The way of praying was passed on from early muslims unchanged, muslims were praying from the early days non stop. So the knowledge of praying was being passed on from early days of salah till to day. You or any of us didn't read the instruction of how to pray from Sahih Al-Bukhari or Muslim but from your parents or the imam, or the teacher.
Unlike the hadith that were compiled after hundred of years after the death of Prophet Muhammad and had to go through intense authentication and verification that was agreed upon from early days.
Yes the knowledge of praying has been passed down laakin what makes it valid is that it’s based on the hadith themselves.
Otherwise it wouldn’t be possible to ascertain whether or not the manner in which we pray now is valid or not. After all 14 centuries is a long time, enough for deviations to occur. People could have added, denied etc whatever they wanted and without the Hadith there wouldn’t be a way to determine what’s correct or wrong etc.
Our following of our parents, imams etc is based on our belief that what they’re teaching is based & acquired from the Hadith. Furthermore as you grow up you have the opportunity to verify it yourself by going back to the source ie Hadith.
It’s absolutely nonsensical to reject Hadith, the very source that validates our knowledge of how we pray yet claim to follow this knowledge at the same time. It’s a contradiction that invalidates their false claims that they’re adhering to the quran.
The very same people that passed down the Quran also did the same for hadith. They believed in it & utilised the hadith as a legitimate source for understanding quran. Yet we’ve people now claiming otherwise, if the best of people among Muslims used the hadith to not only understand but interpret the Quran then logic dictates that we should follow & adopt their approach as well.
You can’t claim they passed down the Quran correctly but not Hadith as such an action calls into question the validity of passing down the Quran itself.
The “quranist” methodology if we can call it that, is a double edged sword as the criticisms they launch against the authenticity of the Hadith also applies to the quran. Since the Hadith can’t be trusted then there’s no reason to accept the Quran as both were passed down by the same people.
If you claim that people made mistakes, added stuff, basically distorted the Hadith then you would’ve to be equally not accept the validity of the Quran as they were both passed down by the same people. Since Hadith can’t be accepted due to distortion in transmissions then this should be equally true for the Quran.
What’s stopping someone who lied & distorted the Hadith from doing the same to the Quran? Absolutely nothing, so the “quranist” critique back fires on the them & they have no leg to stand on. No point in calling yourself “quranist” in such a case as their reasons for rejecting the Hadith equally applies in the case of the Quran thereby invalidating their claim in adhering solely to the Quran.
