Light On the Muhammadan Sunnah Or Defence of the Hadith

Position of Sunnah in Religion:

They (traditionists) made the spoken Sunnah in the third degree, following the practised Sunnah, which comes after the Qur’an, that reached us through successive chain (mutawatir), in a way no doubt can be ascribed to it. For this reason it is quite established outright. While the Sunnah reached

us through an unsuccessive chain, the fact entailing its being doubtful as a whole. The second rank in religion is given to the practical Sunnah (the Prophet’s acts).

In al-Muwafiqat,19 al-Shatibi is reported to have said: The position of Sunnah comes in consideration after the Book (Qur’an) for the following proofs:

First: The Book being decisive and asserted, while the Sunnah is doubtful. And affirming it (Sunnah) is valid only in its generalities not the details, on the contrary of the Book which is established in general and in details. And that which is fixed is prior to that which is suspicious, the fact necessitating to give the Book precedence over the Sunnah.

Second: The Sunnah is either expository for the Book, or be excessive to this. If it be an exposition its order of consideration would be after the exposed thing (Book), as the decline of the exposed requires decline of the exposition, while the opposite is not true. That whose status is thus is more meritorious to be superior, and if it be not an exposition, no consideration is given to it unless it be there in the Book. This verily is an evidence to give priority to the Book in consideration.

Third: The akhbar (reports) and (old) traces, like the hadith of Mu’adh, when the Prophet asked him: On what basis do you pronounce the hukm (rule)? He replied: On the basis of the Book of Allah. He (S) inquired: If you can’t find it there (with what you give the rules)? He said: With the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah? He again asked: If you can’t find it there (with what then)? He said: I exert my opinion.

Citing many proofs from Umar, Ibn Mas’ud and Ibn Abbas, confirming this issue, al-Shatibi said: And that which is decisively established in this regard being the fact that the Sunnah can never reach the degree of consideration of the Book.He also said: The Sunnah has in fact the position of interpretation and exposition of the denotations of the rules in the Book. This is indicated in the Qur’an: “…that thou mayest make clear unto mankind what hath been sent down unto them…” And the Sunnah in meaning is referred to

the Book, as it is the elaboration of its generality, and exposition of its ambiguity, and elucidation of its concised statements. It (the Sunnah) is in short the exposition of the Book outright. This is indicated in Almighty’s words: “…and We sent down unto thee the Remembrance (i.e. the Qur’an) that thou mayest make clear unto mankind what hath been sent down unto them.” No issue or point can be found in the Sunnah,21 unless that meaning has been indicated generally or elaborately. Further, whatever indicating the Qur’an’s being the universality of the Shar’ah

In Tabaqat al-Atibba’ wa al-Hukama’, Ibn Juljul reported from Sa’d ibn Abi Waqqas that he said: I became sick and was visited by the Messenger of Allah (S) who said to me: Call in al-Harith ibn Kildah, as he is the man who can cure you. Then the Messenger of Allah gave his orders to bring the physicians so as to inquire them about the remedies they had. 40

Forbiddance from Writing the Hadith

As previously mentioned, the Messenger of Allah (S) was an expositor and interpreter of the Qur’an, through his acts and sayings, but his utterances in this exposition or other than it, was not preserved through inscription as in the case of the Qur’an. All the reported authentic evidences and correct established acts have altogether indicated that the Messenger’s traditions were never written down during his lifetime, as was done in respect of the Qur’an. Further there were no scribes registering the traditions directly when hearing them with the Messenger’s own words, as were scribes for the Qur’an inscribing its verses as soon as being revealed. Correct traditions and established reports are there all forbidding the inscription of the Prophet’s traditions, of which I cite the following:

Ahmad, Muslim, al-Darimi, al-Tirmidhi and al-Nasa’i reported on the authority of Abu Sa’id al-Khudri that he said: The Messenger of Allah (S) said: “Write nothing from me except the Qur’an, and whoever has written anything must efface it.” 41 Again al-Darimi has reported from Abu Sa’id al-Khudri that he said: I asked the Prophet (may God’s peace and benediction be upon him and his Progeny) to grant me permission to write down from him, but he refused to give me permission.” Another narration is ascribed to al-Tirmidhi who reported from ‘Ata’ ibn Yasar, on the authority of Abu Sa’id too, that he said: “We asked the Prophet (may God’s peace and benediction be

upon him and his Progeny) to grant us permission to write (hadith), but he never gave us permission.” 42

It is also reported from Marasil ibn Abi Mulaykah, that Abu Bakr gathered people, after the Prophet’s demise, addressing them: You relate from the Messenger of Allah, upon whom be God’s peace and benediction, traditions regarding which you disagree, and consequently severer controversy shall occur among people. So relate nothing from the Messenger of Allah, and when asked by anyone you can say: The Book of Allah is the arbitrator between us. Deem lawful what it considers lawful, and deem unlawful what is considered unlawful in it.

The Moroccan traditionist Ibn Abd al-Barr and al-Bayhaqi in al-Madkhal, reported from Urwah that Umar ibn al-Khattab intended to write down the sunan (traditions), so he sought the legal opinion (fatwa) – or consulted, according to al-Bayhaqi’s narration – the Messenger’s Companions in this regard, and they advised him to write them down. Then Umar started seeking Allah’s guidance, keeping on this for one month, after which one day entering upon the morning with God’s determining the decision for him, he said: I have intended to write down the sunan, and I remember that some people before you had written some books, devoting themselves to them and discarding the Book of Allah. By God, I never mingle anything to the Book of Allah. According to al-Bayhaqi’s narration (he said): “I never obscure the Book of Allah with anything at all.”

Yahya ibn Ju’dah reports that Umar ibn al-Khattab intended to write ahadith and sunan. But having changed his mind he sent a circular to all the cities declaring: “Whoever has with him anything of it should efface it.”44

Ibn Sa’d reported from Abd Allah ibn al-Ala’, saying: I asked al-Qasim ibn Muhammad to dictate for me some traditions, when he said: The traditions have abundantly increased during the days of Umar ibn al-Khattab, 45 so he asked people to bring them to him. When they brought them, he ordered to set them on fire, declaring: No Mathnat is like that of the People of the Book (meaning he didn’t want any other book to exist by the side of the

Book of Allah). Then he (Abd Allah) said:

Zayd ibn Thabit entered upon Mu’awiyah, who inquired him about a hadith, commanding someone to write it down, when Zayd said to him: “The Messenger of Allah (may God’s peace and benediction be upon him and his Progeny) ordered us not to write anything of his traditions.” So he effaced it. Abd Allah ibn Yasar is reported to have said: I heard Ali addressing the people saying: I invite whoever having a book (of hadith) to return and efface it. People before you perished due to their following the traditions of their ulama, and discarding the Book of their Lord.

Al-Aswad ibn Hilal is reported to have said: Abd Allah ibn Mas’ud brought a codex on which a hadith was inscribed. He demanded water to be brought and effaced and then washed them out. After that he ordered them to be set on fire, declaring then: I ask whoever aware of it (sheet) being kept by anyone to inform me about him. By God if I know it to be in the house of Hind, I would get to it. Through this the People of the Book before you perished, because of their loathing and ignoring the Book of Allah as if they know not! Beside many other similar reports, that can be referred to in the books Jami‘ bayan al-’ilm wa fadlih of Ibn ‘Abd al-Barr, and Taqyid al-’ilm of al-Baghdali, and others, Despite presence of some narrations reported about permission to write down the (Prophet’s) traditions, but those prohibiting the writing of hadith being more authentic and stronger, the act that was practised during the era of Sahabah and their followers.

In his book: al-Ta‘adul wa al-tarjih, the faqih traditionist Sayyid Rashid Rida dedicated an important chapter analyzing in it the traditions prohibiting and those permitting the writing of hadith. I quote here a part of it to be the clear-cut evidence in this issue. He (may God’s mercy be upon him) said: 47

It can be said that the most correct traditions prohibiting the writing of hadith being those ones reported by Ahmad in his Musnad, Muslim in his Sahih and Ibn Abd al-Barr in Jami‘ bayar al-’ilm and others, on the authority

of Abu Sa’id al-Khudri: “Write nothing from me except the Qur’an, and whoever has written anything of the kind must efface it.”

And the most authentic traditions permitting the writing of hadith, being the one reported by Abu Hurayrah in the two Sahihs and others, that the Messenger (S) said: “Write for Abu Shah”. There is no contradiction between this hadith and that one reported by Abu Sa’id and its likes having the identical denotation emphasizing the rule indicating that his (S) prohibition from writing his traditions being for the only reason that they never be adopted as a general religion like the Qur’an. That is due to the fact that what he ordered to be written for Abu Shah being a sermon he gave on the day of conquest of Makkah, whose theme being inviolability of Makkah and forbidding of the Sanctuary find. All this comes within his exposition for the Qur’an, which he proclaimed on the day of conquest and during the Farewell Pilgrimage (Hijjat al-Wada‘), commanding to propagate it, which being a special case excepted from the general forbiddance. In his Sahih, bab al-Luqtah (the Find), al-Bukhari is reported to have said that: Abu Shah al-Yamani asked that the above-mentioned sermon be written for him, the request that the Prophet (S) ordered to respond to.

If we assume that there is a conflict between traditions prohibiting the writing of hadith and those permitting it, one may say that one of them abrogates the other by proving that the traditions prohibiting supersede the permitting ones for two reasons: Firstly, the Companions narrated the traditions prohibiting writing even after the Prophet (S). Secondly, the Companions did not write traditions; for had they done so, their compilations would have reached us.

Hence, we can refer to Ali’s request of whoever having a book (of hadith) to efface it, with Abu Sa’id al-Khudri’s saying: “Do you want to make them into books (masahif)?,” 48 and Umar’s declaration when thinking about writing the traditions or not doing so: “No book is to exist by the side of the Book of Allah,” in the former narration, beside his saying in the latter narration, after consulting (the Companions) regarding the writing: “By God,

I will never cover the Book of Allah with anything.”…beside Ibn Abbas’ saying: “We used to write down knowledge but never approve of writing it”, i.e. we would never permit anyone to write it from us, with his prohibiting to write it according to another report about the writing. Also a reference can be made to Zayd’s effacing and burning the sahifah brought to him, with calling to remember Allah by whoever having any other book in any other place, even being far away, to let him know about it so as to get to it and set on fire. Moreover we can cite Sa’id ibn Jubayr’s statement about Ibn Umar, that: Had he known that he was writing from him, it would have meant a separation between them, beside Abd Allah ibn Mas’ud’s burning the sahifah brought by Abd al-Rahman ibn al-Aswad and Alqamah, with declaring: “These hearts are receptacles, so fill them with the Qur’an and never occupy them with anything other than it.”

All the above-mentioned narrations cited by Ibn Abd al-Barr, beside similar ones reported by others, like Abu Bakr’s burning of whatever he has written down, 49 with non-reaching of any of the Companions’ books (suhuf) to the hands of the Followers (Tabi’un), and the fact that the Followers have never written the hadith for propagating it, but only in compliance to commands coming from the rulers, support the fact that they resorted to writing the hadith with the sole purpose of being an aid to memory, destroying it after that. When adding to all this, the reports showing non-inclination of the great Sahabah toward recording of hadith, or rather their loathing or even forbidding such practice, 50 we would be more assured of the fact that their intention was unwanting for the traditions (as a whole) to prevail like a public permanent reference like the Qur’an. And had they got to conceive from the Prophet (S) his desire for this, they would have written down the traditions with commanding others to do the same, with the Rightly-guided Caliphs having gathered what they wrote and recorded that which be approved by them, sending it to their governors so as to propagate and apply it, beside the Qur’an and the followed Sunnah that was commonly acted upon by Ahl al-Sunnah.

This refutes the claim of those holding that: The Companions used to be satisfied with riwayah (narration) for disseminating the hadith. When adding to all this, Umar’s order to the magnates among the Companions to do the contrary of all these traditions, with what the scholars during the 1st and 2nd centuries used to do, such as the case of Abu Hanifah, who would be satisfied with whatever reaching him of any traditions that he approved of though being small in number, without exerting any effort to gather any more ones so as to realize his religion and demonstrate its rules, the former preponderance would become more strengthened.

Further, we may find out that the jurisprudents – after concurring on making the traditions one of the sources of the legal rules, and recording them by memorizers in the divans with distinguishing that which can be used in disputation and that can’t be used – have never unanimously agreed on writing the correct hadith and putting them into practice. Nearly all the jurisprudential books adopted by the followed schools of thought (madhahib), particularly the Hanafi, Maliki and Shafi’i books, contain hundreds of issues and verdicts contradicting the unanimously accepted veracious traditions, with no one of them being considered incongruous with the principles of religion (usul al-Din).

Concerning the hadith ascribed to Abu Hurayrah that he said, “Abd Allah ibn Umar used to write (hadith) while I was not writing”, can never be regarded as a legal proof, or indicating that writing of Ibn Umar was according to the Prophet’s command or tacit approval. Since, through this, he would be considered contradicting the Prophet’s hadith prohibiting to write nothing from him except the Qur’an – (but in fact what Ibn Umar wrote had been no more than some supplications, as will be referred to in its due time).

Ibn al-Qayyim, in A‘lam al-muqi‘in, has cited evidences about the jurisprudents’ refuting the correct traditions out of applying analogy (qiyas) or some other reasons. The strangest one among these evidences being their taking only a portion of the hadith with discarding the rest of it, the practice for which he cited more than sixty evidences.

It is reported that the Prophet (S) has forbidden the writing of hadith for the only reason that to prevent the hadith of being intermingled with the Qur’an…the reason that no intelligent sane man can be convinced of, nor any learned investigator would accept, unless we hold the traditions to be identical to the Qur’an in rhetoric and inimitable style. No one can ever approve of such notion, even those holding such opinion, as it indicates the abolition of the miracle of the Qur’an, and uprooting its foundations.

It is to be known that the reason behind writing of traditions lies in their being uttered by the Prophet (S), and certainly there are many differences between hadith and the Qur’an which being quitely recognized by everyone having perception in rhetoric and adroitness in elocution. And even when the Companions – after the Prophet’s demise – committed these traditions to writing, distributing them among the Islamic townships as in the case of the Qur’an, this act was out of their being ahadith received by Muslims as utterances disclosed by the Prophet (S), that to be preserved and transmitted throughout consecutive generations on this state without being afflicted with any blemish or alteration, or spoiled by mean people. But this reason, to which they stick, has vanished after the Qur’an was committed to writing during the days of Abu Bakr, according to their reports, and after being recorded on masahif during the caliphate of Uthman, with many copies being distributed among the Islamic cities, the fact making it difficult or even impossible for anyone increasing even one letter to the Qur’an. Hence, they have no reason to invent causes and fabricate pleas while the leading Companions themselves have demonstrated the true reason for not writing the hadith, as was previously revealed.

True be the wisdom behind the Prophet’s forbiddance to write the hadith lies in preventing the multiplication of commands of legislation and expansion of evidences of rules. The occurrence of such things was so avoided by the Prophet (S) that he was even averse to be insistently questioned, or that his hadith being subject of private talks in a specific time that it be impermissible to keep on applying it.

Before finishing with this chapter, we have to refer to a hadith related by them (Sunnites) so as to make all the traditions seem as if revealed by Allah, like the holy Qur’an. Following is the meant hadith:

“Verily I have been given the Book and its alike with it.” In another narration (he said:) “Verily I have received the Quran and its alike with it.” This hadith is actually the strangest one ever produced through course of narration (riwayah)! Since if something “identical to the Book,” or “to the Qur’an” was given to the Prophet, it would mean that this thing was complementary to the Qur’an and for explaining his religion and Shari’ah. Should it be so, one may inquire: Why hasn’t the Prophet (S) cared for writing that mithl (identical thing) during his lifetime, as soon as receiving it from his Lord, as he did for the Qur’an? And why didn’t he appoint scribes for recording it when being sent down, as in the case of the Qur’an? Also why has he restricted his forbiddance from writing other than the Qur’an with neglecting this mithl, when he said: “Write nothing from me except the Qur’an, without adding: and whatever else I was given with it, which is “like it”?!

Here a question may arise: Is it possible that the Prophet would leave half of what Allah revealed to him to be circulated among memories without being recorded…with someone taking it, and the other forgetting it, while the third one increasing to it! beside whatever inflicting every material not inscribed in a preserved book? And would the Messenger, by so doing, have managed in delivering the Message as required, and rendered back the trust, complete to its owners?! Further, what is the place of this hadith in respect of the one uttered by the Prophet during his last sickness that entailed his demise, and after the revelation of the verse: “This day have I perfected for you, your religion, and have completed My favour on you, and chosen for you Islam to be the Religion”, when he said: “By God, never hold me accountable for anything…as I have never considered hadith (lawful) except that which is deemed lawful by the Qur’an, and never considered haram (unlawful) except that which is deemed unlawful by the Qur’an.”

accepted when hearing the words addressed by Abu Bakr to people: “The Book of Allah is the arbitrator between us and you, so deem lawful what is counted lawful in it, and deem unlawful that which is regarded unlawful in it.” And also when listening to Umar’s words, when the Prophet (S) intended – on deathbed – to write a book for people after which they would never go astray, exclaiming: “The Book of Allah is sufficient for us”! So why didn’t Umar feel regretful for losing this mithl (equal), while it being as alleged by them half of what Allah revealed to the Prophet, sufficing with mentioning it to Abu Bakr on the latter’s resorting to him to collect and write down the Qur’an after the Battle of Yamamah?!

Further if there were an equal (mithl) to the Qur’an, A’ishah was supposed to reply when asked about the Prophet’s morality (khuluq): His morality was the Qur’an and its alike with it?! While she sufficed by saying” “His morality was the Qur’an”. And why has the Companions’ care or concern missed or ignored such “mithl”, never committing it to writing as they did in the case of the Qur’an, during the caliphate of Abu Bakr, and when it (Qur’an) was recorded in the form of masahif and its copies were distributed through the Islamic regions? Taking this fact into consideration, it can be said that the Companions, due to ignoring such an extremely serious subject, have in fact abandoned half the revelation without tadwin (inscription), turning thus to be among the sinners.

19. See Vol. IV, p. 3 and afterwards.

20. This hadith was reported by Abu Dawud and al-Tirmidhi and al-Darimi.

21. That is the established (thabit) Sunnah.

22. He means by this: The Qur'an contains in it all the rules and principles of the Shari'ah.

23. Allah the Most High said in Surat al-Nahl: And We reveal the Scripture unto thee as an exposition of all things, and a guidance and a mercy and good tidings for those who have surrendered (to Allah)."

24. That means the affairs of the Din and other than the Din.

25. In vol. I, p. 21.

26. In vol. III, p. 43. I have abundantly quoted from this book since it is, as expressed by al-Imam Muhammad Abduh: "One of the precious books that no parallel to it was ever compiled."

27. Al-Shatibi's al-Muwafiqat, vol. IV, p. 26, and Tafsir al-Qurtubi, vol. I, p. 23.

28. Al-Muwafiqat, vol. III, pp. 66 and 70.

29. In p. 576 of his Risalah, the edition prepred by Ahmad Muhammad Shakir (may God's mercy be upon him).

30. Al-Manar, vol. XII, p. 694, and it was declared also by al-Ghazali in his book al-Qistas al-mustaqim.

31. See Vol. II, p. 291.

32. Al-Shifa', vol. II, pp. 178, 179.

33. These traditions were reported by Muslim in his Sahih with various wordings, the exterior of which being in the decisive precision between what was uttered by the Messenger as an opinion or for preaching, and what he said as legal rules.

34. The story of khars is thus: When they passed by some fruitful trees, intending to conjecture it to put their surmise, to test, the Prophet conjectured it, but it came to be contrary to his conjecture.

35. Al-Shifa', vol. II, p. 180.

36. Ibid., vol. II, p. 107.

37. Ibid., vol. II, p. 109.

38. Ibid., vol. I, p. 142.

39. Al-Murtada's al-Amali, vol. I, pp. 77, 78.

40. This book was published by the French Scientific Institute for Eastern Monuments in Cairo.

41. For this hadith there are several versions (differing in words) agreeing with each other in the meaning. Al-Darimi was the shaykh of al-Bukhari.

42. Sunan al-Tirmidhi, vol. II, p. 91, published in India. The Prophet (S) had dictated some epistles on legal rules and laws, handing them to his emissaries and officers spread all over the countries, some of which were conquered through charities and obligations. And all that which was written from the Messenger during his lifetime would not exceed tenpages, on matters, that should be learnt by heart with their original texts, so as to keep them intact of being inflicted with alteration and distortion.

43. Al-Dhahabi's Tadhkirat al-huffaz, vol. I, p. 3.

44. Jami' bayan al-'ilm wa fadlih, vol. I, pp. 64, 65; Tabaqat Ibn Sa'd, Laidan, Edition, vol. I, p. 206. What Umar was afraid of has actually occurred.

45. Narration of the hadith circulated abundantly during the caliphte of Umar, so how it would be the case after his death?

46. Tabaqat Ibn Sa'd, vol. V, p. 140; al-Baghdadi's Taqyid al-'ilm, p.

47. Umar might intend to resemble this practice with what the Jews did when they disregarded the Torah and acted according to a number of Jewish traditions which they called Mathnat. In Mukhtar al-Sihah it is reported from Abu Ubaydah that the rabbis and monks have composed, after demise of Moses (A), a book among themselves, filling it with rules meeting their desires, other than the Book of Allah, and that was al-Mathnat, with some narrating it with the unobserved (muhmal) sin. In the book Maqalah fi al-Islam, it is reported with shin.

48. Al-Manar, vol. X, p. 766 and after it, and vol.  XIX, p. 511 and after it.

49. Abu Nadrah said: I siad to Abu Sa'id al-Khudri: Won't we write down whatever we hear from you? He said: Do you want to make it in masahif? Your Prophet used to relate hadith to us and we would memorize his hadith. (al-Khatib al-Baghdadi, Taqyid al-'ilm, p. 27).

50. Al-Sayyid Rashid is referring by this to the khabar reported by al-Hakim from A'ishah, and cited by al-Dhahabi in Tadhkirat al-huffaz, vol. I, p. 5, in which she said: My father had collected the traditions of the Messenger of Allah, which they numbered five hundred, and he remained upset all the night. When he entered upon the morning, he came to me and said: 'O daughter, bring the ahadith that are with you.' I brought them to him. He burnt them and said: "I am afraid lest I should die leaving these with you, and among them there might be ahadith which I took from a man I had faith in and trusted, but the truth proved to be not as he related, the fact showing me to be responsible for them!" When al-Sayyid Rashid refers to such a khabar in this regard, or inferring any hadith, we should be assured that it be undoubtedly sahih, since he is one of magnates of hadith.

51. All this will be elaborated later on.

52. See later on the standpoint of jurisprudents toward hadith books. In p. 288 of vol. VI of his Tafsir, he said: "We can determine that we have forgotten and lost a large number of our Prophet's traditions, because the Sahabah had not written whatever they heard (from the Prophet), but this didn't include the ahadith manifesting and explaining the Qur'an or religious affairs.

53. I give an example for this. It is said that one of the Sahabah invited the Prophet and some of the Companions to a banquet, in which he introduced meat of jazur. When they finished eating, one of them broke wind, the stink of which was smelled by those invited to the banquet. Soon an idea stroke the mind of the Prophet - to evade any disgrace on the part of that who made that hadath - to say to them all: "Whoever ate of the meat of the jazur, should perform the rite of ablution." The strange point here being that many of the fuqaha' have adopted this rule and made it a general basis, starting to command everyone eating the camel meat to perform ablution, neglecting the fact that ablution should be performed only for a thing (fart) that is emitted out of the abdomen not for what enters the belly.

54. It was reported by Abu Dawud, al-Darimi and Ibn Majah, but not al-Bukhari and Muslim. It is - as alleged by them (Sunnis) - equal to the Qur'an or part of it, as narrated by them.

55. Sirat Ibn Hisham, vol. IV, p. 332.