Light On the Muhammadan Sunnah Or Defence of the Hadith

The Shiah and Writing of Hadith

After discussing writing of hadith by Ahl al-Sunnah, I found it better to complete our discussion about history of tadwin of hadith by the Shi’ah so as to make commentary about this subject full-fledged on all respects, thus:

The Shi'ah hold that: The first one who collected the traditions and arranged them into chapters was Abu Rafi', mawla of the Messenger of Allah, 498  who compiled the book al-Sunan wa al-ahkam wa al-qadaya. It is said that no one preceded him in arranging the hadith and compiling it into chapters.

499

The eminent scholar Muhammad Husayn Al Kashif al-Ghita' al-Najafi, in his book al-Mutala’at wa al muraja’at wa al rudud,

500 writes: The first one to write hadith was Ibn Abi Rafi', a scribe of Amir al-Mu'minin Ali ibn Abi Talib (peace be upon him), and his treasurer or rather in fact the first who wrote down the hadith was Amir al-Mu'minin himself, as indicated by the report (khabar ) of al-Sahifah in the two Sahihs.
501

Origination of Science of Hadith

I have stated before that had the Messenger's traditions been committed to writing immediately when being uttered by him, and those written throughout time been memorized, people would have received them as in the case of the Qur'an — without questioning about their veracity, or going in search of their truth. But not writing them in the era of the Message -bearer and his Companions, and taking them from oral tradition (riwayah) compelled the ulama’ to investigate about them to recognize the sahih ones and the fabricated, beside other things in this regard.

The First Who Compiled Ilm al-Hadith:

Al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar 502  is reported to have said: The first one who compiled (a book) on idioms was al-Qadi Abu Muhammad al-Ramhurmuzi, 503  who authored the book al-Muhaddith al-fasil bayn al-rawi wa al-wa’i, but he could not take up (everything). Beside him, was al-Hakim Abu Abd Allah al-Nisaburi (d.405) but he neither rectified nor classified. He was followed by Abu Nu'aym al-Isbahani (d.430 AD), who compiled a book drawing out in which some terms with leaving things to be recognized by the researcher. After him came al-Khatib al-Baghdadi (d.463) who compiled his famous book rectifying its arts, the reason why people indulged in it, heeding to it, abridged by some like al-Nawawi in his Taqrib, and versified by others like al-Iraqi (d.806 H.).

Purpose of ‘Ilm al-Hadith:

Ibn Khaldun, in his Muqaddimah, under chapter `ulum al-hadith" p.417 writes:

One of the sciences of hadith being to examine the asanid and

recognizing which traditions having required conditions to be followed and adopted. Because we should act according to the akhbar of the Messenger of Allah that are thought to be true, exerting our effort on the way through which we reached to that surmise, which lies in knowing the narrators with reliability and exactitude... etc.

In his exposition of Muslim's sermon, al-Nawawi says:

The purpose of ‘ilm al-hadith 504  is to establish the meanings of the texts and science of isnad and accountability. Cause (‘illah) is a meaning in the hadith that is concealed and resulting in weakening the hadith though it on the surface is free from it. And ‘illah may be some time in the text, and another time in the isnad (ascription). The purpose of this science is neither merely hearing nor making to hear nor writing,

505  but rather it is paying attention to it, frequenting to men of knowledge and reading the books of investigators and researchers on it. 506

Ascription and Text of Hadith:

Lexical meaning of sanad is that on which you rest or recline, like a wall or alike, but among the men of hadith it means the way (tariq) of the hadith text. It has been called sanad due to dependence of the memorizers upon it for recognizing whether the hadith being correct or fabricated. For tariq the word wajh may be used, when saying. This hadith cannot be recognized but only through this wajh. And matn lexically means the back and whatever is hardened and high of the land, that then was commonly used to refer to the end of ascription (sanad). The example for this is the statement of Yahya: Malik reported from Nafi', from Abd Allah ibn Umar that the Messenger of Allah said: None of you should sell or make a deal so as to make others lose it. The sanad of the hadith being the narrators and matn

(text) of the hadith being "None of you should sell... etc."

From Whom Hadith Should be Taken:

Ulama’ of hadith unanimously concur that hadith is not to be considered authentic but only when its narrators having two traits; adalah (reliability) and exactitude, with adalah being the greatest cornerstone for narration.

But adalah alone is not enough, and regarding the description of which there was much disagreement till saying: "It is difficult to be acquainted with depicting of adalah not to say determining its limits." There was extensive debate regarding this matter, which is out of scope here. They defined the dabit (corrector)

507  in riwayah as that who commits less mistakes in narration, and other than him as that who commits more mistakes 508  and fancy, whether this being due to weakness in his ability, or failure in his strival and diligence. For the corrector they gave numerous traits to which we cannot refer now, 509  as adalah and exactitude each having high, middle and low ranks, the combination of which constitutes degrees for hadith differing in respect of strength and weakness. 510

Thiqah (trustworthy) is that who possesses both adalah and exactitude, and it is not necessarily that whatever reported by the precise memorizer should be correct, due to possibility of his erring in some places. Further, not whatever reported by other than the precise memorizer is necessarily wrong as he be right in many places. The intelligent wise man has to endeavour and do his best to realize the correct aspects of every group so as to adopt them.

  1. Abu Rafi' was bondman (mawla) of the Messenger of Allah, and his name was Aslam. He was owned by al-Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib, who freed and granted him to the Messenger of Allah. It was him who made the pulpit (minbar) for the Prophet from the forest tamarisk. And Salma, the bondwoman of the Messenger of Allah, was the wife of Abu Rafi', for whom she gave birth to Ubayd Allah ibn Abi Rafi', the scribe of al-Imam Ali (peace be upon him).

  2. Al-Shi'ah wa funun al-Islam, by al-Sayyid Hasan al-Sadr (one of ulama' of Iraq - Irfan Press, Seida, 1331.

  3. See p. 56.

  4. I have cited previously the hadith of Sahifah among the ahadith I inferred to prove the narration on basis of meaning.

  5. Tadrib al-rawi, p. 9.

  6. He died in 360 H. Ramhurmuz was a Persian region, and al-Ramhurmuzi's book is al-Muhaddith al-fasil bayn al-rawi wa al-wa'i, of which a manuscript is found in Dar al-Kutub al-Misriyyah.

  7. This knowledge was described by an honourable scholar thus: It is a mere conventional knowledge, that can be comprehended through strenuous exertion of memory, and deduced by power of remembrance. Thus it cannot be found by fathoming thought as delightful over realities of reasonables nor by fathoming imagination through atmospheres of versificatoins, nor the twittering spirit, in meadows of literature or hovering about in the of divinities. (see introduction to Qawa'id al-tahdith, of al-Qasimi, Damascus Edition, p. 10).

  8. Let this reach the ear of contemporary Hashwiyyah who have not attained in ilm al-hadith that level to hear or make people hear, but all they could know being only reading some hadith books or printing them so as to gain profits out of that.

  9. See p. 28.

  10. The accurate narrator is in fact that who relates exactly whatever he heard to others without any change or alteration, as stated in the hadith: "…and related it exactly as he heart it in respect of wording and meaning".

  11. Ibn Taymiyyah says: Committing a mistake is something that most of people can never escape, and rather among the Sahabah are some who would err sometimes and even among their followers. As a consequence of this, many traditions of those cited in the Sahihs were known to be wrong.

  12. They have divided the narrators possessing reliability and exactitude according to dissimilarity of their degrees, into nine kinds, which they stated in their books.

  13. Tawjih al-nazar, p. 407.