“O you who have believed, fear Allah, and speak words of appropriate justice.” (Qur’an 33:70)
﷽
We find the “Hafs Qur’an Only” Religion to be intellectually bankrupt.
Beyond the idea of saying that ‘I bear witness that Muhammed is the Messenger of Allah’ upon entering Islam, or saying Salawat upon the Blessed Messenger (saw) to be acts of shirk—or association of partners with Allah (swt), they really have little more to offer in theology.
We find no attempt at all to discuss theological issues about the attributes of Allah in any meaningful way.
No discussion on issues like free will and determinism, no discussion on whether we see Allah in the hereafter, rather souls remain in hell or are released, rather Allah is divinely simplistic in being or unity, rather the Qur’an is created or uncreated, rather than who or what creates actions, nor any meaningful definition of the sifat of Allah (swt).
Just rail against Hadith. It is all they can bring to the table as to the rest….good luck!
As regards the Quraniyoon.
We can’t think of a greater diabolical system for the systematic dismantling of Islam.
We are talking about communal worship and communal bonding and the masjid as a place of khutbah calling for social justice. Erased.
At what point is this platform not a sting or intelligence operation to dismantle islam as a political and ideological source that challenges western hegemony?
Look how fragmented Protestant churches are.
But imagine now, we don’t even have a church. Just private study circles that splinter into another private study circle. You are left with your translation of the Qur’an and your own individual speculations.
The claim they make is that the Qur’an is sufficient and clear, yet we keep seeing YouTube videos of them popping up wanting to explain Allah’s kitab and in the process refute other Qur’an only views.
The Arabic language itself becomes the ultimate arbiter of truth and not the Qur’an.
Allah doesn’t need a book, he can give direct gnosis.
What is the degree of fluency that you need before you start telling people what Allah is and is not saying based upon your personal speculation?
Look at all other faith traditions; Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, Christianity, etc….
Why is it they all have structure, ritual and suddenly these people want to come along and dismantle it?
The success of that movement = handing over the so-called third world over to complete dominion of the West.
At the end of the day, this movement turns the Qur’an into a simple self-help book. You could find it in the same section as a book with the title ‘a road to a better you.’
In fact, one of them mentioned recently that you don’t even need the Qur’an! The Qur’an is just a shortcut!
Nor have we seen among those who follow the Hafs Qur’an Only Religion any meaningful attempt to engage in theological issues.
Yet the only thing that the adherents of the “Hafs Qur’an Only Religion” can offer is constant railing against Hadith literature.
We have a feeling that many of these people (at least those we met) are well-educated but don’t really have insight and wisdom. It is possible that many of them were exposed to the very heavy-handed tactics of traditional Muslims. It would make anyone want to run away from it all.
The fact that many of the adherents of the “Hafs Qur’an Only Religion” rely heavily upon orientalist writings is very telling.
When we announced what our intentions were for this blog, a Quraniyoon follower approached us. She was (is) a level-headed woman. Her husband is of Pakistani origin. They raise money for charitable causes… and work with NGOs.
Her husband was quite excited to learn that we put emphasis upon the Qur’an.
Yet, he was unable to answer questions about the textual history of Islam, that the concept of the number (19) MIGHT work for certain qir’aat of the Qur’an, but not for others.
That we can’t even speak about “over it are 19” until we have established that the basmallah is indeed a verse over every surah of the Qur’an.
How do we do that?!!
Submission.org has appealed to extra-Qur’anic material to prove their claims.
We respected their identity, but we parted ways, telling the husband (who got easily irritated) that we did not believe in their ‘Hafs Qur’an only Religion.’
We turned down funding from this couple because we will not promote a cause that we don’t believe in nor do we find to be intellectually viable at all.
We have found that many among the ‘Hafs Qur’an only Religion’, for the most part, are as easily agitated, turned up, and unfocused as are many traditionalist Muslims.
So yes, the ‘Hafs Qur’an Only Religion’ may be a rallying cry for Muslims who have had it up to their neck with ‘traditionalists’.
Yet it is important for those Western Muslims, those in Turkey, Kuwait, Pakistan, India, Malaysia, Egypt, or anywhere else who are enamored with the ‘Hafs Qur’an Only Religion’ to understand just how intellectually bankrupt the position is. It’s just almost like they have these small support groups which become echo chambers for their ideas. All we ever see is railing against the hadith.
A movement that cannot interact with the compilation and transmission of the Qur’an in any meaningful way, nor a movement that interacts with the theological questions that have gripped the Muslim ummah is not a movement or position we would want to invest my trust in.
May Allah Forgive the Ummah.
May Allah Guide the Ummah.
Prima Quran 