In the name of Allah most
gracious most merciful
Assalaamualikum wa
rahmatuallahi wa barakatuhu,
Did prophet forbade writing of
Hadith?
Few muslim brother and sisters
have some misconceptions about prophet forbade writing of Hadith forever.Below are
few claims alon with its
refutations.
CLAIM 1
------------
Ibn Saeed Al-Khudry reported
that the messenger of God had said,
"Do not write anything
from me EXCEPT QURAN. Anyone who wrote anything other than the Quran shall
erase it."
REFUTATION: 1
-------------------
Initially it was forbidden to
write to keep Quran as the only manuscript.
Sunan of Abu-DawoodHadith 3639
Narrated byAbdullah ibn Amr ibn al-'As
I used to write everything
which I heard from the Apostle of Allah (peace be upon him). I intended (by it)
to memorise it. The Quraysh prohibited me
saying: Do you write
everything that you hear from him while the Apostle of Allah (peace be upon
him) is a human being: he speaks in anger and pleasure?
So I stopped writing, and mentioned it to the Apostle of Allah (peace be upon him). He signalled with his finger to him mouth and said: Write, by Him
in Whose hand my soul lies,
only right comes out from it.
CLAIM 2
-----------
From Ibn Hanbal;
Zayd Ibn Thabit (The Prophet's
closest revelation writer) visited the Khalifa Mu'aawiyah (more than 30 years
after the Prophet's death), and told
him a story about the Prophet.
Mu'aawiyah liked the story and ordered someone to write it down. But Zayd said.
" the messenger of God ordered us
NEVER to write anything of his
hadith,"
--------------------
Zayd Ibn Thabit used to write
Quran ,its seen well that those who used to write Quran in majority did'nt
write hadith,To keep manuscripts separetely.
As per the claim,Zayd ibn
thabit [r.a] met Muaawiyah ,the hadith no where says this incident happend
after 30 years.
Sunan of Abu-DawoodHadith 3640
Narrated byZayd ibn Thabit
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.
it was erased because of
initial injunction.
Muawiya[r.a] did got some
hadith written down later as per the permission.
Sahih Al-Bukhari HadithHadith
9.395 Narrated byWarrad
(The clerk of Al-Mughira)
Muawiya wrote to Al-Mughira: "Write to me what you have heard from Allah's
Apostle." So he (Al-Mughira) wrote to him: Allah's
Prophet used to say at the end
of each prayer: "La ilaha illalla-h wahdahu la sharika lahu, lahul Mulku,
wa lahul Hamdu wa hula ala kulli shai'in
qadir. 'Allahumma la mani' a
lima a'taita, wala mu'tiya lima mana'ta, wala yanfa'u dhuljadd
minkal-jadd." He also wrote to him that the Prophet used
to forbid (1) Qil and Qal
(idle useless talk or that you talk too much about others), (2) Asking too many
questions (in disputed religious matters); (3)
And wasting one's wealth by
extravagance; (4) and to be undutiful to one'smother (5) and to bury the
daughters alive (6) and to prevent your favors
(benevolence) to others (i.e.
not to pay the rights of others) (7) And asking others for something (except
when it is unavoidable).
Sahih Al-Bukhari HadithHadith
8.612 Narrated byWarrad
(the freed slave of Al-Mughira
bin Shu'ba) Muawiya wrote to Mughira, "Write to me what you heard the
Prophet saying after his prayer." So Al-Mughira
dictated to me and said,
"I heard the Prophet saying after the prayer, 'None has the right to be
worshipped but Allah Alone Who has no partner. O Allah!
No one can withhold what You
give, and none can give what You withhold, and the fortune of a man of means is
useless before You (i.e., only good deeds
are of value).' "
CLAIM 3
-----------
The famous book, "Ulum
Al-Hadith" by Ibn Al-Salah, reports a hadith by Abu Hurayra in which Abu
Hurayra said the messenger of God came out to us while
we were writing his hadiths
and said; "What are you writing?" We said, "Hadiths that we hear
from you, messenger of God." He said, "A book other
than the book of God ?!"
We said, "Should we talk about you?" He said, Talk about me, that
would be fine, but those who will lie will go to Hell. Abu
Hurayra said, we collected
what we wrote of Hadiths and burned them in fire.
REFUTATION 3
-------------------
Initially it was forbidden to write to keep Quran as the only text. Another important point to note is,talking about messenger was permitted,it
cleary proves that many
injunctions of Quran require explanation by Rasool Allah to practice Islam.That
explanation was completely part of Quran i.e
teaching how to practice Islam
practically. That is why they wrote it as different text.
Sunan of Abu-DawoodHadith 3639
Narrated byAbdullah ibn Amr ibn al-'As
I used to write everything
which I heard from the Apostle of Allah (peace be upon him). I intended (by it)
to memorise it. The Quraysh prohibited me
saying: Do you write
everything that you hear from him while the Apostle of Allah (peace be upon
him) is a human being: he speaks in anger and pleasure?
So I stopped writing, and
mentioned it to the Apostle of Allah (peace be upon him). He signalled with his
finger to him mouth and said: Write, by Him
in Whose hand my soul lies,
only right comes out from it.
CLAIM 4
----------
In the famous book,
"Taq-yeed Al-Ilm", Abu Hurayra said, the messenger of God was
informed that some people are writing his hadiths. He took to the
pulpit of the mosque and said,
"What are these books that I heard you wrote? I am just a human being.
Anyone who has any of these writings should bring
it here. Abu Hurayra said we
collected all these and burned them in fire.
REFUTATION 4
------------------
As written earlier this
prohibited is before the permission of writing.
CLAIM 5
-----------
Ibn Hanbal in his Musnad book,
narrates a hadith in which Abdullah Ibn Omar said, "the messenger of God
one day came out to us as if he was going to
depart us soon and said, "When I depart you (die), hold to the book of God, prohibit what it prohibits and accept as halal what it makes halal."
He never mentioned the Sunna
in this hadiths.
REFUTATION 5:
------------------
Muwatta Book 46, Number
46.1.3:
Yahya related to me from Malik
that he heard that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him
peace, said, "I have left two matters with
you. As long as you hold to
them, you will not go the wrong way. They are the Book of Allah and the Sunna
of His Prophet."
-----------
Again, in the book
"Taq-yeed Al-Ilm", Abu Saeed Al-Khudry said, " I asked the
messenger of God a permission to write his hadiths, but he refused to
give me a permission."
REFUTATION 6
-------------------
As written earlier this prohibited is before the permission of writing.
CLAIM 7
----------
The farewell Pilgrimage of the
Prophet Muhammed is a corner stone in the Muslim history. The Final Sermon
given by the Prophet during this pilgrimage
was witnessed by thousands of
Muslims. There are however THREE versions of this sermon in the Hadiths books.
[A] 1- First version, " I
left for you what if you hold up to, you will never be misguided, the book of
God and my Family.
[B]2-Second version, "I
left for you what if you hold up to, you will never be misguided, the book of
God and my Sunnah" .
[C]3- Third version, "I
left for you what if you hold up to, you will never be misguided, the BOOK OF
GOD."
Refutations :Dealing with each
claim one by one:A,B & C
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
[A] 1- First version, " I
left for you what if you hold up to, you will never be misguided, the book of
God and my Family.
Al-Tirmidhi HadithHadith 6143
Narrated byJabir ibn Abdullah
Jabir saw Allah's Messenger
(peace be upon him) when performing the hajj seated on his she-camel al-Qaswa'
on the day of Arafah giving an address,
and he heard him saying,
"O people, I have left among you something of such a nature that if you
adhere to it you will not go astray: Allah's Book and
my close relatives who belong
to my household."
Tirmidhi transmitted it.
Following Allah's book and
close relatives as close relatives used to follow sunnah of rasool Allah.
[B]2-Second version, "I
left for you what if you hold up to, you will never be misguided, the book of
God and my Sunnah" .
Sunnah is in Hadith.
Muwatta Book 46, Number
46.1.3:
Yahya related to me from Malik
that he heard that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him
peace, said, "I have left two matters with
you. As long as you hold to
them, you will not go the wrong way. They are the Book of Allah and the Sunna
of His Prophet."
This is self explanatory.
[C]3- Third version, "I
left for you what if you hold up to, you will never be misguided, the BOOK OF
GOD."
Excerpt from last[Final] sermon,
Sahih Muslim HadithHadith 1885
Narrated byJabir ibn Abdullah
.................. I have left
among you the Book of Allah, and if you hold fast to it, you would never go
astray. And you would be asked about me (on
the Day of Resurrection), (now
tell me) what would you say? They (the audience) said: We will bear witness
that you have conveyed (the message),
discharged (the ministry of
Prophethood) and given wise (sincere) counsel. He (the narrator) said: He (the
Holy Prophet) then raised his forefinger
towards the sky and pointing
it at the people (said): "O Allah, be witness. O Allah be witness,"
saying it thrice ...............................
Implementing Quran itself
requires Hadith as it carries to an extent laws and explanations of Quran.From
prayer to capital punishments.
There are three versions ,this
is where we require hadith exegesis,just like Quran explains some other parts
of Quran,Quran exegesis:EXAMPLE.
First version-2:34 And when We
said unto the angels: Prostrate yourselves before Adam, they fell prostrate,
all save Iblis. He demurred through pride,
and so became a disbeliever.
35 And We said: O Adam! Dwell
thou and thy wife in the Garden, and eat ye
freely (of the fruits) thereof where ye will; but come not nigh this
tree
lest ye become wrongdoers.
Second version-7:11 And We
created you, then fashioned you, then told the angels: Fall ye prostrate before
Adam! And they fell prostrate, all save
Iblis, who was not of those
who make prostration.
12:He said: What hindered thee
that thou didst not fall prostrate when I bade thee? (Iblis) said: I am better
than him. Thou createdst me of fire
while him Thou didst create of
mud.
Third version:20:116 When We
said to the angels "Prostrate yourselves to Adam" they prostrated
themselves but not Iblis: he refused.
117 Then We said: "O
Adam! verily this is an enemy to thee and thy wife: so let him not get you both
out of the Garden so that thou art landed in
misery.
Common sense works very well
here,
To simply explain,Satan was
haughty,thinking he is better,thus he refused,but the point here is to note
that the way verses were revealed,each
has its own sequence hence we
require Quran exegesis.
The same law of exegesis[An
explanation or critical(Characterized by careful evaluation and judgment)
interpretation ]
Follow Quran,its details of
implementing are in sunnah[hadith] which was followed by prophets clse
relatives.Simple!!!
Allah says in Quran to pray
and the method in detail is in Hadith,hajj details are in hadith,even how many
times circumambulate around kaba is in
hadith as Quran mentions
circumambulate without giving any number.
CLAIM 8 :
HADITHS AND THE GUIDED
KHALIFAS[Caliphs]
-------------------------------------------------------------------
The four guided Khalifas who
ruled the Muslim Umma (nation) after the death of the Prophet Muhammed,
respected the order of the Prophet and prohibited
the writing and collection of
Hadiths. They did believe God in his book and accepted the commandment of the
Prophet.
Abu Bakr at one point was not
sure whether to keep what he knows of hadiths or not. He had collected 500
Hadiths during very long companionship of the
Prophet Muhammed, but he could
not sleep the night until he burned them. Omar Ibn Al-Khattab insisted on
destroying the Hadiths collected by his son
Abdullah. Islamic history
mentioned the story of Omar Ibn Al-Khattab restraining four of the Prophet's
companions because of their insistence on
telling Hadiths, these were
Ibn Masoud, Abu Al-Dardaa, Abu Masoud Al-Anssary and Abu Tharr Al-Ghaffary.
Ali Ibn Abu Talib, the fourth
Khalifa in one of his speeches said, "I urge all those who have writing
taken from the messenger of God to go home and
erase it. The people before
you were annihilated because they followed the Hadiths of their scholars and
left the book of their Lord." (Sunan
Al-Daramy)
REFUTATION 8:
---------------------
This itself proves they all
wrote Hadith ,its dire need to preserve knowledge.But those who wrote Quran
seldom saved written Hadith yet few
saved like Ali [r.a]& some
did not write at all.To keep two texts seperate.
Sahih Al-Bukhari HadithHadith
3.263 Narrated byAbu Huraira
You people say that Abu
Huraira tells many narrations from Allah's Apostle and you also wonder why the
emigrants and Ansar do not narrate from Allah's
Apostle as Abu Huraira does.
My emigrant brothers were busy in the market while I used to stick to Allah's
Apostle content with what fills my stomach;
so I used to be present when
they were absent and I used to remember when they used to forget, and my Ansari
brothers used to be busy with their
properties and I was one of
the poor men of Suffa. I used to remember the narrations when they used to
forget. No doubt, Allah's Apostle once said,
"Whoever spreads his
garment till I have finished my present speech and then gathers it to himself,
will remember whatever I will say." So, I spread my
colored garment which I was wearing till Allah's Apostle had finished his saying, and then I gathered it to my chest. So, I did not forget any of that
narrations.
CLAIM 9
----------
Abu Hurayra narrated more
Hadiths than anybody else including Abu Bakr, Omar, Ali, and Ayesha who lived
with the prophet all their lives. In less
than two years of being with the prophet, Abu Hurayra narrated more Hadiths than all these companions of the prophet altogether. He narrated 5374
Hadiths. Ibn Hanbal quoted
3848 of his Hadiths in his book.
REFUTATION:9
-----------------
Sahih Al-Bukhari HadithHadith
3.263 Narrated byAbu Huraira
You people say that Abu Huraira tells many narrations from Allah's Apostle and you also wonder why the emigrants and Ansar do not narrate from Allah's
Apostle as Abu Huraira does.
My emigrant brothers were busy in the market while I used to stick to Allah's
Apostle content with what fills my stomach;
so I used to be present when
they were absent and I used to remember when they used to forget, and my Ansari
brothers used to be busy with their
properties and I was one of
the poor men of Suffa. I used to remember the narrations when they used to
forget. No doubt, Allah's Apostle once said,
"Whoever spreads his
garment till I have finished my present speech and then gathers it to himself,
will remember whatever I will say." So, I spread my
colored garment which I was
wearing till Allah's Apostle had finished his saying, and then I gathered it to
my chest. So, I did not forget any of that
narrations.
CLAIM 10
-----------
Omar Ibn Abdel-Aziz permitted
the writing of Hadiths and Sunna, then manybooks and (Kararees) appeared
containing Hadiths, e.g. Ibn Greeg, Malik Ibn
Anas, Mohammed Ibn Is'haq. The
most famous from among these were the book of Malik Ibn Anas, (Al-Muwattaa).
that had about 500 Hadiths. At the end of the
second century the books known
as (Masaned) appeared, e.g. the Masnad of Ahmed Ibn Hanbal that has about
40,000 Hadiths. In the first half of the
third century the famous six
books of hadiths appeared and these are the books used by many of the scholars
these days. 1- Sahih Bukhary. 2- Sahih
Muslem. 3- Sunan Abu Daoud.
4-Sunan Al-tirmidhi. 5-Sunan Al-Nasaai. 6- Sunan Ibn Magah.
REFUTATION 10 :
--------------------
[a]The increase in number is because
of excessive number of narrators with repetations of same information,
[b].Many sahabas[companions]
gave details about their personal experiences with Prophet Muhammad[pbuh],
[c] events through which we
learnt practse of prophet Muhammad [pbuh].
[d]The later generation needed
more detailed information of Prophet as they were not aware of his practices as
they were not born during prophet's era.
Conclusion: Hadith self
explanatory to see the importance of Sunnah[authentic Hadith]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sunan of Abu-DawoodHadith 3585
Narrated byMu'adh ibn Jabal
Some companions of Mu'adh ibn
Jabal said: When the Apostle of Allah (peace be upon him) intended to send
Mu'adh ibn Jabal to the Yemen, he asked: How
will you judge when the
occasion of deciding a case arises? He replied: I shall judge in accordance
with Allah's Book. He asked: (What will you do)
if you do not find any
guidance in Allah's Book? He replied: (I shall act) in accordance with the
Sunnah of the Apostle of Allah (peace be upon him).
He asked: (What will you do)
if you do not find any guidance in the Sunnah of the Apostle of Allah (peace be
upon him) and in Allah's Book? He
replied: I shall do my best to
form an opinion and I shall spare no effort. The Apostle of Allah (peace be
upon him) then patted him on the breast and
said: Praise be to Allah Who
has helped the messenger of the Apostle of Allah to find something which
pleases the Apostle of Allah.
Sahih Al-Bukhari HadithHadith
9.382 Narrated byAbdullah
The best talk (speech) is
Allah's Book (Qur'an), and the best way is the way of Muhammad, and the worst
matters are the heresies (those new things which
are introduced into the
religion); and whatever you have been promised will surely come to pass, and
you cannot escape (it).
Sahih Al-Bukhari HadithHadith
9.374 Narrated byAnas bin Malik
That he heard 'Umar speaking
while standing on the pulpit of the Prophet in the morning (following the death
of the Prophet), when the people had sworn
allegiance to Abu Bakr. He
said the Tashah-hud before Abu Bakr, and said, "Amma Ba'du (then after)
Allah has chosen for his Apostle what is with Him
(Paradise) rather than what is
with you (the world). This is that Book (Qur'an) with which Allah guided your
Apostle, so stick to it, for then you
will be guided on the right
path as Allah guided His Apostle with it."
Sahih Al-Bukhari HadithHadith
8.120 Narrated byTariq
'Abdullah said, "The best
talk is Allah's Book (Qur'an), and the best guidance is the guidance of
Muhammad."
Sahih Muslim HadithHadith 878
Narrated byAbuSa'id al-Khudri
The Messenger of Allah (peace
be upon him) saw (a tendency) among his Companions to go to the back, so he
said to them: Come forward and follow my
lead, and let those who come
after you follow your lead. People will continue to keep back till Allah will
put them at the back.
Al-Tirmidhi HadithHadith 6221
Narrated byAbdullah ibn Mas'ud
The Prophet (peace be upon him)
said, "When I am gone copy those two of my companions, AbuBakr and Umar,
follow the guidance of Ammar, and hold fast to
the injunction of Ibn Umm
Abd." Hudhayfah's version says "Believe what Ibn Mas'ud tells
you" instead of "Hold fast to the injunction of Ibn Umm
Abd."*note[wallahu alam
,may be prophet said both names].
Tirmidhi transmitted it.
Allah knows best.