The History and Importance of the Hadiths

What are the Hadiths?

A Hadith (plural ahadith) is a report of the words, actions or silent approval of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). The Sunnah is the Prophet's way (the practice shown by the Hadiths). The Hadiths explain and apply the Qur'an: for example, the Qur'an commands prayer, and the Hadiths teach how to pray.

Each Hadith has two parts:

• The isnad (chain): the list of narrators who passed the report on, from the Companion who heard it to the compiler.
• The matn (text): the words or description of the action.

The history of the compilation

The stages of preservation in more detail

1. In the Prophet's lifetime. After the Hijrah he encouraged his Companions to memorise and pass on his teaching ("let those present tell those absent", Farewell Sermon). He had some Companions write agreements, letters and treaties: a written pledge of protection for Suraqah, the Hudaybiyyah treaty (written by Ali), letters to kings, and a record of his Makka sermon that he allowed a man from Yemen, Abu Shah, to write. Early on he asked people not to write down his sayings, so that they would not be mixed with the Qur'an which was still being revealed. When this risk had passed he allowed it.

2. After his death. The Companions became the teachers of the next generation. The ones who narrated the most were often the youngest or those who stayed closest to him, not the oldest. Abu Bakr narrated about 140, Umar and Ali about 540 each. The largest numbers are for Abu Hurayrah (about 5,300), Abdullah ibn Umar (about 2,600), Anas ibn Malik (about 2,300), Aishah (about 2,200), Ibn Abbas (about 1,660) and Ibn Mas'ud (about 850). Umm Salamah narrated about 380. Aishah also corrected Hadiths that others reported wrongly.

3. The Successors (tabi'un). The next generation wrote notes in pages (suhuf). The sheet (sahifah) of Hammam ibn Munabbih, with 138 Hadiths from Abu Hurayrah, has survived. Hadiths were often taught by speaking, since early Arabic writing had no dots or vowels and could be misread. The Umayyad Caliph Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz (about 100 AH) told the governor of Madina and scholars such as az-Zuhri to write down the Hadiths so they would not be lost.

4. The following generation (second to early fourth century AH). This was the great age of collecting, producing the musannaf books, the musnad of Ahmad ibn Hanbal and the "Six Books".

Why were the Hadiths collected?

• The Prophet had been the final authority, and Muslims needed written guidance to settle disputes after his death.
• The Companions who had heard him were dying.
• New converts needed guidance on the Prophet's way of life.
• The law (fiqh), including ijma' and qiyas, needed a reliable body of Hadiths.
• Mistakes could creep into oral reports.
• After the civil wars some people, including rulers' supporters, over-zealous preachers and enemies of Islam, had made up false Hadiths.
• The Qur'an itself calls the Prophet a "beautiful example" (33:21).

The earliest collections

• Early written sheets (sahifahs) of Companions and their students.
• The Muwatta' of Imam Malik ibn Anas (d. 795), the earliest surviving major book, which joins Hadiths with the legal rulings of Madina.
• Musannaf collections, arranged by subject (as a law book), such as those of Abd ar-Razzaq and Ibn Abi Shaybah.
• Musnad collections, arranged by the name of the Companion who narrated, such as the huge Musnad of Ahmad ibn Hanbal (d. 855).

The main compilers and their activities

The Six Collections of Sunni Hadiths (al-Kutub as-Sittah):

The Four Collections of Shi'a Hadiths (al-Kutub al-Arba'ah): these include reports from the Prophet and the Imams of his family.

The collections in more detail

• Musannaf books are arranged by subject (prayer, zakat, inheritance), like a law book. The Muwatta' of Imam Malik (about 1,700 Hadiths with the practice of Madina) belongs to this type, as does the Musannaf of Abd ar-Razzaq. They are useful to ordinary Muslims and to scholars of law.
• Musnad books are arranged by Companion (the Musnad of Abu Bakr, Ali, Abu Hurayrah, Aishah and so on) and begin with the closest Companions. The Musnad of Ahmad ibn Hanbal (founder of the Hanbali school) chose about 27,000 Hadiths from some 750,000. A musnad helps scholars trace the chain of a Hadith but is hard for ordinary readers to use for a topic.
• The Six Books:

• The four Shi'a books rely mainly on reports from the Prophet and the twelve Imams, and were compiled between the mid-fourth and mid-fifth centuries AH. al-Kafi (over 16,000 Hadiths, in three parts: the principles of the faith, practice and law, and the miscellaneous Rawdah), Man la yahduruhu al-faqih (about 9,000), and Tahdhib al-Ahkam and al-Istibsar (the second a shorter version of the first on the same law topics).

Testing the reliability of a Hadith

The scholars made hadith criticism ('ilm al-hadith) to separate sound from weak or false reports:

• Examining the isnad (the chain). Was each narrator known, trustworthy and honest, with a good memory, and could he really have met the person he narrated from (an unbroken chain)? Books on narrators ('ilm ar-rijal) record their lives and character.
• Examining the matn (the text). Does it agree with the Qur'an, with other sound Hadiths, with reason and with history? Is the style fitting for the Prophet (pbuh)?
• Multiple chains. A report passed by so many people that agreement on a lie is impossible is mutawatir (certain); one with fewer is ahad.

Grades of Hadith (Sunni):

The tests of a Hadith in more detail

Testing the chain (isnad). A sound chain needs:

• the first narrator to be a Companion who heard or saw the Prophet;
• an unbroken chain where each narrator really met the one before (the scholars checked birth and death dates);
• each narrator to be an honest and upright Muslim, so a narrator known to lie was dropped (Imam Malik refused to take reports from a man who was dishonest in daily life);
• each narrator to be old enough to understand what he reports, so reports by children were not accepted;
• each narrator to have a good memory and report what agrees with other reliable narrators;
• non-Muslims not to be accepted as narrators.

For example, in the chain "Ibn al-Muthanna from Abd al-Wahhab, from Ayyub, from Abu Qilabah, from Malik, that the Prophet said, 'Pray as you see me praying'", the list of names is the isnad, and "Pray as you see me praying" is the matn. A shorter chain is generally stronger because there are fewer links.

Testing the text (matn). A text was doubted if it:

• contradicted the Qur'an, sound Hadiths or the main principles of Islam;
• was against reason, nature or known history;
• insulted the Prophet's family or the Companions;
• was admitted by its narrator to be invented;
• described a public event that only one person reported, when many would have seen it;
• promised a huge reward for a trivial act or a heavy punishment for a small fault;
• used language that did not suit the Prophet.

Grades in more detail.

• Sahih: an unbroken chain of honest narrators with sound memory, and a text that is not faulty. The Hadiths of al-Bukhari and Muslim are accepted as sahih.
• Hasan: the text is accepted but the chain falls a little short (a narrator with a slightly weaker memory, or a narrator little known).
• Da'if (weak): a gap in the chain or a narrator whose honesty or memory is doubtful. Weak Hadiths were not always rejected: some scholars used them for encouragement in good conduct when there was nothing against them.
• Mawdu' (fabricated): invented and never used; for example "ordinary people follow the religion of their rulers".
• By number of narrators: mutawatir reports, passed by so many that agreement on a lie is impossible (the Last Sermon is an example), and ahad reports, passed by fewer.

Why is the isnad so important? It proves the report really goes back to the Prophet and protects the law and religious practice from invented material. Muslims depend on Hadiths for the details of the pillars, so errors would spoil their worship.

Why did the Prophet at first forbid writing his sayings? Writing the Hadiths beside the revelation could have mixed them with the Qur'an. He allowed it when the Companions could tell them apart.

Why classify Hadiths? Only the soundest should be used for law, but weaker ones may be used for moral encouragement, so graded reports can be used correctly.

Which collection is more useful? Musannaf books for ordinary readers and new Muslims who want a topic; musnad books for scholars checking authenticity.

Their use in legal thinking

The Hadiths (the Sunnah) are the second source of law after the Qur'an. They explain general Qur'anic rules (such as the number of rak'ahs in prayer, the rates of zakat, the rituals of Hajj), give new rulings where the Qur'an is silent, and show how to apply principles. They are used with ijma' (consensus) and qiyas (analogy). If a Hadith appears to contradict the Qur'an, the Qur'an is followed.

The Hadiths as a source of law

• The Qur'an commands obedience to the Prophet: "Whoever obeys the Messenger has obeyed God" (4:80). The Prophet said he was leaving two things: the Book of God and his Sunnah.
• The Hadiths explain what the Qur'an leaves general: the details of prayer, zakat, fasting and Hajj, and the rules of trade, contracts and inheritance (see chapter 2 for five examples).
• Ijma' and qiyas depend on the Hadiths and are used only when the Qur'an and Hadiths do not answer.
• A Hadith qudsi is the Prophet reporting God's words in his own wording; it is not part of the Qur'an.
• Can Islam be practised without the Hadiths? No. The Qur'an orders prayer, but only the Hadiths show how many rak'ahs and how to pray.

Significance of the Hadiths

• They give a detailed picture of the Prophet's life and character and a model for daily life.
• They explain the Qur'an and are essential for worship and law.
• They are the base of the Islamic sciences (jurisprudence, history, biography).
• The care in preserving them is a model of historical method.

Outline. Why: false Hadiths were invented after the Prophet's death for political and sectarian reasons, as the community grew. How: checking the isnad (honesty, memory and an unbroken chain of narrators, with biographical books on narrators), checking the matn (agreement with the Qur'an and other sound Hadiths), grading reports (sahih, hasan, da'if, mawdu'). Result: the Six Sunni and Four Shi'a collections, with Bukhari and Muslim as the most trusted.