Al-Azhar scholar criticizes Quranism, says Sunna is means to understand Islam

CAIRO – 19 April 2022: Secretary-General of Al-Azhar Council of Senior Scholars, Dr. Hassan al-Saghir, has criticized Quranism, a branch of Islam that believes the holy book is the only source of understanding religion.

Quranism essentially, disregards hadith literature, which are sayings by Prophet Mohamed that Islamic scholars at all times used to interpret Quran and create way of life for Muslims, culminating in what is known as the Sharia.

Saghir’s sermon on Saturday seems to be in response to the controversial series Faten Amal Harby, which tackles the plight of a divorced woman. The protagonist, Faten, attacking the fact that a woman loses custody of her children if she marries again, unless her ex-husband agrees they stay with her, appears in the show asking a sheikh if there is a verse in Quran that inspired that law, which there is not. However, it is inspired from a hadith and the interpretations of that hadith.

People who are for the law mainly worry about daughters living with stepfathers. 

Saghir explained that there are two kinds of revelations in Islam, Quran and hadith, and that Quran ordered Muslims to obey the prophet. As an example, he said that Quran told Muslims to pray, but did not tell them how, so Muslims learned how to pray from hadith and Sunna.  

Sheikhs against Quranism argue that Quran would not be understood without the help of hadith, and that without hadith, the religion of Islam would be "incomplete."