A CRITICAL REVIEW OF MAUDUDI’S UNDERSTANDING OF THE SUNNAH

Abstract

UDK 28-725-4/-5

This article aims at not only presenting Maududi’s understanding of the Sunnah, but also at a critical evaluation of his opinions in general. Even though Maududi was not muhaddis in a classical sense, his interest and efforts in the science of Hadith is undeniable. The subject of our interest here is to present Maududi’s twofold understanding of the Sunnah. In his early period Maududi was making efforts to protect the authoritative value of the Sunnah from the theologians who were endorsing the idea that the Qur’an can be understood only via the hadith of the Messenger s.w.s., and from the Ahmedis who tried to limit the authority of the Messenger, s.w.s. only to his lifetime. In the later stage of his career, Maududi criticizes the Hadith collectors and their compilations stressing upon the necessity of being very cautious with the Hadith literature. Maududi makes a distinction between the Sunnah of the Messanger s.w.s., those words and actions of his which were a product of his messenger personality and those which were a product of his human personality. According to him then, the first have normative character, whereas the other does not. He also divides all the hadith, verbal and nonverbal regardless, into collective (mutawatir) and singular (ahad). In evaluating the authenticity of the hadith, Maududi, unlike the scholars of the Hadith (muhaith), Maududi prioritizes the sense of the text of the Hadith over the chain of its transmitters. Thus Maududi sometimes rejects even the most relevant tradition recorded in Sahih collections. The bases for his evaluation of the reliability of the texts is the human nature that tends to err. Such thinking would later force him into the methodology of dirayah, evaluation of the authenticity of the tradition on the bases of refined personal sensibility.