Response to the common myth about Hadith is that it was compiled two centuries after the Prophet(peace be upon him)
By Samia Salim
Intro
Our
creator Allah (swt) bestowed on us the final revelation by revealing to the
Prophet(Pbuh) with the Quran & Sunnah. The Sunnah is synonymous to hadith
& refers to whatever statements, acts, approvals, physical or character
descriptions that are attributable to the Prophet(Pbuh) along
with his biography before or after the beginning of his Prophethood.[1]
On
the other hand the term Hadith refers to whatever is transmitted from the
Prophet(Pbuh) of his actions, sayings, tacit approvals, or physical
characteristics. Hadeeth are
the containers in which the Sunnah of
the Prophet(Pbuh) was conveyed during his life time and after his death.[2]
"And
whatsoever the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) gives you, take it; and
whatsoever he forbids you, abstain from it."[3]
Preservation of
the Quran & Sunnah
Prophet Muhammad (Pbuh) was the Final Messenger of
Allah(swt) to whom the Quran was revealed and something similar to it, which is
his Sunnah. It was the duty of the Prophet(pbuh) to explain to people what
Allah had commanded us to do in the Quran. When Allah promised to protect what
He revealed it not only refers to the Book of Allah but it also refers to the Sunnah
which have been preserved to this day. If Allah(swt) had only meant the words
of the Quran then people till this day could have played havoc to the
interpretation & meaning of the Quranic injunctions.
Allah(swt)
says in the Quran,
“Indeed, I have
revealed the Reminder, I will, indeed, protect it”[4]
The Myths
There
are a lot of widespread myths regarding the hadith of the Prophet(pbuh) that
these were not compiled until 2 centuries after the death of the Prophet(pbuh).
On this basis people question the authenticity of the Hadith that we have
today. The verse quoted above makes it clear
to us that Allah(swt) Himself promised in the Quran to protect the reminder
which refers to both the Quran & the Sunnah. Critiques often just refer to
the reminder as the Quran & therefore place yet another argument that
Allah(swt) did take the charge of protecting the Quran but not the Hadith.
“He (Muhammad) does not speak from his desires;
indeed, what he says is revelation.”[5]
Era
of the Prophet(Pbuh)
At the time of the Prophet(Pbuh) people started
memorizing & recording the Quran & Hadith. He forbade the recording of
the Hadith initially so as to avoid mixing the text of the Quran with that of
the Sunnah.
Abu Saeed al Khudri narrates: The Prophet (pbuh)
said,
“Do not write about or from me, and whoever has
written anything from me other than the Qur’an should erase it.”[6]
Some scholars referred to this hadith as being weak but the majority take
it as being authentic. This hadith was abrogated by another Hadith.
Aboo Hurayrah
said: When Makkah was conquered, the Prophet (ρ) gave a sermon. A man from
Yemen, called Aboo Shaah got up and said, “O Messenger of Allaah! Write it down
for me.” The Messenger of Allaah (Pbuh) replied, “Write it for Aboo Shaah.”[7]
The hadith about
writing occurred in the Final hajj of the Prophet(pbuh) towards the end of the
Prophet’s life.[8]
This refutes the claim of many critics who used the above hadith to show that
Hadith were not recorded at the time of the Prophet (Pbuh).
‘Abdullah
ibn ‘Amr said: “I used to write everything which I heard from the Messenger of
Allaah (ρ) with the intention of memorizing it. However, some Qurayshites
forbade me from doing so saying, ‘Do you write everything that you hear from
him, while the Messenger of Allaah is a human being who speaks in anger and
pleasure?’ So I stopped writing, and mentioned it to the Messenger of Allah (Pbuh).
He pointed with his finger to his mouth and said: ‘Write! By Him in whose hand is my soul, only truth comes out from it.’[9]\
Era
of the Sahaba
The
Hadith were not only recorded by many in written form on various mediums but it
was also memorized by many. Following the period after the death of the
Prophet(Pbuh) people now started narrating the hadith as the Messenger was no longer
amongst them. The leading narrators of the Prophet’s traditions who were known
to have recorded them in writing were Abu Hurayrah, Abdullah Ibn Abbas,
Abdullah Ibn Amr Al Aas, Aboo Bakr etc.
Era of The Taabi’oon
After
the Sahabah, came the period of the Tabioon which is the 1st
century. In this period Islam had spread far & people now started
fabricating hadith. Caliph Umar Ibn Abdul Aziz at this time ordered the
scholars to start compiling the hadith before they were lost. Aboo Bakr ibn
Hazm, Sa‘d ibn Ibraaheem and Ibn Shihaab az-Zuhree were among those directed by
the Caliph to compile the Hadeeth In this period the systematic
compilation of Hadeeth had begun on a fairly wide scale.[10]
Compilations
The
compilation of Hadith of Abdullah ibn Amr al Aas can be seen in his Saheefa
Saadiqaa which composed of about 1000 hadith all of which can be found in the
Musnad of Imam Ahmad. Another compilation was that of the student of Abu
Hurayrah, Hummam Ibn Munabah known as Saaheefa Saheehaa. Then there was the
Saheefa of Basheer Ibn Naheek, Musnad of Imam Abu Hurayrah, Saaheefa Alee (R.A)
which was a voluminous collection. The narrations of Aa’ishah Siddeeqa(r.a)
were written by her student, Urwah Ibn Zubair. There were many compilations of
the hadith of Ibn Abbaas (R.A). Sa’eed Ibn Jubair would compile his narrations.[11] Sa’eed
Ibn Hilaal narrates that Anas Ibn Maalik
(R.A) would mention everything he had written by memory; whilst showing us he
would say:
“I
heard this narration from the Messenger of Allaah (pbuh) myself and I would
write it down and repeat it to the Messenger of Allaah (pbuh) so that he would affirm
it.”
Era of The Taabi’ut-Taabi’een
In
the 2nd century, Imam Ahmad who was a student of Imam Zuhri compiled
his book Muwatta Ibn Malik with around 1720 hadith. Other books which were
compiled during his time were Jaami Sufyaan ath-Thawree, Jaami Abdullaah Ibn a
l-Mubaarak, Jaami Imaam a l-Awzaa’ee, Jaami Ibn Juraij, Kitaab al-Akhraj of
Qaad hi Abu Yoosuf, Kitaab al-Athaar of Imaam Muhammad.[12]
Conclusion
One
can easily use any of the Hadith quoted above & names of the famous Sahaba,
compilers & scholars who started compiling the Hadith not two centuries after
the death of the Prophet(pbuh) but way before that. Hadith were not only found
in written form but were also preserved in the memories of those who narrated
them.
[1] Book-
Fundamentals of Hadith studies by Dr Bilal Philips, page 7
[2] Book-
Fundamentals of Hadith studies Pg 5 & Pg 7
[3] Surah
Al-Hashr (59:7)
[4]
Surah Al Hijr (15:9), page 7,Book- Fundamentals of Hadith by Dr Bilal Philips
[5] Soorah
an-Najm (53:3-4)
[6] Sahih Muslim 229/8
[7] Vol.
3 no. 3642 and authenticated Saheeh Sunan Abee Daawood, no. 3101,
Bukhari 113/279/1
[8]
Book: The Chain of Command, taught by Shaykh Abdul Bary Yahya- The master
Reference, www.kalamullah.com
[9] Sunan
Abu Dawud, vol. 3, p. 1035, no. 3639
[10] Book-‘Fundamentals
of Hadith studies’, by Dr Bilal Philips
[11]
Book ‘Compilation of Hadith’ by Shaykh Abdul Ghaffar Hassan Rehmaanee pg 11-12
[12] Book ‘Compilation of Hadith’ by Shaykh Abdul
Ghaffar Hassan Rehmaanee pg 14-15 www.kalamullah.com
I have not done justice to this topic. There was a word limit when I had to write this paper so people who are willing to dwelve deeper into the details can refer to the sources I have used for this paper :-)
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