What is wrong and what needs to be done in one page

We need to look at the umbrella issues before trying to make sense of the dos and don’ts of the sect heavy Islam that is visible nowadays. The routine deviations from the default meaning of words and/or removal of verses from the context of the preceding and subsequent verses push you into the world of "beliefs" and out of the world of rationality, the same ''belief'' that must be singularly and exclusively reserved for God, the same rationality when dropped will render you like cattle, Quran even goes one step further by declaring it worse than being cattle.

The biggest tragedy of the Muslims has been their affinity to form notions outside the certainty of the Quran and then go looking for confirmation in the verses of the Quran. Some of these notions were formed in the mistaken ''belief'' to improve upon the perfection of God's message; others were an outright attempt to hijack a Deen. Before latching on to implied meanings, we must step back and subject the implication to rigorous analysis and if there is any doubt in the implication then it is better not to follow that route. By not following this very simple rule, Muslims deprive themselves of the certainty of the Quran.

The litmus test for me is always this; is my salvation tied to this implied meaning or not? Once I am able to answer this question the rest is easy.

Some of the Umbrella issues that are alien to Islam are routinely passed on as instructions from God and our very salvation is tied to it by mere mortals. The following is a short list of deviations confronting Muslims on a daily basis.

1. Punishment and reward after death and before the Day of Judgment (a total absurdity)
2. Unqualified intercession on the Day of Judgment (the aim of this innovation is obvious, ''I can fix it for you")
3. Predestination (especially helpful to corrupt and incompetent rulers who can blame everything on God, also very useful for sending soldiers on suicide missions)
4. Abrogation of Quranic words (this one takes the cake and needed most by the enemies of Islam)
5. Additional Revelations during the process of Quran's Revelation and after the death of the Prophet Pbuh. (How else to counter the words of God, with..... of course other ''words of God''.
6. Specific prophecies (all tied to fixing it for you)
7. Exaggerated rewards linked to rituals (an old trick of keeping followers busy in thought-stopping activities)
8. A call to join or leave a rival sect

Muslims enjoy an unfair advantage when it comes to staying on the straight path and the ease with which to call out the attempted innovations. If proofs are outside the specific Quranic injunctions or the detailed framework of all knowledge then the theological safety net God has gifted us can be invoked. The premise of God's declaration that shirk (associating other god/things/people with God) is an unpardonable sin saves the day. Why am I dragging shirk into this? Because the underlying benefit that comes from this central core of all beliefs is that you ''believe'' in One God only, in other words ''belief'' is exclusively reserved for God, everybody else must bring their proofs, scholar or no scholar, it is our God given right to then decide if the proofs are acceptable to us or not, if not we should be free to say, ''your proofs are not acceptable to me. They are not acceptable because I crossed checked them with God's proofs and your proofs failed the test''.

.......... Say: "Bring forth your proof, if you are the truth-tellers." Quran 2:111

Just because a report is classified as Hadith and subsequently declared Sahih does not mean anything for all practical purposes. In both instances, ascribing of a report to the Prophet of God and elevating it beyond reproach, mere mortals were involved, in both instances, the onus is upon them to prove their claims ''so and so said so'' is not a proof unless the Quranic standard of evidence is applied. Two witnesses for civil matters, four witnesses for criminal matters and any theological issues will need to do much more. The actual number of reports that fall under the Quranic evidence standard is less than you can fit into a two pager.

What is the Quranic framework;
A) God is the teacher of Quran: Quran 55:02
B). God perfected and completed the message: Quran 5:03
C) Easy remembrance and understandability of the message: Quran 54:17
D) God declared the end of the message with the words "This day”: Quran 5:03
E) God explained the verses in detail: Quran 11.01
F) The responsibility of explaining it has been taken by God Himself: Quran 75:19
G) The role of messenger to deliver the message: Quran 5:99
H) Indeed, upon Us (is) its collection and its recitation. Quran 75:17
I) God undertook to preserve the physical message: Quran 15:9
J) To use our faculties of observation, reason and logic and not accept anything without proof : Quran 8:22, 7:179, 25:44, 12:108, 2:111, 17:36, 10:100, 25:73, 4:82, 47:24 and many many more.
K) Quran is the Best Hadith Quran 39:23
L) Quran is the Best Tafsir Quran 25:33
M) And then this;

"وَكُلَّ شَيْءٍ فَصَّلْنَاهُ تَفْصِيلًا ............" Quran 17:12 Even Hilali the ultra-conservative translates it as "And We have explained everything (in detail) with full explanation"

God did not specify any additional source needed to further explain God's explanation but emphasizes observation, reason, and logic.

God in His infinite mercy has taken the narrator out of the Equation by declaring His official message preserved unconditionally. The failed attempt to introduce the secondary sources on the back of "righteous narrators" has always proved to be problematic.

Many have come to the conclusion that a new Hadith compilation must be undertaken to settle the issue of authenticity, it will not be possible to fix the existing six, here is why;

The fact to keep in mind before we even get into the list is that 99.9% of these reports are not verbatim, hence the words contained in these reports are not the actual words supposedly spoken by the Prophet of God.

1. No clear overall methodology of identifying authentic Hadith defined in the respective compilations. So if you point out a flaw in one game model, it is very easy to claim that we are not playing football we are playing basketball so to speak and then switch back when convenient.
2. The over-reliance on Isnad has neglected the matn of the reports. the result is Dajjal having left eye defective in one report and right in another. Mind you these are the easy one to call out.
3. The much touted scrutiny of the Isnad is usually not applied to the first two persons in the chain (top two after the Prophet of God and this glaring omission is casually glossed over. Thus making a mockery of Quran 9:101. Muslim's compilation confirms the conclusions drawn from 9:101 by admitting to 12 hypocrites masquerading as companions and whose identities were never revealed and yet they insist Bukhari and Muslim are infallible for all practical purposes. How?
4. No consensus on the definition of a Sahaba (companion). so basically anybody can be given a free pass.
5. The methodologies of compiling the biographies of the reporters in the Isnad chain not defined. Hence yet another element of the foundation is given a free pass through the back door along with the first two generation's free passes.
6. The over-reliance on Isnad has left a very serious flaw in the system; it is next to impossible to remove a suspect report because if done it will necessitate removal of hundreds of others where the same reporters were identified.
7. Over fifty percent of reports selected are confined to only three persons and the closest companions of the Prophet of God are credited with less than 10% of the total compiled reports combined. Imagine that.
8. Last and most important, the standards applied when accepting somebody's testimony is far below the Quranic standard, that is, minimum two witnesses in civil matters and four in criminal matters. For something of this importance, ideally more than four to be standardized.

If one were to focus on just one point I would want this to be the killer point No. 3. Singing the praises of the chain of narrations by the Hadith peddlers is a smokescreen. Because it does not apply on neither the initiator of the claim nor on the next in line. Imagine that.

Their solution to the impossibility of identifying the hypocrites among the companions is to give all of them a free pass. God's warning is that not even the Prophet of God Pbuh could tell them apart. How on earth did Bukhari and co. know?

In IT world this is generally referred to as "Garbage in, garbage out". The implication of Quran 9:101 is that every single report is potentially false, The question to be asked and answer demanded is why even go there. Especially when ascribing of reports to the Prophet of God Pbuh is done with the implicit objective to give it a Divine flavor. Popularly referred as "Pleasing Allah".

This what Allah has to say on the issue;

"Nay, We hurl the Truth against falsehood, and it knocks out its brain, and behold, falsehood doth perish! Ah! woe be to you for the (false) things ye ascribe (to Us)" Quran 21:18

Once these compilations were elevated from historical records to religious elements, it became increasingly difficult for scholars to question them in an environment where executions were routine, furthermore with the passage of time it is increasingly difficult to verify the core premise of Isnad chains hence effectively necessitating blind faith which is an unIslamic borrowed notion from the Christian Church. They need it we don't.

But you know what? we (the majority of Muslims who actually take the trouble to understand our beautiful religion) are not bound by any taqleedy utopia. we use our brains in line with strict Injunctions of God to do so or be reduced to ".......like cattle, nay even more astray; those! They are the heedless ones" Quran 7:179

In conclusion, we need to rediscover the Quranic message within the framework of Quran and get rid of all innovations currently peddled as indispensable to our salvation. Who should do it? You and me to start with.