Light On the Muhammadan Sunnah Or Defence of the Hadith
Writing of Hadith Was Forcibly Done:
When the Companions were commanded to commit the hadith to writing, they did not respond to that order but only when being under coercion, as they were finding problem in writing it, after the sunnah (conduct) of the earlier Companions was based upon not writing the hadith. Mu'ammar reported on the authority of al-Zuhri as saying: "We loathed the
writing of knowledge, until the emirs compelled us to write it.
Al-Zuhri further says: The kings asked me to write down knowledge (ilm, i.e. hadith) for them. After writing for them for some time, I felt ashamed before God; (I asked myself): Why was it that I was prepared to write for kings but not for others. 479
That was due to the fact that concern of Muslims, in the first days of Islam, was mainly concentrated on writing down of the Quran, while in regard of hadith they used to propagate it through riwayah (narration) relying upon their memory as a source for this.
Tadwin of Umayyads was not Considered Symmetrical:
The Umayyad era was never regarded by the ulama’ as an age of well-arranged compilation, as they couldn't come across comprehensive classified books, But what they found that whatever produced by them was made in non-sorted corpuses bearing no knowledge, but containing hadith, fiqh (jurisprudence), grammar (nahw), linguistics and khabar, beside other fields.
The professor Ahmad al-Iskandari, in his book Ta`rikh adab al-Lughah al-Arabiyyah, 480 writes:
The era of Umayyads came to an end with no knowledge being written down except rules of grammar, beside some traditions and speeches of the fuqaha’ among the Sahabah on exegesis (tafsir). It is reported that Khalid ibn Yazid 481 compiled books on astronomy and chemistry, and that Mu'awiyah summoned Ubayd ibn Sariyah 482 from San'a', who wrote for him the book al-Muluk wa al-akhbar al-madiyah, beside other books written on the same subjects by Wahb ibn Munabbih, al-Zuhri, and Musa ibn Uqbah.
However all these books could not convince the researchers in history and classification of sciences to regard the era of the Umayyads to be an era of compilation (tasnif), as no comprehensive, classified, or detailed books were compiled during it, but there were only collections written according to the way of reporting and concurrence in narrating them. 483
In al-Ihya’ al-Ghazzali says: Verily the books and compilations are altogether produced recently as none of them was produced throughout the era of the Sahabah and early stage of the Tabi'un, but that was after the year 120 H. That was after the death of all the Companions and most of the Followers, Sa'd ibn al-Musayyab (d.105 H.), al-Hasan (d.110 H.) and the best of Tabi'un, rather the predecessors were averse to books of hadith, and compilation of books, so as not to let attention of people be diverted from the Qur'an, memorizing it, contemplation and remembrance, saying: Memorize as we used to memorize...
Out of all this we conclude that the first tadwin of hadith was done during the last days of the reign of Umayyads. This task was executed at random from scattered suhuf (papers) that were folded up and circulated without being divided into sections and chapters. This might have been done in accordance with what was taught in the knowledge circles (majalis al-’ilm) at that time, as they were not specified for a certain science, but every majlis would include several sciences. 'Ata'
Tadwin during the Abbasid Era
Al-Iskandari says: During the Abbasid reign the ulama’ started to revising and rectifying whatever was written in the suhuf, and writing what was kept in the breasts, arranging, classifying and compiling it in books. The strongest reason prompting the ulama’ to undertake the task of compilation during this epoch was the urging on the part of Abu Ja'far al-Mansur 486 and his impelling the leaders of fiqh to collect the hadith and fiqh. Further it is reported that he — despite his parsimony — spent abundant fortunes to fulfil this task. It is also said that the attention he paid for knowledge was not confined only in supporting the Islamic sciences, but he impelled the ulama’ and Syriac and Iranian translators to translate into Arabic the Persian and Greek books on sciences of medicine, politics, wisdom, astronomy, astrology, arts and logic and other fields. 487 Thus he was the first ruler for whom the books were translated from other languages into Arabic. But the attention he gave for the hadith, collecting and committing it to writing was so extreme, to the extent that it was said to him: Is there any of the worldly pleasures you haven't got? He replied: Only one trait is left, that is to sit on a bench and be surrounded by men of hadith. And it was him who asked Malik ibn Anas to compile the book al-Muwatta’, according to some narrations.
Al-Sawli says: Al-Mansur was the most knowledgeable of his time in hadith and genealogy.
No wonder then to see the number of men of hadith increasing during the reign of al-Mansur, or to see the ulama’ having stronger desire to seeking the Messenger's traditions and sayings or collecting and writing them. Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz is reported to have said: The sultan (ruler) is like the market to which brought what should be spent in it... if he be righteous righteousness would be
brought to him, and if he be debauchee their immorality would be brought
to him. 488 Ibn Tughri Barada, in
chronicles of the year 143, said the following: Al-Dhahabi said: In this
age (year 143 H.) the Muslim ulama’ embarked on writing down the hadith,
fiqh and tafsir (exegesis). Ibn Jarih 489
prepared several compilations in Makkah (he died in 150 H), while Sa'id
ibn Abi Urubah (d. 156 H.) and Hammad ibn Salamah (d.167H.) compiled
books in al-Basrah. Abu Hanifah (d. 150 H). compiled books on fiqh and
qiyas (analogy) in Kufah, al-Awza'i (d. 156 or 157) in the Sham, Malik
(d.179) compiled al-Muwatta’ in al-Madinah, Ibn Ishaq compiled
al-Maghazi (d.151) and Mu'ammar (d.153) compiled in Yemen and Sufyan
al-Thawri (d.161) compiled Kitab al-Jami’ in al-Kufah. After a short
time Hisham 490 (d.188) compiled his books
beside al-Layth ibn Sa'd (d.175), Abd Allah ibn Luhay'ah (d.174), then
Ibn al-Mubarak (d.181), al-Qadi Abu Yusuf Ya'qub (d.182) and Ibn Wahb
(d.197). In that age, knowledge was increasingly classified and written,
with many books on Arabic grammar and language, history and public
episodes. Before this age, all the ulama’ — in another narration the
imams — used to speak of what they learnt by heart narrating knowledge
from disarranged suhuf (books)." Here ends al-Dhahabi's speech.
Due to the fact that they were altogether lived contemporaneously in one age, it is unknown certainly which one of them superseded the others in tadwin. Some said: The first to compile was Sa'id ibn Abi Urubah, while some others said it was Ibn Jarih, and some mentioned the name of al-Rabi' ibn Subayh, and some Hammad ibn Salamah. Ibn Hajar says: The first to compile hadith were al-Rabi' ibn Subayh and Sa'id ibn Abi Urubah... until the elderly among the scholars of the third tabaqah compiled the ahkam. 492 Then Malik compiled al-Muwatta’, bringing in it the strong traditions of the people of Hijaz, mixing them with sayings of the Sahabah and fatawa (verdicts) of the Tabi'un and their followers. Ibn Hajar and al-Iraqi said: All these
(compilers) lived in one era so it was not so easy to distinguish which one was prior to others. Then many of their contemporaries followed their example on the same fashion, until some of the leaders (imams) among them found it necessary to dedicate a special book for the Prophet's traditions, in the end of 200 Hijrah year. Of these collections nothing reached us except Muwatta’ Malik, and description of the other collections. So was the tadwin in this age, based on mingling the hadith with sayings of the Sahabah and verdicts of the Tabi'un and their followers as stated by Ibn Hajar. They kept on this practice till the end of the year 200 H.
Following is the second stage of tadwin.
Tadwin after 200 (Hijrah) Year:
After the year 200 the method of writing the hadith took another mode, which lied in dedicating special place for writing the Prophet's traditions, after being blemished with other sayings that could never be uttered by him. Thus Abd Allah ibn Musa al-Absi al-Kufi (d.213), Musaddad ibn Musarhad al-Basri (d.228) and al-Humaydi (d.219) and others, each compiled a Musnad.
Then their traces were followed by the leaders (of hadith) like al-Imam Ahmad (d. 241) and Ishaq ibn Rahawayh (d.237) and others. Though these Masanid could set apart the hadith in respect of tadwin, without mingling with it the utterances of the Companions or others, but they contained the sahih and non-sahih traditions, of the flux of narration at that time, as it was unknown yet how to classify the hadith into sahih, hasan and da’if (weak). Hence those Masanid were lower in degree than the Sunan books, so it was unjustifiable at all to argue with them. Letter on more details shall be given about these Masanid and their position among the well-known
hadith books.
Tadwin remained in this way until the emergence of the tabaqah (class) of al-Bukhari, the time when it took another shape, entering a new stage which was the stage of revision and selection.
In Muqaddimat Fath al-Bari Ibn Hajar says: "When al-Bukhari came across, related, sniffed for and discovered the truth about these compilations, he found them, according to their composition, including what can be counted sahih and good (hasan), and many that to be regarded weak.
Abu al-Mulayh said: It was Hisham who coerced al-Zuhri to write down the hadith, after which writing of hadith became so common. Ibn Sa'd in his Tabaqat says: "So we found it proper not to prevent anyone of Muslims from writing" - (vol. II, p. 135).
Al-Khatib al-Baghdadi, Taqyid al-'ilm, p. 107.
Ibn Abd al-Barr, Jami' bayan al-'ilm wa fadlih, vol. I, p. 77.
See p. 72.
It is reported that Khalid ibn Yazid ibn Mu'awiyah has translated books of philosophy, astronomy, chemistry, medicine and wars and others, from the Greek into the Hebrew and from the Hebrew into the Syriac, and also from the Syriac into the Arabic. He was the first man for whom the books were collected, which he kept in a store-house. He died in 85 H.
Ubayd ibn Sariyah, and in another narration: Shryah al-Jarhumi, was summoned by Mu'awiyah from Yemen to the Sham (Syria), to inquire him about the conditions of the kings of Arabs and Non-Arabs (Ajam), commanding him to write down what he said with ascribing it to him. And that the beginning of tadwin throughout history (al-Fihrist of Ibn al-Nadim, Leibziq Edition, p. 89). In al-Bukhala', al-Jahiz says: He was not knowing but the outward of the words, i.e. he was only a narrator.
Al-Iskandari, Ta'rikh Adab al-Lughah al-Arabiyyah, p. 72.
Al-Ihya', Boulaq Edition 1296, vol. I, p. 79.
It is reported from Abd al-Rahman ibn Abi al-Zinad, from his father that he said: We used to write down the halal (lawful) and haram (unlawful) and Ibn Shahab used to write whatever he heard (Jami' bayan al-'ilm, vol. I, p. 73).
Abu Ja'far al-Mansur was the first caliph for whom the Syriac, Non-Arabic books were translated into Arabic, and the first who sowed discord between the Abbasids and Alawids, after they were united. He came to power in 136 H. and died in the year 158 H.
Al-Iskandari, op. cit., p. 72.
There is another narration saying that Abu Hazim al-A'raj said to Sulayman ibn Abd al-Malik: The sultan (monarch) is no more than a market, that whatever is spent in it is carried to it.
His full name is Abd al-Malik ibn Abd al-Aziz ibn Jarih al-Rumi.
He is Hasheem, and he was (living) in Wasit.
Al-Nujum al-Zahirah, vol. I, p. 351; Ta'rikh al-khulafa' of al-Suyuti, p. 101.
The tabaqah (class) is a term used by the muhaddithun to mean a community sharing similar age and meeting the mashayikh (chiefs).
Or rather the fabrication as will be manifested later on.
Ibn Hajar, Muqaddimat Fath al-Bari, p. 4.