Quranism () is an intellectual theological movement within Islam. While sometimes broadly categorized alongside Islamic denominations, Quranism is defined by modern scholars and adherents as an intellectual, reformist, and theological movement that rejects the religious authority of Hadith, viewing the Qur'an as the sole self-sufficient source of Islamic doctrine and law. Quranists believe that the Qur'an is clear and complete and can be understood without recourse to external sources for divine legislation.
Quranists hold varying positions on the status of Hadith. While some regard the Qur'an as the sole source and reject Hadith entirely, others may accept certain historical reports as secondary information. In all cases, however, Quranists agree that no Hadith can serve as a binding source of religious law or doctrine. The extent to which Quranists reject the authenticity of the Hadiths varies, though the most established groups of Quranism have thoroughly criticised the Hadith, the most prevalent being the Quranist claim that the Hadith is not mentioned in the Qur'an as a source of Islamic theology or practice, was not canonised until two centuries after the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, contains perceived errors and contradictions, and promotes sectarianism, anti-science, anti-reason, and misogyny.Ahmad, Kassim. "Hadith: A Re-evaluation", 1986. English translation, 1997. Quranists also believe that previous revelations of God have been altered, and that the Qur'an is the only book of God that has valid divine significance.
As they believe that Hadith, while not being reliable sources of religion, can serve as historical records, Quranists cite some early Islamic writings in support of their positions, including those attributed to Muhammad, caliph Umar (r. 634–644) and materials dating to the Umayyad and Abbasid caliphates. Modern scholarship holds that controversy over the sufficiency of the Qur'an as the only source of Islamic law and doctrine dates back to the early centuries of Islam, where some scholars introduced followers of the Qur'an alone as Mu'tazilites or sects of the Kharijites, such as the Haruri and the Azariqa. Though the Qur'an-only view waned during the classical Islamic period, it re-emerged and thrived with the modernist thinkers of the 19th century in Egypt and the Indian subcontinent. Quranism has since taken on political, reformist, fundamentalist, and militant dimensions in various countries.
In matters of faith, jurisprudence, and legislation, Quranists differ from Ahl al-Hadith, who consider the Hadith (Kutub al-Sittah) in addition to the Quran. Unlike the Sunni and Shia sects, the Quranist view argues that Islam can be practised without the Hadith. Whereas Hadith-followers believe that obedience to Muhammad entails obedience to Hadiths, Quranists believe that obedience to Muhammad means obedience to the Qur'an.. In addition, several extra-Quranic traditions upheld by Sunnis, such as kissing the Black Stone, the symbolic Stoning of the Devil, and the Tashahhud during the Ṣalāh, are regarded as idolatry (shirk) or possible idolatry by Quranists. This methodological difference has led to considerable divergence between Quranists and both Sunnis and Shias in matters of theology and law as well as the understanding of the Qur'an.
Quranism traces its intellectual roots to debates over the sufficiency of the Qur'an that took place among the Kharijites and Muʿtazilites in the early centuries of Islam, and re-emerged as an organised movement among modernist thinkers in 19th-century Egypt and British India. In the 20th and 21st centuries, Quranist ideas have spread to countries including Turkey, Malaysia, Nigeria, and the United States, sometimes provoking strong opposition from mainstream Sunni and Shia institutions and, in some countries, legal prosecution of individual adherents.
Terminology "Quranists" () are also referred to as "reformists", "Ahl al-Quran" (People of the Quran) or "al-Quraniyun" (those who ascribe to the Qur'an alone). Many who hold Quranist views prefer to identify simply as Muslims rather than by the label "Quranist", which they often regard as an external designation.
Classification There is no consensus on how to classify Quranism structurally. Quranist writers themselves generally reject characterisation as a sect, party, or organised denomination, describing the movement instead as an open intellectual trend rather than a bounded religious body. This self-description is consistent with the movement's lack of any central authority, unified creed, or formal membership.
Academic treatments have varied in the terminology they apply. Some scholarly and reference sources describe Quranism as an "intellectual, reformist, and theological movement" rather than a discrete sect, emphasising that its adherents degree of hadith rejection and doctrinal positions vary considerably from individual to individual. By contrast, mainstream Sunni and Shia religious authorities, along with some critics, have applied sect-adjacent or heresiological terminology to the movement, labelling it a form of innovation (Bid'ah) or comparing it to historical dissenting groups such as the Khawarij.
This disagreement over classification reflects a broader difficulty in situating Quranism within standard taxonomies of Islamic denominations: unlike Sunni and Shia Islam, or organised minority traditions such as Ibadism or Ahmadiyya, Quranism has no equivalent of a central school of jurisprudence, clerical hierarchy, or agreed creed against which membership can be measured, a structural feature that itself shapes how outside observers and adherents alike describe what kind of religious phenomenon it is.
History Early Islam Quranists date their beliefs back to the time of Muhammad, who they claim prohibited the writing of Hadiths.Usool Al-Hadeeth Islam Future December 2009. As they believe that Hadiths, while not being reliable sources of religion, can be used as a reference to get an idea on historical events, they point out several narrations about early Islam to support their beliefs.
They first point to reports concerning the first caliph, Abu Bakr (r. 632–634). According to a report attributed to Aisha, Abu Bakr gathered around 500 narrations attributed to Muhammad and subsequently burned them, reportedly out of concern that some might not correspond exactly to what the Prophet had said.Al-Muttaqi al-Hindi, Kanz al-Ummal, vol. 5, p. 237, no. 12727. In the report, Abu Bakr is said to have explained his actions to his daughter, stating:
While numerous chroniclers recorded this narrative in their historical and biographical compilations, hadith critics generally classify the account as inauthentic due to critical gaps and unverified transmitters in its chain of narration.Al-Dhahabi, Tadhkirat al-Huffaz, vol. 1, p. 5.
Quranists also cite reports about the second caliph, ʿUmar (), who likewise prohibited the writing of Hadiths and destroyed existing collections during his reign. Similar reports claim that when Umar appointed a governor to Kufa, he told him:
Quranists further trace this position to a report attributed to Abu Sa'id al-Khudri, in which Muhammad is said to have instructed that nothing but the Qur'an be written down from him.Sahih Muslim, Kitab al-Zuhd wa'l-Raqa'iq, hadith no. 3004.
Kharijites A categorical rejection of Hadiths, as can be found today among the Quranists, is already known in the early days of Islam by the Kharijites.Brown, Qurʾānists, 2018, p. 328. For example, Abū l-Qāsim al-Balkhī (d. 931) in his Kitāb al-Maqālāt speaks of the Kharijites as "those who declare the tradition completely null and void and claim that one only needs to know what the Book literally speaks of".Hansu, Debates on the Authority of Hadith in Early Islamic Intellectual History, 2016, p. 521f. The Muʿtazilite thinker Dirār ibn ʿAmr (d. ca. 815) reports that, according to the teachings of the two Kharijite sects the Azraqites and Bazighites, "knowledge of religion can only be acquired from the Qur'an and they rejected the Ijmāʿ and the traditions". A letter that the early Khārijī ʿAbdallāh ibn Ibād is said to have sent to the Umayyad caliph ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān in the year 76 of the Hijra (695) rejects Hadiths as the basis for the imposition of duties and prohibitions and admonishes people to adhere only to the Qur'an.Hansu, Debates on the Authority of Hadith in Early Islamic Intellectual History, 2016, p. 522. The Bidʿīya, a subgroup of the Azraqites, is said to have recognised only two daily obligatory prayers with reference to Sura 11:114.An-Nāšiʾ al-Akbar: Kitāb Uṣūl an-Niḥal in Josef van Ess (ed.): Frühe Muʿtazilitische Häresiographie: Zwei Werke des Nāšiʾ al-Akbar (gest. 293 H.) F. Steiner, Beirut/Wiesbaden 1970. p. 69. Digitalised.
Some of the Kharijites rejected the punishment of adultery with stoning. Although the Qur'an does not prescribe this penalty, Sunnis hold that such a verse existed in the Qur'an, which was then abrogated. A Hadith is ascribed to Umar, asserting the existence of this verse in the Qur'an. These Kharijites rejected the authenticity of such a verse. The Islamic scholar Abū al-Ḥasan al-Ashʿarī attributed this position to the Kharijite sect, the Azariqa, who held a strict scripturalist position in legal matters (i.e. following only the Qur'an and rejecting commonly held views if they had no Quranic basis), and thus also refused to enforce legal punishment on slanderers when the slander was targeted at a male.
Muhammad ibn Idrīs ash-Shafiʿī (d. 820) also reports in his tractate Jimāʿ al-ʿIlm of a group of scholars who completely rejected the authority of the Hadiths. He summarises their reasoning as follows: The Qur'anic text in Sura 16:89, which states that the Qur'an is a "clarification for every thing" (tibyān li-kull shaiʾ), shows that the Qur'an contains all the necessary information for the derivation of legal rules; therefore, there is no need for Hadith reports to interpret the normative content of Qur'anic verses. Since the Qur'an does not specify a specific number or time for ritual prayer, nor a specific amount for Zakah, a person fulfills his duties if he prays only once a day or every few days, or gives the smallest amount that can be considered alms.Hansu, Debates on the Authority of Hadith in Early Islamic Intellectual History, 2016, p. 521. At no point in his text does ash-Shafiʿī mention the names of individual persons or the school of thought that held these positions.Hansu, Debates on the Authority of Hadith in Early Islamic Intellectual History, 2016, p. 515. Joseph Schacht was of the opinion that this group were Muʿtazilites.Hansu, Debates on the Authority of Hadith in Early Islamic Intellectual History, 2016, p. 518. On the other hand, due to the similarity of these teachings to what is reported about the Kharijites, Hüseyin Hansu suspects that the group of scholars described by ash-Shafiʿī consisted of Kharijites.
Although there were also various critical positions among the Muʿtazilites regarding Hadiths, they did not completely reject extra-Qur'anic prophetic authority, but demanded that only what could be known with certainty could serve as the basis for Islamic legal norms. They therefore did not accept isolated Hadiths, but only those that were so widely accepted that their untruthfulness seemed unthinkable. After the 9th century, however, the Muʿtazilites abandoned this strict position and swung to the line of ash-Shafiʿī by accepting Hadiths handed down only by individuals as sources of certainty.Brown, Qurʾānists, 2018, p. 329.
Umayyad period
The centrality of the Qur'an in the religious life of the Kufans that Umar described was quickly changing, however. A few decades later, a letter was sent to the Umayyad caliph ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān () regarding the Kufans: