How should we understand the following hadith: "Tell people the hadiths that they can understand. Do you want Allah and the Prophet to be denied"?
- Is it wrong to tell people about all hadiths?
Submitted by on Fri, 10/06/2022 - 15:24
Dear Brother / Sister,
The following is reported from Hz. Ali:
"Tell people the things that they can understand. Do you want Allah and His Messenger to be denied?" (Bukhari, Ilm, 4)
Ibn Mas'ud reports something similar. Imam Muslim includes it as follows in his Sahih with a sound chain of narrators:
"If you tell a group of people something that they cannot understand, it will be mischief for some of them." (Muslim, Muqaddima, 3; see Ajluni, 1/196)
Knowledge can be useful as well as harmful based on by whom, where and how it will be used. As a matter of fact, Imam Malik did not want ambiguous narrations related to divine attributes to be reported to everybody carelessly; similarly, Abu Yusuf did not want gharib hadiths to be reported to everybody carelessly. (Ibn Hajar, Fathul-Bari, X/225)
Many scholars did not want the statements that are difficult to understand and to interpret and ambiguous statements to be reported to everybody. When they are reported, it is necessary to explain what is meant by them. It is especially necessary to be careful while explaining ambiguous and metaphorical hadiths. Some people may call them fabricated when they do not understand the wisdom, metaphor or simile in them; some people may even have doubts about religious issues.
Accordingly, if it is necessary to report the hadiths and verses that might be misunderstood, they must be explained after they are reported.
Questions on Islam
- Why are hadiths about the time during the end of the world not understood clearly?
- Why do we follow a madhhab?
- Will you please explain the verses that order us to obey the messenger of Allah?
- Has Allah rendered it fard in His Book to follow the sunnah of the Messenger of Allah?
- How would you answer those who deny miracles by saying, “Did the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) have miracles but we are not aware of them”?
- Prophet Isa [Jesus] (Peace be upon him)
- Is Hz. Ali a prophet? Will you give information about Hz. Ali?
- Is the Quran makhluq (something created)? Is it true that some madhhab imams were tortured because of this issue?
- Prophet Ibrahim [Abraham] (Peace be upon him)
- Considering that hadiths reached us through many narrators, why should we trust hadiths and why should we not deny hadiths?