SeekersGuidance
- The Significance of the Quran as Revelation – SeekersGuidance
- From Revelation to Preservation: A SeekersGuidance Course – SeekersGuidance
- What Is the Difference between Sunna and Hadith? – SeekersGuidance
- The History of the Qur’anic Text from Revelation to Compilation: A Comparative Study with the Old and New Testaments (Muhammad Mustafa al-Azami)(book)
- The Authority Of Sunnah By: Mufti Taqi Usmani: Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming: Internet Archive
Wassalam,
[Mawlana] Ilyas Patel
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani
Mawlana Ilyas Patel is a traditionally-trained scholar who has studied in the UK, India, Pakistan, Syria, Jordan, and Turkey. He started his early education in the UK. He went on to complete the hifz of the Quran in India, then enrolled in an Islamic seminary in the UK, where he studied the secular and ‘Aalimiyya sciences. He then traveled to Karachi, Pakistan. He has been an Imam in Rep of Ireland for several years. He has taught hifz of the Quran, Tajwid, Fiqh, and many other Islamic sciences to children and adults onsite and online extensively in the UK and Ireland. He taught at a local Islamic seminary for 12 years in the UK, where he was a librarian and a teacher of Islamic sciences. He currently resides in the UK with his wife. His interest is a love of books and gardening.
