(may peace be upon him) were valid only during his lifetime, and that now when he is no more amongst us, we need follow only the injunctions of the Holy Qur'an and treat the Hadith as an account of the past which has some allusions to the life of the Holy Prophet (may peace be upon him), having no practical value as a code of life. These so-called pseudo-reformers little realise that a denial of the eternal validity of the Sunnah amounts to a denial of the Holy Qur'an's claim that the prophethood of Muhammad (may peace be upon him) is not time-bound; it is universal and the Prophet's words and deeds are the timeless expression of the Will of Allah.

Say: O mankind! surely I am the Messenger of Allah to you all, of Him Whose is the Kingdom of the heavens and the earth. There is no god but He: so believe in Allah and His Messenger, the ummi Prophet, who believes in Allah and His words, and follow him so that you may be guided aright (vii. 158).

Muhammad (may peace be upon him) is the Messenger of Allah for the whole of mankind; no new prophet is to be raised after him. His prophethood is thus both universal and eternal. It is, therefore, an integral part of one's faith in the prophethood of Muhammad (may peace be upon him) that his words and deeds should always be taken as one of the two most reliable sources of right guidance. The Code of Divine Guidance, which does not regard Muhammad (may peace be upon him) as the supreme guide from the Lord, cannot in anyway be relied upon in Islam. One could seek this guidance directly from the Holy Prophet during his lifetime, but now it is the authentic traditions that serve this purpose admirably well.

Right from the time of the Companions down to this day, there has been a consensus of opinion among the Muslims that whatever is transmitted to us from the Holy Prophet (may peace be upon him) on the authority of reliable transmitters of Ahadith is the valid explanation and enunciation of Allah's Commands and the opinion of anyone else is subservient to it. It is acceptable only if it conforms to the sayings or the deeds of the Holy Prophet (may peace be upon him), but if it conflicts with a hadith, it must be outright rejected.

The Hadith, which in the religious sense stands for the report of the actions or approval or disapproval of the Prophet, has always been a subject of keen interest for the Muslims since the time of the Holy Prophet (may peace be upon him). His Companions (may Allah be pleased with them), who were mostly Arabs, had a wonderful memory and could immaculately retain whatever they saw in the Prophet's life or whatever they heard from him. Some of them even put these down in Sahifahs which were later on read by them to their students. They left for us a large number of Sahifahs, for example the Sahifah Sadiqah compiled by Hadrat 'Abdullah b. 'Amr b. al-'As, Sahifah of Hadrat 'Ali, Hadith collection of Hadrat Rafi' b. Khadij, Hadrat Jibir b. 'Abdullah, Hadrat Samurah b. Jundab, Hadrat Abu Huraira, Hadrat 'Abdullah b. 'Abbas, Hadrat 'Abdullah b. Mas'ud, and Sahifah of Hammam bin Munabbih (may Allah be pleased with all of them). These are the blessed names of some of those Companions who kept a record of the Prophet's utterances and addresses, judgments and verdicts on different issues and his actions and deeds in all sets of circumstances.

The study of the records of the Ahadith and the life-history of those who maintain