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Is Hadith Rejection a New Madhab? Those who outright reject any authority of hadith in Islam tend to follow the same pattern. I understand that many hadith rejectors out there are naive because they are not able to see through the weak objections. Their rejection usually stems from one or more of the following: > A weak grasp of the Arabic of the Quran and the linguistic standard it was revealed in > Little or no exposure to the science of isnād > Reliance on the research of Orientalists > Inconsistency in deciding what does and does not count as part of Islam > A personal crisis or a bad experience with religious figures > Mistaking online arguments between Muslims for the systematic study of the sources Every argument they raise against hadith applies equally to the Quran: 1. “This hadith is absurd.” If they dismiss a hadith as absurd without examining how scholars have interpreted it, they will eventually face a verse of the Quran that seems absurd to someone else, and they will have to interpret it. The principle they rejected becomes the one they need. 2. “Hadith transmission is unreliable.” The Quran reached us through the same human chains of transmission. If those chains cannot be trusted for hadith, the same scrutiny applies to the Quran. 3. “Hadith was compiled too late.” The same objection can be raised against the meanings of the Quran’s words. Those meanings were preserved orally for decades by men and women before being recorded in books. If late compilation invalidates hadith, it also invalidates our understanding of the Quran. 4. “Hadith has made the religion complicated.” Rejecting hadith does not make religion simpler. It replaces one scholarly tradition with countless individual ones, as each rejector follows their own trajectory and bends the verses to suit their own reasoning. 5. “The religion was hijacked by men.” The Quran itself exists, is transmitted, and is applied only through people. If the people who carried the religion cannot be trusted, then no one can be trusted with the Quran either. Islam is protected by Allah, and that protection does not rest on one or two individuals. Its preservation is a collective effort, continuously discussed, debated and corrected across every science of the Quran and Sunnah. Without trust in the early generations who carried it, we may as well wash our hands of Islam altogether.