Hadeeth encyclopedia topics

Linguistic definition

Linguistically the word ‘hadith’ (حَدِيْث) means: that which is new from amongst things or a piece of information conveyed either in a small quantity or large. The Arabic plural is (أَحادِيْث). In English academic usage, hadith is often both singular and plural. And hadith is what is spoken by the speaker (الحديث ما يحدِّثُ به المُحَدِّثُ تَحْدِيْثًا). Tahdith(تَحْدِيْث) is the infinitive, or verbal noun, of the original verb form (حَدَّثَ). Therefore, hadith is not the infinitive, rather it is a noun.

As religious terminology

In religious terminology, hadith is the term given to a statement, action, or affirmation attributed to the Prophet of Islam, Muhammad. The relationship between the linguistic meaning and the terminology is perhaps apparent in the statement of the prominent hadith specialist Ahmad ibn Ali ibn Hajr Al-Asqalani (773 AH/1372 CE -- 852 AH/1448 CE) that the intended meaning of hadith in religious tradition is something attributed to the Prophet, as though in contrast to the Quran, which has preceded it. Hadith can be divided into three categories based upon their content:

A statement of the Prophet (قَوْل).
An action of the Prophet (فِعْل).
The Prophet’s affirmation of an action done by someone other than him (تَقْرِير).

The Sanad and the Matn

The sanad and matn are the primary elements of a hadith. The sanad is the information provided regarding the route by which the matn has been reached. It is so named due to the reliance of the hadith specialists upon it in determining the authenticity or weakness of a hadith. The term sanad is synonymous with the similar term isnad. The matn is the actual wording of the hadith by which its meaning is established, or stated differently, the objective at which the sanad arrives at consisting of speech. The sanad consists of a ‘chain’ of the narrators each mentioning the one from whom they heard the hadith until mentioning the originator of the matn along with the matn itself. The first people who received hadith were the Companions; so they preserved and understood it, knowing both its generality and particulars, and then conveyed it to those after them as they were commanded. Then the generation following them, the Followers received it thus conveying it to those after them and so on. So the Companion would say, “I heard the Prophet say such and such.” The Follower would then say, “I heard a Companion say, ‘I heard the Prophet .’” The one after him (after the Follower) would then say, “I heard someone say, ‘I heard a Companion say, ‘I heard the Prophet …’’” and so on.

Overview

Hadiths were originally oral traditions of Muhammad's actions and customs. From the first Fitna of the 7th century people questioned the sources of hadiths. This resulted in a list of transmitters, for example "A told me that B told him that Muhammad said." This list of the chain of testimony by which a hadith was transmitted is called an Isnad. The text itself came to be known as Matn.

Hadith were eventually written down, evaluated and gathered into large collections mostly during the reign of Umar II (bin Abdul Aziz, grandson of Umar bin Khattab(RAA)2nd Caliph) during 8th century, and also in the 9th century. These works are referred to in matters of Islamic law and History to this day.

History

Traditions of the life of the Prophet Muhammad and the early history of Islam were passed down orally for more than a hundred years after Muhammad's death in 632.

Muslim historians say that caliph Uthman (the third caliph, or successor of Muhammad, who had formerly been Muhammad's secretary), was the first to urge Muslims to write the Qur'an in a fixed form, and to record the hadith. Uthman's labors were cut short by his assassination, at the hands of aggrieved soldiers, in 656.

The Muslim community (ummah) then fell into a prolonged civil war, which Muslim historians call the Fitna. After the fourth caliph, Ali ibn Abi Talib, was assassinated in 661, the Umayyad dynasty seized control of the Islamic empire. Ummayad rule was interrupted by a second civil war (the Second Fitna), re-established, and ended in 758, when the Abbasid dynasty seized the caliphate, and hold it, at least in name, until 1258.

Muslim historians say that hadith collection and evaluation continued during the first Fitna and the Umayyad period. However, much of this activity was presumably oral transmission from early Muslims to later collectors, or from teachers to students. If any of these early scholars committed any of these collections to writing, they have not survived. The histories and hadith collections we have today were written down at the start of the Abbasid period, more than a hundred years after Muhammad's death.

Scholars of the Abbasid period were faced with a huge corpus of miscellaneous traditions, some of them flatly contradicting each other. Many of these traditions supported differing views on a variety of controversial matters. Scholars had to decide which hadith were to be trusted as authentic and which had been invented for political or theological purposes. To do this, they used a number of techniques which Muslims now call the science of hadith.

Use

The overwhelming majority of Muslims consider hadith to be essential supplements to and clarifications of the Qur'an, Islam's holy book. In Islamic jurisprudence, the Qur'an contains many rules for the behavior expected of Muslims but there are no specific Qur'anic rules on many religious and practical matters. Muslims believe that they can look at the way of life, or sunnah, of Muhammad and his companions to discover what to imitate and what to avoid. Muslim scholars also find it useful to know how Muhammad or his companions explained the revelations, or on what occasion Muhammad received them. Sometimes this will clarify a passage that otherwise seems obscure. Hadith are a source for Islamic history and biography. For the vast majority of devout Muslims, authentic hadith are also a source of religious inspiration.

The Qur'an states "We have made it (the Qur'an) easy to understand and in your own tongue (language) may you take heed." (Qur'an 44:58) but most Muslims argue that many Qur'anic instructions are impossible to fulfill without guidance from the hadiths. (The Qur'an does not, for example, specify how many prayer cycles constitute fulfillment of each of the daily prayers. See salat.) and claim that the Qur'an cannot be fully explained by itself alone or read with complete understanding. This is why the Hadith is referred to as the "second source" of Islam. There are great debates between Muslims about the views stated in the Qur'an, and the Hadith. Some contemporary Muslims, for instance, Tolu-e-Islam (Resurgence of Islam), Free Minds, and United Submitters International, argue that the Qur'an alone is sufficient but mainstream Muslim scholars and the vast majority of Muslims regard those who take a "Qur'an alone" viewpoint as deviant.

The sources and origins of some Hadith cannot be verified. Hadith about the words and deeds of the companions may not have the same weight as those about Muhammad. Many believe that some Hadith were written hundreds of years after Muhammed died.

Non-Muslim scholars note that there is a great overlap between the records of early Islamic traditions. Accounts of early Islam are also to be found in:

sira (stories, especially biographies of Muhammad)
tafsir (commentary on the Qur'an)
fiqh (jurisprudence)

Some of these accounts are also found as hadith; some aren't. For a Non-Muslim historian, these are all simply historical sources; for Muslim scholars , hadith have a special status. They cite sura (Yusuf Ali translation):

Those who follow the messenger, the unlettered Prophet, whom they find mentioned in their own (scriptures),- in the Law and the Gospel;- for he commands them what is just and forbids them what is evil; he allows them as lawful what is good (and pure) and prohibits them from what is bad (and impure); He releases them from their heavy burdens and from the yokes that are upon them. So it is those who believe in him, honour him, help him, and follow the light which is sent down with him,- it is they who will prosper.

They take this and other Qur'anic verses to require Muslims to follow authentic hadith. However, a growing number of "Quran-only" Muslims disagree with this view and interpret these verses differently; they argue that the hadith are of human creation and have no authority. Their argument is strengthened by verses of the Quran which criticise the following of "hadith other than quran."

Science of hadith

The most common technique consists of a careful examination of the isnad, or chain of transmission. Each hadith is accompanied by an isnad: A heard it from B who heard it from C who heard it from a companion of Muhammad. Isnads are carefully scrutinized to see if the chain is possible (for example, making sure that all transmitters and transmittees were known to be alive and living in the same area at the time of transmission to make sure they met) and if the transmitters are reliable.

Examples of Hadith

Many hadith would meet with widespread agreement:

A person asked Allah's Apostle . "What (sort of) deeds in or (what qualities of) Islam are good?" He replied, "To feed (the poor) and greet those whom you know and those whom you don't know." - Volume 1, Book 2, Number 27

The Prophet said, "Religion is very easy and whoever overburdens himself in his religion will not be able to continue in that way. So you should not be extremists, but try to be near to perfection and receive the good tidings that you will be rewarded; and gain strength by worshipping in the mornings, the nights." - Volume 1, Book 2, Number 38

Allah's Apostle said, "There is a Sadaqa to be given for every joint of the human body; and for every day on which the sun rises there is a reward of a Sadaqa (i.e. charitable gift) for the one who establishes justice among people." - Volume 3, Book 49, Number 870:

Allah's Apostle said, "Both in this world and in the Hereafter, I am the nearest of all the people to Jesus, the son of Mary. The prophets are paternal brothers; their mothers are different, but their religion is one." - Volume 4, Book 55, Number 652

--------------------------- Other hadith are more contentious:

"The Prophet said, 'The fingers should be cut off for stealing'." - Volume 8, Book 81, Number 780

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"The Prophet said,'If a Muslim discards his religion, kill him'." - Volume 4, Book 52, Number 260

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"The Prophet said, "Paradise has one-hundred (special) grades which Allah has reserved for the Mujahidin (Holy Warriors) who fight in His Cause, and the distance between each grade is like the distance between the Heaven and the Earth." - Volume 4, Book 52, Number 48

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"Allah's Apostle said, 'The Hour will not be established until you fight with the Jews, and the stone behind which a Jew is hiding will say, 'O Muslim! There is a Jew hiding behind me, so kill him." - Volume 4, Book 52, Number 177

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"The Prophet said, 'Let us go to the Jews'. He said to them (Jews), 'If you embrace Islam, you will be safe. You should know that the earth belongs to Allah and His Apostle, and I will expel you from this land'." - Volume 4, Book 53, Number 392

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"The Prophet asked Abu Bakr for 'Aisha's hand in marriage. Abu Bakr said 'But I am your brother.' The Prophet said, 'You are my brother in Allah's religion and His Book, but she (Aisha) is lawful for me to marry'." - Volume 7, Book 62, Number 18

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Allah's Apostle said, "Help your brother, whether he is an oppressor or he is an oppressed one. People asked, "O Allah's Apostle! It is all right to help him if he is oppressed, but how should we help him if he is an oppressor?" The Prophet said, "By preventing him from oppressing others." - Volume 3, Book 43, Number 624

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Views

Currently there is little communication between the world of Muslim hadith scholarship and Western academia. Muslim scholars reject the Westerners as Orientalists who are hostile to religion in general and Islam in particular. Western academics tend to dismiss Muslim scholars as irrelevant, bound as they are to a millennia-old technique of hadith evaluations which modern scholarship regards as out-dated.

However, some Muslim scholars have undergone Western academic training and attempted to mediate between the traditional Muslim and the secular Western view. Notable among these was Fazlur Rahman (1919-1988) who argued that while the chain of transmission of the hadith may often be spurious, the content, the matn, can still be used to understand how Islam can be lived in the modern world. Liberal movements within Islam tend to agree with Rahman's views to varying degrees.

Muslim view

Muslims who accept hadith believe that trusted hadith are in most cases the words of Muhammad and not the word of God, like the Qur'an. Hadith Qudsi forms a partial exception; these (few) hadith are said to recount divine revelations given to Muhammad but not included in the Qur'an. However, the words (as opposed to the substance) are believed to Muhammad's own, and not divinely inspired.

While both hadith and Qur'an have been translated, most Muslims believe that translations of the Qur'an are inherently deficient, amounting to little more than a commentary upon the text. There is no such belief regarding hadith. Practicing Muslims cleanse themselves (wudu) before reading or reciting the Qur'an; there is no such requirement for reading or reciting the hadith. Even for Muslims who accept the hadith, they are lower in rank when compared to the Qur'an.

Muslims also use the Ahadith to interpret parts of the Qur'an when things are not clear. however, they are not used to determine the meaning of the whole Qur'an.

Sunni view

The Sunni canon of hadith took its final form more than 230 years after the death of Muhammad (632 CE). Later scholars may have debated the authenticity of particular hadith but the authority of the canon as a whole was not questioned. This canon, called the Six major Hadith collections, includes:

Name	Collector	Size
Sahih Bukhari	Imam Bukhari (d. 870)	7275 hadiths
Sahih Muslim	Muslim Ibn al-Hajjaj (d. 875)	included 9200
Sunan Abi Da'ud	Abu Da'ud (d. 888)
Sunan al-Tirmidhi	al-Tirmidhi (d. 892)
Sunan al-Sughra	al-Nasa'i (d. 915)
Sunan Ibn Maja	Ibn Maja (d. 886)

Sahih Bukhari and Sahih Muslim are usually considered the most reliable of these collections. There is some debate over whether the sixth member of this canon should be Ibn Maja or the Muwatta of Imam Malik, which is the earliest hadith canon but predates much of the methodology developed by the classic hadith scholars.

While there are still many traditional Muslims who rely on the ulema and its long tradition of hadith collection and criticism, other contemporary Sunni Muslims are willing to reconsider tradition. Liberal Muslims are most apt to trust the individual conscience, but there are also Salafis who demand the same freedom. The Salafis claim that the ordinary believer can trust his or her own judgment (even if he or she is not trained in Islamic scholarship) if he or she relies on Bukhari and Muslim, the commentators deemed to be most correct (sahih), and ignores the weak hadith.

Shi'a view

Shi'a Muslims trust traditions transmitted by Muhammad's descendants through Fatima Zahra. There are various branches within Shi'a Islam and within each branch, various traditions of scholarship. Each branch, and each scholar, may differ as to the hadith to be accepted as reliable and those to be rejected.

Four prominent Shi'a hadith collections are:

Name	Collector	Size
Usul al-Kafi	Shaykh Abu Ja`far Muhammad ibn Ya`qub al-Kulayni al-Razi	16,099
Man la yahduruhu al-Faqih		9,044
Al-Tahdhib	Shaykh Tusi	13,590
Al-Istibsar	Shaykh Tusi	5,511

It should be noted that Shi'a scholars do not believe that everything in the four major books are sahih. Every hadith must be individually examined through the process of ilm-ul-hadith. Any hadith that conflicts with the Quran or logic is immediately thrown out.

Ibadi view

Ibadi Islam (found mainly in the Arabian kingdom of Oman) accepts many Sunni hadith, while rejecting others, and accepts some hadith not accepted by Sunnis. Ibadi jurisprudence is based only on the hadith accepted by Ibadis, which are far less numerous than those accepted by Sunnis. Several of Ibadism's founding figures - in particular Jabir ibn Zayd - were noted for their hadith research, and Jabir ibn Zayd is accepted as a reliable narrator by Sunni scholars as well as Ibadi ones.

The principal hadith collection accepted by Ibadis is al-Jami'i al-Sahih, also called Musnad al-Rabi ibn Habib, as rearranged by Abu Ya'qub Yusuf b. Ibrahim al-Warijlani. A large proportion of its narrations are via Jabir ibn Zaid or Abu Yaqub; most are reported by Sunnis, while several are not. The total number of hadith it contains is 1005, and an Ibadi tradition recounted by al-Rabi has it that there are only 4000 authentic prophetic hadith. The rules used for determining the reliability of a hadith are given by Abu Ya'qub al-Warijlani, and are largely similar to those used by Sunnis; they criticise some of the companions (sahaba), believing that some were corrupted after the reign of the first two caliphs. The Ibadi jurists accept hadith narrating the words of Muhammad's companions as a third basis for legal rulings, alongside the Qur'an and hadith relating Muhammad's words.

Non-Muslim views

Early Western exploration of Islam consisted primarily of translation of the Qur'an and a few histories, often supplemented with disparaging commentary. In the nineteenth century, scholars made greater attempts at impartiality, and translated and commented upon a greater variety of texts. By the beginning of the twentieth century, Western scholars of Islam started to critically engage with the Islamic texts, subjecting them to the same agnostic, searching scrutiny that had previously been applied to Christian texts (see higher criticism). Ignaz Goldziher is the best known of these turn-of-the-century iconoclasts, who also included D. S. Margoliuth, Henri Lammens, and Leone Caetani. Goldziher writes, in his Muslim Studies:

... it is not surprising that, among the hotly debated controversial issues of Islam, whether political or doctrinal, there is not one in which the champions of the various views are unable to cite a number of traditions, all equipped with imposing isnads

The next generations of Western scholars were also sceptics, on the whole: Joseph Schacht, in his Origins of Muhammadan Jurisprudence (1959), argued that isnads going back to Muhammad were in fact more likely to be spurious than isnads going back to the companions. John Wansbrough, in the 1970s, and his students Patricia Crone and Michael Cook were even more sweeping in their dismissal of Muslim tradition, arguing that even the Qur'an was likely to have been collected later than claimed.

Contemporary Western scholars of hadith include:

Herbert Berg, The Development of Exegesis in Early Islam (2000)
Fred M. Donner, Narratives of Islamic Origins (1998)
Wilferd Madelung, Succession to Muhammad (1997)

Madelung has immersed himself in the hadith literature and has made his own selection and evaluation of tradition. Having done this, he is much more willing to trust hadith than many of his contemporaries.

Some quotes:

Wilferd Madelung

work with the narrative sources, both those that have been available to historians for a long time and others which have been published recently, made it plain that their wholesale rejection as late fiction is unjustified and that with [not without] a judicious use of them, a much more reliable and accurate portrait of the period can be drawn than has been realized so far.

Harald Motzki:

the mere fact that ahadith and asanid were forged must not lead us to conclude that all of them are fictitious or that the genuine and the spurious cannot be distinguished with some degree of certainty.

Gregor Schoeler:

The current research on the life of Muhammad is characterized by the fact that two groups of researchers stand directly opposed to one another: The one group advocates, somewhat aggressively, the conviction that all transmitted traditions, in part because of great inner contradictions, legendary forms, and so forth, are to be rejected. The other group is opposed to that view. According to these researchers, the Islamic transmission, despite all these defects, has at least a genuine core, which can be recognized using the appropriate source-critical methods. The difficulty certainly consists of finding criteria by which the genuine is to be differentiated from the spurious.

Controversy

The hadith Ahmed, Vol. 1, page 171 says: "Do not write down anything of me except the Qur'an. Whoever writes other than that should delete it." Some have interpreted this as the Hadith should never have been written. Companions used memory in the early time to transfer Hadith.

However, according to most scholars and researchers, this hadith was specific to the time when the Qur'an was still being written. The reason behind this command was to prevent any risk of confusing the Qur'an with Hadith. However, once the revelation was completed and it was certain that no more verses were going to be descended, it was permissible; and even an obligation to write down the Hadith to preserve it throughout time, because, had the memorisers of the Hadith passed away before writing it down, the Hadiths could have disappeared.

Ignaz Goldziher was of the opinion that most hadeeths had been invented by the transmitters to justify certain opinions of their own. According to him hadeeths should not be seen as authentic historical accounts. Goldzihers suggestion has been refuted to a certain level by Fuat Sezgin. According to Fuat Sezgin most Hadeeths are authentic.

References

External links

Pro-hadith

Islam Quran Sunnah - The Right Path
Renowned Hadith Collection
http://qa.sunnipath.com/issue_view.asp?HD=1&ID=1846&CATE=120
http://qa.sunnipath.com/issue_view.asp?HD=1&ID=4981&CATE=120
http://www.abc.se/~m9783/n/sth_e.html
http://www.sunnipath.com/resources/Questions/qa00000910.aspx
http://sunnipath.com/resources/Questions/qa00002867.aspx
http://sunnipath.com/resources/Questions/qa00000918.aspx
http://www.abc.se/~m9783/ps1-3_e.html
http://www.islamic-awareness.org/Hadith/Ulum/
http://www.abc.se/~m9783/n/vih_e.html
http://www.abc.se/~m9783/hadith.html
http://www.livingislam.org/k/whb_e.html
http://www.sunnah.org/sources/ulumalhadith/HadithRevelationAllahtoProphet.htm Hadiths as revelation
http://www.livingislam.org/n/vwh_e.html The validity and qualified use of weaker hadiths
http://www.darul-ishaat.org/forum Online Islamic Forum - bringing you closer to Islam

Hadith collections

Hadiths (reported Sayings by The Prophet) A collection of reported sayings by the prophet, and an essay on the sources of Hadiths and their validity
The Seven Canonical Hadith Collections
Searchable hadith Database
Hadeeth Encyclopedia
Hadeeth Search
Renowned Hadith Collection

Supporting hadith study

Linguistic definition

As religious terminology

The Sanad and the Matn

Overview

History

Use

Science of hadith

Examples of Hadith

Views

Muslim view

Sunni view

Shi'a view

Ibadi view

Non-Muslim views

Controversy

See also

References

External links

Pro-hadith

Hadith collections

Supporting hadith study

Critical of hadith study

Hadith study - General

Other