Light On the Muhammadan Sunnah Or Defence of the Hadith
Shaykh Al-mudirah:
The title given to Abu Hurayrah was Shaykh al-Mudirah. The care given by the ulama’, writers and poets to this mudirah was never given to similar sorts of sweets. These people kept on mocking it, calumniating Abu Hurayrah because of it for several centuries. Following are some of their
reports about the mudirah:
In his book Thimar al-qulub fi al-mudaf wa al-mansub al-Tha'alibi writes: 362
Shaykh al-Mudirah was Abu Hurayrah, for his excellence and nearness to the Prophet (S), as a jester and glutton. Marwan ibn al-Hakam used to depute him (as a governor) on al-Madinah, when he would mount a donkey on which a saddle was tied. On meeting any man on his way he would say: The road! the road! (i.e. make room), the emir is coming.
He further was claiming to be expert in medicine. Al Taha'alibi, after referring to a part of his medicine, all of which being only food that heals the intestine disease, and cures gluttony, stated: “He had strong love for mudirah, and used to have it with Mu'awiyah, but in time of prayers he used to pray behind Ali (may God be pleased with him). When questioned about this, he would reply: mudirah of Mu'awiyah is verily fattier and tastier, while performing prayer behind Ali is better. He was widely known and called with the name of "Shaykh al-Mudirah."
Al-Tha'alibi concluded his statement with two poetic lines for some poet, in which he satirized Abu Hurayrah, I preferred not to state here.
Badi' al-Zaman al-Hamadani has dedicated one of his maqamat for this mudirah, in which he harshly satirized Abu Hurayrah saying: "Isa ibn Hisham related to us saying: I was once in Basrah with Abu al-Fath al-Exandari, the man of high eloquence and rhetoric. I attended with him a banquet to which we were invited by some merchants. There a mudirah was served for us, that was so tasty, luxuriant, auguring of healthiness, and acknowledging imamate for Mu'awiyah.
Al-Imam Muhammad Abduh, in his exposition of this, said:
"Mu'awiyah claimed to be the caliph after swearing allegiance to Ali ibn Abi Talib (A), but no one was there to acknowledge his caliphate during lifetime of Ali except some of pleasure-seeking people, and runners after lusts.
Had this mudirah been among the ordinary food of Mu'awiyah, it would have enticed its eaters to acknowledge his caliphate, even though the real owner of the legitimate allegiance was alive. Ascribing acknowledgement to it (mudirah) is due to its being the only factor causing it to exist, with the fact that Imamate and caliphate having the same meaning."
In al-Asas, Jar Allah writes: Ali with the wretched condition is verily better then Mu'awiyah with the mudirah.
Abu Nu'aym in Hilyat al-awliya’ says: Abu Hurayrah, while circumambulating round the House (Ka'bah), used to say: Woe to my belly, when satisfying it, it would seize me, and if I starve it, it would defame me. In another narration by Ibn Kathir in al-Bidayah wa al-nihayah, he said:...it would weaken me.
In Khass al-khass 363 al-Tha'alibi stated:
Abu Hurayrah used to say: I have never smelled a scent nicer than that of hot bread, nor seen a knight better than butter on dates!
Besides, Abu Hurayrah was counting eating (part) of manliness. When asked once: What is manliness? He replied: Fear of God (taqwa) and doing favour, and having lunch and supper in the courtyards.
I abandoned many other reports, since some of them contain things that hurt the feelings of some people.
Hadith: Visit at Intervals You Increase in Love:
Once upon a day, the Messenger of Allah said to Abu Hurayrah: Visit at long intervals, you verily increase in love. He (S) was the best
educator for his Companions, taking charge of them all the time with his wisdom and sagacity, planting in them of his noble morals through his conduct. It was not proper for him(S) to let one like Abu Hurayrah to keep on his past practice of frequenting to houses whenever he liked, that was either received by some and repelled by some, without educating him with his sublime morality. As a consequence of this, the Messenger said once to Abu Hurayrah: Where were you yesterday O Abu Hurayrah? He replied: I visited some of my relatives. He said to him: Visit at long intervals, you verily increase in love.
Abu Hayyan al-Tawhidi, in his book al-sadaqah wa al-sadiq, writes that Abu Hurayrah said: The Arabs' dictum "Visit at long intervals you verily increase in love" became widely circulated among people till I heard it from the Messenger of Allah (upon whom be God's peace and benediction), and "he verily said it to me."
Al-Masjidi said: "This dictum is not to be taken in general, but there are certain situations in which it should be said, since the visitor deserving it! Don't you see that he never utters such words to Abu Bakr or to Ali ibn Abi Talib or their likes, while Abu Hurayrah being competent for that hadith! because of some slips that he should avoid and shun." 364
Abu Hurayrah's slips for which al-Masjidi slanders being his frequenting to the Companions' houses every now and then, out of his gluttony, with some of them shunning and averting him. So the Messenger decided to teach him the etiquette of visiting and entering the houses, citing for him the Arabic proverb. "Visit at long intervals you verily increase in love." Besides, he (S) used to, through all occasions, teaching his companions manners of conduct and the ways of attaining good morality.
His Jesting and Nonsense:
All the historians writing about biography of Abu Hurayrah concur that he was joking and hallucinating all the time, showing love to people and entertaining them with abundance of traditions, and strange sayings so as to attract their attention, making them keen to meet him. Following some of the narrations they cited in this regard:
A'ishah – who was the greatest among people for him due to their long age both – in al-mihras tradition, said about him: he was a hallucinating man.
Scorning Him:
People used to scorn Abu Hurayrah making fun of his narrations, because of the variety he followed in inventing them, and his exaggeration in multiplying them.
Abu Rafi' is reported to have said: A man from Quraysh met Abu Hurayrah while he was wearing a new garment, swaggering with it, when he said to him: O Abu Hurayrah, you relate abundant traditions from the Messenger of Allah, have you heard him say anything regarding this garment?!! He said, I heard Abu al-Qasim saying: A man from those who were before you, while swaggering in a vestment God caused the earth to sink with him, and he will keep on rattling with it till the Doomsday. By God I don't know, he may be of your folk or flock. 365
Out of the question put forth by this man, we can conceive that he was not inquiring (to know something) but sarcasting, as didn't say to him: You commit to memory the traditions of the Messenger of Allah! but he said: You relate abundant traditions from the Messenger of Allah. Besides, the course of the tale indicates also that he was mocking and ridiculing him.
Multiplicity of His Traditions:
All men of hadith concur that Abu Hurayrah was the most prolific among the Sahabah in relating traditions from the Messenger of Allah! Whilst his company to the Prophet was only for a year and nine months.
He himself said about himself – as reported by al Bukhari – None among
the Companions of the Prophet (S) exceeds me in relating traditions from
him except Abd Allah ibn `Amr, 367 as he
used to write down (the traditions) while I was not.
Ibn Asakir reported the hadith of al-Sa'ib ibn Yazid, that he said: You should give up relating hadith of the Messenger of Allah, or otherwise I shall exile you to the land of Dous.
Therefore, after death of Umar and going away of his pearl, he started again relating so numerous traditions since no one was there to be afraid from other than him (Umar). In this regard he said: I relate to you traditions which had I related during the lifetime of Umar, he would have hit me with the pearl — (in another narration: he would have fractured my skull).
Al-Zuhri reported from Abu Salamah as saying: I heard Abu Hurayrah saying: We were unable to say: "The Messenger of Allah said, but till when Umar deceased! Then he said: Had I been relating to you such traditions when Umar was alive, by God I would have been certain that the beater (mikhfaqah) would be hitting my back, as Umar used to say: Engage yourselves with the Qur'an as it is the speech of Allah.
The faqih traditionist al-Sayyid. Rashid Rida (may God's mercy be upon
him) said about this: Had Umar survived till after the death of Abu
Hurayrah, all these abundant traditions would have never reached us at
all. 369 And about his fabricated
miscellaneous traditions he said: "None of them can be taken as a base
to establish any of the principles of religion.
His Justification for Narrating Abundantly:
Abu Hurayrah was justifying his relating abundantly from the Prophet (S) by saying that: as long as he neither deems lawful what is unlawful nor forbidding what is lawful, so no harm in narrating, supporting his practice with traditions he ascribed to the Prophet. Of these traditions I can refer to some that were reported by al Tabarrani in his al-Tafsir al-kabir, from Abu Hurayrah:
The Messenger of Allah said: "If you neither deem lawful what is unlawful nor prohibit what is lawful (halal), but convey the meaning, there is no harm in it" (relating the hadith).
He also said that he heard the Prophet saying: "Whoever relates a hadith pleasing Allah, the Glorious and Mighty, it is verily said by me, though I haven't (really) uttered it." This hadith is reported by Ibn Asakir in his Ta’rikh.
Al-Tahawi reported from Abu Hurayrah that the Messenger of Allah
said: "Whenever relating any hadith from me, that you hold to be reasonable and never deny, you should believe it whether I said it or not ... as I utter that which is known and not disapproved. And whenever you relate from me a hadith that you disapprove (by reason) and can never be acquainted with, you should belie it, as I never utter that which is disapproved and can never be reasoned."
Beside some other similar traditions he reported, whereas what is established for us that the Prophet said: "Whoever relates from me a hadith that I never uttered, he should settle in hell as his abode." Umar was obliged to remind Abu Hurayrah with this hadith when he drew the long bow in narration.
See pp. 86, 87.
See p. 43.
See p. 51.
Al-Bidayah wa al-nihayah, vol. VIII, p. 10.
Refer to my book Shaykh al-mudirah.
He is one of the three Abds who reported from Ka'b al-Ahbar. He got two Zamilahs of the books of Ahl al-Kitab, which he used to narrate to people, the reason why most of leaders of Tabi'un refrained from reporting from him, and used to say to him: Never relate to us (anything) from the two Zamilahs. In regard of his sahifah which he called al-Sadiqah (the truthful) and used to covet eagerly, it was only comprised of supplications and prayers, as stated by al-Khatib al-Baghdadi. In its regard al-Mughirah said: "What pleases me is that its worth can never be in my view more than two fils" - (Ta'wil mukhtalif al-hadith, p. 93).
Ibn Hajar, in Fath al-Bari, p. 167, says: It was established that Abu Hurayrah was never writing down (hadith) and was never memorizing the Qur'an.
Al-Manar Journal, vol. X, p. 851.
Ibid., vol. XIX, p. 100.
Al-Shatibi, al-Muwafiqat, vol. II, p. 23.