Hadith (
, pl.
aḥadīth;
lit. "narrative") are oral
traditionThe word tradition comes from the Latin traditionem, acc. of traditio which means "handing over, passing on", and is used in a number of ways in the English language:...
s relating to the words and deeds of the
Islamic prophetMuslims regard as prophets of Islam those non-divine humans chosen by Allah . Mere humans rely on revelation or tradition to identify prophets....
MuhammadMuhammad ibn ‘Abdullāh , is the founder of the religion of Islam [ إِسْلامْ ] and is regarded by Muslims as a messenger and prophet of , the last and the greatest law-bearer in a series of Islamic prophets as taught by the...
. Hadith are regarded by traditional schools of jurisprudence as important tools for determining the
Muslim:A Muslim , , is an adherent of the religion of Islam. The feminine form is Muslimah . Literally, the word means "one who submits ". Muslim is the participle of the same verb of which Islam is the infinitive. Muslims believe that there is only one God, translated in Arabic as Allah...
way of life, the
sunnahSunnah is an Arabic word that means habit or usual practice. The Muslim usage of this term refers to the sayings and living habits of Muhammad, the main prophet of Islam....
. Hadith were originally oral traditions of Muhammad's actions and customs. From the
first FitnaThe First Islamic Civil War , also called the First Fitna , was the first major civil war within the Islamic Caliphate. It arose as a struggle over who had the legitimate right to become the ruling Caliph...
of the 7th century people sought to verify the sources of hadiths. This resulted in a
list of transmittersA hadith was originally just an Arabic story. As the stories began to be used formally it became common to provide their chain of transmitters, . The story proper was then called the matn.-Use:...
, for example "A told me that B told him that Muhammad said." This process was predominantly an oral one in the first century or so, until hadith were eventually written down en masse. They were then
evaluatedThe Science of hadith is a general category consisting of the numerous disciplines used in the study of hadith. It is the process that Muslim scholars use to evaluate hadith, utilizing Hadith terminology...
and gathered into large collections mostly during the reign of
Umar bin Abdul AzizUmar ibn Abd al-Aziz was an Umayyad caliph who ruled from 717 to 720. Unlike previous Umayyad caliphs, he was not a hereditary successor to the former caliph, but was elected. He was also a cousin of the former caliph, being the son of Abd al-Malik's younger brother Abd al-Aziz.-Lineage:Umar...
, the grandson of
UmarUmar , also known as Umar the Great or Farooq the Great was the most powerful of the four Rashidun Caliphs and one of the most powerful and influential Muslim rulers. He was a sahabi of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. He succeeded Caliph Abu Bakr as the second Caliph of Rashidun Caliphate on 23...
bin Khattab, the 2nd
CaliphThe Caliph is the head of state in a Caliphate, and the title for the leader of the Islamic Ummah, an Islamic community ruled by the Shari'ah. It is a transliterated version of the Arabic word which means "successor" or "representative"...
during the 8th and 9th centuries. These works are referred to in matters of
Islamic lawSharia is an Arabic word meaning ‘way’ or ‘path’. In Arabic, the collocation ‘Šarīʿat Allāh’ is traditionally used not only by Muslims, but also Christians and Jews, sometimes translating expressions such as Torat Elōhīm [תורת אלוהים] or ‘ho nómos toû theoû' '’...
and history to this day.
Definition and usage
In Arabic the word
hadith 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
. In English academic usage,
hadith is often both singular and plural. And
hadith is what is spoken by the speaker.
Tahdith is the infinitive, or verbal noun, of the original verb form. Therefore,
hadith is not the infinitive, rather it is a noun.
In Islamic terminology, the term
hadith refers to reports about the statements or actions of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) , or about his tacit approval of something said or done in his presence. Classical hadith specialist Ibn Hajar says that the intended meaning of
hadith in religious tradition is something attributed to Muhammad, as opposed to the Qur'an. Other associated words possess similar meanings:
khabar (news, information) often refers to reports about Muhammad, but sometimes refers to traditions about his
companionsIn Islam, the ' were the companions of the Islamic prophet . This form is plural; the singular is masculine , feminine . A list of the best-known companions can be found in the List of Sahaba.- Definitions of "Companion" :...
and their successors from the following generation (
tābi'īn); conversely,
athar (trace, vestige) usually refers to traditions about the companions and successors, though sometimes connotes traditions about Muhammad. The word
sunnahSunnah is an Arabic word that means habit or usual practice. The Muslim usage of this term refers to the sayings and living habits of Muhammad, the main prophet of Islam....
(custom) is also used in reference to a normative custom of Muhammad or the early Muslim community.
Components of a hadith
A hadith consists of two aspects: the text of the report (
matnMatn is an Islamic term that is used in relation to Hadith terminology. It means the text of the hadith, excluding the isnad.-Use:A hadith is made of both an isnad and a matn....
) containing the actual narrative; and the chain of narrators (
isnadA hadith was originally just an Arabic story. As the stories began to be used formally it became common to provide their chain of transmitters, . The story proper was then called the matn.-Use:...
, or
sanad), which documents the route by which the report has been transmitted. The
sanad, literally meaning 'support', is so named due to the reliance of the hadith specialists upon it in determining the authenticity or weakness of a hadith. The
sanadA hadith was originally just an Arabic story. As the stories began to be used formally it became common to provide their chain of transmitters, . The story proper was then called the matn.-Use:...
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.
Of a similar meaning,
riwayah is a word that means "
narrativeA narrative is a story that is created in a constructive format that describes a sequence of fictional or non-fictional events...
" from the Arabic word
rawa, meaning "to relate". .
Use
The overwhelming majority of Muslims consider hadith to be essential supplements to and clarifications of the
Qur'anThe Qur’an is the central religious text of Islam...
, 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
sunnahSunnah is an Arabic word that means habit or usual practice. The Muslim usage of this term refers to the sayings and living habits of Muhammad, the main prophet of Islam....
, 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.
Ibn al-SalahAboo 'Amr Uthman ibn Abd al-Rahman Salah al-Din al-Kurdi al-Shahrazuri, commonly known as Ibn al-Salah, was a Shafi'i hadith specialist, author of the seminal Introduction to the Science of hadith.-Education:...
, a hadith specialist, described the relationship between hadith and other aspect of the religion by saying: "It is the science most pervasive in respect to the other sciences in their various branches, in particular to jurisprudence being the most important of them.”“The intended meaning of ‘other sciences’ here are those pertaining to religion,” explains
Ibn HajarThere were several Muslim scholars named "Ibn Hajar"*Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani – Shafi'i and Hadith scholar*Ibn Hajar al-Makki al-Haitami - Shafi'i*Ibn Hajar Abi Bakr...
, “
Quranic exegesisTafsir is the Arabic word for exegesis or commentary, usually of the Qur'an. It does not include esoteric or mystical interpretations, which are covered by the related word Ta'wīl...
, hadith, and
jurisprudenceFiqh is Islamic jurisprudence. Fiqh is an expansion of the Sharia Islamic law—based directly on the Quran and Sunnah—that complements Shariah with evolving rulings/interpretations of Islamic jurists....
. The
science of hadithThe Science of hadith is a general category consisting of the numerous disciplines used in the study of hadith. It is the process that Muslim scholars use to evaluate hadith, utilizing Hadith terminology...
became the most pervasive due to the need displayed by each of these three sciences. The need hadith has of its science is apparent. As for Quranic exegesis, then the preferred manner of explaining the speech of Allah is by means of what has been accepted as a statement of His Prophet. The one looking to this is in need of distinguishing the acceptable from the unacceptable. Regarding jurisprudence, then the jurist is in need of citing as an evidence the acceptable to the exception of the later, something only possible utilizing the
science of hadithThe Science of hadith is a general category consisting of the numerous disciplines used in the study of hadith. It is the process that Muslim scholars use to evaluate hadith, utilizing Hadith terminology...
.”
History
Traditions of the life of
MuhammadMuhammad ibn ‘Abdullāh , is the founder of the religion of Islam [ إِسْلامْ ] and is regarded by Muslims as a messenger and prophet of , the last and the greatest law-bearer in a series of Islamic prophets as taught by the...
and the early history of Islam were passed down orally for more than a hundred years after Muhammad's death in AD 632.
Muslim historians say that
CaliphThe Caliph is the head of state in a Caliphate, and the title for the leader of the Islamic Ummah, an Islamic community ruled by the Shari'ah. It is a transliterated version of the Arabic word which means "successor" or "representative"...
Uthman (the third khalifa, 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 labours were cut short by his assassination, at the hands of aggrieved soldiers, in 656.
The Muslim community (
ummahUmmah is an Arabic word meaning "community" or "nation". It is commonly used to mean either the collective nation of states, or the whole Arab world...
) then fell into a prolonged civil war, which Muslim historians call the
Fitna. After the fourth caliph
Ali ibn Abi Talib' was the cousin and son-in-law of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, and ruled over the Islamic Caliphate from 656 to 661...
was assassinated in 661, the
Umayyad dynastyThe Umayyad Caliphate was the second of the four Islamic caliphates established after the death of Muhammad. It was ruled by the Umayyad dynasty, whose name derives from Umayya ibn Abd Shams, the great-grandfather of the first Umayyad caliph. Although the Umayyad family originally came from the...
seized control of the Islamic empire. Ummayad rule was interrupted by a second civil war (the
Second FitnaThe Second Fitna, or Second Islamic Civil War, was a period of general political and military disorder that afflicted the Islamic world during the early Umayyad dynasty, following the death of the first Umayyad caliph Muawiyah I...
), re-established, and ended in 758 when the
Abbasid dynastyThe Abbasid Caliphate was the third of the Islamic Caliphates of the Islamic Empire. It was ruled by the Abbasid dynasty of caliphs, who built their capital in Baghdad after overthrowing the Umayyad caliphs from all but Al Andalus....
seized the caliphate, and held 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 hadithThe Science of hadith is a general category consisting of the numerous disciplines used in the study of hadith. It is the process that Muslim scholars use to evaluate hadith, utilizing Hadith terminology...
.
At the beginning of the 7th century, those receiving the hadith started to question the sources of the saying. The hadith were eventually recorded in written form, had their Isnad evaluated, and were gathered into large collections during the 8th century.
Science of hadith
The
science of hadithThe Science of hadith is a general category consisting of the numerous disciplines used in the study of hadith. It is the process that Muslim scholars use to evaluate hadith, utilizing Hadith terminology...
(Arabic: ‘Ulum al-hadith) is a method of textual criticism developed by early Muslim scholars in determining the veracity of reports attributed to Muhammad. This is achieved by analyzing the text of the report, the scale of the report's transmission, the routes through which the report was transmitted, and the individual narrators involved in its transmission. On the basis of these criteria, various classifications were devised for hadith. The earliest comprehensive work on the science of hadith was Abu Muhammad al-Ramahurmuzi's
al-Muhaddith al-Fasil, while another significant work was
al-Hakim al-NaysaburiAbu Abd-Allah Muhammad ibn Abd-Allah al-Hakim al-Nishaburi was a Sunni scholar and the leading traditionist of his age, frequently referred to as the "Imam of the Muhaddithin" or the "Muhaddith of Khorasan."-Name:...
's
Ma‘rifat ‘ulum al-hadith.
Ibn al-SalahAboo 'Amr Uthman ibn Abd al-Rahman Salah al-Din al-Kurdi al-Shahrazuri, commonly known as Ibn al-Salah, was a Shafi'i hadith specialist, author of the seminal Introduction to the Science of hadith.-Education:...
's
‘Ulum al-hadith is considered the standard classical reference on the science of hadith.
Hadith terminology
By means of
Hadith terminologyHadith terminology, , has been defined by Ahmad ibn 'Alee Ibn Hajar al-'Asqalani, a renowned hadith specialist, as: "knowledge of the principles by which the condition of the narrator and the narrated are determined." This means, essentially, that the body of hadith terminology serves to specify...
, hadith are categorized as
sahīh (sound, authentic),
da‘īf (weak), or
mawdū‘ (fabricated). Other classifications used also include:
hasan (good), which refers to an otherwise
sahīh report suffering from minor deficiency, or a weak report strengthened due to numerous other corroborating reports; and
munkar (ignored) which is a report that is rejected due to the presence of an unreliable transmitter contradicting another more reliable narrator. Both
sahīh and
hasan reports are considered acceptable for usage in Islamic legal discourse. Classifications of hadith may also be based upon the scale of transmission. Reports that pass through many reliable transmitters at each point in the
isnad up until their collection and transcription are known as
mutawātir. These reports are considered the most authoritative as they pass through so many different routes that collusion between all of the transmitters becomes an impossibility. Reports not meeting this standard are known as
ahad, and are of several different types.
Biographical analysis
Another area of focus in the study of hadith is biographical analysis (
‘ilm al-rijālIlm al-Rijal, , literally the "knowledge of men", refers to a discipline of Islamic religious studies within hadith terminology in which the narrators of hadith are evaluated. Its goal is to distinguish authentic hadith from hadith unacceptable in establishing sanctioned religious knowledge or...
, lit. "science of people"), in which details about the transmitter are scrutinized. This includes analyzing their date and place of birth; familial connections; teachers and students; religiosity; moral behaviour; literary output; their travels; as well as their date of death. Based upon these criteria, the reliability (
thiqāt) of the transmitter is assessed. Also determined is whether the individual was actually able to transmit the report, which is deduced from their contemporaneity and geographical proximity with the other transmitters in the chain. Examples of biographical dictionaries include:
Abd al-Ghani al-MaqdisiAbd al-Ghani al-Maqdisi is a classical Sunni Islamic scholar, one of the most prominent Hadith masters .-Works:He is the author of many famous works, including :*al-Kamal fi ma`rifat al-rijal *Umdat al-Ahkam...
's
Al-Kamal fi Asma' al-RijalAl-Kamal fi Asma' al-Rijal is a collection of biographies by the 12th-century Islamic scholar Abd al-Ghani al-Maqdisi.-Overview:...
, Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani's
Tahdhīb al-Tahdhīb and
al-DhahabiMuhammad ibn Ahmad ibn `Uthman ibn Qaymaz ibn `Abd Allah, Shams al-Din Abu `Abd Allah al-Turkmani al-Diyarbakri al-Fariqi al-Dimashqi al-Dhahabi al-Shafi`i , known as Al-Dhahabi , a Shafi'i Muhaddith and historian of Islam.-Biography:...
's
Tadhkirat al-huffazTadhkirat al-Huffaz is a 13th century collection, authored by Sunni Islamic scholar Al-Dhahabi.It has been reprinted along with an appendix by Suyuti named Tabaqat al-Huffaz.-External links:...
.
Muslim view
Muslims who accept hadith believe that trusted hadith are in most cases the words of Muhammad and not the word of God.
Hadith QudsiHadith Qudsi are a sub-category of hadith, which are sayings of Muhammad. Muslims regard the Hadith Qudsi as the words of God , repeated by Muhammad and recorded on the condition of an isnad...
forms a partial exception; these (few) hadith are said to recount divine revelations given to Muhammad but not included in the
Qur'anThe Qur’an is the central religious text of Islam...
. However, the words (as opposed to the substance) are believed to be Muhammad's own, and not divine.
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 (
wuduWudu is the Islamic act of washing parts of the body using water. Muslims are required to be clean in preparation for ritual prayers. The Quran says "For Allah loves those who turn to Him constantly and He loves those who keep themselves pure and clean."...
) 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 verses are not clear or even when verses are clear to achieve an in-depth understanding. This process is called
TafsirTafsir is the Arabic word for exegesis or commentary, usually of the Qur'an. It does not include esoteric or mystical interpretations, which are covered by the related word Ta'wīl...
.
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 Malik (1919-1988) who argued that while the chain of transmission of the hadith may often be spurious, the
matnMatn is an Islamic term that is used in relation to Hadith terminology. It means the text of the hadith, excluding the isnad.-Use:A hadith is made of both an isnad and a matn....
can still be used to understand how Islam can be lived in the modern world.
Liberal movements within IslamProgressive Muslims have produced a considerable body of liberal thoughts within Islam . These movements share a philosophy that depends largely on ijtihad...
tend to agree with Rahman's views to varying degrees.
Sunni view
The Sunni canon of hadith took its final form more than 230 years after the death of Muhammad (632 AD). 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 collectionsThe six major Hadith collections are collections of hadith by Islamic scholars who, approximately 200 years after Muhammad's death and by their own initiative, collected hadith attributed to Muhammad...
, includes:
| Name |
Collector |
Size |
| Sahih Bukhari The Sahih of al-Bukhari , as it is commonly referred to as, is one of the Six major Hadith collections of Sunni Islam. These prophetic traditions, hadith were collected by the Muslim scholar Muhammad ibn Ismail al-Bukhari and published during his lifetime...
|
Imam Bukhari (d. 870) |
7275 hadiths |
| Sahih Muslim Sahih Muslim is one of the Six major collections of the hadith in Sunni Islam, oral traditions relating to the words and deeds of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad. It is the second most authentic hadith collection according to Sunni Muslims, the most authentic book of hadith after Sahih Al-Bukhari...
|
Muslim Ibn al-Hajjaj (d. 875) |
included 9200 |
| Sunan Abi Da'ud |
Abu Da'ud Abu Dawood Sulayman ibn Ash`ath al-Azadi al-Sijistani, commonly known as Abu Dawod, was a noted Khurassian collector of hadith , and wrote the third of the six canonical hadith collections recognized by Sunni Muslims, Sunan Abi Dawood.-Biography:He was born in Sijistan, now known as Sistan in...
(d. 888) |
|
| Sunan al-Tirmidhi Jami a-Tirmidhi , popularly Sunan al-Tirmidhi , is one of the Sunni Six major Hadith collections. It was collected by Abu 'Eesa Muhammad ibn 'Eesa al-Tirmidhi.-Name of:...
|
al-Tirmidhi Tirmidhī , also transliterated as Tirmizi, full name Abū Īsā Muhammad ibn Īsā ibn Surat ibn Mūsā ibn ad-Dahhāk as-Sulamī at-Tirmidhī was a medieval arab collector of hadith -Biography:He wrote the Sunan al-Tirmidhi, one of the six canonical hadith compilations used in Sunni Islam...
(d. 892) |
|
| Sunan al-Sughra |
al-Nasa'i Al-Nasā'ī , full name Aḥmad ibn Shu`ayb ibn Alī ibn Sīnān Abū `Abd ar-Raḥmān al-Nasā'ī, was a noted collector of hadith , and wrote one of the six canonical hadith collections recognized by Sunni Muslims, Sunan al-Sughra, or "Al-Mujtaba", which he selected from his "As-Sunan al-Kubra"...
(d. 915) |
|
| Sunan Ibn Maja Sunan Ibn Maja is one of the Sunni Six Major Hadith collections, collected by Ibn Maja.-Description:It contains over 4,000 hadith in 32 books divided into 1,500 chapters...
|
Ibn Maja Ibn Maja, full name Abu `Abdallah Muhammad ibn Yazid Ibn Majah al-Rab`i al-Qazwini, was a medieval scholar of hadith...
(d. 886) |
|
Sahih BukhariThe Sahih of al-Bukhari , as it is commonly referred to as, is one of the Six major Hadith collections of Sunni Islam. These prophetic traditions, hadith were collected by the Muslim scholar Muhammad ibn Ismail al-Bukhari and published during his lifetime...
and
Sahih MuslimSahih Muslim is one of the Six major collections of the hadith in Sunni Islam, oral traditions relating to the words and deeds of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad. It is the second most authentic hadith collection according to Sunni Muslims, the most authentic book of hadith after Sahih Al-Bukhari...
are usually considered the most reliable of these collections. There is some debate over whether the sixth member of this canon should be
Ibn MajaIbn Maja, full name Abu `Abdallah Muhammad ibn Yazid Ibn Majah al-Rab`i al-Qazwini, was a medieval scholar of hadith...
or the
MuwattaThe Muwaṭṭa is an early collection of Muslim law, compiled and edited by Imam Malik.-Description:It is considered to be from the earliest extant collections of hadith that form the basis of Islamic jurisprudence alongside the Qur'an. Nonetheless, is not merely a collection of hadith; many of the...
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
ulemaUlema refers to the educated class of Muslim legal scholars engaged in the several fields of Islamic studies. They are best known as the arbiters of shari‘a law...
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
SalafiSalafi is a Sunni Islamic movement that takes the pious ancestors of the patristic period of early Islam as exemplary models. The word "Salaf" is an Arabic noun which may be translated as "predecessor" or "ancestor". In Islamic terminology, it is generally used to refer to the first three...
s 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
sahih, and ignores the weak hadith.
Shi'a view
Shi'aShia Islam , is the second largest denomination of Islam, after Sunni Islam. The followers of Shia Islam are called Shi'as or Shi'ites....
Muslims do not use the
Six major Hadith collectionsThe six major Hadith collections are collections of hadith by Islamic scholars who, approximately 200 years after Muhammad's death and by their own initiative, collected hadith attributed to Muhammad...
followed by the Sunni because the majority of the companions who passed down these hadith (in the
Six major Hadith collectionsThe six major Hadith collections are collections of hadith by Islamic scholars who, approximately 200 years after Muhammad's death and by their own initiative, collected hadith attributed to Muhammad...
) are considered to have erred by accepting the
CaliphateThe term caliphate refers to the first form of government inspired by Islam. It was initially led by Muhammad's disciples as a continuation of the political authority the prophet established, known as the 'rashidun caliphates'. It represented the political unity of the Muslim Ummah, and was the...
of
Abu BakrAbu Bakr As-Siddiq was Muhammad's father-in-law, closest companion and adviser, who succeeded to the Prophet's political and administrative functions, thereby initiating the office of the caliphate. He was also the first convert to Islam...
,
UmarUmar , also known as Umar the Great or Farooq the Great was the most powerful of the four Rashidun Caliphs and one of the most powerful and influential Muslim rulers. He was a sahabi of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. He succeeded Caliph Abu Bakr as the second Caliph of Rashidun Caliphate on 23...
and
UthmanUsman ibn ‘Affān or ‘Uthmān ibn ‘Affān was one of the sahaba . An early convert to Islam, he played a major role in early Islamic history, most notably as the third Caliph of the Rashidun Empire, prophet's son-in-law and the compilation of the Qur'an.-Early life:Uthman was born in Ta’if, which is...
in preference to
Ali' was the cousin and son-in-law of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, and ruled over the Islamic Caliphate from 656 to 661...
, and consequently, Shia believe, cannot be regarded as reliable transmitters of hadith. Shia trust traditions transmitted by the
ImamsImāmah is the Shī‘ah doctrine of religious, spiritual and political leadership of the Ummah. The Shī‘ah believe that the A'immah are the true Caliphs or rightful successors of Muḥammad, and Twelver and Ismā‘īlī Shī‘ah further that Imams are possessed of supernatural knowledge, authority, and...
, Muhammad's descendants through Fatima Zahra.
Although Twelver Shi'ism is by far the largest branch of Shi'i Islam, there are various branches within Shi'ism and within each branch, various traditions of scholarship. Each branch and scholar may differ as to the hadith to be accepted as reliable and those to be rejected.
Four prominent Twelver Shi'a hadith collections are written by three authors who are known as the `Three Muhammads`. They are:
| Name |
Collector |
Size |
| Usul al-Kafi |
Muhammad ibn Ya'qub al-Kulayni al-Razi(329 AH AH may refer to:*in the Islamic calendar, AH stands for the Latin Anno Hegirae *Albert Heijn, a Dutch supermarket chain owned by Ahold*Authentication Header, a part of the IPsec protocol suite...
) |
15,176 hadith |
| Man la yahduruhu al-Faqih Man la yahduruhu al-Faqih is a hadith collection, by the famous Twelver Shi'a hadith scolar Abu Ja'far Muhammad ibn 'Ali ibn Babawaih al-Qummi, commonly known as Ibn Babawaih or Al-Shaykh al-Saduq. This work is included among The Four Books of Twelver Shia Islam. Like all other Twelver Shi'a books...
|
Muhammad ibn Babuya Abu Ja'far Muhammad ibn 'Ali ibn Bābūya al-Qummi mostly known as Ibn Bābūya/Bābawayh or al-Shaykh al-Saduq, was the leading traditionist of his time and one of the most outstanding traditionists of Twelver Shi'a Islam. He earned the title of al-Shaykh al-Saduq on account of his great learning and...
|
9,044 |
| Al-Tahdhib |
Shaykh Muhammad Tusi Shaykh Tusi , full name: Abu Jafar Muhammad Ibn Hassan Tusi , known as Shaykh al-Taʾifah was a prominent Persian scholar of the Shi'a Twelver Islamic belief.-Birth:...
|
13,590 |
| Al-Istibsar Al-Istibsar is the fourth important book of Shi'a Islamic Hadith. It was written by Abu Ja'far al-Tusi....
|
Shaykh Muhammad Tusi Shaykh Tusi , full name: Abu Jafar Muhammad Ibn Hassan Tusi , known as Shaykh al-Taʾifah was a prominent Persian scholar of the Shi'a Twelver Islamic belief.-Birth:...
|
5,511 |
Unlike
AkhbariThe Akhbārīs are Twelver Shī‘a Muslims who reject the use of reasoning in deriving verdicts, and believe only the Qur'an, aḥadīth, and consensus should be used as sources to derive verdicts...
Twelver Shi'a, Usuli Twelver 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 excluded.
NizariThe Shī‘a Imami Ismā‘īlī Tariqah also referred to as the Ismā‘īlī or Nizārī , are a path of Shī‘a Islām, emphasizing social justice, pluralism, and human reason within the framework of the mystical tradition of Islam. The Nizari are the second largest branch of Shia Islam and form the majority of...
Ismaili' is a branch of the Islamic faith. It is the second largest part of the Shī‘ah community, after the mainstream Twelvers...
have a book of speeches of Ali called
Qalam-e-MowlaQalam-e-Mowla is a Nizari Ismaili Shi'a Muslim book that has speeches by the first Shi'a Imam, Ali. It is in Urdu/Hindi....
. For
MustaaliThe Musta‘lī Ismā'īlī Muslims are so named because they accept al-Musta‘lī as the nineteeth Fatimid Caliph and legitimate successor to his father, al-Mustansir...
Ismaili' is a branch of the Islamic faith. It is the second largest part of the Shī‘ah community, after the mainstream Twelvers...
, a Hadith book called Da'aimul Islam is of the same status like the Sahih Bukhari for the Sunnis. It narrates Ahadith from the Prophet and their line of Imams, the most being from Imam Baqir and Imam Jafar As Saadiq and it also narrates some events of the Imams of the Fatimid Empire.
Ibadi view
IbadiThe Ibāḍī movement or Ibāḍiyya is a form of Islam distinct from the Shi'a and Sunni denominations. It is the dominant form of Islam in Oman. There are also Ibadis in Algeria, Tunisia, East Africa as well as Libya....
Islam (found mainly in the Arabian kingdom of
OmanOman , officially the Sultanate of Oman , is an Arab country in southwest Asia on the southeast coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It borders the United Arab Emirates on the northwest, Saudi Arabia on the west and Yemen on the southwest....
) 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 criticize some of the
companionsIn Islam, the ' were the companions of the Islamic prophet . This form is plural; the singular is masculine , feminine . A list of the best-known companions can be found in the List of Sahaba.- Definitions of "Companion" :...
, 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.
Qur'an only view
Qur'anic MuslimsQur'an alone Muslims, Qur'anic Muslims, or sometimes Anti-Hadith Muslims, is a term used to refer to Muslims who reject hadith, or reported traditions of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, and follow the Qur'an, a sacred text of Islam, exclusively....
follow the Qur'an only and claim that the Qur'an alone is sufficient as a guide. They do not accept any hadith of any sect and maintain that the Qur'an can be understood using the Qur'an itself (the Qur'an interprets itself).
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 criticismHistorical criticism or higher criticism is a branch of literary analysis that investigates the origins of a text: as applied in biblical studies it investigates the books of the Bible and compares them to other texts written at the same time, before, or recently after the text in question...
).
Ignaz GoldziherIgnác Goldziher , often credited as Ignaz Goldziher, was a Hungarian orientalist. Along with the German Theodore Noldeke and the Dutch Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje, he is considered the founder of modern Islamic studies in Europe.-Biography:Born in Székesfehérvár of Jewish heritage, he was educated...
is the best known of these turn-of-the-century critics, who also included
D. S. MargoliuthDavid Samuel Margoliouth was an orientalist. He was briefly active as a priest in the Church of England. He was Laudian Professor of Arabic at the University of Oxford from 1889 to 1937...
,
Henri LammensHenri Lammens was a prominent Belgian-born Jesuit and Orientalist.Born in Ghent, Belgium of Catholic Flemish stock, Henri Lammens joined the Society of Jesus in Beirut at the age of fifteen, and settled permanently in Lebanon. During his first eight years there Lammens mastered the Arabic...
, and
Leone CaetaniLeone Caetani , Duke of Sermoneta , was an Italian scholar, politician and historian of the Middle-East....
. Goldziher writes, in his
Muslim Studies:
The next generations of Western scholars were also sceptics, on the whole:
Joseph SchachtJoseph Schacht, born in Ratibor, 15 March 1902, died in Englewood, 1 August 1969, was a British-German professor of Arabic and Islam at Columbia University in New York. He was the leading Western scholar on Islamic law, whose Origins of Muhammadan Jurisprudence is still considered a centrally...
, 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. The focus of his thesis was to prove the legal hadith were all spurious until proven otherwise.
John WansbroughJohn Edward Wansbrough was an American historian who taught at the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies . Wansbrough's emphasis was on the critique of traditional accounts of the origins of Islam...
, in the 1970s, and his students
Patricia CronePatricia Crone, Ph.D., is a scholar, author and historian of early Islamic history working at the Institute for Advanced Study...
and
Michael CookMichael Allan Cook is an English-Scottish historian and scholar of Islamic history. He has co-authored a book with Patricia Crone, notably Hagarism: The Making of the Islamic World....
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
Wilferd Ferdinand Madelung is a scholar of Islam. He was born in Stuttgart, Germany, where he completed his early education at Eberhard-Ludwig-Gymnasium....
, 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:
Harald MotzkiHarald Motzki is a scholar of Islam who writes on the transmission of hadith.-Bibliography:*Hadith: Origins and Developments ISBN 0860787044*The Origins of Islamic Jurisprudence ISBN 900412131 5...
:
Gregor Schoeler-External links:*http://web.mit.edu/CIS/www/mitejmes/issues/200310/br_lane.htm...
:
Ignaz GoldziherIgnác Goldziher , often credited as Ignaz Goldziher, was a Hungarian orientalist. Along with the German Theodore Noldeke and the Dutch Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje, he is considered the founder of modern Islamic studies in Europe.-Biography:Born in Székesfehérvár of Jewish heritage, he was educated...
was of the opinion that most hadiths had been invented by the transmitters to justify certain opinions of their own. According to him hadiths should not be seen as authentic historical accounts. Goldzihers suggestion has been refuted to a certain level by
Fuat SezginFuat Sezgin is the leading authority on the history of Arabic-Islamic science. He is the founder and director of the Institute of the History of the Arab Islamic Sciences of the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt. Sezgin obtained his PhD from Istanbul University under the famous...
. According to Fuat Sezgin most Hadiths are authentic.
See also
- Science of hadith
The Science of hadith is a general category consisting of the numerous disciplines used in the study of hadith. It is the process that Muslim scholars use to evaluate hadith, utilizing Hadith terminology...
- Criticism of Hadith
Since the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, there has been considerable controversy and criticism over his alleged oral traditions, the Hadith....
- Hadith terminology
Hadith terminology, , has been defined by Ahmad ibn 'Alee Ibn Hajar al-'Asqalani, a renowned hadith specialist, as: "knowledge of the principles by which the condition of the narrator and the narrated are determined." This means, essentially, that the body of hadith terminology serves to specify...
- Hadith collection
- Qur'an Alone
Qur'an alone Muslims, Qur'anic Muslims, or sometimes Anti-Hadith Muslims, is a term used to refer to Muslims who reject hadith, or reported traditions of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, and follow the Qur'an, a sacred text of Islam, exclusively....
Further reading
- Brown, J. (2007). The Canonization of al-Bukhari and Muslim: The Formation and Function of the Sunni Hadith Canon. Leiden: Brill, 2007.
- Juynboll, G. H. A. (2007). Encyclopedia of Canonical Hadith. Leiden: Brill, 2007.
- Musa, A. Y. Hadith as Scripture: Discussions on The Authority Of Prophetic Traditions in Islam, New York: Palgrave, 2008
External links
Hadith collections