Even Saudi Arabia Is Turning Qurʾān-Only
1 A Quiet Revolution in the Birthplace of Islam
For centuries Saudi Arabia defined Sunni orthodoxy.
Its clerics guarded six “authentic” ḥadīth collections as near-scripture, and its courts enforced rulings derived from them.
Now, under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), that entire structure is being dismantled from the top down.
In televised interviews (e.g., Al-Arabiya, Mar 2021; The Atlantic, Mar 2022) and through his Vision 2030 reforms, MBS stated:
“We are obligated to apply only the mutawātir ḥadīth—those proven beyond any doubt.
Any narration that contradicts the Qurʾān or reason has no authority over us.”
One sentence — and fourteen centuries of jurisprudence begin to unravel.
2 What That Statement Really Means
Classical Sunni law relied on two kinds of reports:
| Type | Transmission | Status in traditional law | Survivors under MBS |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mutawātir | reported by many independent witnesses | binding certainty (yaqīn) | ✔ kept |
| Āḥād | single-chain or limited reports | still legally valid | ❌ discarded |
Out of hundreds of thousands of ḥadīth, only a few dozen meet the mutawātir standard.
If only those remain binding, more than 99.9 percent of the canon loses legal force.
That renders most of fiqh — from penal codes to dress laws — historically interesting but no longer compulsory.
3 Why Riyadh Is Doing It
MBS’s motive is pragmatic, not theological.
The same hadith literalism that once fortified Wahhābism later armed ISIS and Al-Qaeda.
By narrowing Islamic authority to the Qurʾān and a handful of verified reports, he removes extremists’ textual ammunition while opening space for modern law, women’s rights, tourism, and diplomacy.
In short: the kingdom is trading clerical absolutism for state rationalism — and the Qurʾān becomes the last uncontested source.
4 The Historical Irony
Saudi Arabia rose on Wahhābism, the most ḥadīth-driven creed in Islam.
Scholars like Ibn Bāz and al-Albānī spent lifetimes defending every chain in Bukhārī and Muslim.
Now the crown prince tells them those books are optional reading.
It is the same reversal that began thirteen centuries earlier when Muslims ignored the Prophet’s own reported order:
“Do not write anything from me except the Qurʾān; whoever has written anything else, let him erase it.” — Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 42 : 7147
The scholars once defied that directive to create an empire of narrations.
Now their ruler defies them by restoring the directive’s logic.
5 From Wahhābism to Qurʾānism
This policy shift is already visible:
Judicial Code Reform (2022 – 2024): new civil- and criminal-law codifications cite the Qurʾān and constitutional principles, not medieval commentaries.
Religious Police Disempowered: the Mutawwaʿin lost arrest powers in 2016; morality policing moved to civic regulation.
Public Fatwas Curtailed: the Council of Senior Scholars now issues opinions under executive oversight.
Education Rewrites: school curricula emphasize Qurʾānic ethics over sectarian jurisprudence.
Saudi Islam is quietly mutating from text-plus-commentary to text-alone.
6 Why This Matters Beyond Saudi Borders
When the custodian of Mecca and Medina redefines orthodoxy, every dependent institution feels it.
Egypt’s al-Azhar, Pakistan’s Deoband, Indonesia’s Nahdlatul Ulama — all take signals from Riyadh’s legitimacy.
Once Saudi law functions without classical ḥadīth, their claim that “Islam requires Sunnah” loses its anchor.
For the first time since the ninth century, the Qurʾān is being re-installed as Islam’s sole operational constitution — not by reformists in exile, but by the throne itself.
7 The Philosophical Aftershock
If a ruler can discard 99 percent of hadith and still call his state Islamic, two conclusions follow:
Islam’s essence lies in the Qurʾān alone.
Everything beyond it is negotiable.
That position — once heresy — is now policy in Mecca’s own kingdom.
The theological argument that began with “write only the Qurʾān” has come full circle.
8 Conclusion – History’s Full Rotation
Fourteen centuries after the Prophet warned against rival texts, his successors’ successors are finally obeying him.
What began as political necessity is becoming doctrinal inevitability:
The more Islam modernises, the less ḥadīth it can afford to keep.
Even Saudi Arabia — once the fortress of ḥadīth literalism — is turning Qurʾān-only.
The cycle has closed; revelation, not recollection, is taking back the throne.
Factual references: MBS interview Al-Arabiya 28 Mar 2021; “The Atlantic,” Mar 2022; Saudi Law of Evidence 2022; Saudi Personal Status Law 2022; Judicial Code Project 2023.
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