peace damon, all
this is a very good breif text on hadeth by parwez from:
http://www.toluislam.com/index1.htmyou can find other related stuff there (the other parts fo the same text) as well as good other things (their glossary for example). i hope you will enjoy the reading. Remeber that this is very their very sources!
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HADITH
...However moved we may be, by the uniformity of our religious liturgy, the case with our Hadith somehow, does not seem to hold water. We must not omit the fact that nowhere has Allah held the responsibility of hadith, as it has done in the case of the Holy Quran. That is of utmost significance, since the hadith consists of parables and sayings of Messenger MuhammadPBUH and nothing else, we must consider Muhammad's attitude towards hadith. If Hadith is part of Deen, then the procedures Messenger adopted for Quran are not implemented in the case of hadith. Like having it memorized, then listening to his followers for any errors or that he satisfactorily approved what had been dictated and written, that over and above all, it was in its pure and authentic form. Though the mind questions, if hadith is all that significant, why the Messenger did not take the same measures as he did in the case of Holy Quran? On the contrary, we find in that very hadith, Muhammad PBUH clearly says:
Do not have anything else dictated from me, save the Quran. If anyone of you has written any word other than the Quran, erase it!
We are also told that this was a temporary mandate from the Messenger. That at another time, it is observed, upon the request of Hazrat Abdullah bin OmarR, the Messenger permitted them to write down his sayings. As is noticed, the Messenger only permitted his followers, he did not make it mandatory for them to write, as we find he did, in the compilation of the Holy Quran. Moreover, he did not at anytime, ask as to what they had written or heard or question the verity of their writings. Neither we find MuhammadPBUH adopting measures to safeguard or preserve those hadiths as he had done with Quran. It is usually said and believed that in those days the Arabs had stupendous memory and also those sayings were very dear to the hearts of the disciples. Now the mind again questions, if memory was enough of a viable resource to be depended upon, why then was the need felt to have the Holy Quran dictated and written on paper, then recited again to remove any possibility of errors or mistakes during the process of its dictation. If any disciple of the Messenger had learnt those hadiths or sayings of the Messenger by heart, we still are not in a position to vouch for it. Until and unless those sayings were not verified, and the seal of approval cast on them by the Messenger Muhammad PBUH himself, we cannot depend on them. We also have no knowledge of the Messenger ever giving to the Muslims the Hadith in the form of a book and coming down to us through the generations. We observe the Messenger MuhammadPBUH did not take any of the precautions in the case of hadith, as he did for the Holy Quran.
What we have gathered from the historical resources, is that we do find documents other than the Quran, that were written under the orders of MuhammadPBUH. For example, contracts, treatises and letters that he sent to other tribes. What in this matter, has come to our knowledge and what we have been able to gather, at the time of Messenger's demise, are the following:
* A register containing the list of names of 1500 holy disciples or followers of MuhammadPBUH.
* The letters MuhammadPBUH wrote to various kings and rulers of that age or time.
* Documents of treatise and other obligatory rules.
* Hadiths from Hazrat Abdullah bin OmarR, Hazrat AliR and Hazrat UunsR who wrote them on their own. No one knows if these sayings written down were ever verified by the Messenger himself or not and whether they have come down to us in its original version. We have no knowledge of any collected works or hadith that Messenger himself gave to the Muslims before his departure from this world. We do in fact find in the Hadith of Bukhari, that someone asked Hazrat Ibn e AbbassR as to what MuhammadPBUH had left behind for the Muslims. He said, 'The Messenger left behind nothing, save the Quran.' (Bukhari, Vol. III, Fuzail ul Quran.)
The Deeds of Disciples
As we glance through the names of Islam's historic personalities, we notice that after Muhammad's lifetime, the caliphate period is also worthy of being looked into. In the Musnad of Imam Ahmad we find the disciples saying,
"Whatever utterances we heard from MuhammadPBUH we noted them down in writing. One day it so happened the Messenger appeared and asked us about the subject of our writings. We replied that whatsoever we hear from his Majesty's lips we transform it into writing. To which he said,
"What! Are you compiling another book along with the book of Allah?"
Meaning in other words that this cannot be made possible. He then insisted and commanded us that we ought to keep Allah's words pure and that we must not amalgamate them with any kind of ambiguities. So we made a bonfire of our notes and parables in an open field." (Quoted from Tudween e Hadith, page 249)
At another instance we find Imam Zuhby mentioning Hazrat Abu BakrR who gathering the disciples of the Messenger, after his passing away said,
'You people have so much self-contradictory gossip about MuhammadPBUH that you squabble among yourselves. The future generations will become more rigid than you all and quarrel more. You must not feign sayings of Holy Messenger that are fallacious. If anyone inquires you can always say that we have the Holy Quran between us. Whatsoever has been granted must be made permissible and whatsoever has been prohibited must be relinquished.' (Quoted in Tazkara tul Hifaaz e Zuhby, page 321)
Then Imam Zuhby quotes another parable of the Messenger's wife Hazrat AishaR and writes:
"The wife of the Messenger mentions that her father (Hazrat Abu BakrR) had collected the Hadiths of the Messenger which were five hundred in number. She says,
'One night I noticed that my father was restless in his bed and was very perturbed. I asked him if he was in some bodily pain or was this condition due to any bad news that he might have heard? He did not answer my question. In the morning he asked me to bring him the collection of Hadiths and then he made a bonfire of them all." (Quoted in Tudween e Hadith, page 285-88)
As far as Hazrat Omar's caliphate is concerned, Allama Ibne Abdulbur has mentioned him in his famous book Jama e Biyaan ul ilm, wherein he says:
"OmarR wanted to compile the sayings and parables of the Messenger. He asked from the companions of Messenger MuhammadPBUH to grant him a decree, to which they faithfully conceded. Inspite of the companions consent Hazrat OmarR was not convinced. For complete one month Hazrat OmarR performed Istekhara. Then one morning when Allah calmed his body and mind and he was able to concentrate on the issue at hand in serenity, he talked to his people about his decision to compile the hadiths. But then he said I thought about the generations that have passed before us, who wrote books and adhered to those books so strongly that they forgot the Book of Allah. I swear upon Allah, I will not let the word of Allah be amalgamated with other words."(Quoted in Tadween e Hadith, page 394)
This was decided because the Messenger had ordered every companion not to ask him to dictate anything else besides the Quran. Whosoever has written anything else besides Quran must erase it. (Quoted in Sahih Muslim) OmarR did not finish the matter here. He not only prohibited and banned the collection of ahadith, he went a step ahead and as is written in Tubqaat:
"During Hazrat Omar's caliphate the ahadith were in abundance. He made sure by putting the people under oath that whatever hadith the people had in their possession ought to be brought before him. As ordered, the public submitted whatever they possessed. He then ordered to make a public bonfire of those hadiths." (vol.5, page 141)
This was the third incident of igniting the hadith collection. The first ignition took place when the Messenger commanded. The second instance was when Hazrat Abu BakrR did the same with his own collection and the third time Hazrat OmarR took all the collections from the people under oath and publicly ignited them. All this took place in the capital city. As to what happened afterwards we get a glimpse of it in Hafiz Ibne Abdulbur's Jama e Biyaan wherein he states:
"Hazrat Omar ibn KhattaabR first expressed his desire to compile the ahadith, it dawned upon him later that it will not be appropriate. So he sent a circular in the districts and cantonments to destroy whichever hadith anybody was in possession of." (Tadween e Hadith,Vol.1, page 400)
He writes further and gives us a detailed account, of how elaborate and precautionary measures were taken for the compilation of the Holy Quran. If the government wanted, what possibly could have come in the way of adopting the same policy towards the compilation of the Hadith. He states that the government of that time did not adopt the same policy towards the Hadith with a specific purpose. This was the situation at the time of the Messenger and his companions, of hadith.
Recapitulation:
A. The Messenger ordered his companions not to ask him to dictate anything else besides the Quran.
B. Whatever Hadith collection was present among the companions, it was ordered to be ignited.
C. Hazrat Abu BakrR made a bonfire of his own collection and banned others from quoting any hadith.
D. Hazrat OmarR after giving his best thought for one month, reached the conclusion to ban the compilation and collection of ahadith.
E. Hazrat OmarR also asked to submit all ahadith in possession of the public who were under oath and then ignited them all.
F. He also sent a circular in all cities to destroy any evidence of hadith.
G. This did not happen by chance, according to Maulana Munazar Ahsin Gilani this policy was adopted with a definite purpose in mind.
More Strict Measures:
Day after day Hazrat OmarR became more strict on this issue of transmission of hadith. According to Qaza bin Qa'abR, " When Caliph OmarR sent us to Iraq he emphatically drummed it into our heads, that Iraq was a place where sounds of Quran echo like wild bees and we must exercise extreme precaution as not to distract their minds with all kinds of ahadith." It was asked from Abu HurairaR if during Hazrat Omar's caliphate he ever remembered stating the hadith in the same way as he was doing now. To that he replied, if he had done so Hazrat OmarR would have physically scolded him. It has also come down to us that Hazrat OmarR had imprisoned Hazrat Abdullah bin Ma'soodR, Abu DurdaR and Abu Ma'sood AnsariR for illegally in possession of ahadith. (Quoted in Tazkara tul Hifaz)
It is quite possible these ahadith may have been weeded out because of ambiguity, although according to the author of this book they are closer to being true, as they were according to the principles of Quran and also parallel to the desire of MuhammadPBUH. We however, are not interested in debating on this point. Even if we do not have the above quoted hadiths, we still are in possession of another historical fact that cannot be denied. We observe that by the end of the caliphate period, there isn't a single copy of Hadith that was compiled and completed under the supervision of any Caliph of that period. From these historical facts it can easily be determined, if those Caliphs or the Holy Messenger had ever considered the hadith to be a part of the Deen of Islam, they would have adopted the same measures as were taken towards the Holy Quran. Hence after the demise of the Messenger no steps were taken towards collection of Hadith.
Hamam Ibne Mamba's Manuscript
What the religious scholars of hadith, after much struggle, have succeeded in discovering, has come down to us under the title of Hamam ibne Mamba's manuscript. This was published by Dr. Hameed ullah several years ago from Hyderabad (India). It is believed that Hamam ibne Mamba was the student of Abu HurairaR who died in hijra 131. In this manuscript there are 138 ahadith in total, which its author states were compiled before his teacher Abu HurairaR. His teacher is believed to have departed from us in hijra 58. By other means we can say that this manuscript was compiled before hijra 58. We also notice that Imam Mamba writes these hadiths before hijra 58 in Medina and is able to obtain only 138 ahadith. Whereas in hijra 300 when Imam BokhariR decides to collect ahadith he gathers six hundred thousand. (Imam HumbalR found 1,000,000 ahadith and Imam Yahya bin MoeenR found 1200,000 hadiths) Another fact we observe that those ahadith that have been confered upon Abu HurairaR amount to thousands, though his student was able to write only 138 ahadith. However, in the first century of the Islamic calendar, the sum total of all individual collection is Imam Mamba's 138 ahadith. There are no other written records of Holy Messenger's gospel belonging to that period of Islamic history.
Imam Zuhry
At the close of hijra100 we notice that Caliph Omar bin Abdul AzizR on his own, had some work done on Hadith. After him was Imam Ibne Shahab ZuhryR who at the order of Caliph Bannu Umayya compiled a concise edition of Hadith and that also according to its author was against his desire. At present we neither have any copy or manuscript of hadith of Hazrat Omar bin Abdul AzizR nor the concise edition of Shahab ZuhryR. Although ahadith confered in their names are mentioned at a later period, when the need was felt to bring into record the historical events of Holy Messenger's life. The material for the historical records was a conglomerate of all that had been coming down to them through the generations. Some writers narrowed their research to only those records that refer to the parables, gospels or sayings of the Messenger MuhammadR. This collection is titled Hadith (the very word hadith means conversations).
The first compilation of Hadith that is present today belongs to Imam Malik (died hijra179) and is called Muta. In it we find three to five hundred various ahadith, it further informs us about the activities of Messenger's companions in Medina. After Imam Malik we find various other scholars venturing on this subject and compiling several different editions of Hadith.
During the Abbasids period we observe spectacular progress in the field of Islamic arts and sciences and along with that the number of hadith compilations also increased. The most famous of all compilations that has come down to us is known as the 'Sahiheen,' these books are authored by Imam BokhariR and Imam MuslimR. Imam BukhariR who died in hijra 256 had made a collection of 600,000 ahadith. After sifting through various ahadith he finally decided to retain 2,630 and produced them in book form under the title of 'Us'hal Kitab baaduz Kitab e Allah' (The most pure book after the book of Allah).
This Hadith is now being pronounced as inseparable part of the Deen of Islam. Six different editions of Hadith are considered to be the most authentic by the Sunniites and are called 'Sahaa Sitaa.' The Shiites have their own collections that are different from Sunniites. Those six editions come under the following titles:
I. Sahih Bukhari
II. Sahih Muslim
III. Trimzi
IV. Abu Dawood
V. Ibne Maja
VI. Nisaayee
The introduction to the authors of the above listed collections is as follows:
* IMAM BUKHARIR: He was born in Bukhari in hijra 256 and some believe the date to be hijra 260 but we all know that he died in Samarkand. It is said that after wandering through different cities and villages he collected close to six hundred hadiths and after sifting through he found 7,300 ahadith that he considered close to being authentic. Some have been repeated in various chapters. If we do not count the repetitions, the total figures we get are 2,630 or 2,762.
* IMAM MUSLIMR: Muslim bin Hajaj belonged to a city in Iran called Nishapur. He was born in hijra 204 and died in hijra 261.
* TRIMZI: Imam Abu Isa Muhammad Trimzi was from the city called Trimz in Iran. He was born in hijra 209 and died in hijra 279.
* ABU DAWOOD: He comes from Seestan in Iran. He was born in hijra 202 and died in hijra 275.
* IBNE MAJA: Abu Abdullah Muhammad bin Zaid ibne Maja came from northern Iran, a city that goes by the name of Kazdin. His year of birth is hijra 209 and he died in hijra 273.
* IMAM NISAAYEE: Imam Abdur Rahman Nisaayee came from a city called Nisa in Iran's eastern province of Khorasan. He died in hijra 303.
After a brief introduction of these religious scholars one can easily infer that (a) they all came from Iran. (b) None of these scholars was from Arab descent. We also notice that none of the Arabs were prepared to do what these scholars have done. (c) All of them were born in the third century. (d) Whatever ahadith were collected, were all hearsay, (e) there were no written records of hadith before their collections.
From these thousands of ahadith that were gathered, they chose some and discarded others. The criterion of selection was their personal judgment. For these gospels, their authors had no decree of any kind from God (revealing to them as to which hadith to choose and which ones to discard). Nor we find they had the consent or approval of the Holy Messenger (proving that the selected ahadith were the true parables or sayings of the Messenger). Again, there were no previous records that they could have borrowed the material for their collections. All the sayings were just word of the mouth they gathered from various cities and villages. After giving their own judgment or approval these religious scholars selected some and discredited others on their own. Hence the denounement of Hadith.
(After having assessed the long chase of the departed Messenger MuhammadPBUH, it appears as though Allah was no more an important Being in the life of Muslims. Which was quite contrary to what Muhammad was trying to teach.)
How can anyone vouch for these kinds of ahadith based on hearsay or prove, that in actuality these were the original words of the Messenger? Keeping in mind that, after two or two and a half centuries, not a single word could be guaranteed that it belonged to the Messenger, or has been conveyed from father to son or teacher to student by memorizing. These were garbled words of previous centuries.
(In as much as I would want to hear the exact words of the last of the Great Messengers; at the same time to accept a version that is not first hand, second hand or even third, forth or fifth hand, does not make any sense at all. On the contrary, we are defeating our very purpose for which the Ahadith were written i.e., to seek the Truth. And by accepting a clone, we are corroding our own system of thought.)
Discredited Ahadith
It would not be futile to know the number of ahadith that have been discredited.
Imam BukhariR repetitions & dishonouring others from 600,000: 2,762
Imam MuslimR after dishonouring from the collection of 300,000: 4,348
Trimzi after dishonouring from the collection of 300,000: 3,115
Abu Dawood after dishonouring from 500,000: 4,800
Ibne Maja after dishonouring from 400,000: 4,000
Nisayee after dishonouring from 1,000,000: 4,321
What comes to mind again, after the sifting was done by the authors of hadith, who can say for sure the authors did not relegate the actual sayings or parables of the Messenger. Many of those ahadith that these authors have included in their collection, also go against the Messenger. This discussion will be taken later on in this book.
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