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The Story of Hadith |
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![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Posted: 01 December 2005 at 5:26am |
Bi imsillahir rahmanir raheem
assalamu alaikum The Story of Hadith
Hadiths come from the Bringer of the Qur'an ![]() When the best generation of humankind ever to walk the earth realized that the Lord of the Heaven was addressing them directly with His timeless Speech in the language which they had mastered better than any human nation ever mastered a language, they realized that not only had Allah Almighty deputized the worthiest of them as the carrier of the final Message to humanity, but He had also made belief in that most honorable, most distinguished, and most accomplished Messenger - our liege-lord Muhammad ![]() They also heard Allah again and again command them to "Obey Allah AND the Messenger." They also realized that Allah Almighty stressed to them that this Messenger was their paramount model of behavior and of belief in Allah and the Last Day. They also heard and understood it meant they had to follow him and love him before they could claim to follow and love Allah. They further understood the required levels of following the Prophet ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() They also noticed that Allah had made such love and following of His Prophet ![]() ![]() Hence, by listening to the majestic Qur'an and taking to heart its message, the Companions realized that its study and practice necessitated the absolute study, understanding, and imitation of the Prophet ![]() ![]() ![]() So they learned from the Prophet and they worshipped with the Prophet ![]() ![]() The Prophet ![]() Allah then turned them, at His Prophet's hands ![]() "We are blessed, Muslim kind, for we enjoy of Divine support an indestructible Pillar!" (al-Busiri, Burda) The Companions knew better than anyone he was a human being and they saw in the Prophet ![]() This Prophetic Wisdom of the Sunna comes to us, textwise, in the form of transmitted sayings which in Arabic are called Hadeeth, plural: Ahaadeeth. This is the "genesis of the hadiths" the question asked about. Most importantly to us, this Sunna and its practicing servants among the Friends of Allah represent the Prophet ![]() ![]() Our forefathers and mothers carried that huge responsibility and trust. They collectively and individually transmitted, as faithfully and to the nearest detail possible, the totality of the information Allah wanted the last, mercied community of mankind to receive and preserve about His final elect representative for the guidance and happiness of humanity here and hereafter just as they faithfully transmitted His Book. No one could have done their job better because Allah chose them. He was and is well-pleased with them and they are well-pleased with Him, He loves them and they love Him; see for yourself what He says of {The First and Foremost of the Muhajirun and the Ansar}! Allah Most High also says: {Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah and those with him are hard against the disbelievers and merciful among themselves. You (O Muhammad) see them bowing and falling prostrate (in worship), seeking bounty from Allah and (His) acceptance. The mark of them is on their foreheads from the traces of prostration. Such is their likeness in the Torah and their likeness in the Gospel like as sown corn that sends forth its shoot and strengthens it and rises firm upon its stalk, delighting the sowers that He may enrage the disbelievers with (the sight of) them} (48:29). Imam Malik said: * Whoever harbors spite toward any of the Companions of the Prophet, this verse has hit him! * May it never hit you, dear reader, or me! Allah Most High chose them and they are all upright. He made them the strongest of people in memory, the most precise in language, the most familiar with the Prophet's gracious person ![]() It pleased our bountiful Creator, also, to make knowledge of Hadith and its related sciences the exclusive characteristic of Muslim civilization. Alone among the nations that walked the face of the earth, the Umma received and kept this Divine trust together with the Last Testament - the Qur'an - to pass it on to subsequent generations unchanged with an ever-refined array of disciplines for verification and authentication. Among those disciplines, Hadith methodology and criticism ensured that nothing alien crept into the pure Prophetic Sunna as conveyed by the upright (`adl) and precise (dabit) transmitters known as the "trustworthy" (thiqa, pl. thiqat) under the strict perusal of their peers and subsequent experts. When Ibn al-Mubarak was asked about the forgeries he replied, "The giant scholars (al-jahabidha) dispose of them!" Then he recited, {Lo! We, even We, have revealed the Reminder, and lo! We verily are its Guardian} (15:9). Thus he reiterated in the pithiest way that the Prophetic Sunna and authentic Hadith are part and parcel of the Final Revelation * which no Muslim denies! * and that the Lawgiver preserves His Dhikr through the surest human means imaginable. To that end, the Friends of Allah Most High and caliphal inheritors of the Prophet ![]() ![]() - The Jami`-type compilations, i.e. encyclopedias arranged by topical sub-divisions. E.g. by Sufyan al-Thawri, al-Bukhari, Muslim, al-Tirmidhi.... - The Muwatta', Musannaf, and Aathaar-type topical compilations that focus on legal rulings and include non-Prophetic fatwas. E.g. by Malik, `Abd al-Razzaq, and Abu Hanifa. - The Sunan-type topical compilations: like the previous type but consisting only of Prophetic reports e.g. the Sunan of Abu Dawud, al-Nasa'i, al-Tirmidhi, Ibn Majah, al-Darimi, and others. - The Musnad-type compilations arranged by Companion-narrators e.g. by the heroic Imam Ahmad and Ishaq ibn Rahuyah. - The countless Juz'-type compilations i.e. "Monographs" on a single topic or from a single narrator and so forth. - The Mu`jam-type compilations i.e. alphabetical Musnads of Companions or other authorities narrating back to the latter e.g. the works of al-Tabarani. Among the extant manuscripts of the numerous hadith collections compiled in the first Hijri century are `Abd Allah ibn `Amr ibn al-`As' (d. 63) al-Sahifat al-Sadiqa, originally containing about 1,000 hadiths of which 500 reached us, copied down by `Abd Allah directly from the Prophet ![]() ![]() The earliest Siras or Prophetic biographies are the lost folios of Aban (d. 105), the son of `Uthman ibn `Affan (d. 35), from whom Muhammad ibn Ishaq ibn Yasar al-Muttalibi (80-150/152) narrated; the accomplished works of `Urwa (d. c.92-95) (ra) the son of al-Zubayr ibn al-`Awwam and grandson of Asma' and `A'isha the learned daughters of Abu Bakr the Truthful (rad.i-Allahu `anhu) which he ordered 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; the most reliable Muhammad ibn Shihab al-Zuhri's (d. 120) Sira, from which Ibn Ishaq borrowed much; `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 al-Waqidi; `Abd Allah ibn Abi Bakr ibn Muhammad ibn `Amr ibn Hazm al-Ansari's (d. 135) tome, another main source for Ibn Ishaq, al-Waqidi, Ibn Sa`d, and al-Tabari; the most reliable, partly preserved Sira of the Madinan Musa ibn `Uqba al-Asadi (d. 141), praised by Imam Malik and used by Ibn Sa`d and al-Tabari; Muhammad ibn Ishaq's Sira, praised by Imam al-Shafi`i, the oldest extant; Ibn `A'idh al-Azdi's (d. 191) Maghazi; and Sayf ibn `Umar al-Tamimi's (d. 200) al-Ridda wal-Futuh and al-Jamal as per Ibn Hajar in Tahdhib al-Tahdhib. A junior contemporary of Ibn Ishaq, the erudite Muhammad ibn `Umar ibn Waqid al-Aslami al-Waqidi (d. 207) compiled the Maghazi and Futuh al-Sham among others. He is the principal source of Imam al-Tabari (d. 310) in the latter's Tarikh and his student and scribe Muhammad ibn Sa`d (d. 230) relied heavily on him in his Tabaqat. The early and late masters devised finely-tuned scientific gauntlets for the verification of hadith authenticity. The hadiths of the Two Sahihs * by the Arch-Masters al-Bukhari (194-256) and Muslim (204-261) * and the Muwatta' of Imam Malik (93-179) are rigorously sound and need no further authentication. Next in reliability come the Sunan of the major Masters al-Tirmidhi (c.210-279), Abu Dawud (202-275), al-Nasa'i (215-303), al-Darimi (181-250), and Ibn Majah (209-273) as well as the Musnad of Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal (164-241). Next come the lesser collections of Sahih narrations such as * in descending order of strength * the Sahih of Ibn Khuzayma (223-311), three quarters of which are lost; that of his student Ibn Hibban (d. 354); al-Diya' al-Maqdisi's (567-643) al-Ahadith al-Jyad al-Mukhtara; Ibn al-Sakan's (294-353) al-Sunan al-Sihah; Ibn al-Jarud's (d. 307) al-Muntaqa min al-Sunan al-Musnada; Abu `Awana's (d. 316) Musnad; al-Hakim's (321-405) Mustadrak. Next come * in chronological order * the compilations of Abu Dawud al-Tayalisi (d. 204), Ibn Abi Shayba (d. 235), Ibn Abi `Asim (d. 287), al-Harith ibn Abi Usama (d. 282), al-Bazzar (215-292), Abu Ya`la (210-307), al-Tahawi (229-321), the Narrator of the World al-Tabarani (260-360), al-Daraqutni (306-385), Abu Nu`aym (336-430), al-Bayhaqi (384-458), al-Khatib al-Baghdadi (392-463), al-Baghawi (d. 516), Ibn `Asakir (499-571), and many others including the Sira sources already mentioned. Forgeries were identified and tagged in the two or three dozen compilations in the sub-genre devoted to their diagnosis. It is impermissible to use or narrate them as Prophetic reports. Preventive knowledge of the forgeries is an indispensable part of hadith science. The guideline in this is the verdict of the authorities in this science. The Prophet said time and again ![]() This terrible threat addresses not only wilful liars but also those well-intentioned Muslims who, in the course of da`wa or otherwise, are habitually lax in attributing to the Prophet ![]() This in short is the story of the Prophetic Hadith, its origins and why and how it was compiled. Allah revive our hearts for its sake with His ancient blessing, as He blessed those who preserved and kept it alive it for us. Allah bless our Prophet and his Family and Companions, and may Allah be well-pleased with all of the sincere scholars and students of Hadith to the Day of Judgment! Hajj Gibril |
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Rasul Allah (sallah llahu alaihi wa sallam) said: "Whoever knows himself, knows his Lord" and whoever knows his Lord has been given His gnosis and nearness.
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