'MYTHS AND REALITIES OF HADITH -- a critical study'

Pakistani1947

Chief Minister (5k+ posts)
I have spend many hours reading following article line by line and found very interesting and convincing. "In this era of cyberspace communications, global exchanges of views, and sophisticated textual analysis, the excuse of insufficient data is no longer true or acceptable. The traditional attitude that only scholars are competent to interpret dubious narrations merely evades the serious issues facing the Ummah.

Islam takes pride in being a lucid, rational and above all easy to understand faith. Consequently, attempts by the traditionalist or Ulemas to either suppress or criticize thinking Muslims who have reservations about these dubious narratives so closely related to the Prophet’s life run contrary to our tradition. It would be a judicious decision to face the uncertainties and doubts as they were faced in the third and fifth centuries Hijri and re-examine the unreliable narrations. These should be weeded out and no longer promoted as authentic reports. The dialogue has already begun – in cyberspace."

The writer has found a middle ground between deniers of Hadeeth and those who think that denying any Hadith from Sahih Muslim and Sahih Bukari is Kufr. The main stream Muslim Ummah has agreed on the authenticity of Sahih Muslim and Sahih Bukari Books of Hadith. In other words, for example, least number of Hadeths in Sahih Bukhari are found to be criticized / objectionable (about 4%), Hence it is the most authentic Book of Hadeeth available. Sahih Muslim is the next most authentic Book of Hadeeth with least number of Hadith having criticism. In my opinion, the writer has purposely put Sahih Bukharoi and Sahih Muslim under the spot light. Probably the reason being that if these two books of Hadith with least number of criticism have some contradictory Hadiths than what can be expected from all other remaining Books of hadiths?

I appreciate the writer’s effort to try to eliminate differences as there are many sects in Islam and they are justifying their believes based on Hadiths regardless of their authenticity. I am expecting from young generation who is more logical and analytical and if they agree on Qur’an and only authentic Hadiths then the sectarianism may completely be eliminated. And Muslim society may become more tolerant and peaceful.

Note for Shia Brothers: Please stay away from this thread as this thread is for main stream Muslims. According to the Shiite scholars, The Science of Hadith in the Madhab of The Twelvers has never existed nor was it implemented before the 900s Hijri.

The Big Scholar Al Ha’iri “الحائري” In His book Muktabas el Athar “مقتبس الأثر” part 3 page 73 says: “From the Information that No One doubts is that No one worked in The Science of Hadith from our scholars before the second Shaheed” read More…..

 
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Pakistani1947

Chief Minister (5k+ posts)
'MYTHS AND REALITIES OF HADITH -- a critical study'
Written by Akbarally Meherally

5449 Dominion Street, BURNABY, BC, Canada V5G 1E1
Printed in Canada 1422 AH / 2001 AC --- ISBN 0-9689162-0-4
Source: http://www.mostmerciful.com/hadith-book1.pdf

Contents


Introduction
Qur’an and Hadith: Confusion in Cyberspace

1. The Development of Hadith
The Place of Hadith – Past and Present
Defining Hadith
Did Prophet commend the writing of his "Sayings"?
The Recording of the Qur’an – a Striking Contrast

2. The Chaos of Category and Classification
Intentional Fabrications
The Classifications
Companions and Acquaintances
A Note on Qudsi (sacred) Hadith

3. The Ongoing Debate of Authenticity
An Authentic Hadith can be defective
A saying erroneously attributed to the Prophet
Abu Hurayrah the biggest contributor
‘Sahih Al-Bukhari’ Commended and Criticized by Muslim Scholars
Upon Which Verses Rests Your Faith (Imaan): Al-Qur’an or Al-Bukhari?
Futuristic Narrations
Credible or Credulous?
The Need for Caution

4. Sectarianism and Faulty Hadith
Two Self-contradictory hadiths
Sunnah and Hadith
An Honest Proposition from Dr. J. Lang

5. A Closer Look at Some Dubious Hadiths
The Prophet and knowledge of the Unseen

6. Hadith Seen as the Weak Link by Non-Muslims
Rejected narrations inserted later in Al-Bukhari?

7. My Response to Six Passages Sent by a Critic
A Muslim critic emails six passages

8. The Qur’an on Ludicrous Hadiths
Hadiths that mislead from the Path of Allah
Ridiculous Hadiths that Undermine the Credibility of the Prophets
The Vivid Stories of “Dajjal” and the “anti-Christ” in the Qur’an?
Isra’iliyat Narrations within Hadiths and Commentaries
Hadiths that assert the Qur’an is incomplete
The Qur’an on adultery
9. Hadith and Qur’an in Contradiction
Eight major areas of contradiction between the Qur’an and Hadith literature

10. Further Fascinating Facts and Observations from Muslim Scholars
Dr. Sayed Abdul Wadud
Dr. Murad Wilfried Hofmann
Dr. Shabbir Ahmed, M.D.
An Islamic Website
My personal Observations

11. The Future of Hadith
The Crisis
The Corrective

12. Conclusion


INTRODUCTION

I begin in the name of Allah, the Most Gracious and the Most Merciful I seek refuge in Allah from Satan the accursed Verily in the messenger of Allah ye have a good example for him who looketh unto Allah and the last Day, and remembereth Allah much. (Qur’an 33: 21)

For a Muslim, the prophetic Hadith is the secondary document after the Qur’an. In this era of technological advancement and communications by cyber space, the texts from various collections of Hadith 1, comprising varying classifications from Maudu (fabricated – forged) to Sahih (authentic – sound) are appearing on the Internet. Now, a non-Muslim can enter into dialogue with a Muslim, quoting the translated text from any hadith that has been published or posted on an Islamic website. After the "published identification number" and/or the "name of the compiler" are quoted, either party can easily assert a point of view or press an agenda, irrespective of the authenticity of the isnad (chain of narrators) of the identified hadith whose chain of transmission could be broken and not reach the Prophet. The majority of internet surfers have little or no background knowledge of the historical facts behind the compilation of the corpus of Hadith and will be more inclined to focus on the matn (content of narrative). It is not an easy task even for learned scholars to establish how reliable were these chains of narrators and/or compilers.

1. The capitalized word denotes the corpus of literature, and “hadith(s)” indicates specific narratives attributed to the Prophet. The discussion of Hadith on the internet raises larger questions about their classifications and authenticity. Are the sometimes outrageous and bizarre narratives of the Hadith going to be considered normative of Islam by non-Muslims who read them at Islamic websites?

The intention of this in-depth critical study is to defend the True Islam from being maligned and distorted on the internet under the guise of "Prophet's Pronouncements and Acts", when these hadiths are not his but are falsely attributed to him. Readers should keep the intention of this study in mind while reading this work, prepared after years of research on this sensitive subject.

Qur’an and Hadith: Confusion in Cyberspace

Often the revealed verses of the Qur'an and the reported versions of hadiths are quoted on the internet concurrently or simultaneously. Internet surfers are not necessarily educated to know that these two separate "texts" are independent of one another. It is now essential and imperative that the correct terminologies rather than generalized terms are used by Muslim writers to identify hadith texts and the Qur’an. To define "hadith" as "the literal or precise verbatim of the factual sayings, deeds or approvals of the Prophet of Islam (peace and blessings of Allah be upon all Prophets and their true companions)", could be technically inaccurate and in some instances fundamentally wrong. The numerous and complex classifications of hadiths organize them into categories ranging from authentic to deliberate falsehood. These classifications are not only not apparent but also not available to internet users.

1. The Development of Hadith


The Place of Hadith – Past and Present

Today the corpus of Hadith is to be found far from its original home and context. Hadiths were originally part of the oral tradition of Islam, but after two hundred years of transmission and circulation, they were crystallized into written form. During the earliest periods when the prophet, and his companions and their families were alive, hadiths were contextualized by the orthodoxy of experience and recent memory. But after these generations and several more after them passed, the Hadith became a rigid corpus without the mitigating presence of the earliest believers. Now, several more hundreds of years have passed and the Hadith is still more distant from its origins and from the regional and social concerns that helped to shape many of them.

In the well-circulated book A Study of the Qur’an, Brother Mohammed Abdul Malik raises the following concerns (Email: [email protected]).
To understand the background to the development of Hadith literature one must sift through the history of Islam from about 250 years after the time of our Prophet… during the first century of the Prophet's era no hadiths were written down… Stories circulated by word of mouth but they were never written down because the view was well known that the Prophet and the companions did not want anything of the kind to be done, and so there was a very strong feeling against the writing of any sort of 'Hadith' literature. The so-called 'Science of isnad' -- touchstone of a hadith's authenticity -- has tremendous flaws in it. How, then, can we go on giving credence to something that was not written down and yet which, some 250 years after the fact, Bukhari supposedly managed to trace back to its source (i.e. the Prophet) by establishing all the links in a chain which cannot
possibly have been genuinely reconstructed! How he (Bukhari) managed to do this without written records, bridging a gap of about eight generations, and simultaneously establishing not only biographical data but also a compelling analysis of the mental faculties of his subjects defies belief! One can quote several hundred hadiths that not only contradict the Qur’an but also clearly do damage to the Prophet's good name.

Defining Hadith

The word "hadith" literally means; "a saying", "a report", "an account". Within Islamic circles and literature, the term is used to identify a text that is related to a "re-narrated" saying or account of deeds or approval by the Prophet. However, if one was to review the physical process involved in the collection and compilation of these texts, one realizes that these "reported" texts have gone through a process of several "re-narrated" verbal transmissions involving a chain of narrators covering six or more generations. Some of these narrators were reliable and unfailing in their verbal reports and others were not. Often, if the narrator was known as "a man of faith", then it was believed that he could not utter a lie, and this was an essential criterion used by a compiler.

Did Prophet commend the writing of his “sayings”?

There was a lapse of nearly two centuries from the year of the death of the Prophet to the time when most of the hadiths were compiled. This time factor alone is enough to make one question the accuracy of the written hadiths. To say in retrospect that the memories of human beings did not or do not slip away in the course of time would be a hollow and speculative claim. Often it is theorized that Arabs living in the era of the Prophet had far greater capacity than ours today, for memorizing and then later repeating without error what the Prophet had narrated. Not only is this theory unsubstantiated, but also, how can one verify an unwritten text years later? Further, this lapse may in fact have been due to the reluctance of the companions and early followers to write down hadiths These compilations were not made from the "recorded" documents, because reports in fact confirm that whatever was written by the companions of the prophet, other than the revealed verses of the Qur'an, was effaced during the lifetime of the prophet. The Prophet commanded this effacement, although there are diverse opinions as to why he did so. In the opinions of some scholars, the instructions to efface were of a transitory nature. Others argue that the instructions were never rescinded or withdrawn and that the expressed reasons held good for all times. For example, one hadith speaks of the concern that his ummah (community) may follow the path of the earlier prophets. This could be a reference to the association of the rabbinical teachings called Mishna or Talmud (a secondary document) with the Torah (the primary document) after the death of Prophet Moses, or the inclusion of the Letters (Epistles) with the Gospels in the New Testament after the death of Prophet Jesus. The added official texts might have a distorting or misleading effect on the original message. Indeed, the major schism of the ummah (Islamic brotherhood) that took place in the name of Hadhrat Ali, many years after Ali's departure from this world, had the needed support to uphold the Shia beliefs in the narrated reports, yet there was no such support in the Qur’an. Even the exact number of Imams (twelve) who would come on this earth was recorded. If the apprehensions expressed by the Prophet had been taken conscientiously and seriously by the Ummah, the followers would not have been divided into sects but would have remained united as commanded by Allah:

And hold fast, all of you together, to the Rope of Allah, and be not divided among yourselves. And remember with gratitude Allah's favour on you; for you were enemies and He joined your hearts in love, so that you become as brothers by His grace... (Qur'an 3:103)

Say: "Allah's guidance is the (only) guidance and we have been directed to submit ourselves to the Lord of the worlds." (Qur'an 6:71)

It is also reported that the prophet permitted the recording of his Sermons (Khutbahs), and in some exceptional cases (e.g. when a person had a weak memory) permitted the writing of his sayings. However the Prophet's command to efface the texts of his sayings was reaffirmed and reenacted by Caliph Mu'awiyah, some thirty years or so after the death of the Prophet, when his attention to the Prophet's command was directed by Zayd ibn Thabit - the Prophet's closet scribe and secretary. Here is the text that has been recorded in the Sunan of Abu-Dawood under Hadith No. 1635 (3640):

Al-Muttalib ibn Abdullah ibn Hantab said:
"Zayd ibn Thabit entered upon Mu'awiyah and asked him about a tradition. He ordered a man to write it. Zayd said: The Apostle of Allah (peace be upon him) ordered us not to write any of his traditions. So he erased it."

This narrated incident confirms that there were valid reasons for not recording traditions in addition to the need to keep the recorded texts of the Qur'an and the recorded text of hadiths separate. Caliph Uthman in 650 CE already completed the final compilation of the Qur’an and Mu'awiyah became Caliph in 658 CE. It also confirms that the Prophet forbade the writing of his hadiths. There is nothing to indicate that the command was abrogated or lifted later by the Prophet, as is often suggested and propagated.

In the magazine Al-Basheer of Sept.-Oct. 1994 a feature article appeared; “Recording, Traveling and Isnad of Hadith: From the early years”. On page 12 of this magazine there appears a very important and thought provoking text:

Abu Saeed al-Khudri said,
We exerted our best to get the Messenger of Allah to allow us to write his hadith but he refused. (This was recorded by al-Baghdadi in Taqyid.) There are explanations offered, more than three centuries after the above Hadith was narrated, by scholars like Ramhurmuzi (d. 360 A.H.). Ramhurmuzi writes:

Apparently the prohibition was in the beginning to make their attention to the Qur’an only and to distinguish the recording of the Qur’an from the sunnah (traditions) of the Prophet and to keep things safe from any kind of mixture or confusion.

However, these explanations are not supported by any sayings of the Prophet or by the verses of the Qur’an. The scholar's opening word "Apparently" conveys a kind of presumption and not an acknowledged reality or a historical fact.

“Conjecture can be of no avail against Truth.” (Qur'an 10:36).

Allah alone knows the Truth. May Allah forgive me if I have erred.

The Recording of the Qur’an – a Striking Contrast

In contrast to the uncertainty surrounding the recording of hadiths, the Prophet not only permitted the recording of the revealed verses of the Qur'an but also personally dictated the revealed texts to scribes who were good in the art of calligraphy. The "pre-recorded" verses of the Revealed Texts (the Qur'an) were collected by the first Caliph of Islam -
Abu Bakr, who died within two years of the death of the Prophet. The final compilation of these pre-recorded verses and the making of a definitive canon was undertaken by a commission appointed by the third Caliph Uthman ibn 'Affan. A well-known scribe named Zayd ibn Thabit headed this formal commission. Within twenty-three years of the death of the Prophet, copies made from the definitive canon established by the Commission and approved by the Caliph were distributed to various Islamic centers. One such is preserved in the former Soviet Union. Allah Himself has undertaken to safeguard the revealed verses of the Glorious Qur'an.

“Verily, We, it is We who have sent down the Qur’an and assuredly, We will guard it (from corruption).” (Qur'an 15:9)

The verses of hadiths have no such assurance, neither from Allah nor from the Prophet. In fact the Collection of Hadith has not been safeguarded.

2. The Chaos of Category and Classification


Intentional Fabrications

It is an undisputed fact that the compilers of the Hadith did reject a large majority ofnarrations (the figure runs in hundreds of thousands) as being invented, fabricated, faulty or too weak to be recorded. Here are a few of the major reasons or circumstances for these superfluities.

a) The fabrications were done in order to glorify the beloved Prophet, the elected successors to the Prophet, the chosen family members of the Prophet, and/or their progeny. The fabricators have been reported as saying "We did not speak lies against him (Prophet) but for him instead."[SUP]3[/SUP]
.
b) Various factions attempted to justify and/or propagate their own schools of philosophical thought in the name of the Prophet, e.g. Sufic Orders, Qadariyah, Jabariyah, Rawafid, Ikhwan-as-safa, Mu'tazila, etc. The latter had the support of the 'Abbasid rulers.

c) The ongoing rivalries between the supporters of; Hadhrat Ali, Hadhrat Mu’awiyah and Kharijites who opposed both. The latter also remained in constant conflict with the Umayyads.

d) To instill and indoctrinate strict piety (taqwa) among the believers. The preachers and local leaders who attributed extraordinary deeds and sayings to the Prophet probably believed that the end justified the means. In 'Criticism of Hadith among Muslims with reference to Sunan ibn Maja', (p.41) there are names of narrators who invented hadiths on "the merits of each Sura of the Qur’an" when they found people deserting the Qur’an and occupying themselves with Fiqh (jurisprudence) of Abu Hanifa and Maghazi (battles) of Ibn Ishaq.

e) In order to earn greater fame within the community. The higher the number of hadiths a scholar could memorize, the greater the honour and status he could obtain.

f) Scholars have also noted that the proverbs were attributed to the Prophet.

g) During the advent of Islam there were other tribes living side by side with Muslims whose enmity has been recorded in the Qur'an. Some of them knew from their own scriptures the coming of a Prophet in Arabia ("The Land of Kedar". See Isaiah 42:8-17)).

Since the Prophet who had come in Arabia was not a descendant of Isaac, they rejected him. A few bitterly envied him and discredited the Prophet by implanting narrations. Non-Muslim dignitaries, Israelites, produced false documents in the name of Prophet before Caliph 'Umar bin al-Khattab, in order to obtain exemptions from the Jizyah tax that was levied on non-Muslims. [SUP]4[/SUP]

h) In many cases the storytellers were the worst fabricators. They were often caught manufacturing enchanting, highly vivid and totally strange anecdotes (riwayats) of miraculous nature. The narrating storyteller (al-Qussas) would produce these to collect larger rewards from the audiences and earn greater fame in the country. They made an art form of the fabrications, anufacturing texts (matn) and chains of narrators. (isnad). When caught in the act, more extravagant lies would often follow. [SUP]5[/SUP]

i) The traditionalists knew that reporting lies in the name of the Prophet was a grave sin, and tried to conceal the real identity of those narrators who were known as the "big liars". They did this by omitting their fathers' names, their grandfathers' names or by mentioning them by their nicknames only. (see the complete details and examples on Ibid., pp. 197 to 202, with a long list of source documents). Scholars agree that calling someone a liar is not "backbiting" as long as it is done in the greater and genuine interest of the Prophet of Allah or to protect Islam.

j) Traditionalists would faithfully record the chain of narrators (isnad), but would deliberately hold back or abridge the actual text (matn) of the saying when the subject was controversial and the related texts were not consistent throughout. The text would then read: "This hadith has been transmitted on the authority of so and so with a slight variation of wording." The details of the variation and the actual spoken words are not mentioned. One would not find such suppression in any one of over 6200 verses of the Holy Qur'an.

The Classifications

One may argue that this wholesale rejection of countless hadiths demonstrates that the early compilers like Muhammad ibn Ismail al-Bukhari (d. 256/870), Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj al-Qushayri (d. 261/875), Muhammad ibn Isa at-Tirmidhi (d. 279/892), Abu Da’ud asSijistani (d. 261/875), Ahmad ibn Shu’ayb an-Nasai (d. 303/915) and Muhammed ibn Majah (d. 273/886) had very strict standards and the majority of dubious or unreliable reports were weeded out. One may further argue that the likelihood of remaining hadiths escaping scrutiny increases as more and more narrations are rejected. The latter rationale is supported by the fact that compiled and published hadiths are "classified" into various categories, by the scholars who have spent years studying the science of Hadith. Within these classifications, dubious hadiths, which should have been rejected, are not removed
but organized. Yet there is no consistent method of classification. Thus on the internet a particular narration classified by one Muslim student or writer under a certain category or class is strongly disputed by another. Even the recorded classifications completed by one learned scholar are revised by a subsequent scholar.

There are eighteen classifications within three basic categories of Hadith.

Oral Traditions - The oral statements of the Prophet.
Physical Traditions - The acts or deeds of the Prophet.
Approved Traditions - The acts or deeds that were performed in presence of the Prophet. There is also a sub-category of oral statements made by the companions of the Prophet

Below is the list of common classifications used by scholars to identify the various categories of the compiled narrations:

1. Dhai'f (weak) A narration which is not accurate enough to be classified as "sound" or "fair" and hence cannot be used as a basis for the Islamic tradition. There are eight subcategories of Dhai'f hadith.

2. Majhul (unknown) One of the narrators in the chain is unknown, meaning there is no (jarh or taadil) about him. In other words, he is so unknown that no compiler of the hadiths has passed a judgement about this narrator.

3. Gharib (unfamiliar - strange) The narration sounds unfamiliar and is not reported by others or differs from the versions narrated by others. Even a Sahih (sound) hadith could be Gharib (unfamiliar).

4. Mu'adal (faulty - perplexing) A narration that omits or misses two or more consecutive narrators in the chain, or the text is perplexing.

5. Maqtu (disconnected - severed) A chain that remains incomplete or ends with someone who claims to have met a Companion of the Prophet, or the text begins with the phrase such as "we used to do..."

6. Munqati (disconnected - broken) Similar to either number 2 or 5 above.

7. Mudtarib (confounding) There is a disagreement concerning the source or the narration itself.

8. Mauquf (untraceable - stopped) A narration which is related without transmitting the name of a Companion of the Prophet.

9. Mu'allaq (hanging - faulty) A narrator who omits the entire chain of narrators and quotes the Prophet directly.

10. Mursal (broken chain - hurried) The chain between the first narrator and the Prophet is missing e.g. the first narrator says; "The Prophet said..."

11. Munkar (denounced) A weak narrator whose report goes against another that seems more authentic.

12. Mudraj (interpolated) A narration that has additions to the text of the report by a narrator.

13. Maudu (fabricated - forged) A report that goes against the norms of the sayings of the Prophet, one of the reporters is a liar, or discrepancies are found in the dates of the incident.

14. Musnad (subjective - supported) The chain reaches the Prophet or the narrated report
concurs with others.

15. Hasan (fair) A reliable chain but not considered as a totally sound narration.

16. Muttasil (connected) A connected chain that could go up to a Companion or to the Prophet.

17. Maruf (traceable) A traceable chain that could go up to a Companion of the Prophet.

18. Sahih (sound) A narration with an unbroken chain of narrators and the narrators are regarded as the reliable reporters.

After the death of the Prophet "even the decisions of the Shahaba (companions of theProphet) were recorded as hadith", acknowledges Dr. Khalid Mahmood Shaikh in his book, A Study Of Hadith. [SUP]6[/SUP]

The term As-Sihah As-Sittah (The Six authentic collections of Hadith), is used for the compilations done by Imams/Scholars named; al-Bukhari, Muslim, at-Tirmidhi, Nasai, 'Abu Da’ud and 'Ibn Majah. Today, Muslim scholars have found the collections by the latter scholar (‘Ibn Majah) to have defective narrations. The majority of the Shiah reports are of even later date than the early compilations. For the most part they are from the Buyid period of around 454 Hijri.

Companions and Acquaintances

It is an accepted traditional norm to classify the narrators upon the basis of their direct and personal contact with the Prophet or upon the basis of their direct and personal contact with someone who had direct contact with the Prophet. Within the revealed verses of the Qur’an, 9:43-50, Allah has given us an eye-opening example from which we must learn two most important lessons:

A. The Prophet himself could not discern amongst his own people, amongst the people who were living in the same period in the history, or amongst those who had personally met and spoken with him, those who were sincere and those who were "the liars". A group of people who were given consent to stay back and not to join the expedition of Tabuk obtained their exemptions by lying before the Prophet. The Prophet could only detect their lies when the Truth was made manifest by Allah in the above verse. It is fundamentally wrong to place our faith in or to take for granted the prevalent theory that each and everyone who lived contemporaneously with the Prophet was an honest and trustworthy companion.

B. There were limitations to the knowledge of the Prophet. Events that took place around him and in his own time were unknown to him. So, the Prophet cannot necessarily speak of the past, let alone of the future, unless Allah revealed it to him. Should each and every narration thrown at us be defended because it is allegedly identified as an authentic hadith? I do not think so. Many of these texts are based upon weak narrations or spurious reports, and others can be presented out of context or intentionally distorted as we shall see in the following chapters.

A Note on Qudsi (sacred) Hadith

The scholars of Hadith say that Qudsi hadiths are from Allah only as far as the meaning of the text is concerned and they are from the Prophet of Allah as to the actual wordings of these messages. It would be erroneous to attribute any of the Qudsi Hadith to Allah and claim e.g.; "Allah said..." Similarly, appropriately classified Hadith should or could be considered to be from the Prophet as to the meaning of the text, but the re-narrated wordings of the text are from the narrators or from Muslim scholars. It may be erroneous to attribute these hadiths to the Prophet and claim; "The Messenger of Allah said:..".

Since the process of compilation has been similar to the rest of the Hadith, the authenticity of this Qudsi group is also largely dependent upon the continuity of the chain of narrators and most importantly by the credibility and reliability of the narrators. It is a common misconception that the term Qudsi denotes that all the "re-narrated reports" classified under this Qudsi or sacred group, are one hundred percent authenticated. Scholars have recorded that they could be anything from Da'if (weak) to Sahih (sound). In this group the chain of narrations does not stop at the Prophet but goes to Allah. However, the primary narration is a paraphrased narrative.

Any hadith that disagrees or is opposed to what has been revealed in the Holy Qur'an should be discarded, even if it is a Sahih hadith or a Qudsi hadith. No text can supersede the verses of the Qur’an – period. Please read the following recorded Qudsi hadith. [SUP]7[/SUP] I have faithfully reproduced below the text of this dubious hadith number 8 with its commentary.

Allah's Messenger said: On the Day of Resurrection, my Ummah (nation) will be gathered into three groups, one sort will enter Paradise without rendering an account (of their deeds). Another sort will be reckoned on easy account and admitted into Paradise. Yet another sort will come bearing on their backs heaps of sins like great mountains. Allah will ask the angels though He knows best about them: Who are these people? They will reply: They are humble slaves of yours. He will say: Unload the sins from them and put the same over the Jews and Christians; then let the humble slaves get into Paradise by virtue of My Mercy.

The commentary to this hadith reads:

This Hadith is sound and mentioned in Mustadrak of Hakim.

Below are verses of the Holy Qur’an that speak of the final just and fair judgment by
Allah:
We shall set up scales of justice for the Day of Judgment so that not a soul will be dealt with unjustly in the least. And if there be (no more than) the weight of a mustard seed We will bring it (to account): and enough are We to take account. (Qur'an 21:47)

In his commentary, Abdullah Yusuf Ali writes:
Allah's knowledge is perfect, and therefore His justice will be perfect also; for He will not fail to take into account all the most intangible things that determine conduct and character.

So this day no soul shall be dealt with unjustly in the least; and you shall not be rewarded aught but that which you did.. (Qur'an 36:54)

Verily Allah will not deal unjustly with man in aught. (Qur'an 10:44).

But the judgment between them will be with justice, and no wrong will be done unto them. (Qur'an 10: 54)

And fear the day when ye shall be brought back to Allah. Then shall every soul be paid what it earned and none shall be dealt with unjustly. (Qur'an 2:281)

Those who believe (in the Qur'an) and those who follow the Jewish (scriptures) and the Christians and the Sabians, - any who believe in Allah and the Last Day, and work righteousness, shall have their reward with their Lord; on them shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve. (Qur'an 2:62)

Allah is the Most Merciful. He can forgive whomever, whenever and whatever He wishes. He does not need a scapegoat to carry mountainous heaps of sin. Allah is also the Most Just, and He does not deal unjustly with anyone of His own creation.

Those who ascribe false things to Allah, will never prosper. In such falsehood is but a paltry profit but they will have a most grievous Chastisement. (Qur'an 16:116/117)

This last verse applies to those who used to manufacture "Hadith Qudsi" for earning rewards and/or glory. It may also apply to those today who knowingly propagate by mouth or publish the false narrations in the name of Allah.
3. The Ongoing Debate of Authenticity


An Authentic Hadith can be Defective

Because of the uncertainty surrounding the categorization of Hadith literature, debate has persisted throughout the centuries concerning the authenticity of many narrations. A hadith recorded in Sahih Muslim on the authority of Abu Hurayrah is regarded as Ma'lul (defective), by more knowledgeable authorities than Imam Muslim, such as Imam Bukhari and Yahya bin Ma'in. The reported saying "is not of the Prophet (s.a.s.) but one of Ka'b al-Ahbar". This is recorded by Ibn Taimiyyah in Majmu' Fatawa. For the complete details of Ibn Taimiyyah's recorded version and the alternative opinion given by scholar Al-Albani read An Introduction to the Science of Hadith by Dr. Suhaib Hasan Abdul Ghaffar (p. 43). Below is the text of the above-mentioned Ma'lul (defective) hadith, downloaded from the web. [SUP]8[/SUP]

Book No. 38, "Giving Description Of The Day Of Judgement, Paradise And Hell (Kitab Sifat Al-Qiyama Wa'L Janna Wa'N-Nar)". Hadith Number 6707: Narrated by Abu Hurayrah:

Allah's Messenger took hold of my hands and said: Allah, the Exalted and Glorious, created the clay on Saturday and He created the mountains on Sunday and He created the trees on Monday and He created the things entailing labour on Tuesday and created light on Wednesday and He caused the animals to spread on Thursday and created Adam (peace be upon him) after Asr on Friday; the last creation at the last hour of the hours of Friday, i.e. between afternoon and night.

This day-by-day description comes very close to the creation story in the Torah. Please see the Old Testament, Book of Genesis, Chapter 1. This information does not appear in the Holy Qur'an. The above Hadith is not a Qudsi hadith. Under the circumstances one may wonder how the Prophet could have narrated this descriptive information to Abu Hurayrah. If the Prophet did not relate this information to Abu Hurayrah, then who was this Ka'b al-Ahbar, whose saying is alleged to have been an authentic hadith? Ka'b was a Jewish scholar who had entered Islam. He was a Tabi (one who has met a companion of the Prophet) who was known for quoting verses from the Torah. We also know from hadith 5:17 of Al-Muwatta that Abu Hurayrah had gone to Mount Sinai to meet Ka'b al Ahbar. During their meeting Ka'b had quoted texts from the Torah to Abu Hurayrah and Abu Hurayrah had quoted the sayings of the Prophet to Ka'b. This information indirectly supports the earlier criticism by Imam Bukhari and Yahya bin Ma'in.

In the forward of his book, An Introduction to the Science of Hadith, Dr. Suhaib Hasan Abdul Ghaffar has listed twenty-six hadiths that are endlessly repeated by the Sunni and Shiah Alims as well as from members of both sects. Some of these hadiths even belong to the group called Qudsi. They provide just a few examples which show how we keep attributing statements to the Prophet not realizing or acknowledging that learned scholars who have studied the Science of Hadith have ruled that these hadiths "actually vary tremendously in their degree of authenticity from the Prophet." The author has also added a critical word of caution for those quoting these twenty-six hadiths; "(of) being in danger of contravening the Prophet's widely narrated stern warnings about attributing incorrect/unsound statements to him."

A saying erroneously attributed to the Prophet

The following ‘Question and Answer’ published in the October 1999 issue of a monthly Islamic Journal ‘Renaissance’ [SUP]9 [/SUP]tells us that the “Symbols of Bad Luck” attributed erroneously to the Prophet are not his views.

Question: I read a Hadith which mentions that a house, horse and a woman are three things that could either prove good or bring bad luck for a man. Can you explain the meaning of this please? How can we label anything as a symbol of bad luck?

Answer: …The Hadith you have mentioned has come in most of the major books of Hadith in the words near to the ones you have quoted. However, the following text of it contained in the sixth volume of Imam Ahmad Ibn Hambal’s Musnad presents the true picture in this regard:

Abu-Hassan reports that two people came to A’ishah and said to her that Abu Hurayrah narrates that the Prophet used to say that bad luck is to be found only in women, horses and houses. At this A’ishah replied: By the God who revealed the Qur’an to the Prophet! The Prophet never said this; what he did say was that the People of the Jahilliyyah hold this opinion…

It is evident from this text of the Hadith that this saying has been erroneously attributed to the Prophet (sws). He had actually quoted theviews held by the people of Jahilliyyah (age of ignorance). [SUP]10[/SUP]

Abu Hurayrah the biggest contributor

Less than three years before the passing away of the Prophet, Abu Hurayrah joined Islam. He happens to be the biggest single contributor to the Hadith Literature. He has narrated 5374 narrations.[SUP]11[/SUP] Many of his narrations are to be found in Sahih Al-Bukhari.

When Abu Hurayrah was questioned about him quoting so many sayings of the Prophet, his reply was:

The people say that Abu Huraira narrates too many narrations. In fact Allah knows whether I say the truth or not. They also ask, "Why do the emigrants and the Ansar not narrate as he does?" In fact, my emigrant brethren were busy trading in the markets, and my Ansar brethren were busy with their properties. I was a poor man keeping the company of Allah's Apostle and was satisfied with what filled my stomach. So, I used to be present while they (i.e. the emigrants and the Ansar) were absent, and I used to remember while they forgot (the Hadith). (Sahih Bukhari 3: 540, also repeated in 3: 263) Abu Hurayrah also admits that he had a bad memory and used to forget things. But after the under mentioned incident, which he has self-narrated, the situation had changed around. Abu Hurayrah records:

I said to Allah's Apostle “I hear many narrations (Hadiths) from you but I forget them.” Allah's Apostle said, “Spread your Rida (garment).” I did accordingly and then he moved his hands as if filling them with something (and emptied them in my Rida) and then said, “Take and wrap this sheet over your body.” I did it and after that I never forgot any thing.
(Sahih Al-Bukhari 1: 119, also repeated in 4: 841)

'Sahih Al-Bukhari' Commended and Criticized by Muslim Scholars

The Commendation:

"The most authentic book after the Book of Allah is Sahih Al-Bukhari" A prominent Muslim scholar of our times, Dr. Muhammad Muhsin of the Islamic University, Al-Madina Al-Munawwara, Saudi Arabia writes: It is said Imam Bukhari collected over 300,000 hadiths and he himself memorized 200,000 of which some were unreliable. He was born at a time when Hadith was being forged either to please rulers or kings or to corrupt the religion of Islam... So it was a great task for him to sift the forged hadiths from the authentic ones. He laboured day and night and although he had memorised such a large number he only chose approximately 7,275 with repetition and about 2,230 without repetition of which there is no doubt about their authenticity... Many religious scholars of Islam tried to find fault in the great remarkable collection, Sahih Al-Bukhari, but without success. It is for this reason, they unanimously agreed that the most authentic book after the Book of Allah is Sahih Al-Bukhari. [SUP]12[/SUP]

My Comments:

The phrase to “corrupt the religion of Islam” confirms that within the Hadith literature there was deliberate input from non-Muslims.

The following text by another Muslim scholar questions the veracity of the last paragraph from the above commendation.

The Criticism:

A prominent Muslim scholar of our times, Dr. Muhammad Mustafa Azami, M.A., Ph.D. and Professor of Science of Hadith, University of Riyadh, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia writes: Many scholars criticized Bukhari's work. The criticism concerns about 80 narrators and some 110 ahadith. [SUP]13[/SUP]

The number of questionable narrators mentioned above is very high. Dr. Azami has in the footnote given references of the following two prominent works of the fourteenth century Muslim scholars, based upon which he has made the above statement:

1. 'Abdur Rahman b. Abu Bakr Suyuti's book ‘Tadrib ar-Rawi’, ed. by A. R. Latif, Cairo, 1379, vol. I, page 134.
2. Ibn Hajar's book ‘Hadyal-Sari’, Cairo 1383, vol. II, page 106.

Upon Which Verses Rests Your Faith (Imaan): Al-Qur’an or Al-Bukhari?

Here is what the Revealed Words of Allah tell us about the character of the Prophet:

And thou [Muhammad] (standest) on an exalted standard of character. (Qur'an. 68:4)


Ye have indeed in the Apostle of Allah a beautiful pattern of (conduct) for anyone whose hope is in Allah and the Final Day and who engages much in the praise of Allah. (Qur'an 33:21)

We sent thee not but as a mercy for all creatures. (Qur'an 21:107)

It is part of the Mercy of Allah that thou dost deal gently with them. Wert thou severe or harsh-hearted they would have broken away from about thee; so pass over (their faults) and ask for (Allah's) forgiveness for them; and consult them in affairs (of moment). Then when thou hast taken a decision put thy trust in Allah. For Allah loves those who put their trust (in Him). (Qur'an 3:159)

Here is what the recorded hadith by Imam Bukhari tells us about the character of the Prophet:

(Narrated by Anas bin Malik). A group of people from 'Ukl (or 'Uraina) tribe--but I think he said that they were from 'Ukl--came to Medina and (they became ill, so) the Prophet ordered them to go to the herd of (Milch) she-camels and told them to go out and drink the camels' urine and milk(as a medicine). So they went and drank it, and when they became healthy, they killed the shepherd and drove away the camels. This news reached the Prophet early in the morning, so he sent (some) men in their pursuit and they were captured and brought to the Prophet before midday. He ordered to cut off their hands and legs and their eyes to be branded with heated iron pieces and they were thrown at Al-Harra (a rocky place near Medina), and when they asked for water to drink, they were not given water... Al-Bukhari 8: 797.

The same narration is repeated in Al-Bukhari numbers 8: 794 and 1: 234.

This incident is not recorded within the published biographies of the Prophet. Allah has given us Wisdom (A'ql) to judge between Truth and Falsehood. May He guide us all to use it wisely and honestly. Ameen.

Futuristic Narrations

It is not uncommon to read narration after narrations that speak of what will happen in the future, after the death of the prophet. These do not belong to the group classified as Qudsi Hadith as such, the ultimate and final sources of these non-Qudsi narrations appear to terminate with the Prophet.

Say: "The Unseen is only for Allah (to know)..." (Qur’an 10:20)

Below I have quoted a hadith narrated by Abu Hurayrah that is not Qudsi and can be found on the internet at an Islamic website.

The Prophet (peace be upon him) said: The Jews were split up into seventy-one or seventy-two sects; and the Christians were split up into seventy one or seventy-two sects; and my community will be split up into seventy-three sects.
(Sunan Abu-Da’ud, Book Number 40, Hadith Number 4579.)

Here are a couple of more narrations from Sunan of Abu-Da’ud that even mention the times when the predicted events will take place.

Narrated by Abdullah ibn Busr
The Prophet (peace be upon him) said: The time between the great war and the conquest of the city (Constantinople) will be six years, and the Dajjal (Antichrist) will come forth in the seventh. Hadith Number 4283

Narrated by Mu’adh ibn Jabal
The Prophet (peace be upon him) said: The greatest war, the conquest of Constantinople and the coming forth of the Dajjal (Antichrist) will take place within a period of seven months. Hadith Number 4282

A hadith by Muslim (1372) predicts that the Sun will appear from West and that will be the first sign for the appearance of the Dajjal.

Some hadiths even predict what will happen to each group of mankind on the Day of Judgement; in Heaven and Hell, yet many of these re-narrated statements do not belong to the Qudsi Group, but belong to the Sahih Group. The following Revealed verses of the Qur’an raise serious questions about the futuristic hadiths belonging to the Sahih Group and the reliability of those who have narrated them.

Say: "As to the knowledge of the time, it is with Allah alone: I am but a plain warner." (Qur'an 67:26)

Say: "I tell you not that with me are the treasures of Allah, nor do I know what is hidden (unseen)...." (Qur'an 6:50)

Say: “I am no new thing among the messengers (of Allah), nor know I what will be done with me or with you.” (Qur'an 46:9)

Credible or Credulous?

The following hadith and attending commentary exemplify the logistical gymnastics believers must engage in to assert the credibility of certain narratives. One must ask, whose authenticity is in question here, the Prophet’s or the compilers?
Under the Book Classification: 'The Beginning of Creation', Volume 4, Book 59,
Chapter 17, Page 322, Hadith No. 3320 appears a Sahih (Authentic) Hadith Narrated by
Abu Hurayrah. 14The text reads:

The Prophet said, "If a housefly falls in the drink of anyone of you, he should dip it (in the drink), for one of its wings has a disease and the other has the cure for the disease." (Hadith No. 4: 537 in CD Alim)

The same Hadith is also repeated in Volume 7 – with this very interesting footnote:

(1) (H. 5782) Medically it is well-known now that a fly carries some pathogens on some parts of its body as mentioned by the Prophet (s.a.s.), [before 1400 years approx. when the humans knew very little of modern medicine]. Similarly Allah (S.W.T.), created organisms and other mechanisms which kill these pathogens, e.g., Penicillin Fungus kills pathogenic organisms like staphylococci and others etc. Recently experiments have been done under supervision which indicate that a fly carries the disease (pathogens) plus the antidote for those pathogenic organisms. Ordinarily when a fly touches a liquid food it infects the liquid with its pathogens, so it must be dipped in order to release also the antidote for those pathogens to act as a counter balance to the pathogens. Regarding this subject I also wrote through a friend of mine to Dr. Muhammad M. El-Samahy chief of Hadith Dept. in Al-Azhar University, Cairo (Egypt), who has written an article upon this Hadith, and as regards medical aspects, he has mentioned that the microbiologists have proved that there are longitudinal yeast cells living as parasites inside the belly of the fly and these yeast cells, in order to repeat their life cycle, protrude through respiratory tubules of the fly and if the fly is dipped in a liquid, these cells burst in the fluid and the content of those cells is an antidote for the pathogens which the fly carries.

The Prophet was an Ummi (unlettered) and there is no Revelation on this subject in the Qur'an. Could he have given such a Command "he should dip it" (in the drink) to his followers? If he really knew of these modern medical discoveries 1400 years ago, why was he inaccurate about the location of the antidote? Would the dipping of a fly in a cold drink or glass of drinking water burst open the contents of its belly? What about the bursting of other impurities, slimy materials and excretions those are normally stored in the belly of a fly?

Would those who profess to believe in this hadith and its attending medical evidence be willing to carry out its instructions?
And more importantly, can the faith of a Muslim be questioned if he or she thinks that the above narrations are either unsound or non-authentic and discards the fly or throws out the beverage instead of re-submerging the insect and drinking?

There are many Believers and Muslim scholars who very devoutly claim and strongly propagate that each and every hadith of Imam Bukhari is a Sahih hadith, meaning; "The Authentic Hadith".

To deny the authenticity of any one of Bukhari's Hadith means that his entire work is called into question. Anyone who has denied the work of Bukhari has at least undermined the rest of the entire literature of Hadith and as such his Imaan (Faith) as a believing Muslim can be questioned according to the traditionalists.

The Need for Caution

In effect, each and every "published" hadith that is identified and enumerated cannot be justly labeled "authoritative or sound". Also, the possibility of a "weak" or "faulty" hadith falling under the wrong criteria and/or regarded as "sound" by a compiler, cannot be ruled out with absolute surety. We need to be especially careful in referencing Hadith on the internet, for almost certainly, any text quoted will be taken out of its context and placed in another. Our use of incorrect terminology or classification may end up putting the credibility of the Messenger or the integrity of Islam on the line. Instead it would be preferable to reject the hadiths of a certain narrator or a compiler should the sayings contradict the teachings of the Qur’an.

There is a narration that is compiled by Imam Bukhari, whose dedicated, devoted and untiring efforts in the compilation of narrated reports has earned him the unique status, and this authoritative narration speaks of the severe penalty of Hell Fire for "attributing any falsehood to the Prophet". Hence, the need to observe caution should be felt most of all by those who devoutly propagate with uncritical confidence narrations by Bukhari or indeed any other compiler.

4. Sectarianism and Faulty Hadith

Two Self-contradictory hadiths
The above warning is also applicable to all those who knowingly propagate falsely attributed sectarian notions, attested to as sayings of the Prophet, especially concerning what will happen after his death. Most of these are not recorded as " Qudsi Hadith". As observed earlier, and attest by the Qur’an, the knowledge of the future is with Allah Alone. Many of the present divisions within the Ummah would not have happened if the narrators and propagators, who want us to obey the Messenger of Allah, had been honest enough and obeyed the Messenger of Allah.

The following provides an example of the simultaneous propagation of two self contradictory hadiths with an accompanying commentary by a Shi'ah Ithna-Ashri scholar and myself.

From the Shi’ah scholar:
Now consider this hadith report recorded by Mulla Ali Qari in his Sharh-ifiqh-i-Akbar, 15 “man mata wa lam y’arif Imam-i-zamanihi, faqad mata meetat-al-Jahiliyya.” (One who dies without knowing the Imam of his time, dies the death of total ignorance).

My response:
How could the Prophet, have spoken the text of the above hadith, recorded by Mulla Ali Qari or by anyone for that matter, when the actual concepts of the “Imamah" and the "the Imam of his time" were not even known by the Ummah, who lived during the life of the Prophet? The Concepts of the Caliphate and the Imamat were developed after the death of the Prophet. Even at the Gadir-e-Khoom, in accordance with the Shi’ah Traditions and Riwayats, the Prophet did not declare Hadhrat Ali as the "Imaam" of the Ummah.

The Shi’ah scholar responded:
The hadith report from the Prophet about the Muslims having twelve Imams is so strongly vouched by Isnaad that it is really impossible to deny it. Consequently, Muslims had to invent at least twelve names to fit that hadith. However, in every century and every generation the list of names has been changing, depending upon who was running the government. It is only the Shi’ah Ithna Asharis who have maintained the list of the twelve Imams from day one and it has not changed.

My further response:
There is a serious problem of reconciliation within these two hadiths. In the earlier hadith, recorded by Mulla Ali Qari, the Prophet is supposed to have said “one who dies without knowing the Imam of his time dies the death of Jahiliyya”. In the latter, so called strongly vouched hadith, the Prophet is supposed to have said “the Muslims having twelve Imams [only]”.

These two statements contradict each other. If the Prophet knew the future and he also knew certainly that there were not going to be any more Imams (Leaders) after the twelfth Imam, he could not have made the earlier statement to the Muslim Ummah that it was imperative to know the “Imams of their own times". How could those that were to be born after the twelfth Imam, know the "Imams of their own times" when there were going to be none during their lifetime? The earlier statement in effect acknowledges the perpetuity of the Imams that the later statement negates. This demonstrates that the hadiths accepted by the Shiah Muslims also have self-contradictions.

Sunnah and Hadith

Sunnah means the prophetic ways, traditions and orders that have become models to follow by his followers. It is erroneous to interchange the word Hadith with Sunnah or vice versa. There are several hadiths that have nothing in the least to do with the traditions of the prophet.

It is not correct to contend that the Sunnah of the Prophet has been communicated to the Ummah by the Hadith literature alone. Historically, the Hadith literature that is in circulation, was non-existent for the first few centuries of Islam. The Prophet’s example has been mostly communicated through the practical examples of the living and practicing Muslim communities. A question asked over and over again by the traditionalists is: How else would I have known how to recite my ritual prayers and how many rakats to recite for each prayer, if not through the compiled Hadith literature, since the Qur’an is silent on these issues? The obvious response would be; In the same manner it was known to the Muslim community for more than two centuries before the compilation of the Hadith literature.

If one were to stand up before a congregation in any mosque and ask: “When and how did the worshippers learn to recite their ritual prayers?”. The majority of the Jamaati members would probably answer:

i. At an early age when he or she had not or could not read the books of hadiths.

ii. In their own homes from the family members or in the Madressahs (religious schools) from the teachers.

The reality is that the majority of the Sunnahs of the Prophet have been communicated to the society through the examples of living Muslims.

An Honest Proposition from Dr. J. Lang

Dr. Jeffery Lang was brought up as a Roman Catholic and educated in a Catholic School. He converted to Islam in the early 1980s. His book Struggling to Surrender - Some Impressions of an American Convert to Islam has been a runaway success since its publication in 1994. 16The following excerpt from its third printing begins with his personal experience and concludes with an honest proposition.

Almost a year had passed since I said the Shahadah, and Mahmoud and I had become much more than friends; we were brothers in Islam. We drove together to Fairfield to hear a lecture sponsored by one of the Muslim student groups at the local masjid, which was a small house that had been converted into a place of prayer. We stood out in the large audience, not only because I was the sole American, but because we were practically the only ones wearing Western clothing. Not long after we had found a space to sit on the floor, the first speaker began. Seeking to remind his listeners of the impotence of their faith as compared to that of the Prophet’s Companions, he told the following story.

The Prophet met a bedouin in the desert and invited him to Islam. The bedouin was resistive and demanded proof of his claims. Muhammad then asked if a witness would do. “We’re in the middle of nowhere! There isn’t another man for miles. Who could possibly serve as your witness?” The Prophet pointed to a nearby tree. “This will be my witness.” At that moment the tree tore one side of its trunk out of the ground and took a step toward the two men; then it ripped the other side of its base from the
ground and came another step closer. The bedouin watched in terror and then shouted, “I testify that there is no god but Allah, and I testify that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah!”

Mahmoud saw the discomfort in my face and tried to redress the damage after the lecture. Of course, he was correct in saying that the audience was not representative of all Muslims and that the value of such a story lies not in its historicity but in its ability to inspire greater awe and consciousness of God. Indeed, many in the audience had listened transfixed to that and similar stories during the lecture, always following them with outbursts of praise. But I felt that Mahmoud’s argument was more of a Western apology than an Islamic one. In my opinion, such stories violate the Qur’an’s appeal to reason and its de-emphasis on the supernatural in favor of the wonders of nature and creation. However, Mahmoud, with his usual diplomacy, drove home a significant point: who are we to deny the legitimacy of another perspective simply because it disagrees with ours? I now knew that, for my own sake, I needed a better understanding of the place of hadith (the Prophetic traditions) in the life of my new community. I was about to enter a maze of confusion, distortion, suspicion, and dogma, a field to be explored only submissively and superficially, in which there is little room for misgiving. It is to this science that orientalism directs its most formidable criticism. Unfortunately, the literature written by Muslim scholars, whether originally in English or translated from other languages, to counteract this attack has been an entirely inadequate response. And the need for an effective response is urgent for Muslims living in the West, because this subject plays an important role in directing and binding the community, and in meeting the challenge of self-maintenance in a radically foreign environment. A convert to Islam quickly discovers the need to adopt a position on the role of the Sunnah and the hadith in his or her life. The problem is that the options presented are so extreme that many converts soon come to feel estranged from the community they have joined. In my opinion, this situation could be avoided if there were a real chance for honest and open discussion on this subject. (pp. 76-78)

Doubtless, both lifelong Muslims and the recently converted have had encounters similar to Dr. Lang’s. Perhaps some have feared that open skepticism would ostracize them from their community.

At times I have attempted to have honest and open discussions with such speakers (in private) about the dubious narrations. Unfortunately, many would seem to prefer the sacrifice of the prestige of the Prophet (s.a.s.), rather than that of their esteemed narrators and/or compilers, as if they were the infallible ones!

Allah alone is Infallible and He alone Knows the Truth behind every "re-narrated report". In Islam, qualifying any one besides Allah as an infallible individual would be a Shirk (the unpardonable sin of associating some one as equal to Allah).

5. A Closer Look at Some Dubious Hadiths


The Prophet and Knowledge of the Unseen

In preparing to examine various narrations, let us consider the following two hadiths from Sahih al-Bukhari:

Hadith 9:477 quoted below tells us that the Prophet did not have the knowledge of the unseen. Narrated by Masruq:
Aisha said, `If anyone tells you that Muhammad has seen his Lord, he is a liar, for Allah says: “No vision can grasp Him.” (Qur'an 6:103) And if anyone tells you that Muhammad has seen the Unseen, he is a liar, for Allah says: "None has the knowledge of the Unseen but Allah."

My Comments:
The above hadith has valid support from the verses of the Qur’an (10:20; 6:50). Hence, if there are narrations which directly and explicitly contradict the above statement made by Bibi 'Aisha and have no support from the verses of the Qur'an, then all such narrations need to be carefully re-examined if not rejected.

What could have prompted Bibi 'Aisha to make the above statement and denounce the narrators, calling the propagators liars? Obviously, there must have been false narrations circulating in the name of the Prophet, promoting the Prophet's knowledge of the unseen. Who could be the narrators of such lies? Clearly, some narrators who lived during the life of Bibi 'Aisha.

If for some reason, one is not ready to accept this logic because one has been conditioned to think otherwise, then one has to reject this hadith. And of course, if even one sound hadith is rejected, then all of the others are immediately suspect. We cannot pick and choose the hadiths to believe in as a matter of preference; rather the Qur’an must guide us. If all Muslims were to truly believe; Allah Alone has the knowledge of the unseen, some of the sub-Sects of Islam would lose their holds upon their followings.

Hadith 1:277 from Bukhari quoted below tells us otherwise and tells us that the Prophet had knowledge of, unseen, past events.

Narrated by Abu Hurayrah. The Prophet said, 'The (people of) Bani Israel used to take baths naked (all together)
looking at each other. The Prophet Moses used to take a bath alone. They said, 'By Allah! Nothing prevents Moses from taking a bath with us except that he has a scrotal hernia.' So once Moses went out to take a bath and put his clothes over a stone and then that stone ran away with his clothes. Moses followed that stone saying, "My clothes, O stone! My clothes, O stone! till the people of Bani Israel saw him and said, 'By Allah, Moses has got no defect in his body. Moses took his clothes and began to beat the stone." Abu Hurayrah added, "By Allah! There are still six or seven marks present on the stone from that excessive beating."

Abu Hurayrah Narrated:
The Prophet said, "When the Prophet Job (Aiyub) was taking a bath naked, golden locusts began to fall on him. Job started collecting them in his clothes. His Lord addressed him, 'O Job! Haven't I given you enough so that you are not in need of them.' Job replied, 'Yes!' By Your Honor (power)! But I cannot dispense with Your Blessings.' "

My Comments:
The above is not Qudsi hadith, that is, its source of knowledge does not go beyond the Prophet. The Qur’an does not reveal the details of what is narrated in this hadith. Anyone who has read biographical material on the Prophet can understand that he was not in the habit of telling his companions the stories of the earlier Prophets and/or their intimate conversations with Allah, unless revealed to him by Allah. The earlier verified hadith tells us that the Prophet had no knowledge of the unseen (future or past). Could the Prophet have narrated these things?

How did the narrator Abu Hurayrah know which particular stone ran away, more than a thousand years ago in a distant land with the clothes of Prophet Moses? It is unlikely that Abu Hurayrah could have traveled to the distant land, located the place of Bath, identified the stone and then actually seen the markings of the excessive beating on the stone "with his own eyes" to swear "By Allah"! (A Muslim is not likely to swear "By Allah" without first verifying the true facts with his own two eyes, especially when the story happens to be so unlikely.)

Dr. Jeffery Lang writes:

It is also hard not to question the authenticity of those accounts that seem incompatible with what one might expect of a prophet or that endorse something that seems to be extreme and unreasonable behavior. On top of all this, a Muslim is expected to accept the assertion that all the hadiths accepted by the majority of earlier and contemporary Muslim specialists are true and accurate reports of Prophet Muhammad's statements and actions.

This places many converts in the uncomfortable position of having to rationalize and then yield to a dogma that, because one is not supposed to question it, is very hard to believe in and often forces a compromise of one's commitment to the truth. (p. 81)
(From 'Struggling to Surrender - Some Impressions of an AmericanConvert to Islam', p. 81).

6. Hadith Seen as the Weak Link by Non-Muslims


Rejected narrations inserted later in Al-Bukhari?

Finally, there are many non Muslim Scholars and critics on Internet who have studied the Qur'an and the Hadith. Some are genuine scholars who point out the inconsistencies in Hadith literature as a matter of scholarly concern. Yet there are others whose primary motive is to shake the foundations of Muslim Brothers and Sisters, especially in the younger generation. When these non-Muslims have a hard time finding facts from the Revealed Verses of the Qur'an that cannot be rebutted, they simply turn to the next document in line, the collections of Hadith.

Well-known Christian critic Andrew Vargo has recorded the following observation on the internet website titled <answering-islam>:

As a matter of scholarly concern, it is interesting to note that Bukhari wrote a book about the narrators ( ‘Zuafa-us-sagher’ ).

What is even more interesting is that Bukhari's book condemns several narrators including: Ata bin abi Maimoona, Ayyub bin Aiz, Ismail bin Aban, Zubair bin Muhammad, At-Tayyimi, Saeed bin Urwa, Abdullah bin Abi Labeed, Abdul Malik bin Ameen, Abdul waris bin Saeed, Ata bin AsSaib bin Yazeed, and Khamsan bin Minhal as unreliable.

However, the Hadith-collection of Bukhari in its modern form actually includes many traditions narrated by these very individuals! Obviously, these traditions, which Bukhari rejected, were inserted in his book following his death.

7. My Response to Six Passages Sent by a Critic


A Muslim critic emails six passages
Before the publication of this book, I had placed on my Internet website (http://www.mostmerciful.com) an article on the subject of Hadith. A Muslim critic from British Columbia, Canada emailed the following passages from al-Baa’ithul Hatheeth Sharh Ikhtisaar ‘Uloomul Hadith. The writings are from the famous scholar : Al-Haafidh Ibn Katheer with commentary by: Shaykh Ahmad Muhammad Shaakir Al-Hamdulillah.

Passage Number One:
Al Haafidh Ibn Katheer said 17: Indeed it is mentioned in Saheeh Muslim from Abee Sa'eed al-Khudree in marfoo' form,
“Whoever writes from me something other than the Qur'an, then let him erase it.”

"Marfoo'" comes from the Arabic root word, 'rafa'a', which means: to be raised, or to raise. Marfoo' means something which is raised, in this case - a marfoo' narration is one that stops at a Companion in the chain of narration, but the text is such that none other than the Prophet (sallallaahu 'alayhi wa sallam) could have spoken it. It is used when the Companion does not state that he heard the narration from the Prophet (sallallaahu 'alayhi wa sallam), as is the case here.

My Response:
This narration does not give the reason for "erasing" whatever was written. However, there is another narration asking the Companions to "erase whatever was written" and here the reason given by the Prophet was so as not to follow the path of the people of the earlier Prophets. History records that the writings of the Rabbinic literature -the Talmud, did overshadow the Torah, which was revealed to the earlier Prophet Moses. The writings of Paul - the Epistles, did overshadow the Injeel [SUP]18[/SUP] that was revealed to Prophet Isa. In other words, the Prophet did not want his Ummah to repeat the same mistake of Creating a "Secondary Document" that would at a later date overshadow what was revealed to him.

Passage Number Two:

Al Bayhaqee and Ibnus Salaah and others have said: Perhaps the prohibition of that was for when it was feared that it would get mixed in with the Qur'an, and then afterwards it was secured from that. And Allah knows best.

My response:

The use of the word "Perhaps", and the phrase “Allah knows best" indicate that the above statement is based upon an assumption or a surmise. The statement has no supporting evidence that would qualify the passage as a definite statement of Truth and not a speculative conjecture.

Passage Number Three:
I say, that it has been established in the two Saheehs that the Messenger of Allah (sallallaahu 'alayhi wa sallam) said, 'Write for Abee Shaah.' And indeed we clarified this topic in the introductions of our first books. And for Allah is the praise.

My Response:

There are reports that when an individual had a weak memory, the Messenger of Allah gave such individual instructions. There are always exceptions to well-defined rules. Even within the Revealed Verses of the Qur’an, there are exceptions for certain groups of people for certain reasons. Such exceptions are not the norm and cannot be applied to everyone or to normal circumstances. This particular isolated incident concerned the writing of a Khutbah (the nature of which is different from that of the prophetic sayings or deeds). One cannot with all sincerity elevate an isolated instruction to a valid command from the Messenger, to repeal the earlier command; “Whoever writes from me something other than the Qur'an, then let him erase it.”

Passage Number Four:
Indeed it was related that scholars of later times agreed upon the permissibly of writing the hadiths, and this matter is exhaustive, widespread, and well known, without disapproval.

My response:
The Statement speaks of “agreement(s)” by and between the scholars. Such agreement(s) may be “exhaustive, widespread, and well known and without disapproval”, yet if they are applied to annul, rescind or invalidate a maroof Command of the Prophet, they have to be based upon a similar maroof or explicit Command by the Prophet. The Statement does not speak of receiving such a directive. Indeed, if there was a valid maroof or explicit narration for the permissibility of writing the hadiths then the need for such agreement was un-called for, redundant and superfluous. The Statement speaks of the scholars of later times but does not specify the time period(s) of such accord(s). It does not mention the names of the scholars that had reached an agreement. This agreement seems to be a kind of verbal thing because there is no mention of any written document or the text having been recorded. In absence of these essential data the quoted statement appears to be lacking the necessary support to rescind the earlier Command of the Prophet; 'Whoever writes from me something other than the Qur'an, then let him erase it.'

Passage Number Five:
Ibnus Salaah said,
“And from what has been narrated to us about it is that it was disliked by: 'Umar, and Ibn Mas'ood, and Zayd Ibn Thaabit, and Abu Moosaa, and Abu Sa'eed in a group of late comers from the Companions, and the following generation.”

My Response:
The above statement tells us that those who dislike the act of the "writing" of the hadiths are in the company of: Umar ibn al-Khattab - the second Caliph and a very close companion of the Prophet; Abd Allah Ibn Mas’ood an early convert and close companion of the Prophet. He was a prominent Qari who was also knowledgeable on the Shariah and the Sunnah of the Prophet. Zayd Ibn Thaabit was personal secretary to the Messenger and took dictation from him. Zayd was also appointed the head of a Commission that collected the verses of the Qur’an for the final compilation, under the direction of Caliph ‘Uthman. Abu Moosaa al-Ashari was a companion of the Prophet whose real name was Abdullah Ibn Qays Ibn Saleem. He was a reputable Faqih endowed with intelligence and could give sound judgement based upon the Qur'an, Sunnah and Hadith. He was also the
Governor of Basra. Abee Sa'eed al Khudree was the one who narrated the above quoted maroof hadith about erasing the "sayings of the Prophet" that had been written by the companions.

Passage Number Six:
He (Ibnus Salaah) also said,
“And from what has been reported to us regarding the permissibility of that or doing it: 'Ali, and his son al-Hasan, and Anas, and 'Abdullaah Ibn 'Umar Ibnul 'Aas in a group from amongst the Companions and the following generation.”

My response:
The above Statement tells us that those who like the idea of the writing of hadiths are in the company of: 'Ali Ibn Abi Talib, the cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet. He was among the earliest to convert. His eloquent sermons and letters are well preserved. He was very knowledgeable in the Qur'an. Al-Hasan Ibn 'Ali Ibn Abi Talib was the senior grandson of the Prophet from his daughter Fatima. The Prophet used to play with him and loved him. Anas Ibn Malik Al-Ansari was the brother of the famous valiant companion of the Prophet, Al-Baraa Ibn Malik Al-Ansari. ‘Abdullaah Ibn ‘Umar was son of Caliph ‘Umar and had joined the army of the prophet at very young age.

It is a natural response that these companions – perhaps those who were nearest him and loved him most – would want to preserve all that they could surrounding the life of their beloved Prophet. They could not have foreseen the chaos that would arise from these re-narrated reports.

From the Glorious Qur’an:
Most of them follow naught but conjecture. Assuredly conjecture can by no means take the place of truth. Lo! Allah is Aware of what they do. (Qur’an 10:36)

8. The Qur’an on Ludicrous Hadiths


Hadiths that mislead from the Path of Allah

Allah’s Command about Ludicrous Hadiths in the Qur’an:
But there are among men those who purchase idle tales without knowledge (or meaning) to mislead (men) from the Path of Allah and throw ridicule (on the Path): for such there will be a humiliating Penalty." Qur'an 31:6

The Arabic phrase translated by Yusuf Ali as "idle tales" is "lahw al-Hadeethi". In the Dictionary and Glossary of the Qur'an the word "lahw" is translated as "ludicrous (ridiculous)". The word "al-Hadeethi" is translated as "the narrative, the story, the tale, the event, the discourse, the saying, etc." In the literal sense this verse of the Qur'an tells us not to purchase (patronize) "ludicrous (ridiculous) hadiths" and mislead others from the Path of Allah, without knowledge of the real facts. Do not purchase (patronize) the "ludicrous (ridiculous) hadiths"... This is Allah's Command.

Here is the alternate literal translation of the verse 31: 6:

But there are among men those who patronize ridiculous hadiths without knowledge (thereby) misleading (men) from the Path of Allah and throwing a butt of mockery (on the Path): for such there will be a humiliating Penalty."

Ridiculous Hadiths that Undermine the Credibility of the Prophets

Narrated by Abu Hurayrah in Sahih Al-Bukhari 19.
Allah's Apostle said,
(The Prophet) Solomon once said, 'Tonight I will sleep with ninety women, each of whom will bring forth a (would-be) cavalier who will fight in Allah's Cause.' On this, his companion said to him, 'Say: Allah willing!' But he did not say Allah willing. Solomon then slept with all the women, but none of them became pregnant but one woman who later delivered a half-man. By Him in Whose Hand Muhammad's soul is, if he (Solomon) had said, 'Allah willing' (all his wives would have brought forth boys) and they would have fought in Allah's Cause as cavaliers.

My Comments:
Earlier we have observed that a hadith recorded in Sahih Muslim on the authority of Abu Hurayrah was regarded as Ma'lul (defective) because the reported saying was not of the Prophet but of Abu Hurayrah's friend named Ka'b al-Ahbar. This is recorded by Ibn Taimiyyah in Majmu' Fatawa. Ka'b al-Ahbar was a former Jew. The story of 'The Creation' narrated by Abu Hurayrah, was very similar to the version found in the Book of Genesis. We have also observed that a hadith recorded in Sahih al-Bukhari on the authority of Abu Hurayrah, in connection with the earlier Prophets Moses and Job, "both taking baths naked", is also a Ma'lul (defective) hadith. Such ludicrous tales of the earlier Prophets may also have been interpreted from the tales of the Jewish friends of Abu Hurayrah and not from the Prophet. The above preposterous and ludicrous narration in Sahih al-Bukhari, about the sexual exploits of the earlier Prophet Solomon on the authority of Abu Hurayrah, is also a Ma'lul hadith. One need not be a professor of mathematics to work out the probabilities of a person having "slept (had sex) with all the ninety women" in one night. Clearly, Abu Hurayrah has been influenced by stories from the Jews, although the hadith bears no resemblance to stories in the Hebrew Scriptures. Abu Hurayrah has repeated this ludicrous hadith six times, and they all are recorded in the Sahih al-Bukhari. Surprisingly, Abu Hurayrah has not been consistent in his narrations. He has given five different figures for the number of women Prophet Solomon "slept with in one night". In hadith 9: 561, there were sixty women; in hadith 4: 635, seventy women; in hadith 8: 634 and 711, ninety women; in hadiths 4: 74A and 7: 169, ninety-nine or one hundred women. The question is; which of the above narrations is authoritative and true? If you accept only one of the above listed narrations to be authoritative and true, then the rest of the recorded narrations have to be declared as non-authoritative and untrue. If one acknowledges all the recorded narrations to be authoritative and true then one has to accept not only this most unlikely story, but that the similar events were repeated on at least five different nights and narrated by the Prophet at least five times with five different figures. [SUP]20[/SUP] Imam Bukhari is said to have been extra meticulous in his collection. If so, could he have recorded all these self-contradicting narrations in his own work? If not, whose compilation is this and what other hadiths has this anonymous storyteller added to the collection?

The verses of the Glorious Qur'an revealed to the Prophet say:
To David We gave Solomon (for a son) how excellent in Our service! Ever did he turn (to Us)! ( Qur'an 38:30)

Having known and preached the above verse, the Prophet could not have narrated such a ludicrous story about the Prophet Solomon. The Prophet would not narrate any tale that would throw ridicule in the Path of Allah, after having preached verse number 6 of Sura Luqman. Do not turn away from Allah's Sign revealed in 31:6 and quoted above. In the subsequent verse Allah has described the fate of those who continue purchasing (patronizing) ludicrous hadiths and turn away in arrogance as if they did not hear the above quoted Message.

When Our Signs are rehearsed to such a one he turns away in arrogance as if he heard them not as if there were deafness in both his ears: announce to him a grievous Penalty. (Qur’an. 31:7)

Please bring to your remembrance the above Command of Allah whenever you hear or read any ludicrous or ridiculous hadith. Try not to patronize these kind of narrations (Hadiths). It is incorrect to contend that there are no ludicrous or ridiculous narrations within the authentic hadiths. In volume one of Sahih Al-Bukhari under books number 5 entitled ‘The Book Of Ghusl (Bath)’ and number 6 entitled ‘The Book Of Menses’, there are several narrations that are sexually so intimate and implicit that neither the Prophet nor any of his wife could have reported such preposterous reports to any narrator. It is the duty of every Muslim to defend the reputation and character of the Prophet from such
ludicrous re-narrated dubious reports.

“The Prophet is closer to the Believers than their own selves…” (Qur’an 33: 6)

The Vivid Stories of "Dajjal" and the "anti-Christ" in the Qur'an?

A short time ago, I was sent a complimentary copy of the recently published book entitled American Muslims: the new generation by Asma Gull Hasan. [SUP]21[/SUP] On page 58, I found the following passages on the subject ‘Jesus – Islam’s Messiah at the End of the World’.

The Qur’an describes the beginning of the end of the world: famine, storms, floods, vandalism, and rampant immorality prompting the arrival of Dajjal, the name of the anti-Christ in the Qur’an. Dajjal is described as a monster of God’s creation, brought into existence by, and as an expression of, man’s increasing savagery…

Dajjal’s reign of terror lasts only forty days, however, because God sends Jesus down from Heaven on a white horse with a lance in his hand to save the world for the righteous people… Jesus’ throne will also be lowered to Earth from Heaven… Jesus will lead an army of the righteous against Dajjal, who will be defeated by this army but will manage to escape. Nevertheless, Jesus finds Dajjal and kills him with God’s lance. Significantly, neither the terms "Dajjal" and "anti-Christ" nor the vividly described futuristic events associated with these personalities appear within the Glorious Qur'an. However, the above terms and the events similar to the ones mentioned by the author - a young educated Muslim student - appear within the Hadith literature. The confusion is obvious because the vividly described gripping stories of Dajjal and anti-Christ are narrated in nearly one hundred or so hadiths. They are often repeated in the sermons at the Mosques to warn the worshippers of the future calamities and foretell the eventual solution for the Islamic Ummah.

The author's contention that the quoted passage is or could be the interpretation of the verses of the Qur'an is specious since the main characters and activities - the animal (white horse), the object (God's Lance) and the described durations of the events - are not to be found in the Qur'an.

Isra’iliyat Narrations within Hadiths and Commentaries

Earlier in this article we examined an "Isra'iliyat" (of Jewish or Judeo-Christian origin) narration that had been introduced within Sahih Muslim (Book 38:6707). The implanted material promotes the "Creation Story" from the Torah. The following "Isra'iliyat Narration" within Sahih Al-Bukhari that promotes the "Law of Moses" also asserts that the Qur'an is incomplete. Since this is a very serious allegation, I wish to direct your attention toward recorded evidence from the books written by Muslim scholars that confirm that some Jews used to manufacture hadiths and write tafseer of the Qur'an. Dr.Suhaib Hasan writes in his book, An Introduction to the Science of Hadith:

…[W]hen the second caliph, Umar bin al- Khattab decided to expel the Jews from Khaibar, some Jewish dignitaries brought a document to Umar apparently proving that the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) had intended that they stay there by exempting them from the jizyah (tax on non-Muslims under the rule of Muslims); the document carried the witness of two Companions, Sa'd bin Mu’adh and Mu'awiyah b. Abi Sufyan. Umar rejected the document outright, knowing that it was fabricated because the conquest of Khaibar took place in 6 AH, whereas Sa'd bin Mu’adh died in 3 AH just after the Battle of the Trench, and Mu'awiyah embraced Islam in 8 AH, after the conquest of Makkah! (pp 49-50)

Interestingly enough the footnote to this text speaks of the repeated attempts by Jews to deceive Muslims. Ibn al-Qayyim mentions more than ten clear indications of the forgery of the document, which the Jews repeatedly attempted to use to deceive the Muslims over the centuries, but each time a scholar of Hadth intervened to point out the forgery - such incidents occurred with Ibn Jarr al-Tabar (d. 310), al-Khatb al-Baghdd (d. 463) and Ibn Taimiyyah (d. 728), who spat on the document as it was unfolded from beneath its silken covers. [SUP]22[/SUP]

Dr. Yusuf Qaradawi Thaqafat al-Da'iah, in his book, Mu'saasat al-Resalah [SUP]23[/SUP] observes:

Because the Jews were defeated militarily by the Muslims and wanting to resist by using another weapon --an intellectual one-- they slipped in the Isra'iliyat (narrations and tafseers) and, within a short period, the Muslim books were full of it. Dr. Muhammad Husayn al-Dhahabi, in his book, Al-Tafsir wal-Mufassirun, Volume 1, [SUP]24[/SUP] has recorded the fact that Wahb ibn Munabbih ibn Kamil Sanani al-Yamani, his brother Hammam ibn Munabbih (who is reported to have written 138 Hadiths in his Sahifa), Ka'b ibn Mati al-Himyari, Abu Ishaq also known as Ka'b al-Ahbar, and other converts from the “People of the Book” introduced into the Muslim's creed the Israiliyah traditions from their own books. Similar evidence is also found in Muhammad Abd-elGhani Hasan's book Attarikh 'end al-Musleman. It is also known that Wahb ibn Munabbih and Ka'b al-Ahbar taught the Tafseer of the Qur'an to Muslims. Scholars like Abdullah ibn Ma'sud had warned people not to learn the Tafseer of the Qur'an from the
“People of the Book,” because they used to interpolate their own biblical beliefs,teachings and history with the Islamic creeds and preaching.

It is now time that we Muslims of this century try to distinguish the authentic material from the material that was implanted centuries ago.

Hadiths that assert the Qur’an is incomplete

The following text appears in Sahih Al-Bukhari Volume 8, Book 86, The Book of AlHudud, Hadith No. 6829 [SUP]25[/SUP]. Please note that the following narration is not the saying of the Prophet, but is claimed to be that of Umar ibn al-Khattab (r.a.). He is alleged to have spoken this passage after the death of the Prophet. Since the documents have been forged in the name of the Prophet then it would have been an easy matter for a forger to fabricate unrecorded spoken words of a companion of the Prophet as well as to forge the names of the narrators.

Hadith narrated by Ibn 'Abbas. Caliph 'Umar said,
I am afraid that after a long time has passed, people may say, 'We do not find the Verses of the Rajam (stoning to death) in the Holy Book,' and consequently they may go astray by leaving an obligation that Allah has revealed. Lo! I confirm that the penalty of Rajam be inflicted on him who commits illegal sexual intercourse, if he is already married and the crime is proved by witnesses or pregnancy or confession." Sufyan added, "I have memorized this narration in this way." 'Umar added, "Surely Allah's Apostle carried out the penalty of Rajam, and so did we after him. The extended text of the above report appears in the next hadith 86.6830 (8-817). It is also narrated by Ibn 'Abbas. The obvious questions that would arise after reading the above text are: What is the penalty prescribed in the Qur'an for those who commit illegal sexual intercourse? Is that a substituted penalty for the abrogated or caused to be forgotten, earlier penalty of "stoning to death"? Did the Prophet and his companions in fact carry out the penalty of "stoning to death" as narrated?

The Qur’an on adultery

The woman and the man guilty of adultery or fornication flog each of them with a hundred stripes: let not compassion move you in their case in a matter prescribed by Allah if ye believe in Allah and the Last Day: and let a party of the Believers witness their punishment. Let no man guilty of adultery or fornication marry any but a woman similarly guilty or an Unbeliever, nor let any but such a man or an Unbeliever marry such
a woman: to the Believers such a thing is forbidden. Q.24:2-3 (Translation by Yusuf Ali)

My Comments:
1. The above Command does not state that the penalty prescribed is a substituted penalty for the earlier revealed penalty for the same crime (sin). Neither the quoted Hadith nor the commentaries to the Qur'an has recorded the text of the so called abrogated or caused to be forgotten Verses of "stoning to death".

2. The quoted verses of the Qur'an speak of "marriage" for the guilty parties. That fact conclusively proves that Allah has Himself granted the guilty parties an opportunity to live on within the society and have a family life. Also the fact that Allah has forbidden the Believers from marrying the adulterer or adulteress clearly indicates that men and women who had committed these sins were not being killed but were spared and allowed to live on. In the translation by M. M. Pickthall the guilty man and guilty woman are called adulterer and adulteress. The punishment of flogging is commanded for both - man and woman. The punishment of flogging is commanded for fornication and adultery.

3. If one was to assert, based upon the recorded text of the hadith, that stoning to death was indeed the prevalent penalty even after the death of the Prophet, ("Surely Allah's Apostle carried out the penalty of Rajam, and so did we after him.") then one has but to admit that either Umar and his party ("we") had been knowingly disobeying the above command of flogging or they had never heard the verses of Sura An-Nur which were most probably revealed in the latter half of 6 A.H. These are most unlikely stories in either case. When a question was asked if Allah's Apostle carried out the penalty of Rajam, (stoning to death) before or after the revelation of Sura An-Nur, the answer given by 'Abdullah bin Abi Aufa was "I don't know". (see Sahih Al-Bukhari 8: 804 and 8: 824).

4. There are lengthy arguments presented by the upholders of the Hadith such as; Whenever Allah wants to abrogate His earlier Command He makes us forget it (verses 2:106 and 16:101 of the Qur'an) or the earlier text is expunged or removed from the Qur'an in some mysterious manner, as for an example; A goat ate up the page or leaf on which the missing Verses of stoning to death were written! (Note: The question is: what about the reciters who had memorized the entire Qur'an?). There is also a hadith in Sahih Al-Bukhari (5: 188), which records that the Prophet had joined a group of stoning monkeys and had personally stoned a she-monkey who had committed illegal sexual intercourse. {Note: Allah has forbidden the purchase of ludicrous hadith. (Qur'an 31:6)

There are several narrations in Sahih Al-Bukhari stating that the Prophet had asked for the guilty Jewish individuals to be stoned to death, when he was informed of the fact that this was the prescribed punishment for them in Torah. However, none of these arguments and examples can or does change the undeniable fact that the penalty prescribed in Sura an-Nur is the final known Command on this subject. It is inconceivable that Umar who was known for his strict discipline could have personally disobeyed the final Command of Sura An-Nur and instead observed a hypothetical earlier Command that was not in the Book.

5. The text of the fabricated narration records that it was the wish and desire of Umar to re-insert the verses of the Rajam (stoning to death) in the Qur'an, so that the future generations might not go astray by leaving an obligation that Allah has revealed. If for some reason or reasons, one was adamant in his or her claim that whatever is compiled within Sahih Al-Bukhari has to be nothing but authentic then he or she must also believe that spoken words of Umar are hundred percent authentic and those who are reciting and reading the Qur'an complied and circulated by Khalifa 'Uthman have certainly gone astray. I hope he or she knows what that in reality means!

6. This narration could have been inserted by interested parties who sought support from the Prophet for the Mosaic Law of Rajam.

7. Allah has undertaken to protect the Qur'an from corruption and He has done so. The hadith insinuates that the verses of Rajam are missing from the Qur’an. Consider. (Allah wants the believers to think and then decide). Should one uphold anything that directly, indirectly or remotely give rise to a totally unsubstantiated assertion that the Qur’an is incomplete? It is now time that we Muslims of this century try to distinguish the authentic material from the fabricated material in the corpus of Hadith.

We have without doubt sent down the Message; and We will assuredly guard it (from corruption) (Qur’an 15: 9)

Praise be to Allah Who hath sent to His Servant the Book and hath allowed therein no Crookedness. (Qur’an 18: 1)


9. Hadith and Qur’an in Contradiction


Eight major areas of contradiction between the Qur’an and Hadith literature

Below I have only given the headings of these topics and the list of narrations from Hadiths that contradict the verses of the Qur'an. Brother Mohammed Abdul Malik has published texts of these narrations and the Quranic verses they contradict and his comments. [SUP]26[/SUP]

Punishment for adultery:

Al-Bukhari: 8.816; 3.885
Al-Qur'an: 24:2; 24:5-9

Extremely adverse comments supposedly made by the Prophet against women:

Al-Bukhari: 1.301; 7.30; 1.490;
Muslim 1032, 1034;
Abu Da’ud 703
Al-Qur'an 2.223; 4.19; 16.97; 33.35; 48:5-6

To approach women during their menses, for sexual purposes:
Al-Bukhari: 1.298; 1.299
Al-Qur'an: 2.222

Aspects of character ascribed to the Prophet:

Al-Bukhari: 7.590; 7:252/253/254; 9.130

The circumstances under which and when the parts of Qur'an were supposedly to have been revealed:

Al-Bukhari: 6.209; 6.203
Al-Qur'an: 11:114; 11:5

Celestial Science:

Al-Bukhari: 4.421
Al-Qur'an: 36:38

The companions of the Prophet:

Al-Bukhari: 5.546
Al-Qur'an: 48:29; 8:63

Can anyone intercede on our behalf:

Al-Bukhari: 8.567 & 571; 1.98; 1.331; 5.224; 6.242
Muslim 389, 747, 2071, 2516
Al-Qur'an: 39.44; 2.254/255; 25.30; 2.48 &123; 6.51/70/94; 9.114; 7.188; 7.53; 21.100;
30.13; 34.23; 11.46; 46.9; 36.23; 40:18; 43.86; 74.48; 111.1/3; 35.14; 10.3; 19.87;
20.109; 21.28


10. Further Fascinating Facts and Observations from Muslim Scholars

Dr. Sayed Abdul Wadud:

In his book 'Conspiracies Against the Qur’an' [SUP]27[/SUP] Dr. Wadud has made some interesting observations on the subject of Hadith. The author records: Origin of the Above-said Conspiracy –

Now let us see how and when this conspiracy against the Quran started. There was no collection of Ahadis present during the time of Muhammad
(s.a.s.), nor was it compiled during the Caliphate of the first four Caliphs. Such collections were rather strongly resisted at that time. Even during the Caliphate of Bani Umaya no such thing ever existed. These collections made their first appearance during the Abbasid Caliphate.

Dr. Wadud finds it noteworthy that the Six Collections that are said to be the utterance of the Rasool (s.a.s.), but none of those who collected them was an Arab: they are all Persians. There was no written recorded of what was collected. The collections were made 250 years after the death of Rasool (s.a.s.) depending on what was verbally related by the people all around.

The chart below adapted from Dr. Wadud’s work. (p. 53), shows that Muhammad ibn Ismail al-Bukhari, Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj al-Qushayri, Muhammad ibn Isa at-Tirmidhi, Abu Da’ud as-Sijistani, Muhammed ibn Majah and Ahmad ibn Shu’ayb an-Nasai were all residents of Persia:



Name of Composer Resident of Died in Year Hadiths Collected Hadith Published
Al-BukhariBokhara260 A.H6000002762
MuslimNeshapur261 A.H.3000004348
TirmidhiTirmaz279 A.H.3000003115
Abu Da’udSistan275 A.H5000004800
Ibn MajaQazveen273 A.H4000004000
NasaiVillage in Khurasan303 A.H.2000004321

One more observation by Dr. Wadud:

[Hadiths] are supposed to be the collection of the sayings and deeds of the Rasool. But had the Rasool himself taken any step to make them a part of “Deen”? Did he try to preserve them as he did in the case of the Qur’an? The answer is that he did not take any step towards the preservation of anything except the Qur’an. He never asked the people to note down all that he said, he never asked them to learn his sayings by heart. He never tried to satisfy himself, whether they remembered all that he said correctly. In fact he never made any arrangement for the safe preservation of his own sayings for the future. (p.17)

Dr. Murad Wilfried Hofmann

Dr. Hofmann was born into a Roman Catholic family in Germany. In 1980, at the age of fifty, he embraced Islam. Since then he has written several books on Islam in English and German, some of which are also available in Arabic. In his book, Islam 2000. [SUP]28[/SUP] Dr.Hofmann has made a number of scholarly observations that give a clear message to the Muslim ummah:

Any “modern” Muslim will be full of admiration for what our forefathers achieved in collecting, sifting, compiling, and classifying the traditions concerning what Muhammad said, did, or tolerated. Also, no Muslim may deny that the Prophet did not only transmit but explained the divine message received by him, even through his behavior. At the same time, it is a truism to state that Sunni, Shi’ite, and Ibadi Muslims do not honor the same compilations of ahadith, for each group holds onto its own set, which is not fully compatible with the others. And,
of course, while we know how much pious scholars like al Bukhari and Muslim battled to weed out forged ahadith, who can be sure that they were entirely successful?

Doubts are justified, because the six orthodox hadith collections were all assembled by the same criteria. In particular, out of sheer veneration of the Companions of the Prophet, isnad (chain of transmission) and matn (text) critique did not go as far as it would have if modern linguistic and sociohistorical analysis had been applied.

Given the fact that tens of thousands of fabricated hadiths circulated within two centuries of the Prophet’s death, we simply have to admit that the Sunnah is not as reliable as we would all wish it to be. Let us be cruelly sober: Someone clever and ruthless enough to fabricate the matn of a hadith – be it for political or “pious” reasons – would he not be clever and ruthless enough to also fabricate its isnad?

And do we not all virtually smell that something is fishy with certain political ahadith, in particular those favoring ‘Ali, or Mu’awiyah, or men over women. Do we not feel more “comfortable” with the realism of traditions by A’isha and smile about some reported from the somewhat childish perspective of the lovable Abu Hurayrah? (pp.68-69)

Dr. Shabbir Ahmed, M. D.

In his book, 'The Criminals of Islam', [SUP]29[/SUP] at the end of an opening chapter entitled: “Wrongs from the ‘Right’ Bukhari”, Dr. Ahmed writes the following after quoting numerous passages from Al-Bukhari that are either “disturbing” or “grave insult to aesthetics and common sense”:

This chapter was only a glimpse from the voluminous Bukhari. Can you believe that even today there are people on God’s Earth according to whom denying a single narrative of Bukhari and Muslim ahadith instantly renders a Muslim into a Kaafir (infidel)?

An Islamic Website:

A comprehensive detailed analysis of the twenty-five most commonly quoted hadiths by the believers that are in reality “weak, fabricated and baatil ahaadeeth”, along with the scrutiny of their narrators and the chains of narrations is placed on an Islamic website <www.allaahuakbar.net>. The primary interest of this website is “Correcting Misconceptions about Islaam and Refuting the Lies and Distortions of Enemies within and outside Islaam”. The entire list of these hadiths with the analysis is to be found under the URL:
http://www.allaahuakbar.net/ahaadeeth/weak_fabricated_&_baatil_ahaadeeth.htm

My Personal Observations:

In 1989, I published the book: 'Understanding the Bible – through Koranic messages'.
In the concluding chapter, the following passage appears. It is as true and relevant today as it was then.

The history of Judaism tells us that about seventeen centuries after the death of Moses the professional scribes (soferim) and rabbis constituted the heart of rabbinic Judaism. They introduced the Mishna – the corpus of legal and other matters. These rabbinical teachings became the basis for the Talmud. The Jerusalem Talmud was based upon Galilean Gemara (commentaries, traditions, history and folklore) and the Babylonian Talmud was based upon Iraqi Gemara. The combination of these two
Aramaic commentaries along with the authoritative teachings of rabbi Judah ha-Nasi became a document of growing authority over the Torah (the “Law”). The respect these rabbinic works gained, during the second and third century C.E. has guided Judaism since then. The religious courts of Jews have since then recognized them as unrivalled documents. The Koran tells us that Jews have imposed upon themselves several customs and practices that God never intended. They are self-imposed hardships.

From an Islamic point of view, if at any date in the future any categorized document of the reported Hadith was to become a document of growing authority over the Koran, like the Talmud, then Islam would also be deviating from the path of true Islam. At times Muslims do impose upon themselves additional hardships and burdens that the Koran had never dictated. One does notice, on rare occasions, incidents of such improprieties and imposed hardships, but one has to think twice before raising one’s voice against deeply rooted national customs and traditional practices and being labeled as a heretic.

11. The Future of Hadith


The Crisis

Each and every believing Muslim would no doubt agree that if there is a conflict, the Qur’an should always take precedence over the Hadith. So, why are these contradictory narrations yet published and circulated?

This study has conclusively demonstrated that the Hadith literature in circulation today has major flaws. The resultant effects are:
The Muslim Ummah is being misled into believing or practicing things that they should not.

The opponents of Islam and the enemies of the Prophet, have material with which to tarnish the images of Islam and the Prophet and thereby confuse a young pious generation of Muslims by quoting narration after narration on the Internet.

These ridiculous hadiths can seriously challenge the minds of new converts and also of those who are about to join the 'Deen of Allah'. Muslims doing the work of Daw'ah or Public Debate may have considerable difficulty defending the quoted weak, faulty or implanted narrations.

The Corrective

The best action to resolve this dilemma would be to withdraw all the narrations that are in circulation and replace them with authentic and approved reprinted hadiths. Today, the Ummah is divided. There is no leadership that can enforce what is good for the Ummah and eradicate what needs to be eradicated. In other words the essential task of revision may be a distant possibility and not for our generation, as I envisage.

The next best thing that concerned (overwhelmed) Muslims, young and old, men and women can do is to propagate widely and loudly the true facts concerning the Hadith literature without fear of being outcast or labeled as apostate. The majority of ordinary
Muslims who read or hear these Narrations must be made aware of the fact that each and every narration published and circulated today cannot be accepted at its face value. The names and reputations of the compilers do not necessarily legitimize their narrations. To think or propagate otherwise would be to say that these compilers were the infallible individuals. Allah alone is Infallible. Anything that is in conflict with or contradicts the Revealed Verses should be immediately discarded irrespective of who is the preacher, narrator or compiler. If one is unwilling or hesitant to discard such narrations then in reality one has inadvertently disregarded the revealed text that reads; "Allah's guidance is the (only) guidance…” (Qur’an 6: 71). Readers should be encouraged to develop the critical tools necessary to look for faulty hadiths and remove them from oral circulation. Muslim scholars need to address this most pressing issue that undermines all facets of Islamic life and experience.

12. Conclusion


This study of Hadith literature is critical, as the title suggests. Yet one can hardly overlook the fact that it is primarily based upon the research of Muslim scholars of our era. These most recent Islamic works collectively suggest that there are many “re-narrated”
reports attributed to the Prophet that leave us with unanswered questions. In this era of cyberspace communications, global exchanges of views, and sophisticated textual analysis, the excuse of insufficient data is no longer true or acceptable. The traditional attitude that only scholars are competent to interpret dubious narrations merely evades the serious issues facing the Ummah.

Islam takes pride in being a lucid, rational and above all easy to understand faith. Consequently, attempts by the traditionalist or Ulemas to either suppress or criticize thinking Muslims who have reservations about these dubious narratives so closely related to the Prophet’s life run contrary to our tradition. It would be a judicious decision to face the uncertainties and doubts as they were faced in the third and fifth centuries Hijri and re-examine the unreliable narrations. These should be weeded out and no longer
promoted as authentic reports. The dialogue has already begun – in cyberspace.

Akbarally Meherally

May Allah Guide the Ummah to HIS DEEN
based upon HIS REVEALED WORDS. Ameen.
http://www.mostmerciful.com

________________________________________________________________
3
For details see pg. 41, 'Criticism of Hadith among Muslims with reference to Sunan ibn Maja' by Dr.
Suhaib Hasan Abdul Ghaffar, published jointly by Ta-Ha Publishers and Al-Qur'an Society, London,
England, quoting reference to the source document al--Baith al-Hathith by Ibn Kathir pg. 79
4
‘Introduction to the Science of Hadith' by Dr. Suhaib Hasan Abdul Ghaffar (page 50), published by
Darussalam, Box 22743, Riyadh 11416, Saudi Arabia.
5
Please read ‘Criticism of Hadith among Muslims with reference to Sunan ibn Maja' by Dr. Suhaib Hasan,
pg. 106 for details, author's source document is Ikhtisar Ulum al-Hadith by Ibn Kathir, pg. 82.
6
Published by IQRA' International Education Foundation, Skokie, IL, 60077, USA (p. 29). One such
hadith is quoted later on page 76.
7
From ‘110 Hadith Qudsi’. Hadith No. 8 on page 19/20. Translated by Syed Masood-ul-Hasan, Revision
and Commentaries by Ibrahim M. Kunna, published by Darussalam, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in 1996/1417H.
8
No. 38:6707; 4:2149; 4:1462 of Sahih Muslim.
http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/fundamentals/hadithsunnah/muslim/038.smt.html#038.6707
9
Published from Lahore, Pakistan, Vol. 9, No: 10, pp:48-49.
http://www.renaissance.com.pk/
10 The answer was given by the editor, Shehzad Saleem.
11 This is recorded in ‘Hadith Literature: Its Origin, Development and Special Feature’ by Muhammad
Zubayr Siddiqui.
12 Sahih Al-Bukhari’ Arabic-English translated by Dr. Muhammad Muhsin Khan, publishers Darussalam,
Vol. 1, pp. 18/19.
13 Quoted from: 'Studies in Hadith Methodology and Literature' by M. A. Azami, published by Islamic
Book Trust, Kuala Lumpur, page 92.
14 'The Translation of the Meanings of SAHIH AL-BUKHARI Arabic - English' Translated by Dr.
Muhammad Muhsin Khan, published by DARUSSALAM, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The text of the Hadith
and the footnote appear in Volume 7, Book 76 Entitled 'The Book of Medicine', Chapter 58, Hadith
Number 5782, Pg. 372.
15 Mulla Ali Qari is a Sunni Alim and this book is a commentary on Imam Abu Hanifa’s book of Islamic
laws FIQH AKBAR.
16 Amana Publications Beltsville, Maryland, USA.
17 The above is taken from al-Baa'ithul Hatheeth Sharh Ikhtisaar 'Uloomul Hadeeth p. 129-130.
18 The term “Injeel” used in the Qur’an may literally translate “Gospel”. Specifically, it refers to the
‘Gospel of the Kingdom of God’ preached by Jesus Christ (see Mark 1:14), as opposed to the four gospels
according to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
19 Hadith no. 8:634 as per CD Alim.
20 The above-mentioned numberings for the hadiths are from the computer CD Alim. The numberings may
vary in the printed volumes of Sahih al-Bukhari.
21 Hasan, Asma Gull. The Continuum International Publishing Group Inc, New York, NY 10017. ISBN 0-
8264-1279-3, Year 2000.
22 See Ibn al-Qayyim, al-Manar al-Munif fi 'l- Sahih wa 'l-Dacif (ed. A.F. Ab Ghuddah, Lahore,
1402/1982), pp. 102-105 for a fuller discussion.
23 Published from Beirut, page 41.
24 Published by Dar al-Qalam, Beirut.
25 In the computer CD Alim the number is 8: 816.
26 ‘A Study of the Qur’an’ by Mohammed Abdul Malek. ISBN 0 9530907 2 8 For details please see pages
137 to 154.
27 Khalid Publishers, Lahore, Pakistan, 1990, pg. 53.
28 Amana Publications, Beltsville, MD, USA, 1996.
29 Galaxy Publications, Lauderhill. Florida, USA Year 2000, see pages 4 to 13 www.galaxydastak.com

Source
 
Last edited:

30-Maar Khan

Senator (1k+ posts)
Brother u have said Shia should keep away whereas The Sunnies even can't read it fully due to its lenth..Too much to read mate
 

hmkhan

Senator (1k+ posts)



اس تھریڈ پرآن کردیکھا جومیں نےجھانک کر
میں یہ سمجھا ہو گی کوئی یہ تمہید مختصر
کھول کر دیکھا جومیں نےاس قدر طویل تھی
نیل کے ساحل سے لیکر تابخاک کاشغر

 

Pakistani1947

Chief Minister (5k+ posts)
Brother u have said Shia should keep away whereas The Sunnies even can't read it fully due to its lenth..Too much to read mate

اس تھریڈ پرآن کردیکھا جومیں نےجھانک کر
میں یہ سمجھا ہو گی کوئی یہ تمہید مختصر
کھول کر دیکھا جومیں نےاس قدر طویل تھی
نیل کے ساحل سے لیکر تابخاک کاشغر



Islam teaches us different ways to attain success. One best way is to seek Islamic knowledge based on the Qur'an and the Sunnah. We need to spend time, money, efforts, emotions and patience to learn authentic knowledge of Islam not only for our own success but also to be able to share it to others, especially to our children.

Narrated Malik bin Huwairth: I came to the Prophet with some men from my tribe and stayed with him for twenty nights. He was kind and merciful to us. When he realized our longing for our families, he said to us, "Go back and stay with your families and teach them the religion, and offer the prayer and one of you should pronounce the Adhan for the prayer when its time is due and the oldest one amongst you should lead the prayer." (Sahih Bukhari; Book #11, Hadith #601)




 

QaiserMirza

Chief Minister (5k+ posts)
We need to spend time, money, efforts, emotions and patience to learn authentic knowledge of Islam not only for our own success but also to be able to share it to others
 

Username

Senator (1k+ posts)
The real questions have not been discussed. They're never discussed

1. Imam Mohammad Bukhari wrote his book around 210-240 years after Prophet SAW had, supposedly, uttered those words.
Average age of Arabs back then was less than 60, based on available data.
In 240 years there had passed around 6 generations from Prophet to Bukhari.
ALL of the companions of Prophet SAW had died within 30 years of Prophet's death. ALL of Them. None was alive.

How did Bukhari establish validity and authenticity of the word of Prophet SAW with a gap of 240 years and 6 generations?



On average Bukhari quoted 5 people in one Hadith. In total he quoted aound 36,000 people.
How could all of the 36,000 people be correct and precise?


Bukhari met only one person for one Hadith, face to face. That very person told him a Hadith and then told him the chain of Hadith. Bukhari thought highly of that man so believed him but how could Bukhari establish a precise opinion about rest of the four persons mentioned in the chain who had passed away?
In fact Bukhari COMPLETLY relied on the last person of the chain. He had no way to meet and assess the rest of the four narrators of the chain.


How did Bukhari established a good or bad opinion about the last narrators that he met? Most of them were unknown to him, living in different cities and coming from different background.
Did Bukhari inquired about the reputation of the person?
Who told him the person in question had never lied?
What if the person who is telling Bukhari that the narrator is not a liar, is a liar himself?



We know that sects had formed by then. Hatred between different sects of Islam was at its peak. It was an era of lies. How did Bukhari establish the authenticity of a Hadith in this great mess and hatred?


There's different kind of dispositions of men. Some are over- enthusiastic and some are shy. Some are forceful and some are passive. Some are expressive, some are introverts. Some feel derived of attention and wanna be one important by doing something different or stating Ahadith, let's say.
Did Bukhari analysed "Behavioural Patterns" of the narrators? What if some of the narrators were over- enthusiasts and because of human tendency of exaggeration, they "Over Stated" things.



Who said that these Ahadith are "Sahih"?
The first one was Bukhari himself. Who were next?
Those who came AFTER Bukhari, how could they know whether it was an Authentic book or not?
 

Pakistani1947

Chief Minister (5k+ posts)
The article/ book quoted is not written by " main stream" Scholar.

Brother, it is not important who is saying but what he is saying. The author has raised some valid points now it is up to us to keep fighting to a level where some of us declares other Kafir. The intolerance is at its peak, some justify even killing of other sects. Jahil Peers and Mullah has hijacked majority of the community.

The other option is to critically analyze the collection of Hadith Books (starting from Siha Sitta) and mark the Hadith with weak/broken chain etc. Those Hadiths may be kept in the same Books but it should be made mandatory to put classification of Haith beside the text, such as Sahih, Hasan, Da`if, Maudu. This will eliminate the building of basic Islamic believes on the basis of weak Hadiths and hence reduce the tendency of splitting into various different sects of Islam which is Haram in Islam.

The Glorious Qur'an says :

إِنَّ الَّذِينَ فَرَّقُوا دِينَهُمْ وَكَانُوا شِيَعًا لَّسْتَ مِنْهُمْ فِي شَيْءٍ ۚ إِنَّمَا أَمْرُهُمْ إِلَى اللَّهِ ثُمَّ يُنَبِّئُهُم بِمَا كَانُوا يَفْعَلُونَ
Yusuf Ali 159: As for those who divide their religion and break up into sects, thou hast no part in them in the least: their affair is with Allah. He will in the end tell them the truth of all that they did. [Al-Qur'an 6:159]
جنہوں نے اپنے دین کو ٹکڑے ٹکڑے کر دیا اور کئی جماعتیں بن گئے تیرا ان سے کوئی تعلق نہیں اس کا کام الله ہی کے حوالے ہے پھر وہی انہیں بتلائے گا جو کچھ وہ کرتے تھے


Now, regarding the author of the article, he was originally born in Ismaili family but later accepted main stream Islam.

He himself mentions in his Biodata:

"At the end of 1988, based upon my advanced studies and the most recent discoveries, I published 'Understanding Ismailism'. Shortly after its publication, in December 1988, the honorary secretary of the Aga Khan's Ismaili Council for British Columbia filed a "Complaint" before the Aga Khan's Conciliation and Arbitration Board. The Complainant had asked the Board to recommend my expulsion from the community, under the Ismaili Constitution that is ordained by Karim Aga Khan. In March 1989, before the Board could pass a judgement of ex-communication, I publicly withdrew my oath of allegiance to Karim Aga Khan, upon the advice of my lawyers." source (9th Paragraph)

" By the Grace of Allah (SWT), my wife and I are now Sunni Muslims." source (14th Paragraph)

 

Pakistani1947

Chief Minister (5k+ posts)
Refuting The Argument That The Hadith Have Been Collected 200 Years After The Death Of The Prophet And Therefore Are Unreliable

The real questions have not been discussed. They're never discussed

1. Imam Mohammad Bukhari wrote his book around 210-240 years after Prophet SAW had, supposedly, uttered those words.
Average age of Arabs back then was less than 60, based on available data.
In 240 years there had passed around 6 generations from Prophet to Bukhari.
ALL of the companions of Prophet SAW had died within 30 years of Prophet's death. ALL of Them. None was alive.

How did Bukhari establish validity and authenticity of the word of Prophet SAW with a gap of 240 years and 6 generations?

On average Bukhari quoted 5 people in one Hadith. In total he quoted aound 36,000 people.
How could all of the 36,000 people be correct and precise?

Bukhari met only one person for one Hadith, face to face. That very person told him a Hadith and then told him the chain of Hadith. Bukhari thought highly of that man so believed him but how could Bukhari establish a precise opinion about rest of the four persons mentioned in the chain who had passed away?
In fact Bukhari COMPLETLY relied on the last person of the chain. He had no way to meet and assess the rest of the four narrators of the chain.

How did Bukhari established a good or bad opinion about the last narrators that he met? Most of them were unknown to him, living in different cities and coming from different background.
Did Bukhari inquired about the reputation of the person?
Who told him the person in question had never lied?
What if the person who is telling Bukhari that the narrator is not a liar, is a liar himself?

We know that sects had formed by then. Hatred between different sects of Islam was at its peak. It was an era of lies. How did Bukhari establish the authenticity of a Hadith in this great mess and hatred?

There's different kind of dispositions of men. Some are over- enthusiastic and some are shy. Some are forceful and some are passive. Some are expressive, some are introverts. Some feel derived of attention and wanna be one important by doing something different or stating Ahadith, let's say.
Did Bukhari analysed "Behavioural Patterns" of the narrators? What if some of the narrators were over- enthusiasts and because of human tendency of exaggeration, they "Over Stated" things.

Who said that these Ahadith are "Sahih"?
The first one was Bukhari himself. Who were next?
Those who came AFTER Bukhari, how could they know whether it was an Authentic book or not?

Refuting The Argument That The Hadith Have Been Collected 200 Years After The Death Of The Prophet And Therefore Are Unreliable

Shaykh Shahidullah Faridi says...

The first of the criticisms which are now commonly being directed against the Hadith is that they were not collected in the time of the Prophet or of the Khulafa' al-Rashidun, and that during the period between the utterance or occurrence of their contents and their being recorded in writing there was every chance of their being materially altered. Some have even gone so far as to say that they were not recorded because they were unreliable. That in the earlier stages they were not fully recorded in writing, is true, though it is not true that they were not recorded at all even as regards the Prophet's lifetime, for there is good evidence to show that `Abdullah b. `Amr b. al-`As for one, used to write down what he heard from his Master. Other Companions too put their collections of Hadith into writing later in life, particularly Abu Hurayrah and `Abdullah b. `Abbas, two very important sources of Hadith. But in general it can be said that Hadiths were only partially and privately recorded in writing in the early stages.

The reasons for this are quite clear and there is nothing mysterious about them. The Arabs' antipathy to writing in this period is well-known, very few of were literate. Huge stores of knowledge of genealogy and poetry preserved in their prodigious memories; some people being able to recite a hundred thousand verses. There were no books in currency among them; even during the Prophet's lifetime the Qur'an did not circulate in book form. The fact that the Prophet's sayings, legal decisions and deeds, were not generally written down is therefore not surprising in the least. There is also evidence that the Prophet disapproved of the general writing of Hadith in his lifetime for fear that they would become mixed up with the Qur'an, which had not yet been fully revealed, and with which the Muslims had yet to become completely familiar. But this is not to say that he disapproved of memorising of, or acting upon Hadith; on the contrary, he insisted on it. The more learned of the Companions, including the Khulafa' al-Rdshidun, spent their time in absorbing thoroughly the explanations, applications, and developments of the Qur'an by the Prophet in addition to their study of the Qur'an itself. When the Prophet had passed away from this world and the age of the Caliphs came, after some deliberation they also came to the conclusion that the written recording of Hadiths and publishing them in a book form was inexpedient at this stage, for the same reasons as in the Prophet's lifetime, that the Word of Allah must be learnt and studied and thoroughly absorbed first, while its practical application by the Prophet can be handed down by word of mouth and by personal example. But if we look at the life and the decisions of the Khulafa' al-Rashidun, we find that in every case where any matter had not been dealt with explicitly by the Qur'an, they considered it obligatory to discover what was the practice of the Prophet in this situation and made their decisions according to their findings. To contravene the practice of the Prophet on any vital matter was in their eyes equivalent to contravening Islam itself.

The whole of the history of this period shows this valuation of the Prophet's practice, and on this point there is complete unanimity. It is a grave mis-statement to say that `Umar al-Khattab was against the relating of Traditions; he was only against collecting them into book form, not that they should not be learnt and known. He was certainly strict as regards accuracy of reporting and always demanded a supporting witness if any Companion recounted something of the Messenger of Allah; when that witness was forthcoming he accepted the Tradition with no further hesitation. In those cases which came up before him he continually had recourse to his own knowledge of the Prophet's rulings, and if he himself did not have this knowledge he appealed to the other Companions; on receiving the required information and after satisfying himself regarding its accuracy, he immediately acted upon it. Indeed, the fact that Hadiths were completely recorded in writing during the lifetime of the Companions was no drawback; they themselves were living models of his practice and treasure-houses of his sayings. They spread over the huge areas which now constituted the Islamic empire, to Kufah and Basrah in Iraq, to Syria, Palestine, Egypt and Khurasan. Here they were surrounded by eager pupils both Arab and non-Arab, thirsting to hear about their revered Prophet from those who had seen and lived with him. Some of these pupils, who are known as the Followers of the Companions (Tdbi `un), became renowned all over the Islamic world for their learning in the Qur'an and the Sunnah, for their correct reporting and understanding of Hadith, and for their piety and purity of life. Such were Hasan Basri, the associate of the companions `Imran b. Husayn and Anas b. Malik in Basrah; Alqama and Aswad, the repositories of the vast learning of `Abdullah b. Mas'jid in Kufah, who were also the pupils of `Umar and `A'ishah; Said b. Musaiyib, the pupil of Abu Hurayrah and Taus, Mujahid, `Ata' b. AM Rabah and others; Nafi`, the pupil of `A'ishah, and many others whose honesty and trustworthiness are unquestioned. Here it is important to note that `A'ishah and Abu Hurayrah lived up to between 50 and 60 A.H, `Abdullah b. `Abbas and `Abdullah b. `Umar to around 70 A.H., Abu Said Khudri to between 70 and 80 A.H. and Anas b. Malik to 90 A.H. This is to say that in the second half of the first century of the Hijrah it was still possible to hear a great store of Hadith from those who had seen or heard them directly from the Messenger of Allah himself.

Nearly all the famous Tabi `un we have mentioned just now, lived up to dates between 90 and 120 A.H., which means up to this time the collections of Hadith related by these perfectly reliable reporters were available to all who wished to take them. Before the first quarter of the second century (100-125 A.H.) collections in book form were still not current, and although many Tabi`un had their private written collections, the main basis of teaching was verbal, as was the fashion during this era when knowledge even if written was always committed to memory. It was at this time that the first large-scale collections in book form began to be made, those by Ibn Jurayj, Malik, Sufyan Thawri, Ma'mar b. Rashid and others, all pupils of the Tabi`un. The idea that much time elapsed between the original hearing and final recording in book form of Hadith as would make them unreliable is found to be completely unfounded when their history as given above is attentively considered, particularly with regard to these early collections, almost all the contents of which found their way into the later collections of al-Bukhari etc., a century later. But the principle is also established that those Hadiths recounted by the well-known and reliable Tabi`un whether collected into book form or not were available from the recounters themselves up to the first quarter of the second century of the Hijrah, and it only requires two or three successive trustworthy scholars of Hadith to convey them to al-Bukhari and his contemporaries. It is also necessary to mention that between the earliest published compilations and al-Bukhari's time there were other large classified collections of great importance such as that of `Abdur Razaq (died shortly after 200 A.H.), the pupil of Ibn Jurayj, Sufyan Thawri, Ma'mar b. Rashid and Malik, the earlier collectors. The question arised as to what were these unreliable, wrong or concocted Hadith of which so much fuss is being made by ill-informed critics today?

It is not true to state that untrustworthy traditions regarding the Messenger of Allah existed to any noteworthy extent during the main portion of the era of the Khulafa' al-Rashidun. It was only when the Schismatics began to appear such as the Kharijis, and the dynastic clashes of the Banu Umayyah, Banu `Abbas and Band Hashim convulsed the Ummah, and particularly after the martyrdom of Imam Husayn and his family at Karbala', that some partisans had recourse to distorting or inventing Hadith to justify their claims. But it was never the real scholars of traditions who related these incorrect reports, nor had they any purpose in doing so; unreliable Traditions were purveyed by unreliable people, the partisans, popular preachers, story-tellers and so on, and have not escaped the eagle eyes of the very critical Muhaddithun. The solid body of recognised Hadith which forms the basis of Muslim Law can be found in Malik as well as in the decisions of Abu Hanifah and the later Imams. If there are differences of opinion on any important point it is almost always where that difference already existed among the companions. What is remarkable about Muslim law based on the Qur'an, and Sunnah as presented by Abu Hanifah and Malik, for instance, is not the differences in detail but the extraordinary agreement in its main structure, which proves that there was an agreed corpus of Sunnah which was common to both schools of thought. It is a common fallacy to speak of the accepted books of traditions such as al Bukhari, Muslim, al-Tirmidhi, etc., as if they themselves constitute the source of Islamic Fiqh. They are certainly adduced as authorities in later judicial controversy, but it is often forgotten that the whole fabric of Fiqh was erected before these traditionists were even born. Abu Hanifah himself was born in 80 A.H. when some of the other Companions of the Prophet were still alive, and he was the pupil of some of the famous Tabi`un we have mentioned above, particularly `Ata' b. Abi Rabah in Makkah. The body of traditions used by Abu Hanifah and Malik were fresh from the Tabi`un and unsullied by partisan politics and imaginative interpolations, which in any case affected traditions treating with law very little. These traditions are present in the later collections, but were used by Abu Hanifah one hundred years earlier.

The statement reported by the biographers of Imam al-Bukhari that he selected 7,000 Hadiths out of 600,000 is being put to much use by the detractors of Hadith to attempt to show that the majority are unreliable. This statement was made to extol his industry and discrimination, but from the point of view of the history of Hadith it is necessary to go more deeply into the matter and avoid rash conclusions which do not conform to reality. In citing this bare statement, the impression is given that in al-Bukhari's time there was a vast, unclassified mass of every kind of tradition, true and false, floating all over the then Islamic empire, and that he suddenly appeared on the scene, separated the true from the false, and was only able to find 7,000 out of 600,000. The real facts are nothing resembling this at all. Criticism and scrutiny of Hadith was being done from the very beginning, even in the time of the Companions and their Followers, and there had always been a central core of unquestionable true Hadith with the earnest, sincere and pious scholars. For instance, the comments of Muhammad b. Hasan, the renowned pupil of Abu Hanifah, on Malik's book of Hadith, the Muwatta', show that out of more than a thousand traditions of the Messenger of Allah and the Companions quoted by Malik, Abu Hanifah only differed with about eighty and even then not regarding their authenticity, but preferring a different ruling. The mischief of fabricating or distorting Hadith was begun, during the time of the political dissension between the Banu Hashim and the Umayyads, and particularly after the massacre of Karbala', when unprecedented passions were roused. But these unreliable traditions circulated among the leading partisans of these two parties and were used to prospective supporters; the really learned were well aware of this and such dishonest tampering with the true Sunnah was clearly denounced by them, and the relaters of such traditions singled out and condemned.

A study of the comments of traditionists on such fabricators and the rejection of their claims to credibility show this plainly, for instance, al-Sha'bi, one of the leading Tabi`un in knowledge of tradition and law, roundly condemns various people who related much partisan reports attributing them wrongly to `Ali. This kind of fabrication had currency among the ignorant and those who had special
interest, not among the scholars.

A second breeding-ground for incorrect and exaggerated traditions were the public preachers and story-tellers, who are prone to this weakness to the present day. The books of the biographies of the reporters of traditions are full of condemnations of people of this type, and their effusions, though gaining currency among the unlettered, were never accepted by the learned. Apart from these two main sources of falsification, there were other unreliable Hadiths which were due to mere human weakness, such as forgetting, mixing-up, exaggeration, ascribing statements of the Companions to the Prophet himself and so on. The whole science of the traditionists was brought to bear on the elimination of such weak reports, and by an amazingly thorough system of analysis and comparison and minute checking, these defects have been brought to light and carefully classified.

The immense research which has gone into the study of Hadith cannot be imagined by simply reading the bare translation of one of the well-known compilations. To know something of what the Muslim traditionists have achieved, one has to go through such comparative studies of Hadith such as `Asqalani's commentary on al Bukhari, where all the ramifications of the variants of a particular Hadith are traced meticulously. After making such a study the only honest conclusion one can reach is that it is difficult if not impossible to arrive at anything but the same conclusions as these great Muslim religious scholars. With regard to the statement regarding al Bukhari's selection of Hadith, it is also necessary to understand that in the language of traditionists, all the variants of a single Hadith are counted as a separate Hadith, or an identical Hadith related by two or more different persons. For instance, the famous Hadith reported by `Umar, "actions are judged by intentions," is related from 700 different authorities. In the terminology of the traditionists, these are counted as 700 Hadiths. Thus the large number of Hadith mentioned are not actually all different, but contain many slight variations of a single Hadith.

In sum, this statement regarding al-Bukhari's discrimination only amounts to say that he took the trouble to study the whole of the Hadiths, both reliable and unreliable, which existed written or unwritten in his day. But it should not be imagined that he was the first to determine the true from the false; a generally agreed body of good and fair traditions was already in existence with the earlier traditionists. Al-Bukhari added his own unparalleled acumen to make a final examination and compiled a definitive selection of those Hadiths which possessed the very best authority. Those who lightly challenge the authority of such compilations should be well aware of what they are doing; it requires a person of exceptional industry and intelligence even to reach to the level of a pupil of these great Muhaddithun. To surpass them would require something more than the superficial and biased minds of today, which have not shown themselves capable of any constructive work in the religious field up to the present. (Shaykh Shahidullah Faridi, Fallacies of Anti Hadith Argument, Source)

Sheikh Salih Al Munajjid says...

Question:

Some people reject the Sunnah on the basis that there are many weak and fabricated ahaadeeth and that the fabrications of many liars weaken the Sunnah and make it such that it cannot be trusted. What is your opinion about this claim?

Answer:

Praise be to Allaah.

This is the view of some heretics and misguided people, both in the past and nowadays. In modern times, those who expressed this view include Saalih Abu Bakr in his book al-Adwaa' al-Qur'aaniyyah; Husayn Ahmad Ameen in Daleel al-Muslim al-Hazeen; Ahmad Ameen in Fajr al-Islam; 'Abd-Allaah al-Na'eem in Nahwa Tatweer al-Tashree' al-Islaami; Sa'eed al-'Ashmaawi in Haqqeeqat al-Hijaab; Saalih al-Wardaani in his misleading book Rihlati min al-Sunnah ila al-Shee'ah; 'Abd al-Jawaad Yaaseen in al-Sultah fi'l-Islam; Nasr Abu Zayd in Imaam al-Shaafa'i; Zakariya 'Abbaas Dawood in Ta'ammulaat fi'l-Hadeeth; Hawlat Nahr in Diraasaat Muhammadiyyah; Maurice Bucaille in Diraasat al-Kutub al-Muqaddisah; Murtada al-'Askar in Khamsoon wa Mi'ah Sahaabi Mukhtalaq; Dr. Mustafa Mahmood in Maqaalaat 'an al-Shafaa'ah.

We say: it is true that there were fabricators and liars who made up words and attributed them to the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him), but the matter is not quite so simple as imagined by those doubters who also spread doubts among others. They are unaware of the facts about how the Muslims took care of the Sunnah. Alongside the fabricators, there were great numbers of narrators who were trustworthy and highly skilled, and a large number of scholars who surrounded the hadeeths of the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) with a strong barrier which was difficult for the liars to penetrate. By means of their vast knowledge and deep insight, these muhaddithoon (scholars of hadeeth) were able to spot the liars and understand their intentions and motives, and they were able to detect everything that was falsely attributed to the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him). These fabricators were not given free rein to do as they wished with the ahaadeeth of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him), and they were given no room to penetrate the ranks of trustworthy narrators of ahaadeeth without being detected.

Who else exposed the lies of these kaafirs, heretics and extreme innovators?

Who were the ones who gave us the definition of what is fabricated, the reasons for fabrication, different types of fabrications and the signs by which a fabricated report may be recognized? Who wrote so many books on this issue?

They are the guardians of Islam, the vicegerents and troops of Allaah on His earth. They are the brilliant scholars of whom Haaroon al-Rasheed spoke when he arrested a heretic and ordered that he be executed. The heretic said, "Why are you executing me?" Haaroon al-Rasheed said, "To rid the people of you." The heretic said: "O Ameer al-Mu'mineen, what will you do about the thousand ahaadeeth - according to one report, four thousand ahaadeeth - which I have fabricated and spread among you, in which I made what is halaal haraam and what is haraam halaal, of which the Prophet uttered not one letter?" Haaroon al-Rasheed said to him: "What will you do, O enemy of Allaah, about Abu Ishaaq al-Fazaari and 'Abd-Allaah ibn al-Mubaarak? They will go through them and sift them letter by letter." (Tadhkirat al-Huffaaz by al-Dhahabi, 1/273; Taareekh al-Khulafaa' by al-Suyooti, p. 174).

Professor Muhammad Asad said: "The existence of fabricated ahaadeeth cannot be taken to prove that the entire system of hadeeth is not to be trusted, because these fabricated ahaadeeth never deceived the muhadditheen as some European critics claimed, oversimplifying the matter, and as was echoed by some who claim to be Muslims." (al-Islam 'ala Muftaraq al-Tareeq, p. 96)

We will end this discussion by quoting what was said by Imaam Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyyah: Imaam Abu'l-Muzaffar al-Sam'aani said: "If they say: there are too many reports in the hands of the people and they have become confused, we say: no one is confused except those who are ignorant. Those who have knowledge of them (the reports) check them as stringently as those who deal with money check dirhams and dinars. So they single out (and discard) the false reports and keep the good reports. If there happens to be a narrator who made a mistake, this will not go unnoticed by the brilliant scholars of hadeeth. These scholars listed the mistakes made in both the isnaad (chain of narrators) and matn (texts) of reports; so you can see that for each narrator they made a list of the mistakes that he had made and the letters that he had mispronounced. If the mistakes of the narrators - in both the isnaad and the matn - did not go unchecked, then how could the fabricated ahaadeeth manufactured by the heretics have slipped past those brilliant scholars? How could people have narrated ahaadeeth from heretics without the scholars noticing? That is the view of some heretics, but no one would say such a thing except one who is ignorant, misguided, an innovator and a liar who wants to undermine the saheeh ahaadeeth and true reports of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) and confuse ignorant people by means of this lie. There is no evidence for rejecting the reports of the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) that is weaker or more impossible than this. The one who voices this view deserves to be silenced and expelled from the Muslim lands. (Mukhtasar al-Sawaaiq al-Mursalah, 2/561 ,Al-Bayaan magazine, issue #153, p. 26)

Dr. Ahmad Shafaat says...

An assumption that has misled both the Qur'an-only people and the traditionalists is that if the Hadith is revelatory, it must have been preserved just as the Qur'an with complete reliability. From very early times some Qur'an-only people have argued on the basis of this assumption, saying that since the Hadith is not preserved with complete reliability, it could not be revelatory. And from equally early times some traditionalists have argued on the basis of the same assumption that since the Hadith is revelatory it must have been preserved with complete reliability. The assumption prevents both parties to combine a respect for the Hadith, which is due to a sacred and revelatory tradition, with a critical approach to the question of its authenticity.

If it looks strange to anyone that God should have sent a revelation without guaranteeing its completely faithful preservation for all times, then let them think of the hundreds, if not tens of thousands, of prophets sent before Islam. These earlier prophets all received revelations but alteration (tahrif) of a serious nature in the revelations during the process of transmission is a fact which is supported by the Qur'an (2:75,79, 4:46, 5:13, 41) and is also established beyond doubt by critical historical research.. Indeed the revelations given to some prophets have completely vanished from history while those given to such prophets as Moses, Jesus and several other Israelite prophets exist in the form of traditions whose reliability is no greater than that of the Hadith. One may say that if for the earlier prophets the revelations were not fully preserved it is because they were not meant to guide humankind till the end of times whereas since the Prophet Muhammad was the last of the prophets sent to guide all humankind till the day of judgment the revelation given to him should be preserved with complete integrity. The flaw in this argument is that even if the earlier revelations were meant for a limited period, they should have been preserved, according to the assumption in question, at least for the period for which they were meant to guide. But this is far from being the case. The prophethood of Jesus lasted for about six centuries until the advent of the Prophet of Islam. Yet the message of the prophet Jesus was not preserved with complete integrity even for one century. Indeed, many of the books of the New Testament were written within fifty years of Jesus' departure and already they have much more fabricated material than the historically reliable material. It is thus clear that God has a different way of working than we have rather naively assumed. What is this way of God?

In view of the fact that revelations given to earlier prophets were not preserved with complete historical accuracy, we must of necessity conclude that that is not what God considers absolutely essential. The way he seems to lead human beings to development and growth is that through a prophet certain concerns are raised and some tantalizing answers to certain basic questions are given. Then people are left to try to understand the concerns that are raised and answers that are provided. In the process they develop spiritually and find the way to salvation. Of course, as human beings, they can corrupt the message given by the prophets to an extent that it more or less becomes ineffective, after which there is need for fresh revelation. Thus in the case of Jesus, even though the New Testament has considerably changed the message of Jesus it is to some extent still effective for guiding people and leading them to salvation (2:62, 5:69). But the Christians continued to change the revelation even after the New Testament was completed so much so that by the fourth century their mainstream tradition departed even from the central principle of tawhid preached by all the prophets, thus finally making the revelation brought by Jesus not only ineffective for salvation but a means of eternal damnation, except for a small fraction of Unitarian Christians (5:69-73). We can understand this by an analogy. Almost every glass of water has some impurities. Up to a certain level of impurities it is a life-giving drink while beyond that level it can become a source of sickness or even death.

Before Jesus the case with the revelation brought by Moses was similar. It was preserved for a little while but soon it began to be changed. However, even as it was changed by men it continued to be a source of guidance for the Israelites and to some degree it is still effective for salvation (2:62, 5:69).

The above examples show that revelation can serve its purpose to a reasonable degree even when it is altered by men. This is a point that is not understood, not only by some Muslims, but also by some Christian missionaries who often say how could the Muslims say that the Torah and Injil have suffered tahrif while at the same time say that the Torah and Injil contain light and can save people.

In like manner the Hadith is based on divine revelation and even though it has been changed and corrupted by men, as we shall see in some detail in Part III of this book, yet it still contains light and is effective for human salvation. (Dr. Ahmad Shafaat, The Sacred Hadith Project, Chapter 2: The Message and the Messenger, Source)

One point that Dr. Ahmad Shafaat forgets to point out is that today we have the ability to distinguish the false hadith from the true ones. All hadith that are related to issues on creed are guaranteed and there is no argument on those. There are hadith that are disputed but have no affect on the fundamentals of Islam.

Taqi Usmani says...

Chapter 3
The Authority of the Sunnah: Its Historical Aspect

Faced with the overwhelming arguments in favour of the authority of sunnah, some people resort to another way of suspecting its credibility, that is, to suspect its historical authenticity.

According to them, the sunnah of the Holy Prophet though having a binding authority for all times to come, has not been preserved in a trustworthy manner. Unlike the Holy Qur'n, they say, there is no single book containing reliable reports about the sunnah. There are too many works having a large number of traditions sometimes conflicting each other. And these books, too, were compiled in the third century of Hijrah. So, we cannot place our trust in the reports which have not even been reduced to writing during the first three centuries.

This argument is based on a number of misstatements and misconceptions. As we shall see in this chapter, insh-Allh, it is totally wrong to claim that the traditions of the sunnah have been compiled in the third century. But, before approaching this historical aspect of the sunnah, let us examine the argument in its logical perspective.

This argument accepts that the Holy Prophet has a prophetic authority for all times to come, and that his obedience is mandatory for all Muslims of whatever age, but in the same breath it claims that the reports of the sunnah being unreliable, we cannot carry out this obedience. Does it not logically conclude that Allh has enjoined upon us to obey the Messenger, but did not make this obedience practicable. The question is whether Allh Almighty may give us a positive command to do something which is beyond our ability and means. The answer is certainly "no." The Holy Qur'n itself says,

Allh does not task anybody except to his ability.

It cannot be envisaged that Allh will bind all the people with something which does not exist or cannot be ascertained. Accepting that Allh has enjoined upon us to follow the sunnah of the Holy Prophet, it certainly implies that the sunnah is not undiscoverable. If Allh has made it obligatory to follow the sunnah, He has certainly preserved it for us, in a reliable form.

The following aspect also merits consideration. Allh Almighty has given us a promise in the Holy Qur'n:

Indeed We have revealed the Zikr (ie. the Qur'n) and surely We will preserve it. (15:9)

In this verse, Allh Almighty has assured the preservation of the Holy Qur'n. This implies that the Qur'n will remain uninterpolated and that it shall always be transferred from one generation to the other in its real and original form, undistorted by any foreign element. The question now is whether this divine protection is restricted only to the words of the Holy Qur'n or does it extend to its real meanings as well. If the prophetic explanation is necessary to understand the Holy Qur'n correctly, as proved in the first chapter, then the preservation of the Qur'nic words alone cannot serve the purpose unless the prophetic explanations are also preserved. As quoted earlier, the Holy Book says,

We have revealed to you the Zikr (Qur'n) so that you may explain to the people what has been sent down for them.

The word "Zikr" has been used here for the Holy Qur'n as has been used in the verse 15:9 and it has been made clear that the people can only benefit from its guidance when they are led by the explanations of the Holy Prophet.

Again, the words "for the people" indicate (especially in the original Arabic context), that the Holy Prophet's explanation is always needed by "everyone."

Now, if everyone, in every age is in need of the prophetic explanation, without which they cannot fully benefit from the Holy Book, how would it be useful for them to preserve the Qur'nic text and leave its prophetic explanation at the mercy of distorters, extending to it no type of protection whatsoever.

Therefore, once the necessity of the prophetic explanations of the Holy Qur'n is accepted, it will be self-contradictory to claim that these explanations are unavailable today. It will amount to negating the divine wisdom, because it is in no way a wise policy to establish the necessity of the sunnah on the one hand and to make its discovery impossible on the other. Such a policy cannot be attributed to Allh, the All-Mighty, the All-Wise.

This deductive argument is, in my view, sufficient to establish that comprehending the sunnah of the Holy Prophet, which is necessary for the correct understanding of the divine guidance, shall as a whole remain available in a reliable manner forever. All objections raised against the authenticity of the sunnah as a whole can be repudiated on this score alone. But in order to study the actual facts, we are giving here a brief account of the measures taken by the ummah to preserve the sunnah of the Holy Prophet. It is a brief and introductive study of the subject, for which the comprehensive and voluminous books are available in Arabic and other languages. The brief account we intend to give here is not comprehensive. The only purpose is to highlight some basic facts which, if studied objectively, are well enough to support the deductive inference about the authenticity of the sunnah.

The Preservation of Sunnah

It is totally wrong to say that the sunnah of the Holy Prophet was compiled for the first time in the third century. In fact, the compilation had begun in the very days of the Holy Prophet as we shall see later, though the compilations in a written form were not the sole measures adopted for the preservation of the sunnah. There were many other reliable sources of preservation also. In order to understand the point correctly we will have to know the different kinds of the sunnah of the Holy Prophet.

Three Kinds of Ahdth

An individual tradition which narrates a "sunnah" of the Holy Prophet is termed in the relevant sciences as "hadth" (pl. ahdth). The ahdth, with regard to the frequency of their sources, are divided into three major kinds:

(1) Mutawtir: It is a hadth narrated in each era, from the days of the Holy Prophet up to this day by such a large number of narrators that it is impossible to reasonably accept that all of them have colluded to tell a lie.

This kind is further classified into two sub-divisions:

(a) Mutawtir in words: It is a hadth whose words are narrated by such a large number as is required for a mutawtir, in a manner that all the narrators are unanimous in reporting it with the same words without any substantial discrepancy.

(b) Mutawtir in meaning: It is a mutawtir hadth which is not reported by the narrators in the same words. The words of the narrators are different. Sometimes even the reported events are not the same. But all the narrators are unanimous in reporting a basic concept which is common in all the reports. This common concept is also ranked as a mutawtir concept.

For example, there is a saying of the Holy Prophet,

Whoever intentionally attributes a lie against me, should prepare his seat in the Fire.

This is a mutawtir hadth of the first kind, because it has a minimum of seventy-four narrators. In other words, seventy-four companions of the Holy Prophet have reported this hadth at different occasions, all with the same words.

The number of those who received this hadth from these companions is many times greater, because each of the seventy-four companions has conveyed it to a number of his pupils. Thus, the total number of the narrators of this hadth has been increasing in each successive generation, and has never been less than seventy-four. All these narrators, who are now hundreds in number, report it in the same words without even a minor change. This hadth is, therefore, mutawtir by words, because it cannot be imagined reasonably that such a large number of people have colluded to coin a fallacious sentence in order to attribute it to the Holy Prophet.

On the other hand, it is also reported by such a large number of narrators that the Holy Prophet has enjoined us to perform two rak't in Fajr, four rak't in Zuhr, 'Asr and 'Isha, and three rak't in the Maghrib prayer, yet the narrations of all the reporters who reported the number of rak't are not in the same words. Their words are different. Even the events reported by them are different. But the common feature of all the reports is the same. This common feature, namely, the exact number of rak't, is said to be mutawtir in meaning.

(2) The second kind of hadth is Mashhoor. This term is defined by the scholars of hadth as follows:

"A hadth which is not mutawtir, but its narrators are not less than three in any generation." [Tadreeb-ur-Rwi by Suyuti]

The same term is also used by the scholars of fiqh, but their definition is slightly different. They say,

"A mashhoor hadth is one which was not mutawtir in the generation of the Holy Companions, but became mutawtir immediately after them." [Usool of Sarkhasi]

The mashhoor hadth according to each definition falls in the second category following the mutawtir.

(3) Khabar-ul-Whid. It is a hadth whose narrators are less than three in any given generation.

Let us now examine each kind separately.

The Authenticity of the First Two Kinds

As for the mutawtir, nobody can question its authenticity. The fact narrated by a mutawtir chain is always accepted as an absolute truth even if pertaining to our daily life. Any statement based on a mutawtir narration must be accepted by everyone without any hesitation. I have never seen the city of Moscow, but the fact that Moscow is a large city and is the capital of U.S.S.R. is an absolute truth which cannot be denied. This fact is proved, to me, by a large number of narrators who have seen the city. This is a continuously narrated, or a mutawtir, fact which cannot be denied or questioned.

I have not seen the events of the First and the Second World War. But the fact that these two wars occurred stands proved without a shadow of doubt on the basis of the mutawtir reports about them. Nobody with a sound sense can claim that all those who reported the occurrence of these two wars have colluded to coin a fallacious report and that no war took place at all. This strong belief in the factum of war is based on the mutawtir reports of the event.

In the same way the mutawtir reports about the sunnah of the Holy Prophet are to be held as absolutely true without any iota of doubt in their authenticity. The authenticity of the Holy Qur'n being the same Book as that revealed to the Holy Prophet is of the same nature. Thus, the mutawtir ahdth, whether they be mutawtir in words or in meaning, are as authentic as the Holy Qur'n, and there is no difference between the two in as far as the reliability of their source of narration is concerned.

Although the ahdth falling under the first category of the mutawtir, ie. the mutawtir in words, are very few in number, yet the ahdth relating to the second kind, namely the mutawtir in meaning, are available in large numbers. Thus, a very sizeable portion of the sunnah of the Holy Prophet falls in this kind of mutawtir, the authenticity of which cannot be doubted in any manner.

As for the second kind, ie. the mashhoor, its standard of authenticity is lower than that of the mutawtir; yet, it is sufficient to provide satisfaction about the correctness of the narration because its narrators have been more than three trustworthy persons in every generation.

The third kind is khabar-ul-whid. The authenticity of this kind depends on the veracity of its narrators. If the narrator is trustworthy in all respects, the report given by him can be accepted, but if the single reporter is believed to be doubtful, the entire report subsequently remains doubtful. This principle is followed in every sphere of life. Why should it not be applied to the reports about the sunnah of the Holy Prophet? Rather, in the case of ahdth, this principle is most applicable, because the reporters of ahdth were fully cognizant of the delicate nature of what they narrate. It was not simple news of an ordinary event having no legal or religious effect. It was the narration of a fact which has a far-reaching effect on the lives of millions of people. The reporters of ahdth knew well that it is not a play to ascribe a word or act to the Holy Prophet. Any deliberate error in this narration, or any negligence in this respect would lead them to the wrath of Allh and render them liable to be punished in hell. Every reporter of hadth was aware of the following well-known mutawtir hadth:

Whoever intentionally attributes a lie against me, should prepare his seat in the Fire.

This hadth had created such a strong sense of responsibility in the hearts of the narrators of ahdth that while reporting anything about the Holy Prophet they often turned pale out of fear, lest some error should creep into their narration.

This was the basic reason for which the responsible narrators of ahdth showed the maximum precaution in preserving and reporting a hadth. This standard of precaution cannot be found in any other reports of historical events. So, the principle that the veracity of a report depends on the nature of its reporter is far more validly applicable to the reports of ahdth than it is applicable to the general reports of ordinary nature.

Let us now examine the various ways adopted by the ummah to preserve the ahdth in their original form.

Different Ways of Ahdth Preservation

As we shall later see, the companions of the Holy Prophet reduced a large number of ahdth in writing. Yet, writing was not the sole means of their preservation. There were many other ways.

1. Memorization

First of all, the companions of the Holy Prophet used to learn ahdth by heart. The Holy Prophet has said:

May Allh bestow vigor to a person who hears my saying and learns it by heart and then conveys it to others exactly as he hears it.

The companions of the Holy Prophet were eager to follow this hadth and used to devote considerable time for committing ahdth to their memories. A large number of them left their homes and began to live in the Mosque of the Holy Prophet so that they may hear the ahdth directly from the mouth of the Holy Prophet. They spent all their time exclusively in securing the ahdth in their hearts. They are called Ashb as-Suffah.

The Arabs had such strong memories that they would easily memorize hundreds of verses of their poetry. Nearly all of them knew by heart detailed pedigrees of not only themselves, but also of their horses and camels. Even their children had enough knowledge of the pedigrees of different tribes. Hammd is a famous narrator of Arab poetry. It is reported that he knew by heart one hundred long poems for each letter of the alphabet, meaning thereby that he knew three thousand and thirty-eight long poems [al-A'lam by Zrikli 2:131].

The Arabs were so proud of their memory power that they placed more of their confidence on it than on writing. Some poets deemed it a blemish to preserve their poetry in writing. They believed that writings on papers can be tampered with, while the memory cannot be distorted by anyone. If any poets have written some of their poems, they did not like to disclose this fact, because it would be indicative of a defect in their memory [See al-Aghani 61:611].

The companions of the Holy Prophet utilized this memory for preserving ahdth which they deemed to be the only source of guidance after the Holy Qur'n. It is obvious that their enthusiasm towards the preservation of ahdth far exceeded their zeal for preserving their poetry and literature. They therefore used their memory in respect of ahdth with more vigor and more precaution.

Sayyidun Ab Hurairah, the famous companion of the Holy Prophet, who has reported 5,374 ahdth, says:

I have divided my night into three parts: In one third of the night I perform prayer, in one third I sleep and in one third I memorize the ahdth of the Holy Prophet. [Sunan ad-Drimi]

Sayyidun Ab Hurairah, after embracing Islm, devoted his life exclusively for learning the ahdth. He has reported more ahdth than any other companion of the Holy Prophet.

Once, Marwn, the governor of Madnah, tried to test his memory. He invited him to his house where he asked him to narrate some ahdth. Marwn simultaneously ordered his scribe, Abu Zu'aizi'ah, to sit behind a curtain and write the ahdth reported by Ab Hurairah. The scribe noted the ahdth. After a year, he invited Ab Hurairah again and requested him to repeat what he had narrated last year, and likewise ordered Abu Zu'aizi'ah to sit behind a curtain and compare the present words of Ab Hurairah with the ahdth he had already written previously. Sayyidun Ab Hurairah began to repeat the ahdth while Abu Zu'aizi'ah compared them. He found that Ab Hurairah did not leave a single word, nor did he change any word from his earlier narrations [al-Bidyah wan-Nihyah and Siyar al-A'lm of Dhahabi].

Numerous other examples of this type are available in the history of the science of hadth which clearly show that the ahdth reporters have used their extraordinary memory power given to them by Allh Almighty for preserving the Sunnah of the Holy Prophet, as promised by Him in the Holy Qur'n.

As we shall later see, scholars of the science of hadth developed the science of Asm ur-Rijl by which they have deduced reliable means to test the memory power of each narrator of ahdth. They never accepted any hadth as reliable unless all of its narrators were proved to have high memory standards.

Thus, "memory power" in the science of hadth is not a vague term of general nature. It is a technical term having specified criteria to test the veracity of narrators. A great number of scholars of the sciences of Asm ur-Rijl and Jarh wa Ta'dl have devoted their lives to examine the reporters of hadth on that criteria. Their task was to judge the memory power of each narrator and to record objective opinions about them.

Memories of the ahdth reporters cannot be compared with the memory of a layman today who witnesses an event or hears some news and conveys it to others in a careless manner seldom paying attention to the correctness of his narration. The following points in this respect are worth mentioning:

1. The reporters of ahdth were fully cognizant of the great importance and the delicate nature of what they intended to report. They whole-heartedly believed that any misstatement or negligent reporting in this field would cause them to be condemned both in this world and in the Hereafter. This belief equipped them with a very strong sense of responsibility. It is evident that such a strong sense of responsibility makes a reporter more accurate in his reports. A newsman reporting an accident of a common nature in which common people are involved, can report its details with less accuracy. But if the accident involves the President or the Prime Minister of his country, he will certainly show more diligence, precaution and shall employ his best ability to report the incident as accurately as possible. The reporter is the same, but in the second case he is more accurate in his report than he was in the first case, because the nature of the incident has made him more responsible, hence more cautious.

It cannot be denied that the companions of the Holy Prophet, their pupils, and other reliable narrators of ahdth believed with their heart and soul that the importance of a hadth attributed to the Holy Prophet exceeds the importance of any other report whatsoever. They believed that it is a source of Islmic law which will govern the Ummah for all times to come. They believed that any negligence in this respect will lead them to the severe punishment of hell. So, their sense of responsibility while reporting ahdth was far higher than that of a newsman reporting an important incident about the head of his country.

2. The interest of the reporter in the reported events and his ability to understand them correctly is another important factor which affects the accuracy of his report. If the reporter is indifferent or negligent about what he reports, little reliability can be placed on his memory or on any subsequent report based on it. But if the reporter is not only honest, serious, and intelligent but also interested and involved in the event, his report can easily be relied upon.

If some proceedings are going on in a court of law, the reports of these proceedings can be of different kinds. One report was given by a layman from the audience who was incidentally present at the court. He had neither any interest in the proceedings nor had due knowledge and understanding of the legal issues involved. He gathered a sketchy picture of the proceedings and reported it to a third person. Such a report can neither be relied upon nor taken as an authentic version of the proceedings. This report may be full of errors because the reporter lacks the ability to understand the matter correctly and the responsible attitude to report it accurately. Such a reporter may not only err in his reporting, but may after some time also forget the proceedings altogether.

Suppose there are some newsmen also who have witnessed the proceedings for the purpose of reporting them in their newspapers. They have more knowledge and understanding than a layman of the first kind. Their report shall be more correct than that of the former. But despite their interest and intelligence, they are not fully aware of the technical and legal questions involved in the proceedings. Their report shall thus remain deficient in the legal aspect of the proceedings and cannot be relied upon to that extent because despite their good memory, they cannot grasp the legal issues completely.

There were also lawyers who were directly involved in the proceedings. They participated in the debate at the bar. They have argued the case. They were fully aware of the delicate legal issues involved. They understood each and every sentence expressed by other lawyers and the judge. It is obvious that the report of the proceedings given by these lawyers shall be the most authentic one. Having full knowledge and understanding of the case they can neither forget nor err while reporting the substantial and material parts of the proceedings.

Suppose all the three categories had the same standard of memory power. Yet, the facts narrated by them have different levels of correctness. It shows that the interest of the reporter in the reported event and his understanding of the facts involved plays an important role in making his memory more effective and accurate.

The deep interest of the companions of the Holy Prophet in his sayings and acts, rather even in his gestures, is beyond any doubt. Their understanding of what he said, and their close knowledge and observation of the background and the environment under which he spoke or acted cannot be questioned. Thus, all the basic factors which help mobilize one's memory were present in them.

3. The standard of memory power required for the authenticity of a report is not, as mentioned earlier, a vague concept for which no specific criteria exist. The scholars of the Science of hadth have laid down hard and fast rules to ascertain the memory standard of each reporter. Unless a reporter of a hadth has specific standards of memory, his reports and not accepted as reliable.

4. There is a big difference between memorizing a fact which incidentally came to the knowledge of someone who never cared to remember it any more, and the memorizing of a fact which is learnt by someone with eagerness, with an objective purpose to remember it and with a constant effort to keep it in memory.

While I studied Arabic, my teacher told me many things which I do not remember today. But the vocabulary I learnt from my teacher is secured in my mind. The reason is obvious. I never cared to keep the former remembered, while I was very much eager to learn the latter by heart and to store it in my memory.

The companions of the Holy Prophet did not listen to him incidentally nor were they careless in remembering what they heard. Instead, they daily spared specific times for learning the ahdth by heart. The example of Ab Hurairah has already been cited. He used to spare one third of every night in repeating the ahdth he learnt from the Holy Prophet.

Thus, memorization was not a weaker source of preservation of ahdth, as is sometimes presumed by those who have no proper knowledge of the science of hadth. Looked at in its true perspective, the memories of the reliable reporters of ahdth were no less reliable a source of preservation than compiling the ahdth in book form.

2. Discussions

The second source of preservation of ahdth was by mutual discussions held by the companions of the Holy Prophet. Whenever they came to know of a new sunnah, they used to narrate it to others. Thus, all the companions would tell each other what they learnt from the Holy Prophet. This was to comply with the specific directions given by the Holy Prophet in this respect. Here are some ahdth to this effect:

Those present should convey (my sunnah) to those absent [Bukhari].

Convey to others on my behalf, even though it be a single verse [Bukhari].

May Allh grant vigor to a person who listens to my saying and learns it by heart until he conveys it to others [Tirmidhi, Abu Dwd].

You hear (my sayings) and others will hear from you, then others will hear from them [Abu Dwd].

A Muslim cannot offer his brother a better benefit than transmitting to him a good hadth which has reached him [Jmi'-ul-Bayn of Ibn 'Abdul Barr].

These directions given by the Holy Prophet were more than sufficient to induce his companions towards acquiring the knowledge of ahdth and to convey them to others.

The Holy Prophet also motivated his companions to study the ahdth in their meetings. The word used for this study is Tadarus which means "to teach each other." One person would narrate a particular hadth to the other who, in turn, would repeat it to the first, and so on. The purpose was to learn it correctly. Each one would listen to the other's version and correct his mistake, if any. The result of this tadarus (discussion) was to remember the ahdth as firmly as possible. The Holy Prophet has held this described process of tadarus to be more meritorious with Allh than the individual worship throughout the night. He has said:

Tadarus of knowledge (the word "knowledge" in the era of Nab was used to connote knowledge relative to the Holy Qur'n and the hadth) for any period of time in the night is better than spending the entire night in worship [Jmi'-ul-Bayn].

Moreover, the Holy Prophet has also warned, that it is a major sin to hide a word of "knowledge" whenever it is asked for:

Whoever is questioned pertaining to such knowledge that he has and thereafter conceals it, will be bridled by a rein of fire [Tirmidhi].

At another occasion, the Holy Prophet disclosed that concealment of "knowledge" is in itself a major sin, even though the person having that knowledge is not asked about it. He said:

Whoever conceals knowledge which can be benefited from, will come on Doomsday bridled with a bridle of fire [Jmi'-ul-Bayn].

The hadth makes it clear that the disclosure of knowledge is an inherent obligation on each knowledgeable person, no matter whether he is asked about it or not.

As the knowledge of the sunnah of the Holy Prophet was the highest branch of knowledge in the eyes of his companions, they deemed it an indispensable obligation on their shoulders to convey to others what they knew of the sunnah.

Thus, it was the most favorite hobby of the companions of the Holy Prophet whenever they sat together, instead of being involved in useless talks, to discuss his sayings and acts. Each of them would mention what he knew while the others would listen and try to learn it by heart.

These frequent discussions have played an important role in the preservation of the Sunnah. It was by the virtue of these discussions that the ahdth known only by some individuals were conveyed to others, and the circle of narrators was gradually enlarged. Since these discussions were carried out at a time when the Holy Prophet () was himself present among them, they had the full opportunity to confirm the veracity of what has been conveyed to them in this process, and some of them actually did so. The result was that the knowledge of ahdth acquired a wide range among the companions, which not only helped in spreading the knowledge of Sunnah but also provided a check on the mistakes of narrations, because if someone forgets some part of a hadth, the others were present to fill in the gap and to correct the error.

3. Practice

The third way of preservation of the Sunnah was to bring it into practice.

The knowledge of Sunnah was not merely a theoretical knowledge, nor were the teachings of the Holy Prophet merely philosophical. They related to practical life. The Holy Prophet did not confine himself to giving lessons and sermons only, he also trained his companions practically. Whatever they learnt from the Holy Prophet they spared no effort to bring it into actual practice. Each companion was so enthusiastic in practicing the Sunnah of the Holy Prophet that he tried his best to imitate even his personal habits.

Thus the whole atmosphere was one of following the Sunnah. The Sunnah was not a verbal report only, it was a living practice, a widespread behavior and a current fashion demonstrating itself everywhere in the society, in all the affairs of their daily life.

If a student of mathematics confines himself with remembering the formulas orally, he is likely to forget them after a lapse of time, but if he brings them in practice, ten times a day, he shall never forget them.

Likewise, the Sunnah was not an oral service carried out by the companions. They brought it into their daily practice. The Sunnah was the center of gravity for all their activities. How could they forget the Sunnah of the Holy Prophet around which they built the structure of their whole lives?

Thus, constant practice in accordance with the dictates of the Sunnah was another major factor which advanced the process of preserving the Sunnah and protected it from the foreign elements aiming at its distortion.

4. Writing

The fourth way of preserving of ahdth was writing. Quite a large number of the companions of the Holy Prophet reduced the ahdth to writing after hearing them from the Holy Prophet.

It is true that in the beginning the Holy Prophet had forbidden some of his companions from writing anything other than the verses of the Holy Qur'n. However, this prohibition was not because the ahdth had no authoritative value, but because the Holy Prophet had in the same breath ordered them to narrate his ahdth orally. The full text of the relevant hadth is as follows:

Do not write (what you hear) from me, and whoever has written something (he heard) from me, he should erase it. Narrate to others (what you hear) from me; and whoever deliberately attributes a lie to me, he should prepare his seat in the Fire." [Sahih Muslim]

The underlined phrase of the hadth clarifies that prohibition for writing hadth was not on account of negating its authority. The actual reason was that in the beginning of the revelation of the Holy Qur'n, the companions of the Holy Prophet were not fully familiar with the Qur'nic style, nor was the Holy Qur'n compiled in a separate book form. In those days some companions began to write the ahdth along with the Qur'nic text. Some explanations of the Holy Qur'n given by the Holy Prophet were written by some of them mixed with the Qur'nic verses without any distinction between the two. It was therefore feared that it would lead to confuse the Qur'nic text with the ahdth.

It was in this background that the Holy Prophet stopped this practice and ordered that anything written other than the Holy Qur'n should be rubbed or omitted. It should be kept in mind that in those days there was a great shortage of writing paper. Even the verses of the Holy Qur'n used to be written on pieces of leather, on planks of wood, on animal bones and sometimes on stones. It was much difficult to compile all those things in a book form, and if the ahdth were also written in the like manner it would be more difficult to distinguish between the writings of the Holy Qur'n and those of the ahdth. The lack of familiarity with the Qur'nic style would also help creating confusion.

For these reasons the Holy Prophet directed his companions to abstain from writing the ahdth and to confine their preservation to the first three ways which were equally reliable as discussed earlier.

But all this was in the earlier period of his prophethood. When the companions became fully conversant of the style of the Holy Qur'n and writing paper became available, this transitory measure of precaution was taken back, because the danger of confusion between the Qur'n and the hadth no longer existed.

At this stage, the Holy Prophet himself directed his companions to write down the ahdth. Some of his instructions in this respect are quoted below:

1. One companion from the Ansr complained to the Holy Prophet that he hears from him some ahdth, but he sometimes forgets them. The Holy Prophet said:

"Seek help from your right hand," and pointed out to a writing. [Jmi' Tirmidhi]

2. Rfi' ibn Khadij, the famous companion of the Holy Prophet says, "I said to the Holy Prophet () [that] we hear from you many things, should we write them down?" He replied:

You may write. There is no harm. [Tadrb-ur-Rwi]

3. Sayyiduna Anas reports that the Holy Prophet has said:

Preserve knowledge by writing. [Jmi'-ul-Bayn]

4. Sayyiduna Abu Rfi' sought permission from the Holy Prophet to write ahdth. The Holy Prophet permitted him to do so. [Jmi' Tirmidhi]

It is reported that the ahdth written by Abu Rfi' were copied by other companions too. Salma, a pupil of Ibn 'Abbs says:

I saw some small wooden boards with 'Abdullh Ibn 'Abbs. He was writing on them some reports of the acts of the Holy Prophet which he acquired from Abu Rfi'. [Tabaqt Ibn Sa'd]

5. 'Abdullh ibn 'Amr ibn al-'Aas reports that the Holy Prophet said to him:

Preserve knowledge.

He asked, "and how should it be preserved?" The Holy Prophet replied, "by writing it." [Mustadrik Hkim; Jmi'-ul-Bayn]

In another report he says, "I came to the Holy Prophet and told him, 'I want to narrate your ahdth. So, I want to take assistance of my handwriting besides my heart. Do you deem it fit for me?' The Holy Prophet replied, 'If it is my hadth you may seek help from your hand besides your heart." [Sunan Drimi]

6. It was for this reason that he used to write ahdth frequently. He himself says,

I used to write whatever I heard from the Holy Prophet and wanted to learn it by heart. Some people of the Quraysh dissuaded me and said, "Do you write everything you hear from the Holy Prophet, while he is a human being and sometimes he may be in anger as any other human beings may be?" [Sunan Abu Dwd]

They meant that the Holy Prophet might say something in a state of anger which he did not seriously intend. So, one should be selective in writing his ahdth. 'Abdullh ibn 'Amr conveyed their opinion to the Holy Prophet. In reply, the Holy Prophet pointed to his lips and said,

I swear by the One in whose hands is the soul of Muhammad: nothing comes out from these two (lips) except truth. So, do write. [Sunan Abu Dwud; Tabaqt ibn Sa'd; Mustadrik-ul-Hkim]

It was a clear and absolute order given by the Holy Prophet to write each and every saying of his without any hesitation or doubt about its authoritative nature.

In compliance to this order, 'Abdullh ibn 'Amr wrote a large number of ahdth and compiled them in a book form which he named, "al-Sahfah al-Sadqah." Some details about this book shall be discussed later on, insh-Allh.

7. During the conquest of Makkah (8 A.H.), the Holy Prophet delivered a detailed sermon containing a number of Shar'ah imperatives, including human rights. One Yemenite person from the gathering, namely, Abu Shah, requested the Holy Prophet to provide him the sermon in a written form. The Holy Prophet thereafter ordered his companions as follows:

Write it down for Abu Shah. [Sahh-ul-Bukhri]

These seven examples are more than sufficient to prove that the writing of ahdth was not only permitted but also ordered by the Holy Prophet and that the earlier bar against writing was only for a transitory period to avoid any possible confusion between the verses of the Holy Qur'n and the ahdth. After this transitory period the fear of confusion ended, the bar was lifted and the companions were persuaded to preserve ahdth in a written form.

The Compilation of Hadth in the Days of the Holy Prophet

We have discussed the different methods undertaken by the companions of the Holy Prophet to preserve the ahdth. An objective study of these methods would prove that although 'writing' was not the sole method of their preservation, yet it was never neglected in this process. Inspired by the Holy Prophet himself, a large number of his companions used to secure the ahdth in written form.

When we study individual efforts of the companions for compiling ahdth, we find that thousands of ahdth were written in the very days of the Holy Prophet and his four Caliphs. It is not possible to give an exhaustive survey of these efforts, for it will require a separate voluminous book on the subject which is not intended here. Nevertheless, we propose to give a brief account of some outstanding compilations of ahdth in that early period. It will, at least, refute the misconception that the ahdth were not compiled during the first three centuries.

The Dictations of the Holy Prophet

To begin with, we would refer to the fact that a considerable number of ahdth were dictated and directed to be secured in written form by the Holy Prophet himself. Here are some examples:

The Book of Sadaqah

The Holy Prophet () has dictated detailed documents containing rules of Shar'ah about the levy of Zakh, and specifying the quantum and the rate of Zakh in respect of different Zakt-able assets. This document was named "Kitb as-Sadaqah" (The Book of Sadaqah). 'Abdullh ibn 'Umar says,

The Holy Prophet dictated the Book of Sadaqah and was yet to send it to his governors when he passed away. He had attached it to his sword. When he passed away, Abu Bakr acted according to it till he passed away, then 'Umar acted according to it till he passed away. It was mentioned in his book that one goat is leviable on five camels. [Jmi' Tirmidhi]

The text of this document is available in several books of ahdth like the Sunan of Abu Dwd. Imm Zuhri, the renowned scholar of hadth, used to teach this document to his pupils. He used to say:

This is the text of the document dictated by the Holy Prophet about the rules of Sadaqah (Zakh). Its original manuscript is with the children of Sayyiduna 'Umar. Salim, the grandson of 'Umar had taught it to me. I had learnt it by heart. 'Umar ibn 'Abdul-Azz had procured a copy of this text from Salim and 'Abdullah, the grandsons of 'Umar. I have the same copy with me. [Sunan Abu Dwd]

The Script of 'Amr ibn Hazm

In 10 A.H., when Najran was conquered by the Muslims, the Holy Prophet appointed his companion, 'Amr ibn Hazm as governer of the province of Yemen. At this time the Holy Prophet dictated a detailed book to Ubayy ibn Ka'b and handed it over to 'Amr ibn Hazm.

This book, besides some general advices, contained the rules of Shar'ah about purification, salh, zakh, 'ushr, hajj, 'umrah, jihd (battle), spoils, taxes, diyah (blood money), administration, education, etc.

Sayyiduna 'Amr ibn Hazm performed his functions as governor of Yemen in the light of this book. After his demise this document remained with his grandson, Abu Bakr. Imm Zuhri learnt and copied it from him. He used to teach it to his pupils. [Certain extracts of this book are found in the works of hadth. For the full text see, al-Wath'iq as-Saysiyyah fil-Islm by Dr. Hamdullh.]

Written Directives to Other Governors

Similarly, when the Holy Prophet appointed some of his companions as governors of different provinces he used to dictate to them similar documents as his directives which they could follow in performing their duties as rulers or as judges. When he appointed Abu Hurairah and Ala ibn al-Hazrami as his envoy to the Zoroastrians of Hajar, he dictated to them a directive containing certain rules of Shar'ah about Zakh and 'Ushr. [Tabaqt Ibn Sa'd]

Likewise, when he sent Mu'dh ibn Jabal and Malik ibn Murarah to Yemen, he gave them a document dictated by him which contained certain rules of Shar'ah. [ibid]

Written Directives for Certain Delegations

Certain Arab tribes who lived in remote areas far from Madnah, after embracing Islm used to send their delegations to the Holy Prophet. These delegations used to stay at Madnah for a considerable period during which they would learn the teachings of Islm, read the Holy Qur'n and listen to the sayings of the Holy Prophet. When they returned to their homes, some of them requested the Holy Prophet to dictate some instructions for them and for their tribes. The Holy Prophet used to accept this request and would dictate some directives containing such rules of Shar'ah as they most needed.

1. Sayyiduna Wa'il ibn Hujr came from Yemen and before leaving for home, requested the Holy Prophet :

Write me a book addressed to my tribe.

The Holy Prophet dictated three documents to Sayyiduna Mu'awiyah. One of these documents pertained to personal problems of Wa'il ibn Hujr, while the other two consisted of certain general precepts of Shar'ah concerning Salh, Zakh, prohibition of liquor, usury, and certain other matters. [ibid]

2. Munqiz ibn Hayyan, a member of the tribe of Abdul-Qais, came to the Holy Prophet and embraced Islm. While returning home he was given a written document by the Holy Prophet which he carried to his tribe but initially he did not disclose it to anyone. When, due to his efforts, his father-in-law embraced Islm, he handed over the document to him who in turn read it before his tribe which subsequently embraced Islm. It was after this that the famous delegation of Abdul-Qais came to the Holy Prophet. The detailed narration is found in the books of Bukhri and Muslim. [Mirqt Sharh Mishkt; Sharh an-Nawawi]

3. The delegation of the tribe of Ghamid came to the Holy Prophet and embraced Islm. The Holy Prophet sent them to Sayyiduna Ubayy ibn Ka'b who taught them the Holy Qur'n and:

the Holy Prophet dictated for them a book containing injunctions of Islm. [Tabaqt Ibn Sa'd]

4. The delegation of the tribe of Khath'am came to the Holy Prophet. While discussing their arrival Ibn Sa'd reports on the authority of different reliable narrators:

They said, "We believe in Allh, His messenger and in whatever has come from Allh. So, write for us a document that we may follow." The Holy Prophet wrote for them a document. Jarir ibn 'Abdullh and those present stood as witnesses to that document. [ibid]

5. The delegation of the tribes of Sumalah and Huddan came after the conquest of Makkah. They embraced Islm. The Holy Prophet dictated for them a document containing Islmic injunctions about Zakh. Sayyiduna Thbit ibn Qais had written the document and Sa'd ibn Ubdah and Muhammad ibn Maslamah stood as witnesses. [ibid]

6. The same Thbit ibn Qais also wrote a document dictated by the Holy Prophet for the delegation of the tribe of Aslam. The witnesses were Abu Ubaidah ibn al-Jarrah and 'Umar ibn al-Khattb.

These are only a few examples which are neither comprehensive nor exhaustive. Many other instances of the same nature are found in only one book, namely the Tabaqt of Ibn Sa'd. A thorough research in all the relevant books would certainly expose a large number of like events for which a more detailed book is required.

All these examples refer to those events only where the Holy Prophet dictated documents containing general Islmic injunctions. He has also dictated numerous official documents in individual cases. The large number of such documents prevents us from providing even a short reference to all of them in this brief study. All these documents also form part of the Sunnah and a large number of Islmic injunctions are inferred from them. In brevity, we instead would only refer to a work of Dr. Muhammad Hamdullh, namely, al-Wath'iq as-Siysiyyah, in which he has compiled a considerable number of such documents. Those who desire further study may peruse the same.

The Compilations of Hadth by the Companions of the Holy Prophet

As discussed earlier, the Holy Prophet has not only permitted but also persuaded his companions to write down his ahdth. In pursuance of this direction, the blessed companions of the Holy Prophet used to write ahdth, and a considerable number of them have compiled these writings in book forms. Some examples are given below.

The Scripts of Abu Hurairah

It is well-known that Abu Hurairah has narrated more ahdth than any other companion of the Holy Prophet. The number of ahdth reported by him is said to be 5374. The reason was that he, after embracing Islm, devoted his full life for the sole purpose of bearing and preserving the ahdth of the Holy Prophet. Unlike the other famous companions, he did not employ himself in any economic activity. He used to remain in the mosque of the Holy Prophet to hear what he said and to witness each event around him. He remained hungry, faced starvations and hardships. Yet, he did not leave the function he had undertaken.

There are concrete evidences that he had preserved the ahdth in written form. One of his pupils, namely, Hasan ibn 'Amr reports that once:

Abu Hurairah took him to his home and showed him "many books" containing the ahdth of the Holy Prophet. [Jmi' Bayn-ul-'Ilm; Fath-ul-Bri]

It shows that Abu Hurairah had many scripts of ahdth with him. It is also established that a number of his pupils had prepared several scripts of his narrations.

The Script of 'Abdullhi ibn 'Amr

It has been stated earlier that 'Abdullh ibn 'Amr was specifically instructed by the Holy Prophet to write ahdth. He therefore compiled a big script and named it "As-Sahfah as-Sdiqah" (The script of truth). 'Abdullh ibn 'Amr was very precautious in preserving this script. Mujhid, one of his favorite pupils says, "I went to 'Abdullh ibn 'Amr and took in hand a script placed beneath his cushion. He stopped me. I said, 'You never save anything from me.' He replied:

This is the Sdiqah (the Script of Truth). It is what I heard from the Holy Prophet. No other narrator intervenes between him and myself. If this script, the Book of Allh, and wahaz (his agricultural land) are secured for me, I would never care about the rest of the world. [Jmi' Bayn-ul-'Ilm]

This script remained with his children. His grandson, 'Amr ibn Shu'aib used to teach the ahdth contained in it. Yahy ibn Ma'in and 'Ali ibn al-Madini have said that every tradition reported by 'Amr ibn Shu'aib in any book of hadth has been taken from this script [Tahdhb at-Tahdhb]. Ibn al-Asir says that this script contained one thousand ahdth. [Asad-ul-Ghbah]

The Script of Anas

Sayyiduna Anas ibn Mlik was one of those companions of the Holy Prophet who knew writing. His mother had brought him to the Holy Prophet when he was ten years old. He remained in the service of the Holy Prophet for ten years during which he heard a large number of ahdth and wrote them down. Sa'd ibn Hilal, one of his pupils, says,

When we insisted upon Anas, may Allh be pleased with him, he would bring to us some notebooks and say, "These are what I have heard and written from the Holy Prophet, after which I have presented them to the Holy Prophet for confirmation. [Mustadrik Hkim]

It shows that Sayyiduna Anas had not only written a large number of ahdth in several notebooks, but had also showed them to the Holy Prophet who had confirmed them.

The Script of 'Ali

It is well known that Sayyiduna 'Ali had a script of ahdth with him. He says,

I have not written anything from the Holy Prophet except the Holy Qur'n and what is contained in this script. [Sahh Bukhri- Book of Jihad]

Imm Bukhri has mentioned this script at six different places of his Sahh. A combined study of all those places reveals that this script was substantially large and it consisted of ahdth about qiss (retaliation), diyah (blood money), fidyah (ransom), rights of the non-Muslim citizens of an Islamic state, some specific kinds of inheritance, zakh rules pertaining to camels of different ages, and some rules about the sanctity of the city of Madnah.

The script was written by Sayyiduna 'Ali in the days of the Holy Prophet. Then, in the days of his khilfah (rule), he felt that the ahdth of the Holy Prophet should be spread among the people to widen the range of Islamic knowledge and to refute certain misguided ideas prevalent in those days.

It is reported by the famous historian Ibn Sa'd that he stood in the mosque and delivered a lecture. Then he asked the people,

"Who will purchase 'knowledge' for one dirham only?"

He meant that whoever wanted to learn ahdth, should buy writing paper for one dirham and come to him, for dictation of the ahdth of the Holy Prophet.

It is reported that Hrith al-A'war bought some paper and came to him:

So, ('Ali) wrote for him a lot of knowledge. [Tabaqt Ibn Sa'd]

It should be kept in mind that the word "knowledge" in the early centuries of Islamic history was used for the knowledge of ahdth only. [ibid]

Scripts of Jbir

Jbir ibn 'Abdullh is one of the famous companions of the Holy Prophet who has narrated a large number of ahdth. It is established that he had compiled the ahdth in two scripts. One of them contained a detailed account of the last Hajj performed by the Holy Prophet. The full text of this script is found in the Sahh of Muslim wherein he has described even the minute details of the last Hajj. [Sahh Muslim- Book of Hajj. Dhahabi says that this is a replica of Jbir's script.]

His second script contained other ahdth relating to different subjects.

Qatdah, the famous pupil of Jbir, says,

I remember the script of Jbir more than I remember Surah al-Baqarah (of the Holy Qur'n). [Tahdhb at-Tahdhb]

Reference to this script is also found in the Musannaf of 'Abdurrazzq where some ahdth of this script are reported.

Scripts of Ibn 'Abbs

'Abdullah ibn 'Abbs was the cousin of the Holy Prophet. When the Holy Prophet passed away, he was yet very young. In order to preserve ahdth, he began to compile what he himself heard from the Holy Prophet as well as those narrated by other companions. Whenever he came to know of any companion having some ahdth, he would travel to him to hear them. All such ahdth were compiled by him in several scripts. These scripts numbered so many that they could be loaded on a camel. These scripts remained with his pupil Kuraib. Musa ibn 'Uqbah, the famous historian, says:

Kuraib left with us a camel load of Ibn 'Abbs's books. When 'Ali ibn 'Abdullh ibn 'Abbs would need any book from them, he wrote to Kuraib, 'Send to me such and such books.' He would then transcribe the book and send to him one of the two copies. [Tabaqt Ibn Sa'd]

The pupils of Ibn 'Abbs would copy these scripts and read them over to him to confirm the correctness of the copies. [Jmi' at-Tirmidhi]

Sometimes Ibn 'Abbs would narrate the ahdth to his pupils while they would record them. [Sunan Drimi]

These are only a few examples of efforts made by the companions of the Holy Prophet for the compilation of ahdth. We do not intend here to present an exhaustive survey of such efforts. Detailed books can be consulted for this purpose. Our purpose here was to give only some examples. These concrete examples are more than sufficient to refute the fallacious assumption that the ahdth were never written in the days of the Holy Prophet and his companions.

The Compilation of Ahdth in the Era After the Companions

The history of the compilation of ahdth after the companions is even more vast and detailed. Each companion who narrated the ahdth had a large number of pupils who compiled what they heard from him. The pupils of the companions are called "Tbi'n."

The compilations of the Tbi'n were generally not arranged subject wise, though some of them have arranged the ahdth under subjective headings. The first known book of hadth which is so arranged is Al-Abwb of Imm Sha'bi (19-103 A.H.). This book was divided into various chapters. Each chapter contained the ahdth relating to the same subject like salh, zakh, etc.

This proves that the first book of ahdth arranged in a regular manner appeared in the very first century. Another book was written by Hasan al-Basri (d.110) in which he compiled ahdth containing any explanations or commentaries of the Holy Qur'n [Tadrb ar-Rwi]. This was also a regular book written on a particular subject which appeared in the first century.

In the era of the Tbi'n the compilation of ahdth was undertaken officially by the famous khalfah, 'Umar ibn 'Abdul-Azz (99-101 A.H.). He issued an official order to all governors under his domain that they should gather the knowledgeable persons from among the companions of the Holy Prophet and their pupils and write down the ahdth found with them [Fath al-Bri].

The result of this official decree was that several books of ahdth were prepared and spread all over the country. Ibn Shihb az-Zuhri was one of the pioneers of the compilation of hadth in this period. He has written a number of books.

All these books and scripts written in this period were afterwards included in the larger books of hadth written later on, as is usual in the evolution of every science. The separate entity of these books and scripts, being uncalled for, was not much attended to. Thus, the larger books written in the second and third centuries gradually took their place, and being more comprehensive, detailed, and sufficient, they were so widely spread and studied that the books of the Tbi'n no longer remained on the scene.

However, some manuscripts of these books were preserved. Later books were compared and confirmed by such preserved manuscripts.

One of the books written in the days of the Tbi'n was the script of Hammam ibn Munabbih, a pupil of Abu Hurairah, who prepared a book containing ahdth he heard from Abu Hurairah. This book is also known as "As-Sahfah as-Sahhah." All the ahdth of this book were included in later compilations. The full text of it is also found in the Musnad of Imm Ahmad. The original script of this book was thus not attended to and was lost for a considerable time.

In 1373 A.H. (1954 C.E.), two manuscripts of this book were discovered in the libraries of Berlin and Damascus, and were published by Dr. Muhammad Hamidullah with a detailed introduction.

Dr. Muhammad Hamidullah edited these manuscripts which were written centuries ago. He has also compared their text with the one narrated in the Musnad of Imm Ahmad. He could not find any material difference between the two texts. There are a few very minor differences of negligible words which always exist between two manuscripts of the same book.

It proves that the books of the Tbi'n were included and were thus made part of the later books of hadth, with all necessary precautions by which they can safely be relied upon.

The Compilations of the First Century

We present here a list of hadth works written by the Tbi'n in the first and second centuries. In the first century the following books of hadth were compiled by the Tbi'n:

1. Book of Khalid ibn Ma'dan (d. 104)

2. Books of Abu Qilabah (d. 104). He bequeathed his books to his pupil, Ayyub Saktiyan (68-131 A.H.), who paid more than ten dirhams as a fare for them being loaded on a camel.

3. The script of Hammam ibn Munabbih, already referred to.

4. Books of Hasan al-Basri (21-110 A.H.)

5. Books of Muhammad al-Baqir (56-114 A.H.)

6. Books of Makhul from Syria

7. Book of Hakam ibn 'Utaibah

8. Book of Bukair ibn 'Abdullah ibn al-Ashajj (d. 117)

9. Book of Qais ibn Sa'd (d. 117). This book later belonged to Hammad ibn Salamah.

10. Book of Sulaiman al-Yashkuri

11. Al-Abwb of Sha'bi, already referred to.

12. Books of Ibn Shihb az-Zuhri

13. Book of Abul-'Aliyah

14. Book of Sa'id ibn Jubair (d. 95)

15. Books of 'Umar ibn 'Abdul Aziz (61-101 A.H.)

16. Books of Mujahid ibn Jabr (d. 103)

17. Book of Raja ibn Hywah (d. 112)

18. Book of Abu Bakr ibn Muhammad ibn 'Amr ibn Haq

19. Book of Bashir ibn Nahik.

The Books of Hadth Written in the Second Century

The basic characteristic of the books written in the second century is that a large number of them were arranged subject-wise, while the books of the first century were not. However, compilations without due arrangement continued in this century too. The list of books compiled in this period is very long. A few prominent books are referred to here:

1. Book of 'Abdul Malik ibn Juraij (d. 150)

2. Muwatta of Malik ibn Anas (93-179)

3. Muwatta of Ibn Abi Zi'b (80-158)

4. Maghzi of Muhammad ibn Ishaq (d. 151)

5. Musnad of Rabi' ibn Sabih (d. 160)

6. Book of Sa'id ibn Abi 'Arubah (d. 156)

7. Book of Hammad ibn Salmah (d. 167)

8. Jami' Sufyan ath-Thauri (97-161)

9. Jami' Ma'mar ibn Rashid (95-153)

10. Book of 'Abdur-Rahman al-Awz'I (88-157)

11. Kitb az-Zuhd by 'Abdullh ibn al-Mubrak (118-181)

12. Book of Hushaim ibn Bashir (104-183)

13. Book of Jarir ibn 'Abdul-Hamid (110-188)

14. Book of 'Abdullh ibn Wahb (125-197)

15. Book of Yahya ibn Abi Kathr (d. 129)

16. Book of Muhammad ibn Suqah (d. 135)

17. Tafsr of Zaid ibn Aslam (d. 136)

18. Book of Musa ibn 'Uqbah (d. 141)

19. Book of Ash'ath ibn 'Abdul-Malik (d. 142)

20. Book of Aqil ibn Khalid (d. 142)

21. Book of Yahya ibn Sa'id Ansari (d. 143)

22. Book of Awf ibn Abi Jamilah (d. 146)

23. Books of Jafar ibn Muhammad al-Sadiq (d. 148)

24. Books of Yunus ibn Yazid (d. 152)

25. Book of 'Abdur-Rahman al-Mas'udi (d. 160)

26. Books of Zaidah ibn Qudamah (d. 161)

27. Books of Ibrahim al-Tahman (d. 163)

28. Books of Abu Hamzah al-Sukri (d. 167)

29. Al-Gharib by Shu'bah ibn al-Hajjaj (d. 160)

30. Books of 'Abdul-Aziz ibn 'Abdullh al-Majishun (d. 164)

31. Books of 'Abdullh ibn 'Abdullh ibn Abi Uwais (d. 169)

32. Books of Sulaiman ibn Bilal (d. 172)

33. Books of 'Abdullh ibn Lahi'ah (d. 147)

34. Jami' Sufyan ibn 'Uyainah (d. 198)

35. Kitb-ul-thr by Imm Abu Hanfah (d. 150)

36. Maghzi of Mu'tamir ibn Sulaiman (d. 187)

37. Musannaf of Waki' ibn Jarrah (d. 196)

38. Musannaf of 'Abdur-Razzq ibn Hammam (136-221)

39. Musnad of Zaid ibn 'Ali (76-122)

40. Books of Imm Shfi'i (150-204)

The following books written in this age are still available in printed form:

1. Al-Muwatta by Imm Mlik.

2. Kitb-ul-thr by Imm Abu Hanfah.

3. Musannaf by 'Abdur-Razzq. This book has been published in eleven big volumes.

4. As-Srah by Muhammad ibn Ishaq.

5. Kitb az-Zuhd by 'Abdullh ibn al-Mubrak.

6. Kitb az-Zuhd by Waki' ibn Jarrh (3 volumes).

7. Al-Musnad by Zaid ibn 'Ali (76-122).

8. Sunan of Imm Shfi'i.

9. Musnad of Shfi'i.

10. Siyar of Awz'i (88-157).

11. Musnad of 'Abdullh ibn al-Mubrak.

12. Musnad of Abu Dwd Tayalisi (d. 204).

13. Ar-Radd 'ala Siyaril-Awz'i by Imm Abu Ysuf.

14. Al-Hujjah 'ala Ahlil-Madnah by Imm Muhammad ibn Hasan Shaibni.

15. Kitbul-Umm by Imm Shfi'i.

16. Al-Maghzi by Waqidi (130-206) (4 volumes).

This list is by no means exhaustive. But a careful study of these books only which are available today in printed forms would clearly reveal that their style is much developed and they definitely do not seem to be the first books on their subject. Some of them are in more than ten volumes, and their arrangement shows that the compilation of hadth in those days reached a developed stage.

All these valuable efforts of compiling the ahdth belong to the first and second centuries. Hence, one can easily see how false is the assumption that the compilation of ahdth did not take place before the third century.

What we have cited above is more than sufficient to prove that the compilation of ahdth had begun in the very days of the Holy Prophet and has continued in each point of time thereafter. This process has, no doubt, passed through certain stages as is usual in every new science or branch of knowledge. But the assumption that the process did not begin before the third century cannot by substantiated on any ground whatsoever.

The Criticism of Ahdth

Although the task of preserving the ahdth through all the four ways mentioned earlier, including compilations in written form has been performed with due diligence throughout the first four centuries of Islamic history, yet it does not mean that all the traditions narrated or compiled in this period have been held as true and reliable.

In fact, in the same period in which the work of the compilation of ahdth was going on, a very systematic science of criticism was developed by the scholars of hadth in which numerous tests were suggested to verify the correctness of a narration. All these tests were applied to each and every tradition or report before holding it reliable. The different branches of knowledge which have been introduced by the scholars of the science of hadth has no parallel in the art of historical criticism throughout world history. It is not possible for us to herein present even a brief introduction of these different branches and the valuable works produced in this respect. It may be said without any fear of exaggeration that thousands of books have been written on these different branches of knowledge regarding the science of hadth.

It will be pertinent, however, to give a brief example of the nature of the criticism of ahdth carried on by scholars and the different tests applied by them to ascertain the veracity of a hadth.

The traditions viewed from different angles have been classified into hundreds of kinds. Relative to their standards of authenticity, the traditions are ultimately classified into four major categories:

(a) Sahh (sound)

(b) Hasan (good)

(c) Da'f (weak)

(d) Maud' (fabricated)

Only the first two kinds are held to be reliable. Precepts of the Shari'ah can be based on and inferred from only these two kinds. Hence, only the ahdth of these two categories are held to be the source of Islamic law. The other two kinds have little or no value especially in legal or doctrinal matters.

Before declaring a hadth as sahh or hasan, the following tests are applied:

(a) Scrutiny of its narrators.

(b) Scrutiny of the constancy of the chain of narrators.

(c) Comparison of its chain and text with other available paths of narration in the same manner.

(d) Examination of the chain and the text of the hadth in the light of other material available on the subject, and to ensure that there is no defect in the chain or in the text.

We will try to give a brief explanation of these four tests as they are applied by the scholars of hadth to scrutinize the veracity of a tradition.

1. Scrutiny of the narrators

The first and foremost test of the correctness of a hadth relates to the credibility of its narrators. This scrutiny is carried out on two scores: firstly, examination of the integrity and honesty of a narrator, and secondly, examination of his memory power.

To carry out this scrutiny, a separate complete Science has been introduced which is called 'Ilm-ur-Rijl (the knowledge of men). The scholars of this science devoted their lives for the thorough enquiry about each person who has reported a hadth. For this, they used to go to his place and enquire about him from his neighbors, pupils, and friends so that no scholar would be impressed by his personal relations with a narrator. 'Ali ibn al-Madini, the famous scholar of Rijl, when asked about his father, first tried to avoid the question and replied, "Ask some other scholar about him." But when the question was repeated with a request for his own opinion, he said:

It is the matter of Faith, (I, therefore, reply) he is a weak narrator.

Waki' ibn Jarrh, the well-known Imm of hadth, held his father as "weak" in hadth, and did not rely on his reports unless they are confirmed by some reliable narrator.

Imm Abu Dwd, the author of one of the Six Books, has opined about his son 'Abdullh (this is the same 'Abdullh whose work, Kitb-ul-Masalif, has been published by some orientalists), that he was "a great liar."

Zaid ibn Abi Unaisah has said about his brother Yahya, "Do not accept the traditions of my brother Yahya, because he is reputed in lying."

Similar opinions are recorded in the books of the 'Ilm-ur-Rijl. Hundreds of books have been written on this subject. Here are only a few examples:

Tahdhb at-Tahdhb by Hfiz Ibn Hajar: Printed in twelve volumes, this book has been designed to give a brief account of all the narrators whose narration is found in the famous Six Books of hadth only. It contains the life accounts of 12,455 narrators, arranged in alphabetical order. (This is the total of the members given in each volume separately. Sometimes, the same narrator has been mentioned in different places with different names. So, the actual number of the narrators may be less, but not less than 10,000.)

You can pick up any name from any chain of any hadth in any book from the Six Books. This name will certainly be found in the Tahdhb at-Tahdhb recorded in its place in alphabetical scheme. There you can find his dates of birth and death, the list of his teachers, the list of his pupils, important events of his life, and the opinions of the scholars about his credibility.

There are several other books meant for the narrators of the Six Books exclusively, and after consulting them one can easily reach a definite conclusion about the veracity of a narrator.

Lisn al-Mzn by Hfiz Ibn Hajar: This book is meant exclusively for those narrators whose names do not appear in any chain contained in any of the Six Books. It means that the traditions reported by them are found only in some books other than the Six Books.

This book consists of seven volumes and embodies the introduction of 5,991 narrators.

Ta'jl al-Manfa'ah by Hfiz Ibn Hajar: This book is confined to the introductions of the narrators whose traditions are found in the books of the four Imms: Mlik, Abu Hanfah, Shfi'i, and Ahmad ibn Hanbal, and are not among the narrators of the Six Books. Thus, it contains the introduction of 1,732 narrators.

All these three books are written and compiled by the same person, namely, Hfiz Ibn Hajar. It means that he has compiled the introduction of more than seventeen thousand narrators of hadth.

This is the effort of only a single scholar. Many other books are available on the same subject. The following table will show the large number of narrators introduced in a few famous books of Rijl which are frequently referred to:


Name of the book Author Volumes Number of narrators
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
At-Trkh al-Kabr
Al-Jarh wat-Ta'dl
Tahdhb at-Tahdhb
Mizn al-I'tidl
Lisn al-Mzn
As-Siqat
Al-Mughni fid-Du'af
Imm Bukhri
Ibn Abi Hatim
Hfiz Ibn Hajar
Dhahabi
Hfiz Ibn Hajar
'Ijli
Dhahabi
9
9
12
4
7
1
2
13,781
18,050
12,455
11,053

2,116
7,854

The last book of this table has introduced only those narrators who have been held as "weak" narrators. Similar books are written by Ibn Abi Hatim, Draqutni, etc. On the contrary, there are books which deal with the reliable narrators only, like Thiqt of Ibn Hibbn in eleven volumes.

Anyhow, if a narrator is found to be dishonest, has very weak memory or he is unknown, no trust is placed on his narrations. A large number of traditions has been repudiated on this score alone.

2. Constancy of the chain of narrators

It is well-known that no report, in the science of hadth, is accepted unless it gives the full chain of narrators upto the Holy Prophet. Each narrator from this chain is first scrutinized on the touch-stone of his credibility as discussed above. But even if all the narrators of a chain are found to be reliable, it is not enough to hold the tradition as authentic. It must be proved that the chain is constant and no narrator has been missed in between. If it is found that some narrator has been missed at any stage, the tradition is held to be unreliable. To ensure the constancy of the chain, it is necessary to know about each narrator whether it is possible for him historically to meet the person from whom he claims to hear the tradition.

This scrutiny is indeed very difficult and delicate. But the scholars of the science of hadth have undertaken this task in such an accurate manner that one cannot but wonder.

While holding an enquiry about each narrator, the scholars, besides ascertaining his integrity and memory, would also survey his teachers and pupils. Thus, a detailed list of both his teachers and pupils is available in each detailed book of Rijl. So, when deciding about the constancy of a hadth the scholars do not only make themselves sure about the dates of birth and death of each narrator, but also examine the list of his teachers and pupils.

Not only this, they often try to fix the time-span in which a narrator had opportunities to meet a particular teacher and that in which he did actually hear ahdth from him. On the basis of this information they derive certain important conclusions about the credibility of a narrator.

For example, 'Abdullh ibn Lahi'ah is a well-known Egyptian narrator of hadth. It is established that his memory was weak and he used to narrate those traditions which he wrote. At a particular time, his house was burnt by fire and all his books were also burnt. After this occurrence he sometimes used to report ahdth from his memory. Therefore, some scholars have decided that his narrations before the accident are reliable while those narrated after it are not worthy of trust. Now, the pupils who have heard ahdth from him in the early period, their narrations may be accepted, while the reports of those who have heard from him in the later period cannot be relied upon. The scholars have scrutinized the list of his pupils and have specified the names of his early pupils, like 'Abdullh ibn Wahb, etc. and have declared that all the rest should be treated as his later pupils, and no trust might be placed on their narrations.

In short, the second type of scrutiny, which is very essential in the criticism of traditions, relates to the constancy and perpetuity of the chain of narrators. If it is found that a narrator has not heard the hadth directly from the one to whom he is ascribing it, the tradition is said to be Munqati' (broken) which cannot be treated as reliable.

3. Comparison with other narrations: The third test applied to a tradition relates to its comparison with what is narrated by other pupils of the same teacher.

Sometimes a tradition is reported by several narrators. All these reports about the same saying or event are said to be the turuq (different paths) of that tradition. While scrutinizing a tradition, the scholars undertake a combined study of all its "paths." If it is found that the majority of the reliable reporters narrate the hadth in a particular way, but one of them reports it in a version substantially different from that of the others, his report is held to be a shdh (rare) version. In such case, despite the reliability of the reporter, his version is not accepted as a sahh (sound) one, and no trust is placed on it unless it is confirmed and supported by any internal or external evidence.

4. General analysis of the tradition: The last, and very important, scrutiny is accompanied by the general analysis of a tradition. In this scrutiny the tradition is analyzed in the light of other relevant material available on the subject. The tradition is examined from different angles: whether the reported saying or event is at all possible; whether the reported event conforms to the established historical events; whether its text can be held as truly attributed to the Holy Prophet; whether the chain of narrators is genuine, etc.

This is a very difficult and delicate scrutiny which cannot be undertaken successfully unless the scholar has full command over all the relevant subjects, occupies complete knowledge of hadth, and has a great skill in the science of criticism of hadth.

If, after this scrutiny, a strong doubt appears to a scholar about the authenticity of a hadth, he points out that there is a "defect" ('ilal) in the chain or in the text of the hadth, and a tradition having this kind of 'illah or defect is not held as sahh.

Thus, a sahh (sound) hadth has been defined by the scholars as follows:

"What is reported, by a reporter who is honest and of good memory power, without any break in the chain of narrators, without any shudhdh (rareness) and without any 'illah (defect)." (Taqi Usmani, The Authority of Sunnah, Chapter 3: The Authority of the Sunnah: Its Historical Aspect, Source)

To read more about the reliability of hadith please visit the following links...

http://www.call-to-monotheism.com/god_s_preservation_of_the_sunnah__by_jamaal_al_din_zarabozo

http://www.islamic-awareness.org/Hadith/hadith.html (early hadith manuscripts)

http://www.islamic-awareness.org/Hadith/muwatta.html (people argue that the early Muwatta manuscripts are not reliable, but this link refutes it)

http://www.islamic-awareness.org/Hadith/bukhari.html (defending the collection of hadith by Bukhari and Muslim)

http://www.islamic-awareness.org/Hadith/exisnad.html (shows the strengths of isnad for supporting hadith)

http://www.islamic-awareness.org/Hadith/narraulum.html (this link deals with people who argue that hadith have been inserted into Saheeh Bukhari after his death)

http://www.whyislam.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=3772&PN=1 (very good article, read his section on 'The Proliferation of Chains')

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