What do you think?
Rate this book
Hadith: A Re-Evaluation
The main thesis of the book is that Hadith has been compiled without permission, either from the prophet, or from the four Righteous Caliphs for fear of confusing it with the Quran, the first source of Islam. Because of the power struggles between different political factions, each pretender legitimized his claim by recourse to a saying of Prophet Muhammad in his favor. Pious Muslims such as Bukhari and Muslim tried to collect these sayings after verifying their authenticity.
- GenresReligion
166 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1986
24 people are currently reading
425 people want to read
About the author
Kassim Ahmad
29 books41 followersKassim Ahmad is Malaysia's foremost thinker and philosopher. He grabbed national headlines in the 1950s with his dissertation on the characters of Hang Tuah (Perwatakan Hang Tuah), the Malay literary classic. In it he challenged the traditional interpretation and made the hitherto hero Hang Tuah as nothing more than a palace hack, and elevated the anti-hero Hang Jebat as the true hero, willing to kill even the sultan in defence of honor and principles. Kassim was jailed for nearly five years under the ISA for daring to express openly his political views, an experience which he recounted in his book, Universiti Kedua (Second University). Kassim again shook the Malay world with his "Hadith: A Re-Examination" in which he challenges the infallibility of the purported words of Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. Except for an honorary doctorate in Letters conferred by the National University of Malaysia, the country has not seen fit to honor this great public intellectual.
- - - - - - - - - - - - -
Dr Kassim Ahmad seorang politikus, penulis, penyair dan sarjana dilahirkan di Kampung Kubang Tampang, Lepai, Kubang Pasu, Kedah, pada 9 September 1933, dengan nama Osman, tetapi diubah namanya kerana sering sakit, mendapat pendidikan awal di Sekolah Bandar Bahru, Kulim.
Peluang meneruskan pelajaran di Kolej Sultan Abdul Hamid, Alor Setar pada 1949, membuka pintu khazanah ilmu serta persuratan kepadanya sehingga memungkinkannya melanjutkan pengajiannya ke Universiti Malaya (UM) di Singapura pada 1955.
Dunia pengajian tinggi di menara gading itu mendedahkannya kepada pemikiran sosialisme dan Islam melalui kepustakaan dan percambahan fikiran bersama-sama rakannya yang masing-masing membina ketokohan tersendiri, selain mula terbabit dalam Kelab Sosialis UM.
Dengan sokongan Pensyarah UM Singapura, JC Bottoms, Kassim menyahut pelawaan untuk mengajar bahasa dan sastera Melayu di School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), Universiti London, pada 1962 hingga 1966.
Dalam ranah sastera, Dr Kassim dikenali sebagai penyair yang tidak sunyi daripada kontroversi apabila menghasilkan puisi, Sidang Roh dan Jalan ke Parlimen pada 1960, selain disertasinya, Perwatakan Hang Tuah yang mencabar interpretasi keperwiraan Hang Tuah sehingga mengangkat Hang Jebat, turut mendapat perhatian.
Pembabitannya dalam politik pula menyaksikan beliau mengepalai Parti Sosialis Rakyat Malaysia (PSRM) selama 18 tahun bermula beliau pulang ke tanah air pada 1966, sebelum mengambil keputusan untuk berundur daripada gerakan itu pada 1984.
Kassim pernah ditahan di bawah Akta Keselamatan Dalam Negeri (ISA) selama hampir lima tahun yang turut mendorongnya membukukan pengalaman itu dalam memoir Universiti Kedua.
Selepas mengundurkan diri daripada politik, Beliau menubuhkan Jemaah al-Quran Malaysia (JAM) dan menghasilkan buku Hadis: Satu Penilaian Semula yang mencetuskan kontroversi sehingga dianggap anti-hadis.
(Kredit: Mohd Nazmi Yaakub)
- - - - - - - - - - - - -
Dr Kassim Ahmad seorang politikus, penulis, penyair dan sarjana dilahirkan di Kampung Kubang Tampang, Lepai, Kubang Pasu, Kedah, pada 9 September 1933, dengan nama Osman, tetapi diubah namanya kerana sering sakit, mendapat pendidikan awal di Sekolah Bandar Bahru, Kulim.
Peluang meneruskan pelajaran di Kolej Sultan Abdul Hamid, Alor Setar pada 1949, membuka pintu khazanah ilmu serta persuratan kepadanya sehingga memungkinkannya melanjutkan pengajiannya ke Universiti Malaya (UM) di Singapura pada 1955.
Dunia pengajian tinggi di menara gading itu mendedahkannya kepada pemikiran sosialisme dan Islam melalui kepustakaan dan percambahan fikiran bersama-sama rakannya yang masing-masing membina ketokohan tersendiri, selain mula terbabit dalam Kelab Sosialis UM.
Dengan sokongan Pensyarah UM Singapura, JC Bottoms, Kassim menyahut pelawaan untuk mengajar bahasa dan sastera Melayu di School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), Universiti London, pada 1962 hingga 1966.
Dalam ranah sastera, Dr Kassim dikenali sebagai penyair yang tidak sunyi daripada kontroversi apabila menghasilkan puisi, Sidang Roh dan Jalan ke Parlimen pada 1960, selain disertasinya, Perwatakan Hang Tuah yang mencabar interpretasi keperwiraan Hang Tuah sehingga mengangkat Hang Jebat, turut mendapat perhatian.
Pembabitannya dalam politik pula menyaksikan beliau mengepalai Parti Sosialis Rakyat Malaysia (PSRM) selama 18 tahun bermula beliau pulang ke tanah air pada 1966, sebelum mengambil keputusan untuk berundur daripada gerakan itu pada 1984.
Kassim pernah ditahan di bawah Akta Keselamatan Dalam Negeri (ISA) selama hampir lima tahun yang turut mendorongnya membukukan pengalaman itu dalam memoir Universiti Kedua.
Selepas mengundurkan diri daripada politik, Beliau menubuhkan Jemaah al-Quran Malaysia (JAM) dan menghasilkan buku Hadis: Satu Penilaian Semula yang mencetuskan kontroversi sehingga dianggap anti-hadis.
(Kredit: Mohd Nazmi Yaakub)
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
February 14, 2018
Hadith: A Re-evaluation is banned in Malaysia due to its Kassim Ahmad's controversial stand on this issue. What his thesis basically is, is a call to rethink how we use the hadith (Prophet Muhammad's narrations) as a legitimate source. So here are the takeaways:
1. Hadith are (historically) politically driven, it began during the Sunni-Shia split in which both sides employed the use of hadith to further advance their causes and politics.
2. The hadith was not instated during the time of the Prophet. In fact, he forbid it - though ironically, Kassim Ahmad uses a hadith as the source for this argument.
3. We should instead be referring to the Quran as the only legitimate source, to form proper understanding, due to its untainted nature.
4. The hadith can be considered a source, to guide choices. But one should err on the side of caution in employing this.
It's difficult to say if Kassim Ahmad's arguments have purely convinced me. But he's not wrong in saying that the hadith, are by nature, politically driven. One can make the observation that both Sunni and Shia do indeed propagate hadiths that support either side. And in the end, how do you really prove its infallibility?
1. Hadith are (historically) politically driven, it began during the Sunni-Shia split in which both sides employed the use of hadith to further advance their causes and politics.
2. The hadith was not instated during the time of the Prophet. In fact, he forbid it - though ironically, Kassim Ahmad uses a hadith as the source for this argument.
3. We should instead be referring to the Quran as the only legitimate source, to form proper understanding, due to its untainted nature.
4. The hadith can be considered a source, to guide choices. But one should err on the side of caution in employing this.
It's difficult to say if Kassim Ahmad's arguments have purely convinced me. But he's not wrong in saying that the hadith, are by nature, politically driven. One can make the observation that both Sunni and Shia do indeed propagate hadiths that support either side. And in the end, how do you really prove its infallibility?
June 25, 2021
This book is under eighty pages but so boring.
His main thesis is that the hadith have caused the Muslims to decline and so Muslims should reject them (and some other reasons they should be rejected). I just think his entire thesis is absurd. There's a lot of reasons Muslim nations lag behind the west like colonialism, imperialism, capitalism, wars, and terrorism. Not the hadith. Get a history book. Also, Muslims used hadith for most of history even during the Islamic Golden Age.
In response to the issue that most of Islam would be lost without the hadith as we wouldn't know the exact nature of prayer and other things, so he just says these things are obvious and passed on for centuries, and just evaluate the problems with this for a few minutes.
1) It's impossible for ancient people to have performed salat in the exact same manner of Muslims as salat involves reciting from the Qur'an, which ancient people didn't have yet, and blessing the Prophet, who hasn't been sent yet.
2) The Qur'an says Christians and Jews have gone astray and they don't practice an identical Islamic style prayer today
3) There's no historical evidence for such a thing
4) He denies hadith could be passed down but accepts complicated religious teachings could be sent down perfectly for centuries
5) Muslims only know how to pray because they learned it from other Muslims who learned it from the Prophet and the recorded sunnah
By no means does he satisfactorily address this issue.
He keeps bringing up hadith on Muhammad not allowing hadith be written. Well, if he's rejecting the authenticity and authority of hadith, then how do we know this one is true? In refutation to the argument the Prophet didn't want hadith written down because people might confuse it with the Qur'an, he brings up that the Prophet let some things be written down, which kind of refutes his argument that nothing should be written down.
He says madahib are sects when they're simply schools of jurisprudence that reflect the diversity of Islamic law. If anything, madahib could be seen as anti-sectarian. You're not obliged to follow one, but if you do others will accept you're following valid legal rulings and are within Islam. Are we just gonna ignore there's Quranist sects too?
I think the most damning argument against Quranism is that a Prophet inevitably examplifies the scriptures and provides guidance to the people through through his actions, approvals, and statements. The Quran says Prophet Muhammad is a good example, so wouldn't you want to follow his exemplary behavior then?
He makes some good points about some Hadith being sectarian, contradictory, unscientific, and in contradiction to the Qur'an.
A pretty basic book on Quranist ideology.
His main thesis is that the hadith have caused the Muslims to decline and so Muslims should reject them (and some other reasons they should be rejected). I just think his entire thesis is absurd. There's a lot of reasons Muslim nations lag behind the west like colonialism, imperialism, capitalism, wars, and terrorism. Not the hadith. Get a history book. Also, Muslims used hadith for most of history even during the Islamic Golden Age.
In response to the issue that most of Islam would be lost without the hadith as we wouldn't know the exact nature of prayer and other things, so he just says these things are obvious and passed on for centuries, and just evaluate the problems with this for a few minutes.
1) It's impossible for ancient people to have performed salat in the exact same manner of Muslims as salat involves reciting from the Qur'an, which ancient people didn't have yet, and blessing the Prophet, who hasn't been sent yet.
2) The Qur'an says Christians and Jews have gone astray and they don't practice an identical Islamic style prayer today
3) There's no historical evidence for such a thing
4) He denies hadith could be passed down but accepts complicated religious teachings could be sent down perfectly for centuries
5) Muslims only know how to pray because they learned it from other Muslims who learned it from the Prophet and the recorded sunnah
By no means does he satisfactorily address this issue.
He keeps bringing up hadith on Muhammad not allowing hadith be written. Well, if he's rejecting the authenticity and authority of hadith, then how do we know this one is true? In refutation to the argument the Prophet didn't want hadith written down because people might confuse it with the Qur'an, he brings up that the Prophet let some things be written down, which kind of refutes his argument that nothing should be written down.
He says madahib are sects when they're simply schools of jurisprudence that reflect the diversity of Islamic law. If anything, madahib could be seen as anti-sectarian. You're not obliged to follow one, but if you do others will accept you're following valid legal rulings and are within Islam. Are we just gonna ignore there's Quranist sects too?
I think the most damning argument against Quranism is that a Prophet inevitably examplifies the scriptures and provides guidance to the people through through his actions, approvals, and statements. The Quran says Prophet Muhammad is a good example, so wouldn't you want to follow his exemplary behavior then?
He makes some good points about some Hadith being sectarian, contradictory, unscientific, and in contradiction to the Qur'an.
A pretty basic book on Quranist ideology.
Read
August 31, 2016Need to re-read and finish it.
May 12, 2024
wakeup call
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews