Various Issues About Hadiths
by Sh. G. F. Haddad
In response to the following message by MHE:
Compilation of Quran and Hadith
When the Prophet
died, only the Quran was compiled at AbuBakr's time,
then unified and canonized in Othman's time. The sayings of Mohammed
were not written down.
This is not true. Several hadiths in the Sahihs and Sunan
show that the Prophet ordered certains
Companions to write down something or everything he said.
The Prophet first forbade
the writing of hadith so that people not confuse it with
the Qur'an. He then allowed or ordered some Companions to
write hadith when there was no risk of confusion.
These hadiths take precedence over the reports that
mention an accross-the-board prohibition of writing for
several reasons: the "write" reports are of a higher
order of authenticity; the "do not write" reports are
abrogated; the "write" reports are confirmed by the
abundance of written reports from the Companion-generation
manuscripted by their first-century students.
See below, the documentation on several first-century
collections.
Invented sayings?
A hundred years later, it was noticed by pious
Muslims that certain sayings attributed to the prophet are being
invented and used for personal agendas.
The writer is confusing isnad-criticism with the writing
of hadith. Isnad-criticism began in the time of Muhammad
ibn Sirin (d. 110) and is unrelated to the writing of
hadith, which began much earlier.
Early Hadith collections
So the first book of Hadith collections was written down, I believe by Abu Dawood. Later Bukhari, a Persian scholar in the second century wrote down another collection,
followed by his student "Muslim" [a guy's name] who also wrote a book.
First, both the dates and the chronology are wrong.
Second, the writer is confusing the writing of hadith with
its first comprehensive or fiqh-oriented collections.
Abu Dawud died in 275, al-Bukhari in 256 and Muslim in 261.
For one, Malik and Ahmad's collections preceded all of
them but the writing of hadith began long before all five.
Among the manuscripted hadith collections of the first
Hijri century are:
1. `Abd Allah ibn `Amr ibn al-`As (d. 63), al-Sahifa al-
Sadiqa, originally containing about 1,000 hadiths of
which 500 reached us, copied down by `Abd Allah directly
from the Prophet - upon him blessings and peace - and
transmitted to us by his great-grandson `Amr ibn Shu`ayb
(d. 118);
2. Hammam ibn Munabbih's (d. 101 or 131) al-Sahifa al-
Sahiha which has reached us complete in two manuscripts
containing 138 hadiths narrated by Hammam from Abu Hurayra
(d. 60), from the Prophet - upon him blessings and peace;
3. The lost folios of Aban ibn `Uthman (d. 105) the son
of `Uthman ibn `Affan (d. 35), from whom Muhammad ibn
Ishaq (80-150/152) narrated;
4. The accomplished works of `Urwa (d. ~92-95) - the son
of al-Zubayr ibn al-`Awwam and grandson of Asma' and `A'isha
the learned daughters of Abu Bakr the Truthful. `Urwa
ordered them burnt, after a lifetime of teaching from them,
during the sack of Madina by the armies of Syro-Palestine
under Yazid ibn Mu`awiya in 63;
5. Muhammad ibn Shihab al-Zuhri's (d. 120) Sira, from which
Ibn Ishaq also borrowed much;
6. `Asim ibn `Umar ibn Qatada ibn al-Nu`man al-Ansari's
(d. 120 or 129) Maghazi and Manaqib al-Sahaba, another
principal thiqa source for Ibn Ishaq and others;
7. `Abd Allah ibn Abi Bakr ibn Muhammad ibn `Amr ibn Hazm
al-Ansari's (d. 135) tome, another main source for Ibn Ishaq
Ibn Sa`d, and others;
8. The most reliable Sira of the Madinan Musa ibn `Uqba
al-Asadi (d. 141), praised by Imam Malik and used by Ibn
Sa`d and others.
Main Hadith collections
Hadith collections were written down until the third or fourth century
of Hijra [Islamic calendar]. There are six major Hadith collections:
"Sahih Bukhari", "Sahih Muslim", "Ibn Malek", "ElTermezi", "Masnad Ahmed" (Ibn Hanbal) and "Sunnan Abu Dawood" in order of degrees of authenticity.
The above order and the "Ibn Malik" collection are unheard of.
It is similar to the following blunder on soc.religion.islam
a couple of months ago: "Ibn Saeed Al-Khudry reported that the
messenger of God had said..." People who probe issues of hadith
reliability in those anti-hadith posts are themselves incapable,
in a mere speech of forty lines, not to make mistake after
mistake that expose thorough ignorance of the issues they raise.
The "six major hadith collections" are, in order of strength:
- Al-Bukhari's Sahih
- Muslim's Sahih
- al-Nasa'i's Sunan
- Abu Dawud's Sunan
- Al-Tirmidhi's Sunan
- Ibn Majah's Sunan
Notes:
1. Malik's Muwatta' comes right after the two Sahihs in
strength but is not generally included among the Six Books.
2. Ahmad's Musnad is a comprehensive collection that is
not included among the Six Books although it is reliable.
3. Al-Darimi's Sunan are deemed more reliable than Ibn Majah
according to a number of Scholars.
Bukhari's meticulousness
Now the first four are generally called Sahih, because their authors
have been the most meticulous in collecting Hadith. They relied on the
method of chain of narration "Isnad" which means that say Bukhari heard
Mr. A saying he heard Mr. B saying he heard Mr. C .... who heard the
prophet say it. Bukhari would investigate the life of each of these
people, establish that they actually lived at the same times AND met
each other and talked about this Hadith. He would establish that ALL of
them were people of good repute and honesty (although he missed some,
like Ibn Abbass who was an embezzler of public money). Only then would
he include the Hadith in his collection. "Muslim" was less meticulous,
he would establish that two of these people lived at the same times but
would not look into whether or not they actually met. And so on.
Ibn `Abbas was no more an embezzler of public money than the
writer of the above is a knowledgeable, honest person.
{No reward do I ask of you for this except the love of those
near of kin} (42:23).
Sahih classification
So, is the Sahih classification enough to make a Hadith authentic?
Hardly, because of several reasons: (1) Sahih only depends on the Isnad
method,
This is false. The Sahih classification is not what
was mentioned above nor does it depend on isnad exclusively.
Even with the isnad method alone, al-Bukhari was not
working in a vacuum and his rulings on narrators are
only those of one man in a sea of experts.
About Hadith-criticism
but does not investigate the Hadith and show whether or not it
agrees with the Quran, or whether or not it is contradicted by other
Sahih hadiths, or whether or not it fits the character of the prophet,
or whether or not it even fits common sense (the Sahih hadiths about
dipping the fly, or drinking the camel's urine come to mind). This is
called the "Matn" [Content] method. It has been abandoned by most
scholars on the pretext that the hadiths collectors must have used it
already. Obviously they didn't. Bukhari never claimed he investigated
the Matn, he was only concerned with the Isnad. Now, within Isnad itself
The above is all false. Hadith-criticism relies heavily
on both isnad-criticism and matn-criticism. NO hadith was
ever judged authentic or otherwise on the sole basis of
the isnad in violation of an established principle of the
Religion. Countless criteria are extra-isnadic in nature
such as currency in the Umma, confirmation by the Qur'an
and/or other hadiths, and many other criteria.
As for the two hadiths mentioned, as I replied to another
objector: It is natural that one be the enemy of what
one is ignorant of. See my forthcoming posts in sha' Allah:
"Hadith of the fly"
"Camel urine hadith."
[snip]
mutawatir hadiths
Also, there is yet another way of classifying Hadiths which most people
seem to ignore. They are classified as follows:
1) Mutawatter/Mawtoor [Propagated] which says that a Hadith was used by
a large group of Muslims of the First generation after the prophet, such
that all of them agree they heard it first hand from the prophet
himself, AND that they are of such a number as to exclude the
possibility of they all being liars. Then this is of such strength that
it is considered almost certain. The Sunnah of the prophet lies in this
category.
The Sunna of the Prophet is all mutawatir? Where else
has anyone in all the sects of Islam ever made such a
claim, even a non-Scholar?
[snip]
sahih ahad hadiths
3) Hadith Ahad [Ones, from Wahid: One] which is a Hadith that has been
attributed to one or maybe a handful of the prophet's companions, i.e.
it is not corroborated by enough people to exclude the possibility of
error. 95% of all written Hadiths (never mind their Isnad or Matn) fall
within this category.
This is false. A sahih ahad hadith can well be corroborated
by enough people and other factors so as to exclude the
possibility of error. Because of this, some of them are
even considered proofs in credal matters let alone law.
However, this is moot, as the yardstick in practice is
the exclusion of the *likelihood* of error. As for the
possibility of error, it is not excluded even from the laws
of physics, as shown by our abandonment of previous laws for
relativity. Ahad Hadiths proved more reliable than Newton.
non-mutawatir hadiths
Early Hadith scholars have agreed that due to this classification, the
Hadiths and Sunnah belonging to the first category and the FIRST only,
should be taken to enforce divine rulings. So there is no dispute
between scholars on how to pray for example. The Hadiths belonging to
the second and third categories, because there is less evidence of their
authenticities, should be taken under ADVISEMENT only. Enforced Laws,
punishments, halals and harams should NOT be taken from these two
Hadiths categories. In another post, I will discuss particular examples
of Hadiths.
This is painfully inaccurate, the non-mutawatir hadiths
that are indisputable, non-optional, agreed-upon proofs in
"enforced laws, punishments, halals and harams" are countless.
Hajj Gibril
GF Haddad
[4 Apr 2003]