In the name of Allah most
gracious most merciful
Assalaamu alaykum wa
rahmatuallahi wa barakatahu
The Science of Hadith
Perspectives
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In the Name of Allah, the Most
Compassionate the Most Merciful
We have, Without doubt, sent
down the message: and we will assuredly guard it (from corruption). (Qur'an
15:9)
The promise made by Allah
(SWT) in Qur'an 15:9 is obviously fulfilled in the undisputed purity of the
Qur'anic text throughout the fourteen centuries
since its revelation. However,
what is often forgotten by many Muslims is that the divine promise also
includes, by necessity, the Sunnah of the
Prophet (PBUH), because the
Sunnah is the practical example of the implementation of the Qur'anic guidance,
the wisdom taught to the Prophet
(PBUH) along with the
scripture, and neither the Qur'an nor the Sunnah can be understood correctly
without the other.
Allah (SWT) preserved the
Sunnah by enabling the companions and those after them to memorize, write down
and pass on the statements of the Prophet
(PBUH), and the descriptions
of his way, as well as to continue the blessings of practicing the Sunnah.
The manuscripts -Sahifa-
1.THE SAHIFA (COLLECTION) OF
ABDULLAH IBN AMR (Radhiallaahu Ánhu)
2.THE SAHIFA (COLLECTION OF
HADHRAT ALI (Radhiallaahu Ánhu)
3.KITABUS - SAQAH
4.SAHIFA IBN ABBAS
(Radhiallaahu Ánhu)
5.SAHIFA JAABIR IBN ABDULLAH
(Radhiallaahu Ánhu)
6.SAHIFA SAMURA IBN JUNDOB
(Radhiallaahu Ánhu)
7.SAHIFA SAAD IBN UBADA(Radhiallaahu
Ánhu)
8.SAHIFA ABU HURAYRA
(Radhiallaahu Ánhu)
9.SAHIFA IBN
MAS'OOD(Radhiallaahu Ánhu)
10.SAHIFA AMR IBN HAZAM
(Radhiallaahu Ánhu)
11.SAHIFA IBN MUBAARAK
Later, as the purity of the
knowledge of the Sunnah became threatened, Allah (SWT) caused the Muslim Ummah
to produce individuals with exceptional memory
skills and analytical
expertise, who travelled tirelessly to collect thousands of narrations and
distinguish the true words of prophetic wisdom
from those corrupted by weak
memories, from forgeries by unscrupulous liars, and from the statements of the
large number of Ulama (scholars), the
companions and those who
followed their way. All of this was achieved through precise attention to the
words narrated, and detailed familiarity
with the biographies of the
thousands of reporters of hadith.
There are two kinds of Hadith
compilations: musannaf and musnad. In musannaf collections, hadiths are
recorded under various headings dealing with
juridical subjects. The most
famous musannaf collections are:
1. Sahih Al-Bukhari (d. AH
256/870 CE)
2. Sahih Muslim (d. AH 261/874
CE)
3. Sunan An-Nasa’i (d. AH
303/916 CE)
4. Sunan Abi Dawud (d. AH
275/889 CE)
5. Sunan At-Tirmidhi (d. AH
279/892 CE)
6. Sunan Ibn Majah (d. AH
273/886 CE)
In musnad collections, hadiths
are arranged alphabetically under the names of the Companions on whose
authority these hadiths were reported. An example
of this kind is Musnad Ahmad
ibn Hanbal (d. AH 241/855 CE).
The methodology of the expert
scholars of hadith in assessing the narrations and sorting out the genuine from
the mistaken and fabricated, for ms the
subject matter of the science
of hadith. In this article a brief discussion is given of the terminology and
classifications of hadith.
Components of Hadith
A hadith is composed of three
parts
Matn (text), isnad (chain of
reporters), and taraf (the part, or the beginning sentence, of the text which
refers to the sayings, actions or
characteristics of the Prophet
(PBUH), or his concurrence with others action). The authenticity of the hadith
depends on the reliability of its
reporters, and the linkage
among them.
Classifications of Hadith
A number of classifications of
hadith have been made. Five of these classifications are shown in the figure
[below], and are briefly described
subsequently.
According to the reference to
a particular authority
Four types of hadith can be
identified.
Qudsi - Divine; a revelation
from Allah (SWT); relayed with the words of the Prophet (PBUH).
Marfu - elevated; a narration
from the Prophet (PBUH), e.g. I heard the Prophet (PBUH) saying ...
Mauquf- stopped: a narration
from a companion only, e.g., we were commanded to ...
Maqtu' - severed: a narration
from a successor.
According to the links of Isnad
- interrupted or uninterrupted
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Six categories can be
identified.
Musnad - supported: a hadith
which is reported by a traditionalist, based on what he learned from his
teacher at a time of life suitable for learning;
similarly - in turn - for each
teacher until the isnad reaches a well known companion, who in turn, reports
from the Prophet (PBUH).
Mutassil - continuous: a
hadith with an uninterrupted isnad which goes back only to a companion or
successor.
Mursal - hurried: if the link
between the successor and the Prophet (PBUH) is missing, e.g. when a successor
says "The Prophet said...".
Munqati - broken: is a hadith
whose link anywhere before the successor (i.e., closer to the traditionalist
recording the hadith) is missing.
Mu'adal - perplexing: is a
hadith whose reporter omits two or more consecutive reporters in the isnad.
Mu'allaq - hanging: is a
hadith whose reporter omits the whole isnad and quotes the Prophet (PBUH) directly
(i.e., the link is missing at the
beginning).
According to the number of
reporters involved in each stage of Isnad
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Five categories of hadith can
be identified:
Mutawatir - Consecutive: is a
hadith which is reported by such a large number of people that they cannot be
expected to agree upon a lie, all of
them together.
Ahad - isolated: is a hadith which
is narrated by people whose number does not reach that of the mutawatir.
It is further classified into:
Mash'hur - famous: hadith
reported by more than two reporters.
Aziz - rare, strong: at any
stage in the isnad, only two reporters are found to narrate the hadith.
Gharib - strange: At some
stage of the Isnad, only one reporter is found relating it.
According to the nature of the
text and isnad
Munkar - denounced: is a
hadith which is reported by a weak narrator, and whose narration goes against
another authentic hadith.
Mudraj - interpolated: an
addition by a reporter to the text of the hadith being narrated.
According to the reliability
and memory of the reporters
This provides the final
verdict on a hadith - four categories can be identified:
Sahih - sound. Imam Al-shafi'i
states the following requiremetts for a hadith, which is not mutawatir, to be
acceptable "each reporter should be
trustworthy in his religion;
he should be known to be truthtul in his narrating, to understand what he
narrates, to know how a different
expression can alter the
meaning, and to report the wording of the hadith verbatim, not only its
meaning".
Hasan - good: is the one where
its source is known and its reporters are unambiguous.
Da'if - weak: a hadith which
fails to reach the status of hasan. Usually, the weakness is: a) one of
discontinuity in the isnad, in which case the
hadith could be - according to
the nature of the discontinuity - munqati (broken), mu'allaq (hanging), mu'dal
(perplexing), or mursal (hurried), or
b) one of the reporters having
a disparaged character, such as due to his telling lies, excessive mistakes,
opposition to the narration of more
reliable sources, involvement
in innovation, or ambiguity surrounding his person.
Maudu' - fabricated or forged:
is a hadith whose text goes against the established norms of the Prophet's
sayings, or its reporters include a liar.
Fabricated hadith are also
recognized by external evidence related to a discrepancy found in the dates or
times of a particular incident.