PART 2: The "isnad" system is rejected by the Qur'an, and is a man-made "religious" system based on human opinion.
The Sunni says: “If you deny ahadith, you deny the Qur’an because they come from the same people.”
Firstly, the primary hadith-collectors discarded over 99% of their original collection. Secondly, they could not have undertaken sufficient research using camels and dead people. Thirdly (and consequently), there is no evidence of their biographical research. Fourthly, it wouldn’t matter because the Qur’an says we must follow only the Qur’an. Fifthly, hadith-chains are by definition broken because the beginning does not meet the end (thus the “science of hadith” does not meet its own criterion). Sixthly, there is the most important point:
Religion is based on one’s own responsibility and acceptance.
“Say: If you see that it is from God, and you disbelieve it, who is in greater error…?”
Faith is about what you see, not what another human (whoever) sees or says. Nowhere does the Qur’an appeal to reliability of humans in assessing its value.
“And you did not recite before it any book, nor did you transcribe one with your right hand, for then would the falsifiers doubt. Nay! these are signs clear in the breasts of those who are granted knowledge.”
The reception of the Qur’an is its own test. The word “nay” rejects the notion that people should look for external excuses (e.g. the Messenger’s personal activities) to reject the Book. The notion of looking to human reliability is thus refuted.
“And they say: Why are not signs sent down upon him from his Lord? Say: The signs are only with God, and I am just a plain warner.”
Any reason to accept the Qur’an will come from God.
“Is it not enough for them that We have revealed to you the Book which is recited to them?”
Again, the reception of the Qur’an is its own test. Comparing the information in the Qur’an with one’s knowledge/perception is the accepted method:
“We will soon show them Our signs in the universe and in their own souls, until it becomes quite clear to them that it is the truth.”
We must rely on our own knowledge/perceptions of our environment, as well as what we recognise as truth (e.g. morality) within ourselves.
“Do they not then reflect on the Qur’an? Nay, on the hearts there are locks.”
“Say: O my Lord! increase me in knowledge.”
Religion must be an isnad (transmission-chain) consisting only of the individual and God. Placing faith in anything except the word of God and one’s intellect, experience and conclusions is the opposite of what the Qur’an tells us to do.
“In what hadith would they believe after God and His ayat?”
“And follow not that of which you have not the knowledge; surely the hearing and the sight and the heart, all of these, shall be questioned about that.”
To say that we are required to seek religious knowledge from other humans is to set up intermediaries. Intermediaries require faith in humans, which is impossible in a religion. It ceases to be “Religion”, becoming “cult”.
The Sunni declares that to reject ahadith is to reject God’s word. Ahadith characters, narrators and recorders are not God; that they are written by the same people is an unproven assumption. The Sunni has religious faith in this unproven assumption, and then the nature of such ahadith must be proven (i.e. Qur’anic or un-Qur’anic). Did not the Prophet oversee the recording?
If the Qur’an were recorded accurately, it follows that as a Message to all (24:28, 42:7) it was widely distributed to many. If someone assumes (without logic or evidence) that it was not recorded accurately, there can certainly be no Sunni religion for that person. It just makes the sources of ahadith more unreliable. If the Qur’an were widely distributed, it follows that it was passed on by many and rendered difficult/impossible to change (confirmed by early manuscripts).
The Sunni argument is irrelevant, since God guaranteed the preservation of the Qur’an (15:9, 41:42). If the Sunni questions this, he/she questions the Qur’an. Without adequate logic or evidence, this is an isolated matter which can in no way validate “sunna”. A person can never provide 100% proof of God, and likewise a person can never provide 100% proof that the Qur’an is preserved. It is based upon an individual’s evaluation, especially given the absence of disproof.
“Qur’an-alone” Muslims accept the Qur’an based on the Qur’an and individual perception and knowledge. The Sunni accepts the Qur’an based on individual faith in scholars, recorders, narrators, hearsay and human opinion and action. The Sunni believes in God only because other people instruct him/her to. This God is the God of Sunnism, which is built from human hearsay, opinion and desire.
The God of Sunnism exists because of scholars, and thus scholars are the Sunni God. Sunnis must decide whether they accept the Qur’an (and thus verses 15:9 and 41:42), then reject Sunnism either way.
You cannot confirm something better with something weaker.