Hadith from the Sunan Abi Dawud compilation on killing homosexuals. The book is commonly cited in Islamic literature pic.twitter.com/WKBi8QRoHb
— Reason on Faith (@ReasonOnFaith)
It is also a follow on to earlier tweets of mine suggesting a proactive publication that catalogs all six sacred books of hadith, but as viewed from an Ahmadiyya Islamic perspective. In my estimation, this would be useful for the Ahmadiyya Jama’at itself and for those interested in studying the Jama’at’s take on each specific hadith in the entire body of ahadith. This post expands on my suggestion to those in the Jama’at interested in such scholarship.
I would love to see the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community embark on a pro-active campaign of accepting/rejecting hadith from the Sacred Six books.
— Reason on Faith (@ReasonOnFaith)
In this particular case, I’ve read that these particular hadith about killing homosexuals are ‘weak’. I do think non-Ahmadi Muslims of various inclinations could make a case that these hadith do not actually conflict with the Qur’an. They could do so simply by saying that the Qur’an is silent on what to do with homosexuals.
The Qur’an has no statement saying, “Homosexuals don’t follow Allah’s law. Oh those of you who believe, know that it is not your duty to punish them in this world; only Allah can punish them in this world as We did with the People of Lot”, etc.
What I had posited in an earlier tweet as a sincerely genuine suggestion was a project where the six sacred books of hadith be republished by the Jama’at. Yes, this would be a monumental, multi-year project.
You’d keep all the ahadith in it to preserve historical context, so that no one could charge the Ahmadiyya Jama’at with omission, etc.
But here’s what would be key: you’d color code each hadith according to whether it was sahih, hasan, da’if etc. based on the narration chain. You’d relay the chain explicitly. An online version would let you select a narrator and go to a page with context and what we know of this person.
You’d have notes of commentary below for any context that Jama’at theologians felt must have been omitted if any value is still to be derived from such ahadith in the present or in the future.
Finally, you’d have another icon — perhaps a checkmark — to indicate which ones the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama’at formally accepts, and which ones you reject. The rejects you would justify with commentary, commensurate with how misunderstood or misused any particular hadith is.
It’s one thing for some Muslims to be Quranists — rejecting all ahadith outright. As Ahmadi Muslims incorporate the Sunnah and Ahadith selectively, providing a lens into what Ahmadiyya fiqh accepts and rejects — proactively and transparently — would be an excellent tool for people studying, accepting or critiquing Islam generally and Ahmadiyyat specifically.