:sl:
I believe the ayah you're referring to above is Surah al-An'aam ayah 145, translation of which is:
Sahih International
Say, "I do not find within that which was revealed to me [anything] forbidden to one who would eat it unless it be a dead animal or blood spilled out or the flesh of swine - for indeed, it is impure - or it be [that slaughtered in] disobedience, dedicated to other than Allah . But whoever is forced [by necessity], neither desiring [it] nor transgressing [its limit], then indeed, your Lord is Forgiving and Merciful."
The point that hadeeth rejectors make being that the Prophet himself is instructed to say in the Qur'an that there is nothing else forbidden apart from these four categories of food, thus the ahadeeth regarding the other forbidden foods are false.
Let's start by looking at the following verse of the Qur'an, since hadeeth rejectors claim to believe in the Qur'an:
Sahih International
Certainly did Allah confer [great] favor upon the believers when He sent among them a Messenger from themselves, reciting to them His verses and purifying them and teaching them the Book and wisdom, although they had been before in manifest error. (3:164)
The Prophet :saws: is specifically referred to as "reciting to them His verses"
and also, "teaching them the book". This implies two separate roles that the Prophet :saws: fulfilled, otherwise the passage would be redundant. It shows that not only did the Prophet :saws: receive the revelations from Jibreel (alayhissalaam) and recite the verses to the Muslims, but he also taught and explained to them the meaning of those revelations/verses.
Reciting and teaching cannot mean the same things, as they are mentioned separately.
If teaching meant the reading out aloud of the Qur'an, making people commit it to memory, there was no need to specify it as something different to recitation.
Any teacher teaching something, does not simply make people commit a given text to memory, but explains what is in it, it's context, how to apply it, it's background etc.
Teaching evidently means therefore, explanation and interpretation of the Qur'anic verses, and the exposition of their meaning, wisdom, and commands.
Once it is established that the Prophet :saws: is a teacher and explainer of the Qur'an, we must look at the ways in which the Prophet :saws: explained the Qur'an:
- He explained the meanings of words whose meanings were ambiguous for different reasons. Sometimes the companions did not understand the context or meanings of certain words, so he explained it to them (e.g. Surah al-An'aam 82).
- He corrected the misunderstandings of his companions or others, as in the "shortening one's prayers in case in fear of attack" verse (an-Nisaa 101).
- He qualified the unrestricted, and particularised the general, and explained how verses were to be applied. Eg despite Surah al-Maaidah, ayah 38, he explained that not every thief is to have their hand cut off. (incidentally would hadeeth rejectors cut off the hand of every thief?). He also explained that for al-An'aam 145 (mentioned above) and al-Maaidah 3, there are exceptions, and two types of carrion are allowed (fish and locust) as are two types of blood (liver and spleen). Without the prophet :saws: explaining these verses, Muslims would be denying themselves some of the good things Allah has in fact, made lawful for them. Similarly, in addition to al-An'aam 145, the Messenger :saws: has prohibited other types of food, such as the flesh of donkey, which was not mentioned by Allah in the verse.
- He clarified which verses are abrogated, such as an-Nisaa 15.
- He gave detail to the non-detailed commands in the Qur'an. So the Qur'an tells us to pray, but the prophet :saws: taught us how to implement that, i.e. how to pray.
- He made statements whose meanings were similar to verses in the Qur'an, which emphasised and further clarified the points in the Qur'an.
- He supplied details of incidents that are mentioned in the Quran with not much details, such as the incident mentioned in Surah al-Burooj.
Amongst many other ways of explaining the Qur'an.
We can see that Allah obliged the Prophet :saws: to explain the Qur'an and to expound the meanings of His words... Therefore it is absolutely necessary for anyone who interprets the Qur'an to base his interpretation upon what has been narrated of it's interpretation by the Messenger :saws: and not to deviate from it and [instead] turn to ijtihaad and personal judgement by looking at the Arabic wording to determine it's meaning and application.
Extracted and adapted from: The Authority and Importance of the Sunnah, by Jamaal al-Din M. Zarabozo, Al-Basheer publications, Denver, 2000
How can we not refer to the records of one who knew it better than anyone, the one who it was revealed to, and instead refer to our own desires and make up our own explanations and interpretations?
Also see the following posts in conjunction with this one:
http://www.islamicboard.com/hadeeth/...ml#post1479236
http://www.islamicboard.com/hadeeth/...ml#post1479431
And Allah knows best in all matters, and may He forgive me if I said anything wrong.
:sl: