Praise be to Allah.
Firstly:
Islam is based on two main foundations: the Holy Quran and the Prophetic Sunnah.
Allah, may He be exalted, has enjoined us to follow His Messenger (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) in more than eighty places in the Holy Quran, such as the verses in which He, may He be exalted, says (interpretation of the meaning):
“O you who believe! Obey Allah and obey the Messenger (Muhammad (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him))”
[an-Nisa’ 4:59]
“And whatsoever the Messenger (Muhammad (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him)) gives you, take it, and whatsoever he forbids you, abstain (from it)”
[al-Hashr 59:7].
And He warns against disobeying him (interpretation of the meaning):
“And let those who oppose the Messenger’s (Muhammad (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him)) commandment (i.e. his Sunnah— legal ways, orders, acts of worship, statements) (among the sects) beware, lest some Fitnah (disbelief, trials, afflictions, earthquakes, killing, overpowered by a tyrant) should befall them or a painful torment be inflicted on them”
[an-Noor 24:63].
If anyone claims that he is following what is in the Quran, but at the same time he is not following the Sunnah, then he is contradicting himself, because the Quran enjoins us to follow the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) and not to go against him.
No one can worship Allah, may He be exalted, as Allah want except by following the Sunnah. If someone claims that he is following the Quran only – if that is possible – then how does he pray, fast, give zakaah on his wealth and perform Hajj and ‘umrah?
The details of the rulings on these acts of worship are not mentioned in the Holy Quran; rather they are narrated in the prophetic Sunnah.
Secondly:
With regard to the verse in which Allah, may He be exalted, says (interpretation of the meaning):
“And (remember) when the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) disclosed a matter in confidence to one of his wives (Hafsah), then she told it (to another i.e. ‘Aa’ishah), and Allah made it known to him, he informed part thereof and left a part. Then when he told her (Hafsah) thereof, she said: ‘Who told you this?’ He said: ‘The All-Knower, the All-Aware (Allah) has told me’”
[at-Tahreem 66:3],
there is nothing in this verse to indicate that the Sunnah should not be followed, because the verse is in fact speaking of something that happened to to the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) and it is not a ruling that is applicable to all of the ummah. The Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) disclosed something in confidence to one of his wives, and he did not want anyone else to know about it, but she went against the instructions of the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) to keep it secret, so the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) rebuked her gently, then she repented from that and Allah accepted her repentance.
As-Sa‘di (may Allah have mercy on him) said:
Many of the commentators said that she was Hafsah, the Mother of the Believers (may Allah be pleased with her). The Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) told her something in confidence and instructed her not to tell anyone about it, but she told ‘Aa’ishah about it (may Allah be pleased with them both). Allah informed him of what she had disclosed, and the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) told her of some of what she had said, but he refrained from mentioning some of it, out of generosity and forbearance on his part. So she said to him: ‘Who told you of this matter which no one knows but us? He said: The All-Knower, the All-Aware (Allah) has told me, from Whom nothing is concealed, and He knows all that is secret and yet more hidden.
End quote.
Tafseer as-Sa‘di (p. 872)
The matter that the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) disclosed to Hafsah in secret was that he had forbidden himself to drink honey, or to be intimate with Maariyah.
Al-Bukhaari (5267) and Muslim (1474) narrated from ‘Aa’ishah that the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) used to stay with Zaynab bint Jahsh and drink honey in her house. She said: So Hafsah and I agreed that whichever of us the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) entered upon first would say: I can smell maghaafeer [a type of gum that had an unpleasant odour] on you; have you eaten maghaafeer? He entered upon one of them and she said that to him. He said: “No, I drank honey at the house of Zaynab bint Jahsh, but I will never do it again.” Then the following verses were revealed (interpretation of the meaning):
“Why do you forbid (for yourself) that which Allah has allowed to you” up to the words, “If you two (‘Aa’ishah and Hafsah) turn in repentance to Allah” [al-Taheem 66:1-4]. The phrase “And (remember) when the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) disclosed a matter in confidence to one of his wives” [in verse 3] refers to him saying, “No, I drank honey.”.
This version was narrated by Muslim. In one of the reports narrated by al-Bukhaari it says: [The Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) said]: “No, I drank honey but I will never do it again; I have sworn an oath, so do not tell anyone about that.”
An-Nawawi (may Allah have mercy on him) said:
This is one of the views concerning what was meant by the matter that was disclosed in confidence. According to another view, it had to do with the story of Maariyah. And there were other views. End quote.
Ash-Shawkaani (may Allah have mercy on him) said:
It is possible to reconcile the two stories, namely the story of the honey and the story of Maariyah, by noting that Quran was revealed concerning both, and that in each case he disclosed something in confidence to one of his wives. End quote.
Fath al-Qadeer (5/300)
Thus it is clear that the verse is speaking specifically of something that happened to the Messenger (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him). As for general Islamic rulings that apply to everyone, the Messenger (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) conveyed them openly to the people and spoke of them on the minbar, and issued instructions that some of them be written down.
Al-Bukhaari (2434) and Muslim (1355) narrated that the Messenger (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) delivered a speech on the Day of the conquest of Makkah, and Abu Shah, a man from Yemen, stood up and said: Write it for me, O Messenger of Allah. The Messenger of Allah (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) said: “Write it for Abu Shah.” Al-Waleed said: I said to al-Awzaa’i: What did he mean, Write it for me, O Messenger of Allah? He said: This speech that he heard from the Messenger of Allah (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him)..
The Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) approved of some of the Sahaabah writing down hadiths. ‘Abdullah ibn ‘Amr ibn al-‘Aas used to write down hadiths during the lifetime of the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him), and ‘Ali ibn Abi Taalib (may Allah be pleased with him) also wrote down some hadiths.
The Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) urged us to pay attention to his Sunnah, memorise it and convey it to people, as the Messenger (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) said: “May Allah cause his face to shine a man who hears a hadith from us and memorises it so that he can convey it to others.” Narrated by at-Tirmidhi (3656); classed as saheeh by al-Albaani.
After all of this, how can it be said that the Messenger (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) did not want the people to know his Sunnah?
The Messenger (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) told us that there would be among the ummah those who reject the Sunnah and claim to follow the Quran only, and that this claim is false and is to be rejected, because Allah, may He be exalted, gave the Messenger (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) two revelations together, namely the Holy Quran and the Prophetic Sunnah.
Abu Dawood (4604) narrated from al-Miqdaam ibn Ma‘di Karib from the Messenger of Allah (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) that he said: “Verily, I have been given the Book and something like it with it, but soon a man will be lying replete on his couch and he will say: You should adhere to this Quran. Whatever you find is permitted in it, take it as permissible, and whatever you find forbidden in it, take it as forbidden.” Classed as saheeh by al-Albaani.
See also the answers to questions no. 604, and 93111 .
And Allah knows best.
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