History of Hadith
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- This is a sub-article to Hadith.
This article goes through the historical evolution of the hadith literature from its beginning in the 7th century to present day
Contents |
[edit] Introduction
Traditions regarding the life of Muhammad and the early history of Islam were passed down orally for more than a hundred years after the death of Muhammad in 632 [citations needed].
[edit] History
[edit] 7th century
Muslim historians say that it was the caliph Uthman (the third caliph, or successor of Muhammad, who had formerly been Muhammad's secretary), who first urged Muslims both to write down the Qur'an in a fixed form, and to write down the hadith. Uthman's labors were cut short by his assassination, at the hands of aggrieved soldiers, in 656 [citations needed].
The Muslim community (ummah) then fell into a prolonged civil war, termed the Fitna by Muslim historians. After the fourth caliph, Ali ibn Abi Talib, was assassinated, control of the Islamic empire was seized by the Umayyad dynasty in 661 [citations needed].
[edit] 610s CE
There were very few Arabs that could read or write in the beginning of Muhammad's era: The majority were unlettered, and according to Sunni traditions, so was Muhammad [1]. Shi'a only content that he was not formaly educated [citation needed]. When the Qur’an began to be revealed, its first verse contained the command to read. Thus, a desire to learn to read and write was aroused among the Arabs, and Muhammad encouraged them to do so [1]. One example of Muslims reading from the Qur'an is Fatimah bint al-Khattab [citation needed].
Despite this, there are very few hadith from that period. As an explanation, Sunnis cite hadith were Muhammad is quoted as "Do not write anything belonging to me. Whoever has written something received from me outside the Qur’an let him destroy it"[2] and other hadith [3], arguing that Muhammad feared that it would be confused with the ongoing "revelation" and collection of the Qur'an [1]. Shi'a do not hold the quoted hadith as authentic, and ascribe the lack of hadith to a ban imposed by the Sunni Caliphs in combinations with book and hadith burnings, in order to control the population [citation needed].
[edit] 620s CE
Among the prisoners of war taken at the Battle of Badr those who were literate were released after each taught ten Muslims how to read and write [4][1].
Sahih Bukhari states that Abd-Allah ibn Amr wrote down his hadith [5]. As reported from himself, ‘Abdullah ibn ‘Amr used to write down whatever he heard from God’s Messenger, upon him be peace and blessings. Some people said to him: ‘You are writing down every-thing coming from the mouth of God’s Messenger. The Messenger is a human being. There are times when he is angered and times when he is pleased.’ ‘Abdullah referred the matter to God’s Messenger, who answered him, pointing to his mouth: Write down, for, I swear by Him in Whose hand is my life, nothing comes out from this except truth. [6] [1]
A man came to Muhammad and complained about his memory, saying: ‘O Messenger of God: We hear many things from you. But most of them slip our minds because we cannot memorize them’. God’s Messenger replied: Ask your right hand for help.[7]. Muhammad meant that he should write down what he heard.
When Rafi‘ ibn Khadij asked Muhammad whether they could write what they heard from him, the answer came: Write, no harm! [8]. Another sources quotes Muhammad advising: Record knowledge by writing. [9]
During the conquest of Mecca, Muhammad gave a sermon. A man from the Yemen, named Abu Shah, stood up and said: ‘O God’s Messenger! Please write down these [words] for me!’ Muhammad ordered: Write down for Abu Shah! [10]
Muhammad sent a letter which contained commandments about the blood money for murders and injuries and the law of retaliation to Amr ibn Hizam[11]. This letter was handed down to his great grandson, Abu Bakr ibn Muhammad [1]. Among other things, like some of his letters other head of states [citation needed], some scroll transferred to Abu Rafi was handed down to Abu Bakr ibn ‘Abd Al-Rahman ibn Harith, belonging to the first generation after the Companions. [1]
[edit] 630s CE
Among Sunnis, Umar ibn al-Khattab is the primary locus for many accounts about hadith collection. He is portrayed by Sunnis as desiring to initiate this project but as unwilling to do so, fearing that Muslims might then neglect the Qur'an [12]. Shi'a give the opposite view, stating that Umar forbade people to talk the privous events, what Shi'a view was an military Coup d'état against Ali and ordered the burning of several hadith collections [citations needed].
Umar is also said by Sunnis that he due to fear and concerns, he sometimes warned people against careless narration of hadith [1].
[edit] 650s CE
Starting the first Islamic civil war of the 7th century, those receiving the hadith started to question the sources of the saying, something that resulted in the development of the Isnad[12].
Muhammad ibn Sirin (d. 110/728) stated[12]:
| [the traditionalists] were not used to inquiring after the isnad, but when the fitna occurred they said: Name us your informants. Thus if these were Ahl al-Sunna their traditions were accepted, but if they were Ahl al-Bid'ah, their traditions were not accepted. |
[edit] 690s CE
Ibn Abbas left behind a camel-load of books, which mostly contain what he had heard from Muhammad and other Sahaba [13] [1].
[edit] 8th century
Ummayad rule was interrupted by a second civil war (the Second Fitna), re-established, then ended in 758, when the Abbasid dynasty seized the caliphate, to hold it, at least in name, until 1258 [citations needed].
Muslim historians say that hadith collection and evaluation continued during the first Fitna and the Umayyad period. However, much of this activity was presumably oral transmission from early Muslims to later collectors, or from teachers to students. If any of these early scholars committed any of these collections to writing, they have not survived. The histories and hadith collections we possess today were written down at the start of the Abbasid period, more than one hundred years after the death of Muhammad [citations needed].
The scholars of the Abbasid period were faced with a huge corpus of miscellaneous traditions, some of them flatly contradicting each other. Many of these traditions supported differing views on a variety of controversial matters. Scholars had to decide which hadith were to be trusted as authentic narrations and which had been invented for various political or theological purposes. For this purpose, they used a number of techniques which Muslims now call the science of hadith [citations needed].
[edit] 710s CE
Generally, Umar II is credited with having ordered the first collection of hadith material in an official manner, fearing that some of it might be lost. Abu Bakr ibn Muhammad ibn Hazm and Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri, are among those who compiled hadiths at `Umar II’s behest [12].
[edit] 750s CE
In 134 AH (751–752 CE), paper was introduced into the Muslim world [14]
[edit] 9th century
The efforts culminated with the six canonical collections after having received impetus from the establishment of the sunna as the second source of law in Islam, particularly through the efforts of the famous jurist Muhammad ibn Idris al-Shafi`i [12].
The method of criticism and the conclusions it has reached have not changed significantly since the ninth century. Even much of modern Muslim scholarship, while continuing to debate the validity or authenticity of individual hadiths or perhaps the hadiths of a particular transmitter, employs the same methods and biographical (or rijal) materials [12].
[edit] 810s
[edit] 9th century
The classification of Hadith into Sahih (sound), Hasan (good) and Da'if (weak) was firmly established by Ali ibn al-Madini (d. 234 AH)[15].
Later, al-Madini's student Muhammad al-Bukhari (d. 256 AH.) authored a collection that he stated contained only Sahih hadith[15].
al-Tirmidhi (d. 279 AH) was the first traditionist to base his book on al-Madini's classification [15].
[edit] 13th century
[edit] 19th century
In 1848, Gustav Weil, noted that Muhammad al-Bukhari deemed only 4,000 of his original 600,000 hadiths to be authentic and argued that a European critic was required to reject without hesitation at least half of these 4,000. He was soon followed by Aloys Sprenger, who also suggests that many of the hadiths cannot be considered authentic [12].
[edit] 20th century
Ignaz Goldziher was a large contributor of innovative theories to the West. The subsequent direction the Western debate took, a direction which has focussed on the role of hadiths in the origin and development of early Muslim jurisprudence, is largely due to the work of Joseph Schacht [12].
[edit] 21st century
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i http://www.islamanswers.net/sunna/when.htm
- ^ Muslim, “Zuhd,” 72; Darimi, “Muqaddima,” 42.
- ^ Al-Khatib al-Baghdadi, Taqyid al-‘Ilm, 34: Abu Hurayra narrates: God’s Messenger once came near us while some friends were writing down what they had heard from him. He asked what they were writing. ‘We are writing what we heard from you’, they answered. The Messenger warned: ‘Do you know that the communities preceding you went astray because they wrote down from others beside the Book of God.’
- ^ Ibn Sa'd, Tabaqat, 2.22.]]
- ^ Bukhari, “‘Ilm,” 39.
- ^ Abu Dawud, “‘Ilm,” 3; I. Hanbal, 2.162; Darimi, “Muqaddima,” 43.
- ^ Tirmidhi, “‘Ilm,” 12.
- ^ Hindi, Kanz al-‘Ummal, 10.232.
- ^ Darimi, “Muqaddima,” 43.
- ^ Abu Dawud, “‘Ilm,” 3; Tirmidhi, “‘Ilm,” 12.
- ^ Darimi, “Diyat,” 12.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j http://people.uncw.edu/bergh/par246/L21RHadithCriticism.htm
- ^ M. ‘Ajjaj al-Khatib, op. cit. 352.
- ^ http://web.mit.edu/CIS/www/mitejmes/issues/200310/br_lane.htm
- ^ a b c http://www.jamiat.org.za/isinfo/tirmidhi04.html
- ^ http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/fundamentals/hadithsunnah/scienceofhadith/asa3.html
