Muhammad received revelations aside from the Quran

There are numerous examples in the Quran that the prophet received revelations referenced in the Quran that occurred outside the Quran. Below are three examples.

Changing of the Qibla (2:142-145)
One of the prophet’s wives spread a hadith from the prophet (66:3)
The prophet commanded to marry the divorced wife of his adopted son (33:37)

The argument typically goes that since there were revelations outside of the Quran, therefore, we are obliged to accept Hadith. Again, this is a non sequitur because it presupposes that the Hadith we have today are actual sayings from the prophet rather than the conjecture they actually are.

But that aside, the simple rebuttal to this argument is that if we were with the prophet, we would have to obey any command he gave us. This was the responsibility of the people who lived with him, but these revelations that he received were only relevant to his immediate time and place. Any revelation that is binding to people of the future generations will all be encompassed in the Quran. The lessons we are to take from these revelations he received outside of the Quran are all contained within the Quran.

Additionally, there is a field of Hadith known as Asbab al-Nuzul, which is meant to explain the context of the verses when they were revealed. The irony is that these Hadiths often contradict one another. For example, even for the examples above, Hadith is unclear regarding the shift in Qibla direction or what the prophet prohibited for himself to please his wives (66:1). Some narrations claim it was honey, while other narrations claim it was intercourse. Aside from this, there are contradicting Hadith to what the first verse revealed, the last verse revealed, the last sura revealed, as well as numerous other contradictions. So, if the Hadith corpus is sketchy on the items that one would assume should be the best understood, how less reliable are the Hadith for all other matters.

Further Reading