Light On the Muhammadan Sunnah Or Defence of the Hadith
Effect of Delay in Tadwin:
When the Messenger's traditions were abandoned unwritten, and the Sahabah had not undertaken the task of committing them to writing as they did in case of the Qur'an, the horizons of narration from the Messenger expanded and doors were open wide for evil-minded and ill-hearted people for narrating what they willed with no fear of qualm of conscience nor restraint of religion.
Had the elderly Muslims or those who embraced Islam later on, been one class in regard of truthfulness and equal level of reliability and good conduct, or had the riwayah been made dependent on those who were called the true Suhbah (Companions), and the writing covered whatever narrated during the era of the Rightly-guided Caliphs (al-Khulafa' al-Rashidun), the reporting (naql) would have been limited only to whatever uttered by the Prophet (S) without any addition or omission, and all the traditions would have come correct with no little doubt. Also the Ummah would have received these traditions with pleasure and admission as they did in case of the Qur'anic verses, with the successors taking them from the predecessors with their words and meanings, with none of the Muslims or non-Muslims daring to oppose them, and the Ummah being guided through their light and led aright, without bigotry to any madhhab (creed) or sectarianism, as it is a principle to which religion calls as stated in the Qur'an: "And hold fast, all of you together, to the cable of Allah, and do not separate...", and the verse: "Verily those who divided their religion and became schismatics, thou hast no concern with anything of them." But people are the same every age, and human beings have unchangeable dispositions, non-alterable instincts and unconverted desires. Further the Companions and the Followers who succeeded them were never exceptional among people nor infallibale.
It is sufficient to know that as the Messenger was at the threshold of death, disagreement and conflict erupted among his Companions even before performing rituals of his burial. Moreover many of those who enjoyed the Prophet's company apostatized, and had not the resolution of Abu Bakr and acuteness of Umar and those who supported them from among the best of the
Sahabah been there, the edifice of Islam would have been subverted while being still in the bud.
Because of this, the chiefs of Companions, like Abu Bakr, Umar and Ali were never approving of any of the Sahabah — even their magnates — even one hadith but only when introducing a witness confirming his hearing it from the Prophet, or swearing that he learnt it from him. Had they all been immune against error and falsity — as said about them — the narration of every one of them would have been approved by these great caliphs, when religion be in prime of life and signposts be evident — with no need for any witness or oath, especially it was them who learnt religion orally from their Prophet — with the light of Prophethood still shining inside their hearts.
That who intends to study history of Islam as it is in truth, has to be acquainted with the conditions of the Arabs in general in the pre-Islamic era, particularly the disagreement that occurred between the Hashimites and Umayyads in the Jahiliyyah period,
It is truly a must for everyone intending to be aware of the right history of Islam, to have full knowledge of all these matters, so that to see new prospects before him from which emanates strong light showing the right way to analyze the events honestly, and account for the mishaps properly. All these facts had undoubtedly effective role in forming the Islamic history and the superstitions foisted into tafsir of the Qur'an, and the traditions ascribed
falsely to the Prophet.
We are informed by history that as the Messenger of Allah (S) was about to depart this world, the rancour harboured inside the hearts of the Umayyads against the Hashimites, that was disguised under the cover of Islam at times, showed itself. That was when they endeavoured to tempt the Hashimites to claim caliphate so as to create sedition and riot, but caution and awareness of al-Imam Ali (A) thwarted their intrigue, when they retreated lying in wait for the opportune time, That was during the caliphate of Uthman, who as soon as assuming the power, the Umayyads showed up what their breasts harboured, And as Uthman was an Umayyad, they embarked on executing their plan so accurately and skillfully till dominating and controlling all the affairs in his time. In the last years of his rule the government system turned over from just caliphate to a rule being the sport of desires and a plaything passed from design to another.
When after the death of Uthman, dissension stirred up and insurrection blazed hard, with people dividing into belligerent sects and parties, every group of people started to support and back their party with every available means of material, abstract and verbal backing, some taking the side of the Hashimites and the others following the Umayyads, and so on.
It was found that the strongest weapons for defeating others and achieving victory, was that every community should have recourse to evidences reported from the Prophet for backing up their sect and reinforcing what it calls to. For all this, they all embarked on narrating some traditions they ascribed to the Messenger (upon whom be God's benedictions), particularly on virtues, as was previously indicated when discussing the reasons of fabrication of hadith. That was not to be done by them but only due to the fact that they realized the Messenger's solemn and imposing
character, and his status being above every other status. But triumph was for the Umayyads over the Hashimites, because of the power and artifice they had, and what they possessed of wealth, influence and subduing force.
There is another aspect having an effective role in sporting with riwayah, which was represented by those who were disguising under the religious garment, with the aim of corrupting the pristine religious beliefs, through foisting into them estranged things, and inserting falsified teachings that distorted their picture. These were the people of the Scripture (Ahl al-Kitab) including the Jews and Christians, who deceptively showed Islam, while slipping into the new religion of Arabs (Islam) what their treachery and lust ordered them to insert of Israiliyyat, Masihiyyat and lies, as stated before. Hence, and due to many reasons to which I referred before, fabrication and falsification circulated inside the society, with narration from the Messenger of Allah becoming so profound that people — as said by Ibn Abbas — went too far and exaggerated in this practice.
While the Qur'an, for which the Messenger appointed scribes to write it down in the era of revelation, and which was inscribed again during the reign of Abu Bakr, with being memorized by a large number of Companions, and God's decree to preserving it in the verse: "Verily We have sent down the Reminder (the Qur'an), and verily We (Ourself) unto it will certainly be the Guardian," faced that much difference in reading to the extent that each group was charging the other with impiety. This difference and disagreement took place within less than ten years after the demise of the Messenger (S), till Uthman found it obligatory in the year 25H to commit to writing masahif with its correct form, and sending them to the Islamic towns, ordering to burn other copies containing the different reading of the Qur'an. If this be the case with the Qur'an, so how would it be with the hadith that was not written
during the lifetime of the Prophet, or the era of Abu Bakr or Uthman, letting it free from the restriction of tadwin beset with various desires, and as a plaything in the hands of the incongruous caprices current throughout centuries?!!
Therefore, it was hard to recognize the sahih traditions, with investigation to realize the real minds of the narrators being harder. Knowing all this it would — undoubtedly — seem that delay in writing had extremely hazardous consequences, as it led to expansion in horizons of riwayah and confusion between the sahih traditions and the fabricated ones, in a way distinguishing between them became infeasible with process of time.
Refer to chapter "Fabrication of hadith and Its Causes" in this book.
Refer to chapter "Reliability of the Sahabah" in this book.
Refer to the book al-Niza' wa al-takhasum fima bayna Bani Ummayyah wa Bani Hashim, of al-Maqrizi, and to my book Shaykh al-mudirah, to realize how the state of Umayyads was established.