Claims About the Sunnah, Hadith and Ahl al-Sunnah
The claim that "he does not give the Prophet and the sunnah the importance they deserve"
Unfounded
Claim
Fact
This claim differs from the others in one respect: it rests not on individual sentences but on an impression. What is said is that the Prophet and the sunnah are, as it were, kept in the background. The answer to an impression for which no source is given is not argument but the record.
A few of Alparslan Kuytul's lessons that take the Prophet alone as their subject:
- 1995 — Love of the Messenger of Allah
- 1996 — The Messenger of Allah and Worship
- 2011 — Lessons in the Prophetic Biography
Some of his conferences on the same subject:
- 2005 Adana — "The Awaited Prophet"
- 2007 Adana — "The Revolutionary Prophet"
- 2010 Elazığ — "Obedience to the Prophet"
- 2011 Adıyaman — "Devotion to the Prophet"
- 2015 Konya — "The Prophet as a Model"
All of these titles, spread over twenty years, turn around a single subject. To them is added the Prophetic Method of Movement that the Furkan Education and Service Foundation has taken as its basis since its founding: the structure's method, no less than its goal, is drawn from the Prophet's biography.
His sentence on the place of the sunnah is clear as well: the sunnah is evidence just as the Qur'an is, and the hadiths that the hadith scholars regard as authentic are trusted.
Whether a person gives importance to a subject is understood not from the impression that circulates about them but by looking at what they have done over the years.
Related content: the claim that "he does not accept the Prophet's authority to lay down rulings".
The shape of the claim: not a sentence but an impression
In most claims there is a saying in view, and the argument is about what that saying means. Here there is no such saying. What is put forward is the impression that the Prophet and the sunnah are kept in the background. And because no source is given, there is no sentence to refute; one path is left: to look at a record spread over years that anyone can verify.
A list of titles over twenty years
A few of Alparslan Kuytul's lessons that take the Prophet directly as their subject:
- 1995 — Love of the Messenger of Allah
- 1996 — The Messenger of Allah and Worship
- 2011 — Lessons in the Prophetic Biography
Some of the conferences:
| Year | City | Title |
|---|---|---|
| 2005 | Adana | The Awaited Prophet |
| 2007 | Adana | The Revolutionary Prophet |
| 2010 | Elazığ | Obedience to the Prophet |
| 2011 | Adıyaman | Devotion to the Prophet |
| 2015 | Konya | The Prophet as a Model |
This list is not complete; it is a sample. But even as a sample the information it carries is plain: over the twenty years running from 1995 to 2015, the same subject was made the subject of lessons and conferences again and again, in different cities. Nor are the titles passing mentions within some general religious content; each one was chosen in order to take the Prophet as its subject from beginning to end.
The Prophetic Method of Movement
From the day it was founded, the Furkan Education and Service Foundation has called its way of working "the Prophetic Method of Movement". What this means is that not only the goal but also the road to the goal is drawn from the Prophet's biography. Where a structure places the Prophet shows itself most plainly in its choice of method — because method is what is practised, not what is talked about.
How much does the word "model" cover?
The Konya conference of 19 April 2015 at the end of the list also shows the limit of this devotion. There it is explained that the Prophet is a model not in his life of worship alone but in every capacity he took on: including the rulings he laid down as head of state, as head of a family and as commander of the army in war. In his own words "whatever the matter may concern, we are obliged to obey him" — he says that Allah admits of no exception in this.
That is, the matter does not consist of a declaration of love; no limit is placed on where obedience to the Prophet ends. The detail of this point is the subject of a separate page: the claim that "he does not accept the Prophet's authority to lay down rulings".
The place of the sunnah in a single sentence
The measure repeated again and again in the lessons and the conferences is this: the sunnah is evidence just as the Qur'an is, the Prophet has the authority to lay down rulings, and the hadiths that the hadith scholars regard as authentic are trusted. Each of these three subjects has been dealt with in this group as the answer to a separate claim directed at him: the "hadith denier", "Quranist" and "he does not regard the sunnah as revelation" claims.
How is a claim like this tested?
Whether a person gives importance to a subject is measured not by the impression that circulates about them but by the time they devote to it. Here what can be measured is on one side: a series of lessons and conferences whose dates, cities and titles are known, a name for the method unchanged since the foundation was set up, and dated question-and-answer recordings. On the other side is an impression whose basis is not shown.
The two sides are not equally verifiable; the only thing asked of the reader is to look at the record with their own eyes.