The Light of the Holy Qur'an — Page 106
106 THE LIGHT OF THE HOLY QUR'AN-NUMBER TWO consider that it means actual falsehood when the Holy Qur'an and all authentic ahādīth unanimously declare actual falsehood to be strongly prohibited and foul, and ahādīth of higher quality are describing the issue of tauriyah explicitly. Then, even if we suppose that in some hadith the word kizb ['falsehood'] has come in place of tauriyah, how can this-God forbid-mean actual falsehood? Rather, it would be an indica- tion of the meticulous righteousness of its proponent that he con- sidered tauriyah to be akin to falsehood and used the word 'false- hood' as the alternative. It is necessary for us to follow the Qur'an and the authentic ahādīth. If something is in conflict with it, we will not accept the meaning which is contrary [to the Qur'an and authentic ahādīth]. When taking ahādīth into consideration, it is essential not to trust the ahadith that are contrary to and incom- patible with the ahādīth whose authenticity has been established to a high degree. And not to trust those ahādīth either that are blatantly discordant, incongruous, and inconsistent with the clear, explicit, and decisive dictate of the Holy Qur'an. It would be an act of hypocrisy and mischief to raise an objection-on the basis of inference from some absurd account, or some question- able and unauthentic hadith or some dubious impression-con- cerning an issue which the Holy Qur'an and authentic ahādīth have consensus upon, and which has been described explicitly in religious tomes. The truth is that it is these kind of mischiefs that have ruined the Christians. They do not have the ability to study the hadith themselves. The most they can do is to read some translation of the Mishkat and then raise an issue which they can find fault with in their flawed understanding. The fact is that the books of hadith