By name of that One Worshiped One, The God, The Overflowingly Merciful, The Ever-Merciful Lord
Qur’an Completeness
Responsibility Before Following Reports and Memories Whose Truth We Do Not Know with Certainty
No scholar, narrator, cleric, jurist, or religious leader carries a person’s religious choice in their place.
1. The Qur’an states what is necessary for guidance
The Qur’an has stated what is necessary for guidance, religious responsibility, measuring truth and falsehood, and attributing a ruling to The God, in the measure that The God willed. Adding to the Qur’an or treating it as insufficient, when done in the name of religion and divine ruling, is not a small matter; it is attributing a ruling to The God without knowledge.
The Qur’an warns that the human tongue must not falsely call something lawful or unlawful and then attach that claim to The God:
وَلَا تَقُولُوا لِمَا تَصِفُ أَلْسِنَتُكُمُ الْكَذِبَ هَـٰذَا حَلَالٌ وَهَـٰذَا حَرَامٌ لِّتَفْتَرُوا عَلَى اللَّهِ الْكَذِبَ
Do not say, according to what your tongues falsely describe, “This is lawful and this is unlawful,” so as to fabricate a lie against The God.
So if someone takes something that The God did not place in the Qur’an as a decisive religious ruling, and presents it as God’s ruling through a report, memory, historical narration, or another person’s statement, they should know that they are standing in a very dangerous place.
2. Blind following is not an excuse
Blindly following scholars, narrators, religious elders, clerics, muftis, or leaders does not save a person from personal responsibility. On the Day of Account, no human being can place the responsibility for their choice on someone else.
The Qur’an shows the picture of those who, after being led astray, say that they obeyed their leaders and great ones:
وَقَالُوا رَبَّنَا إِنَّا أَطَعْنَا سَادَتَنَا وَكُبَرَاءَنَا فَأَضَلُّونَا السَّبِيلَا
And they will say, “Our Lord, we obeyed our masters and our great ones, so they led us away from the path.”
This statement is not presented as an accepted excuse in the Hereafter. The Qur’an records it so that the human being today may wake up before that Day and take responsibility for hearing, thinking, measuring, and following.
3. Every person carries the burden of their own choice
On the Day of Recompense, responsibility for errors and for what a person attributed to The God in the name of religion will not rest on any cleric, teacher, mufti, narrator, jurist, or leader. Every human being carries the burden of their own choices.
وَلَا تَكْسِبُ كُلُّ نَفْسٍ إِلَّا عَلَيْهَا ۚ وَلَا تَزِرُ وَازِرَةٌ وِزْرَ أُخْرَىٰ
No soul earns except against itself, and no bearer of burden bears the burden of another.
So let us be awake: following a statement whose truth we do not know with certainty does not remove responsibility from us if we accept it as religion and as a ruling of The God.
4. Following without knowledge is forbidden
The God never said that if you do not possess knowledge, you should hand over responsibility to others and follow them without question. Rather, the Qur’an forbids the human being from following what they do not know, and declares hearing, sight, and heart responsible:
وَلَا تَقْفُ مَا لَيْسَ لَكَ بِهِ عِلْمٌ ۚ إِنَّ السَّمْعَ وَالْبَصَرَ وَالْفُؤَادَ كُلُّ أُولَـٰئِكَ كَانَ عَنْهُ مَسْئُولًا
Do not follow what you have no knowledge of; surely hearing, sight, and heart, all of those will be questioned.
On the Day of Account, a person cannot say: My Lord, they said it was found in such-and-such report from such-and-such narrator; they said the Qur’an was not sufficient in explaining lawful and unlawful; they said the statements of narrators complete the Qur’an; therefore I followed them.
The God will ask: Had I left something missing in My Book that was necessary for your guidance and responsibility? Had I not warned you not to follow what you do not know?
5. The Messenger’s complaint concerns abandoning the Qur’an
The Qur’an presents a very heavy scene: the Messenger complains before his Lord about his people. But his complaint is not that they abandoned Hadith. His complaint is that they abandoned the Qur’an:
وَقَالَ الرَّسُولُ يَا رَبِّ إِنَّ قَوْمِي اتَّخَذُوا هَـٰذَا الْقُرْآنَ مَهْجُورًا
And the Messenger said, “My Lord, my people took this Qur’an as something abandoned.”
Pay attention: the Messenger does not say, “My people abandoned Hadith.” He does not say that his people neglected memories, reports, historical narrations, or statements attributed to him. His testimony concerns the Qur’an: they took this Qur’an as abandoned.
Conclusion
A person’s responsibility before The God is not removed by the names of religious elders. If a person, without certain knowledge, places reports and memories before the Qur’an, or uses them to make lawful and unlawful rulings for The God, they cannot hide behind the name of a narrator, scholar, cleric, mufti, or jurist on the Day of Account.
The Qur’an is the criterion. Every religious statement, every report, every fatwa, every historical custom, and every memory narrated in the name of the Prophet or religion must be measured before the Qur’an; the Qur’an must not be limited, completed, or pushed aside before them.
The Messenger complains of the abandonment of the Qur’an; so let us not build our religion upon what we do not know with certainty, and then place it before the clear signs of The God.