Praise be to Allah.
Scientific reality is something created by Allah, may He be glorified and exalted, and the source of the Qur’an and Sunnah is Allah, may He be glorified. Whatever comes from Allah, may He be glorified – whether it is revelation or creation – cannot contradict one another, because here you are talking about Allah, may He be glorified, to Whom belongs utmost perfection and Whose knowledge encompasses all things, both major and minor. So He is far above there being any contradiction between what He creates and what He reveals, for they both come from the same source. Allah, may He be exalted, says (interpretation of the meaning):
“Do they not then consider the Qur’an carefully? Had it been from other than Allah, they would surely have found therein many contradictions”
[an-Nisa’ 4:82].
Once you understand this idea, you will realise that whatever contradiction we think there is – as it appears to be – between scientific reality and prophetic hadith is due to errors in thinking, and the researcher must strive to examine and understand the issue in the light of the basic principle referred to above, the principle which confirms the harmony between reason (including empirical science) and revelation. Then he will realise that there was some mistake which led to what he thought was a contradiction. Otherwise, there is in fact agreement and harmony between reason and revelation, as ar-Raaghib al-Asfahaani (may Allah have mercy on him) said with regard to reason and Islamic teachings: They support one another; rather they are one and the same. End quote from Tafseel an-Nash’atayn (p. 74).
This means that the outcomes of examining the issues in an attempt to resolve these apparent contradictions may lead to many things, of which we will mention a few, or the most important:
-1-
Reaching a conclusion that this particular hadith which is attributed to the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) has a flawed chain of narrators, and the supposed soundness of the hadith has no basis. The weakness of the hadith will become apparent when we re-examine the hadith and study the issue in order to resolve the contradiction.
In this situation, scientific reality would become a means that may help us to find out about the problem with the chain of narrators. Were it not for this issue (of apparent contradiction) then the critic would have accepted the soundness of the hadith at face value (because it appeared to him to be sound), without examining it fully in order to find the subtle problem with the hadith.
Ibn Abi’l-Haatim ar-Raazi (may Allah have mercy on him) said:
The soundness of the hadith should be judged on the basis of the soundness of those who narrated it, and the text of the hadith must be of the calibre that is fit to be the words of the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him).
