'Obey Allah and obey the messenger'

[Rabia Aslam]

Salam, peace to all.   

Say: "Obey Allah and His Messenger"  3:32 Al Imraan.

Hadith followers keep picking this Verse saying obeying the messenger means following the Hadith school.  How can this misinterpretation be corrected?   I feel this to be very disturbing.

[Heba E. Husseyn]

Walaikum as Salam and peace.   First off, once you have studied and analyzed the Hadith literature with impartial discernment and with the Noble Quran as your Sole Criterion, it will be proven to you all too soon that the Hadith literature is replete with forgeries and NOT the words of the Prophet (pbuh) to begin with.  Therefore, interpreting the concept of following the messenger as following Hadith does not even arise when you are not taking Hadith as the words of the messenger.

There are some Hadith stalwarts who claim that following the Quran means you are following Allah, and following the Hadith means you are following the messenger.  Thus their oft repeated expression “Quran and Sunnah” as if Allah and His final messenger are teaching us two different ideologies about Faith and life.  I wouldn’t only call this a misinterpretation which would be an understatement, it is a huge violation of the Commandment of Allah by joining a bunch of tainted man-written books along with His Divine Final Message.  Beware and make sure you NEVER fall into this trap of intense blasphemy.

The Hadithist argument arises from the gross misinterpretation of Verse 3:32.  According to them, if obeying the messenger was the same as obeying the Words of Allah in the Quran, then Allah would have only said "obey Allah."  Therefore, from their profoundly erroneous perspective, Allah mentions to "obey the messenger" to imply that the messenger had a separate set of rules independent of the Quran which is to be obeyed.  This fallacious argument does not even need a discussion. It can easily be perceived as WRONG by anyone who has read the Quran even a single time and understood it. 

"This is my straight path so follow it, follow not any other way lest you be parted from His way"  6:153 Al-Anam.

“obey the messenger” simply means obedience of the Final Message which the final messenger delivered to humanity, that is, the Quran.

Still if anyone insists on asking why Allah says in the Quran to 'obey the Messenger’ the answer is very simple and straight.  This  was Allah’s command at a time when His Final Message was in the process of being revealed during the stretch of those 23 years in the lifetime of the Prophet (pbuh), from age 40 to 63.  The Quran had not yet been compiled in the form of a Book as we have it now.  As the Verses of the Quran were revealed to the Prophet (pbuh), he kept conveying its contents to the community starting from his own family, close friends and beyond.  Thus, obviously at that time anyone who wanted to follow the commands of Allah would need to get the information directly from the Prophet (pbuh).  The response of the Prophet (pbuh) would be only what was revealed to him from Allah.  Thus, to obey Allah meant obeying whatever the messenger said, and the messenger would say only that which is in the Quran and its guidelines.  The messenger was the source of forwarding the Message of Allah at that time.   But now, the Noble Quran has been compiled in hard copies and readily available everywhere.  Also, the beloved Final Messenger is no more among us, he (pbuh) has departed and is in the safe custody of Allah.  Therefore, to obey Allah by following His rules, we need to read and obey the Noble Quran – the Words of Allah.  We are not to follow or obey any other book or source.

“O you who have believed, obey Allah and obey the Messenger and those in authority among you.”   4:59 An Nissa.

This is another Verse that speaks of obeying Allah and the messenger and those in authority referring to the close ones of the Prophet (pbuh) who were entrusted with the task of sharing and running the affairs of the nascent Islamic State in Medinah.  Verse 4:59 makes it still clearer that in such Verses where Allah says to obey Him and obey the messenger, the allusion is to a specific period and time.

To enhance your knowledge in this field, we have an array of posts here @ MV with a wealth of truthful information which no Hadithist has been able to refute.  All those related posts are listed below.  So kindly study in your own time.

-  Obedience to the Quran means obedience to the Prophet. 
-  Does the Quran refer to follow the man-written Hadith.
-  Verse 4:80 of Surah An Nissa not an allusion to Hadith.
-  This is not a reference to Hadith.
-  Does the Quran contain the method of salah.
-  Baseless claim of the clerics. 
-  What does the Quran say about Hadith by Muhammad Sheikh. (Transcript and comments).
-  Response to Jamaat ul Muslimeen, defenders of the forged Hadith culture. 
-  True obedience to our Prophet Muhammad (pbuh).
-  Meaning of Sunnah in the Quran by Br. Louay Fatoohi.

[Rabia Aslam]

Thank you very much for this sister.  I get it very well and everything comes into place.  I don't know why these hadith sheikhs say wrong things and misguide people.  Makes me mad.