Quranism - Doctrine

Doctrine

Quranists generally consider themselves to simply be "Muslims", a term directly from the Quran. They do not think of themselves as belonging to a sect, like Sunni or Shia, as they do not accept any of the narratives beside the Qur'an, thereby universally rejecting the authoritative status applied to hadith by orthodox Muslims as encoded in the various Sunnahs of the Sunni, Shia and other hadith-following sects in Islam. The extent to which Quranists reject the authenticity of the Sunnah varies, but the more established groups have thoroughly criticised the authenticity of the hadith and refused it for many reasons, the most prevalent being that hadith is not mentioned in the Quran as a source of Islamic theology and practice, was not recorded in written form until more than two centuries after the death of the prophet Muhammed, its perceived internal errors and contradictions, and repudiate fatwas on a hadith's authenticity and issues emanating from them.

Because of a lack of authoritative clergy in Quranism, ijtihad (independent reasoning) rather than institutionalised taqleed (imitation) is the most common method in use by Quranists.