Short answer
The Qur'an is the word of God (﷾), recited exactly as the angel Gabriel brought it. The hadith are the words and deeds of the Prophet (ﷺ), reported by people who heard and saw him. The two sound different. The hadith read like a man speaking: plain, practical, and fitted to the question in front of him. The Qur'an has its own rhythm and rhyme, and it speaks to the Prophet (ﷺ) from outside. It tells him what to say, and at times it corrects him. A third kind of speech, the hadith qudsi (sacred hadith), gives God's (﷾) meaning in the Prophet's (ﷺ) own words. The hadith qudsi were never placed in the Qur'an. And when his wife Aisha was falsely accused, he waited a month for revelation. No verse came until God (﷾) sent it. So Islam teaches that the Qur'an is God's (﷾) word, and no one else's.
Full explanation
Three kinds of speech
Muslims have always told apart three kinds of speech. The Qur'an is God's (﷾) own word, which the Prophet (ﷺ) did not speak from his own desire. The hadith are his own sayings and actions. Muslims hold that God (﷾) guided these too, but they are not recited as His word. The hadith qudsi (sacred hadith) are sayings in which he reports what God (﷾) says, in his own words. They are kept in the hadith collections, never in the Qur'an. Two of them are shown below.
“Nor does he say (aught) of (his own) Desire. It is no less than inspiration sent down to him:”
Abu Dharr reports the Prophet (ﷺ) saying that Allah says: My servants, I have forbidden injustice to Myself and made it forbidden among you, so do not wrong one another; all of you are astray except those I guide, so ask Me for guidance; you sin by night and day and I forgive all sins, so ask Me for forgiveness. A hadith qudsi: the meaning is given as Allah's, in the Prophet's words.
The Prophet (ﷺ) reports that Allah says: I am as My servant thinks of Me, and I am with him when he remembers Me; if he comes a hand-span nearer to Me, I come an arm's length nearer to him, and if he comes to Me walking, I go to him running. Also in Sahih Muslim 2675.
| Question | The Qur'an | Hadith qudsi | Hadith |
|---|---|---|---|
| Whose words? | God's (﷾) own word | God's (﷾) meaning, in the Prophet's (ﷺ) words | The Prophet's (ﷺ) own sayings and deeds |
| Who speaks? | God (﷾), often telling the Prophet (ﷺ) what to say | The Prophet (ﷺ), reporting what God (﷾) says | The Prophet (ﷺ), for himself |
| Recited as God's (﷾) word? | Yes | No | No |
| Where it is kept | In the Qur'an | In the hadith collections | In the hadith collections |
The Qur'an speaks to him, not for him
The Qur'an addresses the Prophet (ﷺ) from outside. Again and again it begins "Say", telling him what to say. When his opponents asked for a different recitation, it told him to answer that he could not change it of his own accord. It even told him not to hurry his tongue while it was being revealed. Throughout, the voice is God's (﷾), and the Prophet (ﷺ) is the one addressed.
“Say: He is Allah, the One and Only;”
“But when Our Clear Signs are rehearsed unto them, those who rest not their hope on their meeting with Us, Say: "Bring us a reading other than this, or change this," Say: "It is not for me, of my own accord, to change it: I follow naught but what is revealed unto me: if I were to disobey my Lord, I should myself fear the penalty of a Great Day (to come)."”
“Move not thy tongue concerning the (Qur'an) to make haste therewith. It is for Us to collect it and to promulgate it: But when We have promulgated it, follow thou its recital (as promulgated): Nay more, it is for Us to explain it (and make it clear):”
Two different styles
The hadith of the Prophet (ﷺ) are plain, practical prose. They change with the occasion: an answer to a question, an instruction, a story, a warning. The Qur'an has a rhythm of its own and rhymed verse endings, often running through long passages. Every verse of Surat al-Ikhlas (chapter 112), for example, ends in the same sound: ahad, as-samad, yulad, ahad. For twenty-three years the same man recited both, and each kept its own style.
“Say: He is Allah, the One and Only; Allah, the Eternal, Absolute; He begetteth not, nor is He begotten; And there is none like unto Him.”
Abu Huraira reports that the Prophet (ﷺ) said: whoever believes in Allah and the Last Day must not harm his neighbour, must honour his guest, and must speak good or keep silent.
The Qur'an corrects him
The Qur'an sometimes corrects the Prophet (ﷺ), in words he then recited to his followers. It reproaches him for frowning at a blind man who came to learn. It asks him why he forbade himself what God (﷾) had made lawful. It asks why he excused men from the march to Tabuk, a campaign in the far north of Arabia. It says he did so before the truthful could be told from the liars. His own sayings never address him from outside and rebuke him in God's (﷾) voice.
“(The Prophet) frowned and turned away, Because there came to him the blind man (interrupting). But what could tell thee but that perchance he might grow (in spiritual understanding)?- Or that he might receive admonition, and the teaching might profit him? As to one who regards Himself as self-sufficient, To him dost thou attend; Though it is no blame to thee if he grow not (in spiritual understanding). But as to him who came to thee striving earnestly, And with fear (in his heart), Of him wast thou unmindful.”
“O Prophet! Why holdest thou to be forbidden that which Allah has made lawful to thee? Thou seekest to please thy consorts. But Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.”
“Allah give thee grace! why didst thou grant them until those who told the truth were seen by thee in a clear light, and thou hadst proved the liars?”
A month without revelation
When Aisha, the wife of the Prophet (ﷺ), was falsely accused, the rumour ran through Medina. He was in anguish and asked his companions for advice. A man composing scripture had every reason to produce a verse at once and clear his wife's name. Instead, in Aisha's own words, a whole month passed without any revelation about her case. Only then did the verses of her innocence come.
Aisha's own account of the slander spread against her. She says the Prophet (ﷺ) went a whole month without receiving any revelation about her case, while the rumour spread and he consulted his Companions, before the verses declaring her innocence came down. When Safwan ibn al-Mu'attal found her left behind and knew her, for he had seen her before the veil was ordained, she says: I covered my face with my garment.
“Those who brought forward the lie are a body among yourselves: think it not to be an evil to you; On the contrary it is good for you: to every man among them (will come the punishment) of the sin that he earned, and to him who took on himself the lead among them, will be a penalty grievous.”
The people who knew him best
The Qur'an was recited to people who had known the Prophet (ﷺ) all his life. It reminds them that he had lived among them for a lifetime before it came. It also reminds them that he could neither read a book nor write one. They knew his ordinary speech, and they heard that the Qur'an was not like it.
“Say: "If Allah had so willed, I should not have rehearsed it to you, nor would He have made it known to you. A whole life-time before this have I tarried amongst you: will ye not then understand?"”
“And thou wast not (able) to recite a Book before this (Book came), nor art thou (able) to transcribe it with thy right hand: In that case, indeed, would the talkers of vanities have doubted.”
Perspectives
The Islamic perspective
The Qur'an is God's (﷾) word, revealed through Gabriel. The hadith are the words of the Prophet (ﷺ), and the hadith qudsi carry God's (﷾) meaning in his words. He kept the three apart all his life, and the Qur'an's voice is plainly not his.
The Qur'an says the Prophet (ﷺ) did not speak it from his own desire. It was revelation sent down to him.
The Qur'an addresses the Prophet (ﷺ) from outside and tells him what to say.
The Qur'an corrects the Prophet (ﷺ) in verses he recited to his followers.
Sayings in which the Prophet (ﷺ) reports God's (﷾) words were kept in the hadith collections, apart from the Qur'an.
When Aisha was falsely accused, a month passed with no revelation about her case.
The Qur'an has its own rhythm and rhymed verse endings. The Prophet's (ﷺ) own sayings are in plain prose that varies.
A man composing scripture himself would not have waited a month for a verse while his wife was slandered.