The Fundamentalists’ Reasoning for the Hadith “You Must Adhere to my Sunnah and the Sunnah of the Rightly Guided Caliphs, the Mahdis”

Abstract

The fundamentalists differed in their citing and reasoning with what was narrated on the authority of Al-I’rbad bin Sariyah - may God be pleased with him - with a chain of transmission traceable to the Prophet (PBUH): “You must adhere to my Sunnah and the Sunnah of the Rightly Guided Caliphs, the Mahdis,” as seen in some fundamentalist investigations. Thus, in these investigations, some scholars used the Hadith as evidence to abide by, while others did not. The aim of this research is to gather related subjects mentioned by fundamentalists in their writings. The aim of this research was to gather related subjects mentioned by fundamentalists in their writings, in which they provided evidence for by the hadith, to study those related subjects in fundamentalist research, to state the views of the fundamentalists and their doctrines regarding them, and to determine the basis for inferring them from the hadith. There are four sections in this research, The first section is talking about the fundamentalists’ inference from the hadith in defining the Sunnah and concludes that what is meant by “the Sunnah of the Rightly Guided Caliphs” is the method and general policy by which they govern the nation, which is consistent with the Sunnah of the Prophet (PBUH).   Secondly, a focus on the fundamentalists’ inference based on the hadith on the authority of the companion’s statement was made, and the researcher suggested that the statement of the companion, which could be confirmed by opinion and diligence, is not considered a legal proof, but rather it is permissible for the diligent person to contradict it. Thirdly, fundamentalists’ inference from the hadith on the validity of the agreement of the four Caliphs was analyzed, and argued that the agreement of the four Caliphs is neither consensus nor evidence. Finally, the research focused on the fundamentalists’ inference from the hadith on the permissibility of the common man imitating scholars, and the prohibition of imitation while being fanatical towards the opinion of a scholar without looking at the evidence adopted by the scholar. The recommendation at the end of this research was for more studies targeting fundamentalist topics in which fundamentalists often cite the hadiths of the Prophet (PBUH) as reasoning.