Obey Allah and Obey the Messenger

"Obey Allah and obey the messenger" is the sectarians' favorite quote to use to claim that we need the Hadith narrations. According to their interpretation, "obey Allah" means obey the Quran, and "obey the messenger" means obey the man-made Hadith narrations.

Now, one part of that is certainly correct: "Obey Allah" does indeed mean obey the Quran. But does "obey the messenger" mean obey the Hadith narrations?

Let's take a closer look and examine the facts.

There is nowhere in the Quran that says "obey the messenger" means follow Hadith. That is an assumption and a guess that the sheikhs, imams, and scholars have taught people based on their belief that the Hadith must be followed alongside the Quran.

Muhammad was not the only messenger who was told to be obeyed. Every messenger was supposed to be obeyed.

"And We did not send any messenger except to be obeyed by permission of Allah…"

And Muhammad was nothing new among them. He came to perform the same role as the rest.

"Say, 'I am not something new among the messengers, nor do I know what will be done with me or with you. I only follow that which is revealed to me, and I am not but a clear warner.'"

The messenger is making it clear that he only follows what is revealed to him. And we know from Surah 6:19 that what was revealed to him was the Quran:

"…and this Quran has been revealed to me that I may warn you with it and whoever it reaches…"

Then he is told to tell us that he is nothing but a clear warner to us. That is his role. He was sent to warn us and give us glad tidings with the Quran.

Now, if every messenger was supposed to be obeyed, and according to Hadith followers, "obey the messenger" means following Hadith narrations, then that would mean every messenger before Muhammad would have had their own Hadith narrations that they gave to their people.

It would not only be Muhammad who had them. Not when every messenger is supposed to be obeyed just like him.

So where are they? Where are the Hadith of Jesus, Moses, Solomon, David, Abraham, and Noah? Where are the Hadith of all these messengers who had to be obeyed by their people?

They do not have any, because the concept of "Hadith narrations" did not even exist before Muhammad's time.

Now, when we think about it logically, how does one "obey a messenger"? First, we need to ask ourselves:

What is a messenger?

A messenger is someone who delivers a message. Simple. Therefore, in order to obey that messenger, one must obey the message that is being delivered to them.

In this case, when it comes to Muhammad, the message that he delivered is the Quran. So when we obey the Quran (the message), we are obeying the messenger.

Another way to understand how to obey the messenger is by knowing how to disobey the messenger. The Quran tells us how.

In the story of Moses, we see that Allah says Pharaoh disobeyed the messenger.

"Indeed, We have sent to you a Messenger as a witness upon you, just as We sent to Pharaoh a messenger. But Pharaoh disobeyed the messenger, so We seized him with a ruinous seizure."

Now, according to the story, Pharaoh disobeyed the message Moses was sent with from God. He rejected that Allah was the only God, he rejected the nine signs that were sent with Moses, and he refused to let the Children of Israel go free.

Now, were these signs and commandments from Moses' own self? Or were they signs and commandments that came from Allah through Moses?

They came from Allah, and Moses simply brought them to Pharaoh. Pharaoh disobeyed them, and Allah describes that as disobeying the messenger.

So if "disobeying the message" is recognized in the Quran as "disobeying the messenger", then logically that would mean that "obeying the message" is "obeying the messenger." Therefore, when we obey the Quran, it is obeying the messenger.

This is why we need to pay attention to the history and stories of the previous messengers, because they answer many questions that people may have today.

The ideology that obeying the messenger means obeying an external source of Hadith narrations outside of the Quran is clearly not supported by the guidance of Allah. However the ideology that obeying the messenger means obeying the message is strongly supported in the Quran through the stories of the prophets.