Sunday, 20 February 2011

How to interpret ahadith?

Uyun akhar ar redha

حدثنا أبي رضي الله عنه قال حدثناعلي بن إبراهيم بن هاشم عن أبيه عن أبي حيون مولى الرضا ( ع ) قال من رد متشابه القرآنإلى محكمه هدي إلى صراط مستقيم ثم قال إن في أخبارنا متشابها كمتشابه القرآن ومحكما كمحكم القرآن فردوا متشابهها إلى محكمها و لا تتبعوا متشابهها دون محكمها فتضلوا

Told us my (Shaikh Sadooq's) father (ra) said told us Ali b. Ibrahim b. Hashim from his father from Abi Huyun a slave of ar Redha(as) said: "Whoever returned/referred mutashabih (allegorical, confusing, ambiguous verses) of the Qur'an to muhkam (clear and well established in meaning) he'll be guided to the straight path. Then (Imam(as)) said: "Indeed in our traditions there are mutashabih ones like mutashabih of the Qur'an and muhkam like muhkam of the Qur'an so return the mutashabih ones to muhkam ones and do not follow mutashabih ones instead of muhkam ones for then you'll be misguided.


2 comments:

  1. Salam,

    What does "returned" mean in this context?
    Could you explain this hadith more?

    And is it sahih?

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  2. @Anonymous: Wasalam

    Yes, it is.

    Basically what the hadith is saying is that like the Qur'an, the ahadith also contain some clear cut ahadith and some ambiguous ones. So instead of worrying about the ambiguous ones, or going even further and trying to derive a twisted interpretation of it to suit one's desires, one should keep aside the ambiguous ahadith(but without saying that they're fabricated, just because one's not able to understand it) and refer back to the ahadith which are clear cut and follow those ones.

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