In the name of Allah most
gracious most merciful
Assalaamu alaykum wa
rahmatuallahi wa barakatuhu
Imam Tirmidhi (209 - 279 H)
Imam Tirmidhi was born in the
year 209 A.H. during the reign of the Abbasid Khalifa Ma'mun al-Rashid. The
Abbasid Caliphate, despite its brilliant contributions to Islam, brought along
with it many thorny problems. Greek Philosophy had a free flow into the Islamic
world. This was fully sanctioned by the government until eventually it declared
the Mu'tazila school of thought as the state religion. Anyone who opposed the
Mu'tazila school of thought would be opposing the state. With the influence of
Greek philosophy infiltrating within the people, many Muslims began attempting
to reconcile between reason and revelation. As a result they deviated
themselves and misled many innocent weak Muslims away from Allah and His
Prophet (s). Many scholars of Islam had come to the fore in order to defend the
Shari`ah. Forgeries and interpolations in Hadith by rulers who wished to fulfil
their personal motives was common. In the first century `Umar bin Abdul `Aziz
(r) initiated a movement for the compilation of the holy hadith of the the
Prophet (s) as there was a fear of it being lost. Eventually this gigantic task
was undertaken by six towering scholars of Islam. One of them was Imam Abu `Isa
Muhammed ibn `Isa Tirmidhi
Having grown up in an
environment of learning, together with possessing many great qualities
naturally drove Imam Tirmidhi to dedicate his life totally towards the field of
Hadith. He obtained his basic knowledge at home and later travelled to far off
lands in search of this great science. He studied Hadith under great
personalities such as Imam Bukhari, Imam Muslim and Imam Abu Dawud. In some
narrations Imam Bukhari and Imam Muslim are his students as well.
Once Imam Bukhari mentioned to
him "I have benefited more from you than you have benefitted from
me." Musa ibn `Alaq once said: "When Imam Bukhari passed away, he
left no one in Khurasan who compared with Abu `Isa Tirmidhi in knowledge,
memory, piety and abstinence." According to `Abdullah ibn Muhammed
Al-Ansari, Imam Tirmidhi's Al-Jami` is more beneficial than the works of
Bukhari and Muslim since their compilations can only be understood by a very
deep sighted scholar whereas Al-Jami` can be understood by both the scholar and
the layman.
Imam Tirmidhi said that he
compiled this book and presented it to the learned of Hijaz, Iraq and Khurasan
and they were pleased with it. Who ever has this book in his home, it is as
though he has the Prophet (s) speaking to him there.
His remarkable memory:
Imam Tirmidhi had an
exceptionally remarkable memory. If he heard something once he never forgot it.
Once on his way to Makkah, Imam Tirmidhi met a scholar of hadith (muhaddith)
from whom he had previously copied two chapters of hadith. Thinking that he had
the notes with him he asked the scholar if he would allow him to read out these
two chapters so that he could correct any errors. After realizing that he did
not have those notes with him he took a blank piece of paper and read out the
entire two parts from memory. When the muhaddith realized what he was doing he
rebuked Imam Tirmidhi saying: "Have you no shame, why are you wasting my
time." Imam Tirmidhi assured him that he had committed all the ahadith to
memory. The scholar was not convinced, even though Imam Tirmidhi had recited
all the hadith from memory. Imam Tirmidhi requested him to recite to him some
other hadith. The scholar recited forty ahadith which Imam Tirmidhi
thenrepeated without making a single error, thus showing his remarkable power of
committing hadith to memory.
Another incident has been
recorded by Hakim ul-Ummat in his Al-Misk-us-Zaki, depicting the profound
memory of Imam Tirmidhi. He writes:
Imam Tirmidhi had lost his
sight towards the latter portion of his life. Once whilst on a journey, at a
certain point he bowed his head. When asked as to why he did this, he replied:
"Is there not a tree here whose branches hang over in such a manner that
it harms those who are passing by." They answered in the negative. He was
quite shocked when he heard this as he distinctly remembered there being a tree
and was worried as to whether his memory was failing him or not. He stopped the
caravan immediately and asked his companions to enquire from the locals whether
a tree had existed there or not. "If it is established that no tree
existed then I will stop narrating the Hadith of the Prophet (s) due to my weak
memory." On inquiry it was shown to them that a tree had previously
existed over there but due to it being a hindrance to travelers it was removed.
Imam Tirmidhi had a large
number of students from all over the world. The most famous amongst them were
Haysam ibn Kulaib, Abul Abbaas and Muhammed ibn Ahmed Shah Abdul `Aziz
describes Imam Tirmidhi in the following words: "His memory was unique and
his piety and fear of Allah ta'la was of a very high caliber. He would cry so
much out of the fear of Allah, that towards the end of his life he lost his
sight."
According to Ibn Taymiyya and
Shah Waliullah, Imam Timidhi was an independent Jurist (Mujtahid). Moulana
Anwar Shah Kashmiri is of the opinion that he was a Shafi`i.
In the year 279 A.H. in a
village called Bawag at the age of 70 , Imam Tirmidhi left this temporary abode
for the everlasting life of the hereafter. May Allah swt fill his grave with
light. The enormity of his sacrifices and the extent to which he served the
religion can never be fully comprehended.
Many books of hadith were
compiled before Imam Tirmidhi decided to compile his Al-Jami`. Dawud Tayalisi
and Ahmed ibn Hanbal had compiled books consisting of both authentic and weak
hadith. Later Imam Bukhari compiled his Sahih and omitted all weak narrations
from it. His main objective was to derive masa'il / laws from the relevant
hadith. Later Imam Muslim compiled his book with a primary focus on the isnad
(different chain of narrators). Imam Nasa'i's aim was to mention the
discrepancies of the hadith whilst Abu Dawud prepared a book which became the
basis for the fuqaha. Imam Tirmidhi had combined the styles of Bukhari, Muslim,
Abu Dawud and Nasa'i by mentioning the discrepancies regarding the narrators
and also making his compilation a basis for the jurists.
The Special characteristics of
al-Jami` ut-Tirmidhi
1. It is a Sunan and a Jami`.
2. Only 83 hadith are
repeated.
3. Imam Tirmidhi omits the
major portion of the hadith and only mentions that part which is relevant to
the heading. (title)
4. After mentioning a hadith
he classifies it narration (whether it is authentic or weak, etc.)
5. He specifies the narrators
names, e.g. if the narrators kunya (honorific name) was mentioned, he would
then mention his proper name and vice versa.
6. One hadith in Tirmidhi is a
thulaathiyaat i.e. the transmitters of the hadith betwen Imam Tirmidhi and the
Prophet (s) are only three.
7. Every hadith in Tirmidhi
al-Jami` is "ma'mul bihi" (practised upon by the jurists.)
8. He explains the different
madhahib together with their proofs.
9. He gives an explanation to
all difficult ahadith.
10. His book has been set out
in an excellent sequence, hence to look for a hadith is very easy.
11. There is no fabricated
hadith in the entire book.
The conditions of Imam
Tirmidhi in the selection of hadith
According to the commentators
of Al-Jami Imam Tirmidhi maintained the following conditions throughout the
compilation of his book.
1. He never narrated hadith
from those who fabricated hadith. 2. Allama Tahir Muqaddisi mentions that
al-Jami` ut-Tirmidhicontains four types of hadith:
[1] Those ahadith that conform
with the conditions of Bukhari and Muslim.
[2] Those ahadith that conform
with the conditions of Abu Dawud and Nasa'i.
[3] Those ahadith that have
certain discrepancies either in the sanad or matan.
[4] Those weak hadith that
some fuqaha have relied on.
3. Imam Tirmidhi accepts a
hadith which is narrated with the word "a'n" provided both the
narrators are contemporaries. 4. After mentioning a weak hadith, he explains
the state of its weakness. 5. A mursal hadith is accepted by Imam Tirmidhi when
it is supported by a chain of narrators which is not broken.
The status of al-Jami`
ut-Tirmidhi among the six authentic books of hadith. al-Jami` ut-Tirmidhi has
been categorized as fifth amongst the six most authentic books of hadith.
According to the most preferred opinion, Bukhari enjoys the highest status,
followed by Muslim, Abu Dawood, Nasai, Tirmidhi and Ibn Majah respectively.
Haji Khalifa in al-Kashf al-Dhunoon has categorised Tirmidhi in third position.
Al-Dhahabi has written that Tirmidhi in actual fact should be holding the third
position, but due to him bringing weak narrators like Kalbi and Masloob its
status has dropped. However, looking at the manner in which he set out his book
it seems that Haji Khalifa's opinion is best.
Some of the commentaries of
Tirmidhi
{1.} 'A'ridat-ul-Ahwazi
An Arabic compilation of Qadi
Abu Bakr ibn `Arabi (r) in 7 volumes.
{2} Qut-ul Mughtazi
Compiled by Jalal ad-Din
Suyuti (r).
{3} Tuhfat-ul Ahwadhi
Written by Sheikh Abdur
Rahmaan Mubaarakpuri in 10 volumes. He is very critical against the Ahnaaf.
The classification of hadith
was firmly established by Ali ibn Madini (r) and later by his student Imam
Bukhari (r). However Imam Tirmidhi was the first Imam to base his book on these
classifications.
Imam Tirmidhi classifies most
of the Ahadith and mentions its reliability. Altogether Imam Tirmidhi uses nine
different terms.
1.) sahih: That hadith wherein
each reporter must be trustworthy, he must have the power of retention and the
sanad of the hadith must go back to Nabi (sallallahu alyhi wasallam) without
any interruption, it must agree with those of other reliable reporters and
there should be no hidden defect in the matan or the sanad. N.B. Imam Tirmidhi
does not consider it a prerequisite that a sahih Hadith must have several
chains of narrators.
2.) hasan: That hadith which
does not contain a reporter accused of lying, it is not shaaz and the hadith
has been reported through more than one sanad.
3.) da`eef: Such a hadith
wherein the narrators are not trustworthy, or they don't posses the ability of
retaining, or there is a break in the chain of narrators, or the hadith is
shaaz or mu'alall.
4.) gharib: According to Imam
Tirmidhi a hadith is classified gharib for one of the following reasons..
(a) it is narrated from one
chain only.
(b) there is some addition in
the text.
(c) it is narrated through
various chains of transmitters but having within one of its chains an addition
in the sanad.
5.) hasan gharib: These two
can be combined. i.e. hasan refers to the uprighteousness of the narrators
whilst gharib implies that he is alone in transmitting the hadith.
6.) sahih gharib: This term
implies that the hadith is authentic but there is only one sanad.
7.) hasan sahih gharib: This
hadith is hasan since it has several chains of transmitters, it is sahih as the
chains are all authentic and it is gharib in the words that Imam Tirmidhi
narrated.
8.) hasan sahih: This term has
caused much confusion amongst the Muhadditheen since hasan is lower in rank
than sahih. While sahih indicates to the excellent retention power of a
narrator, hasan indicates to a deficiency in this regard hence it seems that
both are opposites and is not possible to reconcile. The mutaqaddimeen have
given many explanations to this :
[1] Ibn Hajar (r) has
mentioned that the word "aw" is omitted hence the hadith will be
either hasan or sahih. [2] Ibn Salah is of the opinion that when a hadith is
reported with two sanads, one should be considered as hasan and the other as
sahih. [3] Ibn Kathir says that Imam Tirmidhi has made up a new term which
implies the hadith to be higher than hasan but lower than sahih. [4] Ibn Daqiq
ul `Eid is of this opinion that sahih and hasan are not opposites. Rather they
belong to the same category. However hasan will be considered as inferior to
sahih hence they both can be combined. This opinion has been given most
preference by the Muhadditheen.
By the third century A.H. a
number of collections on hadith were compiled. Imam Tirmidhi was one of those
scholars who contributed greatly towards this field of hadith. In this modern
age the world at large is deeply indebted to Imam Tirmidhi for his compilation
of hadith. May Allah swt make it possible for all of us to benefit tremendously
from this priceless collection of hadith.
Allah knows best