Qur'ān The Absolute Truth

Nothing is infallible except the Qur'ān, neither Sahīh Bukhāri nor Sahīh Muslim, Only the Qur'ān is protected by Allāh

Sūrah Al-Baqarah 2:2

This is the Book about which there is no doubt, a guidance for those conscious of Allah.

Allāh reminds us in the very first āyah of the Qur'ān that the only 'Book' in this world that has no unsureness is the Qur'ān and nothing else.

Sūrah An-Nisa' 4:82

Then do they not reflect upon the Qur'ān? If it had been from other than Allāh, they would have found within it much contradiction.

Here Allāh mentions that 'the Qur'ān' doesn't have any contradictions because it's by Him, unlike other books which are the work of men hence prone to mistakes and contradictions.

Sūrah Al-Haqqah 69:51

And indeed, it (i.e., Qur'ān) is the truth of certainty.

Allāh calls the Qur'ān as the 'Book of Certainty' therefore whatever is in it is unquestionable.

Sūrah Al-Furqan 25:1

Blessed is He who sent down the Criterion upon His Servant that he may be to the worlds a warner.

Allāh calls the Qur'ān as the criterion i.e., the tool to differentiate between the truth and falsehood, the lawful and unlawful.

Sūrah Al-Hijr 15:9

Indeed, it is We who sent down the Zikr [i.e., the Quran], and indeed, We will be its guardian.

In this āyah Allāh is taking on Himself the preservation of the Qur'ān. No book is guarded by Allāh apart from 'the book' mentioned in the first āyah that we quoted i.e., the Qur'ān.

We as Muslims have been told and trained that the Sahīhain (Bukhāri and Muslim) are to be taken unquestionably just like the Qur'ān, this way we make these books of Hadīth equivalent to the Qur'ān in terms of authenticity. While claiming the authenticity of these marvellous compilations of the sayings and actions of the beloved Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) a Muslim encloses himself to believe everything therin to be one hundred percent accurate information which also means that the information it contains is non-contradictory whether it be to the Qur'ān or it be within itself.

But this is not true! The Qur'ān rejects anything to be one hundred percent accurate apart from itself. Refer to the āyāt mentioned in the beginning.

Bukhāri and Muslim have weak Ahadīth and mistakes!

Many are quite ignorant in terms of actual historical criticism of hadith, many imitate the Shi’a denomination’s belief in “infallible imāms” in that they grant the status of infallibility when it comes to the Hadīth canons of Bukhāri and Muslim.

The most famous Muhaddith and Faqīh of our times Sheikh Muhammad Nāsir-ud-Dīn Al-Albāni said "There are some Hadīths that are not considered to be even on the grade of Hasan much less the level of Sahīh, in Sahīh Al Bukhāri not to mention Sahīh Muslim."

Sheikh Al Albāni also makes mention of the criticism of Sahīh Al Bukhāri by one of the great scholars of this ummah i.e., Hāfiz Ibn Hajar Asqalāni.

Sheikh Albāni said that 'the criticism found in the Hadiths of Sahīh Al Bukhāri is sometimes related to the 1. "entire Hadīth", meaning it is said; this Hadīth is weak. And sometimes the criticism is concerning 2. "a portion of the Hadīth." The origin of the Hadith is authentic but there is a part of it that is not authentic.' and quotes the an example of Ahadīth for both the categories and quotes Ibn Hajar, Ibn Taimiyyah and Ibn Qayyim's criticism on the mentioned Ahadīth aswell. We omit that here.

In many ways the Sheikh made it sound like it was a matter of Īmān to recognize that before even picking up Bukhāri, acquiring Arabic, Hadīth sciences, and so forth that as a matter of Īmān one can know that Bukhāri has mistakes!

'Any book that crosses the mind of a Muslim, or any book title that he hears of, even before he reads the manuscript, it is incumbent that he must have firmly established in his mind that this book will surely contain some errors in it'. It has been narrated that Imām Shāfi’i, may Allāh be pleased with him said. “Allāh has refused to perfect any book except for His own.” And this is the truth, it is not debatable. So this is the first affair and this is the principle.

- Sheikh Muhammad Nāsir-ud-Dīn Al-Albāni (may Allāh mercy on his soul)

Note : The things you read in this article are in no way claiming that Hadīth are not important, Hadīth are also critically important. So long as a Hadīth is in harmony with the Qur'ān we accept it, if it is contradicting the Qur'ān, we keep it aside and if it is neither in harmony nor in contradiction then we keep these kind of Ahadīth as Information. No matter how well they were compiled, they were compiled by men and not by Allāh, although most of the Ahadīth in Bukhāri and Muslim are Sahīh but we also have some unauthentic narrations in them as nothing is infallible except the Qur'ān.