Question
1. What is a hadith-e-qudsi?
2. What is its status in the Qur’an and the Sunnah?
3. Sometimes we describe the meanings and crux of what Allah said in the
Qur’an instead of providing with complete verse. For this we use “Allah says this” or similar expressions. Maybe prophet (sws) did the same in ahadith and people mistakenly considered it as revelation of Allah which is not in the Qur’an and called it hadith-e-qudsi?
Answer
Thank you for writing to us. Hadith-e Qudsi is something that the Prophet (sws) attributed to Almighty Allah yet it does not form the part of the Qur’an. He usually explicitly starts with the words: God says this and this. The source of the Prophet’s knowledge can be the Qur’an but often it is not. There are ahadith-e qudsi which cannot even remotely be attached to the Qur’an.
Like all ahadith, qudsi ahadith have also been transmitted by individual to individual (ahad) narrators. They are at best zanni (probable) and one must interpret them in the light of the Qur’an and the Sunnah.
Answered by: Tariq Mahmood Hashmi
Date: 2015-03-03
