Denominations
Quranism
Islam
Citation Formats
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Origin 1880 to 1930
The position that the Quran alone is binding and that the hadith, the reported sayings and acts of Muhammad, carry no religious authority. Quranists argue that the Quran describes itself as complete and clear, that the hadith were collected two centuries after the Prophet's death and cannot bear the weight placed on them, and that treating a second body of text as revelation is itself the error. The practical consequences are large, because most of the detail of Sunni and Shia practice comes from hadith and not from the Quran. Quranists commonly pray three times rather than five, having rejected the account of the night journey on which the five are based; they perform ablution only as the Quran specifies; they reject stoning for adultery and any penalty for apostasy, citing the verse that there is no compulsion in religion; and they treat the headscarf, the beard and circumcision as customs rather than obligations. It is a small movement and a repudiated one.
Facts
Origins
Origin Period Place of Origin FounderAbdullah Chakralawi in the Punjab and Muhammad Tawfiq Sidqi in Egypt are the earliest named advocates 1 Status
Status TodayLiving tradition, practised today 1 History
Separation or DivergenceQuranists hold the Qur'an alone to be binding 1 Separation or DivergenceThe Sunni schools of law, over the authority of hadith as a source of law 1 Separation or DivergenceTheir opponents hold that the Qur'an cannot be applied without the Prophet's practice 1 Date of Separation Belief
Defining Doctrinal PositionThe Qur'an alone as the source of law; hadith not binding 1Tradition: Islam Organisation
OrdinationNo ordination; authority rests on learning or on the whole body 1 Practice
Liturgical Language Learn More
The Quran Alone
Quranism (Arabic Qur'aniyya; also Ahl al-Quran, "People of the Quran") is a current within Islam whose defining conviction is that the Quran alone is the authoritative source of religious guidance, and that the vast body of hadith, the reports of the sayings and deeds of the Prophet Muhammad compiled in the centuries after his death, is not a binding source of law and doctrine.
Mainstream Sunni and Shia Islam rest on two foundations, the Quran and the Sunna of the Prophet as transmitted through hadith; Quranists accept the first and reject, or radically demote, the second, arguing that hadith are of uncertain authenticity, were recorded generations late, and were never sanctioned by the Quran itself as a parallel revelation. On this basis Quranists hold that the Quran is complete and sufficient, and that where it is silent or general, matters are left to reason and circumstance rather than to the detailed prescriptions of the hadith-based schools of law. The position has sharp practical consequences, since much of the received form of Islamic ritual, law and daily practice is derived not from the Quran directly but from the Sunna.
History, Diversity and Reach
Impulses to privilege the Quran over hadith appear at various points in Islamic history, but Quranism as an articulated movement is largely a modern phenomenon, taking shape from the nineteenth century, especially in South Asia and Egypt, amid debates over reform, colonial modernity and the reliability of the traditional sciences.
Notable figures include the South Asian thinkers associated with the Ahl al-Quran and, in the twentieth century, Ghulam Ahmed Parwez; a separate and more controversial strand grew around Rashad Khalifa and the "Submitters" movement in the United States. Quranists do not form a single organised community but a diffuse tendency spanning very different theologies, and they remain a small minority within the wider Muslim world, often regarded with suspicion or rejected outright by mainstream Sunni and Shia authorities, for whom the Sunna is indispensable. The movement has drawn fresh attention in the internet age, which has given isolated Quran-centred thinkers and readers new means to connect. Scholars study it as part of the broader modern debate within Islam over the sources of authority and the authenticity of the hadith corpus, rather than as a denomination in the institutional sense.
Cross-Tradition Connections
Belongs to Tradition
Branch Of
Critiqued
Quranist argument rejects consensus as a source of law, on the ground that the Quran nowhere makes the agreement of scholars binding.
Quranist argument rejects analogy along with the rest of the classical apparatus, holding the Quran to be complete and self-sufficient.
Usul al-fiqh, Doctrines Quranism rejects the classical theory of legal sources at its root, holding that the Quran alone carries binding authority and that hadith cannot supply a second source of law.
Excluded from Canon
Quranism holds that Al-Istibsar carries no religious authority; the hadith were compiled roughly two centuries after Muhammad's death and cannot bear the weight of scripture the Quran alone claims for itself.
Quranism holds that Da'a'im al-Islam carries no religious authority; the hadith were compiled roughly two centuries after Muhammad's death and cannot bear the weight of scripture the Quran alone claims for itself.
Hadith, Scriptures & Texts Quranism holds that Hadith carries no religious authority; the hadith were compiled roughly two centuries after Muhammad's death and cannot bear the weight of scripture the Quran alone claims for itself.
Quranism holds that Jami' al-Rabi' carries no religious authority; the hadith were compiled roughly two centuries after Muhammad's death and cannot bear the weight of scripture the Quran alone claims for itself.
Quranism holds that Jami at-Tirmidhi carries no religious authority; the hadith were compiled roughly two centuries after Muhammad's death and cannot bear the weight of scripture the Quran alone claims for itself.
Quranism holds that Kitab al-Kafi carries no religious authority; the hadith were compiled roughly two centuries after Muhammad's death and cannot bear the weight of scripture the Quran alone claims for itself.
Quranism holds that Man La Yahduruhu al-Faqih carries no religious authority; the hadith were compiled roughly two centuries after Muhammad's death and cannot bear the weight of scripture the Quran alone claims for itself.
Quranism holds that Musnad al-Imam Zayd carries no religious authority; the hadith were compiled roughly two centuries after Muhammad's death and cannot bear the weight of scripture the Quran alone claims for itself.
Quranism holds that Sahih al-Bukhari carries no religious authority; the hadith were compiled roughly two centuries after Muhammad's death and cannot bear the weight of scripture the Quran alone claims for itself.
Quranism holds that Sahih Muslim carries no religious authority; the hadith were compiled roughly two centuries after Muhammad's death and cannot bear the weight of scripture the Quran alone claims for itself.
Quranism holds that Sunan Abu Dawud carries no religious authority; the hadith were compiled roughly two centuries after Muhammad's death and cannot bear the weight of scripture the Quran alone claims for itself.
Quranism holds that Sunan an-Nasa'i carries no religious authority; the hadith were compiled roughly two centuries after Muhammad's death and cannot bear the weight of scripture the Quran alone claims for itself.
Quranism holds that Sunan Ibn Majah carries no religious authority; the hadith were compiled roughly two centuries after Muhammad's death and cannot bear the weight of scripture the Quran alone claims for itself.
Quranism holds that Tahdhib al-Ahkam carries no religious authority; the hadith were compiled roughly two centuries after Muhammad's death and cannot bear the weight of scripture the Quran alone claims for itself.
Holds Element
Quranism accepts the angels because the Quran names them, while setting aside the later angelic detail that rests on the hadith corpus alone.
Quranism accepts what the Quran names and nothing on the authority of the hadith corpus alone, and Jibril is named in the Quran, so he stands within the Quranist reading where later angelic detail does not.
Critiqued Here
Quranist teaching holds that the Quran is to be understood from itself, so a commentary built throughout on the hadith corpus is exactly the method it refuses.
Objects and Practices of This Tradition
Quranism affirms the oneness of God on the Quran's own text alone, without the elaborations later theology drew from hadith.
The Quran is the sole binding scripture in Quranist doctrine, held to be complete and clear in itself and needing no second body of text to interpret it.
Originates in Language
Position On
An afterlife of resurrection and judgement is affirmed in Quranist argument on the Quran.
Barzakh is affirmed in Quranist argument, the term being one the Quran uses of the state of the dead.
The finality of prophethood is affirmed in Quranist argument, on the Quran's naming of Muhammad as the seal of the prophets.
Fitra is affirmed in Quranist argument on the Quran, where the word appears in the verse on the original disposition God made humanity upon.
The forbidden category is affirmed in Quranist argument, with the boundary drawn at what the Quran itself forbids and nothing further.
The division into grave and lesser sins is affirmed in Quranist argument, on the Quran's own undertaking that avoiding the grave ones covers the rest.
Kaffara is affirmed in Quranist argument, the specific expiations being ones the Quran prescribes directly.
The weighing of deeds is affirmed in Quranist argument, the balance being named in the Quran itself.
Prophecy is affirmed in Quranist argument, on the Quran alone, and the Prophet's function is held to be the delivery of the Quran rather than a second body of binding instruction.
The resurrection and judgement are affirmed in Quranist argument on the Quran.
Sabr is affirmed in Quranist argument on the Quran.
Shirk is affirmed in Quranist argument, and the charge is pressed against the elevation of hadith to a source alongside the Quran.
Shukr is affirmed in Quranist argument on the Quran.
Taqwa is affirmed in Quranist argument as the Quran's explicit measure of human worth.
Tawakkul is affirmed in Quranist argument on the Quran.
Tawbah is affirmed in Quranist argument on the Quran.
Sources
1. Hadith as Scripture: Discussions on the Authority of Prophetic Traditions in Islam
Aisha Y. Musa, Palgrave Macmillan, 2008On the historical debate over the authority of hadithView the Source The Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd edition
P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C. E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W. P. Heinrichs (eds.), Brill, 2005View the Source The Study Quran: A New Translation and Commentary
The Oxford Dictionary of World Religions
John Bowker (ed.), Oxford University Press, 1997s.v. Ahl al-QuranView the Source Encyclopedia of Religion
Mircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.), Macmillan Reference, 2005s.v. Quran; IslamView the Source Essays About This Entity (1 essay)
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