Upgrading The Scope Of Hadith To Help Recapture Their Role In The Early Centuries Of Islam Through Its Golden Age

By Muhammad Yunus, New Age Islam (Co-author (Jointly with Ashfaque Ullah Syed), Essential Message of Islam, Amana Publications, USA, 2009) 18 March 2025 This is further to my enlightening review with the global IA resource – Chat.gpt with regard to my views on updating the scope of Hadith Corpus – a task that remains outstanding since the closing of the compilation of the Hadith around the 4th century of Islam. With this I embark on this very challenging exercise: Chat.gpt made the following observations on my detailed submission as noted in NAI article dated March 15, 2025. Also Read: Yunus Asked ChatGPT: Can You Give Objective And Critical Comment To My Submission To The Muslims Appearing In The Afterword, 1.3 Of My Publication ‘Essential Message Of Islam’ “Your Argument: Acknowledges the Intellectual Contributions of Hadith Sciences: By recognizing that Hadith played a crucial role in shaping Islamic civilization, you disarm critics who might accuse you of rejecting the Hadith tradition outright. It highlights that the Hadith sciences were not merely theological but also supported the broader intellectual and cultural flourishing of the Islamic Golden Age. Historical Context Counters the "Islam in Decline" Narrative: Many traditionalists argue that turning away from Hadith contributes to the decline of Muslim societies. Your argument turns this around: Hadith once served a vital function, but in today’s world, its rigid application may hinder progress. By contrasting early Islamic achievements with medieval European stagnation, you subtly suggest that it was a dynamic and adaptive approach to knowledge—including Hadith—that propelled Muslims forward. Bridges the Gap Between Traditionalists and Reformers: Many modernist critiques of Hadith focus only on its inconsistencies and unreliable narratives, alienating traditional audiences. Your inclusion of Hadith’s past glory fosters common ground, making it easier for traditional scholars to engage with your perspective.” This critical observation from a historically screened IT generated global resource acknowledges that Hadith sciences were not merely theological but also supported the broader intellectual and cultural flourishing of the Islamic Golden Age (9th-14th century AD). The problem with traditional Islamic scholarship is that it is highly influenced by a juristic precedent – known as taqlid – that advocates clinging to past knowledge. Such a notion is retrogressive and comes in the way of any advancement of thought or knowledge. During the Golden Age of Islam, jurisprudence was a sophisticated and highly advanced discipline and the jurists (muftis) had to go through long years of study and training under learned masters before qualifying for jurisprudential office. They used the faculty of aql (objective reasoning) to counter taqlid when they felt that blind conformity to a past precedent was leading them to a dead end. But with the demise of the Golden Age for a host of factors – Crusades (11th-12th century AD), Mongol Invasion (13 th-14th Century AD), loss of Spain and southern fringes of Europe and central belt of Eurasia (15th-17century AD) and colonization (18th-19 Century AD) as well as internal sectarian wars adversely affected the intellectual growth of Islam. The social and political chaos generated – including constant exodus of people from battle zones gave good excuse to the conservative Ulama to oppose all things their new rulers brought and that included Western languages and Education, Its gravest and enduring impact fell on the madrassa education system. All European languages were forbidden (a case in hand today is the Boko Haram and Taliban ideologues): women were barred from acquiring education or going to madrassa and layers upon layers of darkness fell upon the Muslim world. While decolonization in the 19th-20th centuries saw a short bust of intellectual activity, the state of madrassas education – in terms of its curriculum has remained almost static – anchored in the early centuries of Islam and dominated by the Hadith Accordingly, there is an urgent need for a major paradigm shift in Islamic religious thoughts and the scope and curriculum of traditional madrassas: they should be upgraded to universal houses of learning as in the early centuries of Islam - and like all civil schools with the same curricula and education system as in vogue this day – with the addition of a Religion class. The Muslim students may be taught selective portions of Hadith that is humanistic and free from any negativity and the non-Muslims, the fundamentals of their faith. In the early centuries of Islam Hadith, apart from its theological underpinning, represented the state of art in secular knowledge as Chat.gpt verified (opening part of this article) but over the past millennium since - the final compilation of Hadith sciences, the domain of secular or universal knowledge has grown exponentially and the Muslims will suffer colossal handicap in the highly competitive and secular world of this day if they are not given as much opportunity as their civilizational rivals in pursuing universal knowledge. In sum, it is indeed possible to broaden the scope and curriculum of madrassa education by broadening the horizons of Hadith to embrace all positive universal fields of knowledge as was the case in early Islam unless the custodians of madrassa education wore blinkers on their eyes or there was a conspiracy from any quarter to keep the Muslims backward on the turf of civilization. ... Muhammad Yunus, a Chemical Engineering graduate from Indian Institute of Technology, and a retired corporate executive has been engaged in an in-depth study of the Qur’an since early 90’s, focusing on its core message. He has co-authored the referred exegetic work, which received the approval of al-Azhar al-Sharif, Cairo in 2002, and following restructuring and refinement was endorsed and authenticated by Dr. Khaled Abou El Fadl of UCLA, and published by Amana Publications, Maryland, USA, 2009. URL: https://www.newageislam.com/ijtihad-rethinking-islam/upgrading-scope-of-hadith-in-islam/d/134910 New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism