Muhammad Tawfiq Sidqi (; 1881–1920) was an Egyptian Islamic scholar who argued against the authenticity of

hadith Hadith is the Arabic word for a 'report' or an 'account f an event and refers to the Islamic oral tradition of anecdotes containing the purported words, actions, and the silent approvals of the Islamic prophet Muhammad or his immediate circle ...

. He is remembered today for his argument "that nothing of the hadith was recorded until after enough time had elapsed to allow the infiltration of numerous absurd or corrupt traditions"; and that God had allowed this to happen because the

Sunnah is the body of traditions and practices of the Islamic prophet Muhammad that constitute a model for Muslims to follow. The sunnah is what all the Muslims of Muhammad's time supposedly saw, followed, and passed on to the next generations. Diff ...

of Muhammad as a whole "was only ever meant for the Arabs of the Prophet's time", as only the

Quran The Quran, also Romanization, romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a Waḥy, revelation directly from God in Islam, God (''Allah, Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which ...

was necessary for Islam, Brown, ''Rethinking tradition in modern Islamic thought'', 1996: p.54 (a position held by a small number of Muslims and known as

Quranism Quranism () is an Islamic schools and branches, Islamic movement that holds the belief that the Quran is the only valid source of religious belief, guidance, and law in Islam. Quranists believe that the Quran is clear, complete, and that it ca ...

). Sidqi recanted his position after Rashid Rida opposed his position. Brown, ''Rethinking tradition in modern Islamic thought'', 1996: p.41 Sidqi was a who had memorized the Quran as a young boy, and "during the 1890s and early 1900s" had written articles in Egyptian journals defending Islam against Christian missionary criticisms of his religion. J.A.C. Brown, ''Misquoting Muhammad'', 2014: p.69 He was an "associate" or "protege" of the well-known Islamic revivalist Rashid Rida. Brown, ''Rethinking tradition in modern Islamic thought'', 1996: p.40 He attended Qasr Al-Ayni Medical School, and worked as a physician at the prison of Turra. He died of

typhus Typhus, also known as typhus fever, is a group of infectious diseases that include epidemic typhus, scrub typhus, and murine typhus. Common symptoms include fever, headache, and a rash. Typically these begin one to two weeks after exposu ...

in 1920. J.A.C. Brown, ''Misquoting Muhammad'', 2014: p.70

Views on hadith

Sidqi described his motivation for questioning hadith as part of a rejection of ' (the unthinking and unjustified conformity of one person to the Islamic teachings of another) and the "quest for authenticity" in Islam.Sidqi, Muhammad Tawfiq, "al-Islam huwa al-Qur'an wahdahu," ''al-Manar'', 9 (1906), 515 One hadith in particular that sparked his disenchantment was the "hadith of the fly" which had been rated ' (sound) by

Muhammad al-Bukhari Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl ibn Ibrāhīm al-Juʿfī al-Bukhārī (; 21 July 810 – 1 September 870) was a 9th-century Persian Muslim '' muhaddith'' who is widely regarded as the most important ''hadith'' scholar in the histor ...

and other famed scholars of hadith: *'If a fly lands in your drink, push it all the way, under, then throw the fly out and drink. On one of the fly's wings is disease, on the other is its cure.' As a doctor he found it in conflict with modern medicine and the

germ theory of disease The germ theory of disease is the currently accepted scientific theory for many diseases. It states that microorganisms known as pathogens or "germs" can cause disease. These small organisms, which are too small to be seen without magnification, ...

. Shortly after the turn of the twentieth century, Sidqi wrote an article titled ("Islam is the Qur'an Alone") that appeared in Rashid Rida's journal '. There he argued that the Quran is sufficient as guidance in Islam: "what is obligatory for man does not go beyond God's Book. ... If anything other than the Qur'an had been necessary for religion, ... the Prophet would have commanded its registration in writing, and God would have guaranteed its preservation."Musa, Aisha Y., ''Hadith as Scripture: Discussions on the Authority of Prophetic Traditions in Islam'', Palgrave Macmillan, New York, 2008, p.6. His article is said to have "sparked a debate in ' that lasted four years". Refutations of his article included works by the scholars Ahmad Mansur al-Baz, Shaikh Taha al-Bishri, and a "long series of articles" by Indian scholar Shaikh Salih al-Yafiʿi. Sidqi concluded that the Sunnah of Muhammad was "temporary and provisional law", not divine revelation (') meant for all humanity. He offered several "proofs" why the Sunnah was "intended only for those who lived during the Prophet's era": Brown, ''Rethinking tradition in modern Islamic thought'', 1996: p.67 *that the Sunnah "was not written" down for safe keeping "during the time of the Prophet"; *the Companions of Muhammad "made no arrangement for the preservation of the Sunnah "whether in a book or in their memories"; *hadith were not transmitted from one generation to the next verbatim; *the Sunnah was "not committed to memory" like the Quran so that "differences developed among different transmitters"; *if the Sunnah "had been meant for all people" this would not have happened and it "would have been carefully preserved and circulated as widely as possible"; *much of the Sunnah obviously only applies to "Arabs of Muhammad's time and is based on local customs and circumstances".

References

Bibliography

* * *Sidqi, Muhammad Tawfiq, "al-Islam huwa al-Qur'an wahdahu," ''al-Manar'', 9 (1906) {{DEFAULTSORT:Sidqi, Muhammad Tawfiq 1881 births 1920 deaths Egyptian Quranist Muslims Egyptian reformers Muslim reformers