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Ramadhan 19 Friday Hijrah 1445
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Title – The Message   Preface   Arabian Peninsula the Cradle of Islamic Culture   Arabia before Islam   Conditions of Roman and Iranian Empires   Ancestors of the Prophet   Birth of the Prophet   Childhood of the Prophet   Rejoining the Family   Period of Youth   From Shepherd to Merchant   From Marriage up to Prophethood   The First Manifestation of Reality   The First Revelation   Who were the First Persons to Embrace Islam?   Cessation of revelation   General Invitation   Judgement of Quraysh about the Holy Qur’an   The First Migration   Rusty Weapons   The Fiction of Gharaniq   Economic Blockade   Death of Abu Talib   Me’raj – The Heavenly Ascension   Journey to Ta’if   The Agreement of Aqabah   The Event of Migration   The Events of the First Year of Migration   Some Events of the First and Second years of Migration   The Events of the Second Year of Migration   Change of Qiblah   The Battle of Badr   Dangerous Designs of the Jews   The Events of the Third Year of Migration   The Events of the Third and Fourth years of Migration   The Jews Quit the Zone of Islam   The Events of the Fourth Year of Migration   The Events of the Fifth Year Of Migration   The Battle of Ahzab   The Last Stage of Mischief   The Events of the Fifth and Sixth years of Migration   The events of the Sixth Year of Migration   A Religious and Political Journey   The Events of the Seventh Year of Migration   Fort of Khayber the Centre of Danger   The Story of Fadak   The Lapsed ‘Umrah   The Events of the Eighth Year of Migration   The Battle of Zatus Salasil   The Conquest of Makkah   The Battle of Hunayn   The Battle of Ta’if   The Famous Panegyric of Ka’b Bin Zuhayr   The Events of the Ninth Year of Migration   The Battle of Tabuk   The Deputation of Thaqif goes to Madina   The Prophet Mourning for his Son   Eradication of Idol-Worship in Arabia   Representatives of Najran in Madina   The Events of the Tenth Year of Migration   The Farewell Hajj   Islam is completed by the Appointment of Successor   The Events of the Eleventh Year of Migration   A Will which was not written   The Last Hours of the Prophet  

 

Part 1

 

Chapter 1: Origins of the Science of Hadith

 

The Holy Prophet of Islam (S), for a period of 23 years from the beginning of his prophetic mission to the moment of his death, was directly involved in the process of guidance and leadership of the people. The multifarious kinds of questions that arose for the Muslims in relation with their needs converged upon the Holy Prophet. The Prophet responded to their questions through explanations and discussions whose variety increased with the progress of Islam to the extent of enveloping all aspects of the moral, social and civic affairs of Muslims. The new society that emerged during this period was significant and important from every aspect. The Muslims who were the contemporaries of the Prophet had the advantage of personal recourse to him and chance of putting to him various questions regarding their social life. However, as long as the Prophet lived, and the source of Divine Revelation was in the midst of the Muslims, the great importance of recording his words was not fully realized. Nevertheless, soon after the Prophet’s death, the Muslims realized the imminent need of recording the hadith so as to avoid the problems that would arise in the future generations. Accordingly, from the time of the first caliph, the need for recording of hadith was distinctly felt by the Muslim society. It should not remain unsaid that `Ali (A), the first Imam of the Shi`ah Muslims, had with characteristic foresight, pioneered the task of recording the Prophet’s sayings during the Prophet’s lifetime itself. Word for word, he wrote down what he had heard from the Prophet (S). The author of Ta’sis al-shi`ah writes:

…Know that the Shi`ah were the first to embark on collecting the records of the acts and sayings of the Prophet (S) during the era of the caliphs. They followed in the footsteps of their Imam `Ali, Amir al-Mu’minin (A), for, he had recorded and categorized the hadith during the times of the Holy Prophet. Al-Shaykh Abu al-Abbas al-Najashi, in the translation of Muhammad Ibn `Adhafar, said: “I was with Hakam ibn `Ayyinah by the side of Abu Ja`far Muhammad ibn `Ali al-Baqir (A). Hakam started asking questions with Abu Ja`far reluctantly answering them. There was a disagreement between them about one thing. Then Abu Ja`far said: “Son, get up and bring `Ali’s book.” He brought a big voluminous book and opened it. He looked closely in it for a while until he found the problem (which was under debate). Abu Ja`far (A) said: “This is the handwriting of `Ali and the dictation of the Messenger of Allah, upon whom be God’s peace and benedictions.”11

This tradition is in agreement with what I found in Najashi’s Rijal. In addition, two other sources confirm the contents of the abovementioned hadith.12

Another narration that confirms the attention devoted by the Shi`ah to recording of hadith is that of an incident from the life of Fatimah al-Zahra'(A). One day Fatimah (A) could not find a manuscript in which hadith was recorded. She reportedly urged her housemaid to search for it, saying, “Look for it. It is as precious to me as my sons Hasan and Husayn.”13

Among the Ahl al-Sunnah, the recording of hadith started after the Holy Prophet’s death and that too after prolonged controversies between groups who favoured and opposed it.14 In this connection, `A’ishah reports: “My father Abu Bakr had collected five-hundred hadith of the Messenger of Allah and one day he burnt them all.”15

There are several narrations regarding the second caliph which indicate that he stopped people from relating the Holy Prophet’s traditions.16

The recording of hadith among the Sunnis started from the early second century when the Umayyad caliph `Umar ibn `Abd al-`Aziz ordered their collection and compilation.17 As is widely accepted, Ibn Jurayj was the first person to record and compile hadith among the Sunnis.18

Here it is worth mentioning that apart from the Household of the Prophet (S), their Shi`ah followers preceded the Sunnis in their effort to record the hadith. Abu Rafi` was the first man to begin the task along with the members of the Prophet’s Household (A).19 However, there were also several others who took up this task at the time of Abu Rafi`, or after him. Among them were: `Ubayd Allah ibn Abi Rafi`, `Ali ibn Abi Rafi`, Salman al-Farisi, Abu Dharr al-Ghifari, Asbagh ibn Nubatah and others.20

The Shi`ah recorders of hadith can be divided into four groups:

  1. In the first group, besides `Ali ibn Abi-Talib (A) and Fatimah al-Zahra’ (A), were Abu Rafi`, Salman al-Farisi, Maytham al-Tammar, Asbagh ibn Nubatah, Mujashi`i al-Kufi, `Ubayd Allah ibn Abi Rafi`, Harth ibn `Abd Allah al-A`war al-Hamdani, Rabi`ah ibn Sami`, Salim ibn Qays, `Ali ibn Abi Rafi`, `Abd Allah ibn Hurr, Muhammad ibn Qays al-Bajali, Ya`la ibn Murrah, Jabir ibn `Abd Allah al-Ansari.
  2. In the second group were Imam `Ali ibn al-Husayn Zayn al-`Abidin (A), Ja`far ibn Yazid al-Ju`fi, Zayd ibn `Ali, Husayn ibn Thawr, Ziyad ibn al-Mundhir.
  3. In the third group can be said to belong Yahya ibn Qasim, `Abd al-Mu’min, Zurarah ibn A`yun, Muhammad ibn Muslim, Bassim al-Sayrafi, Abu `Ubaydah al-Hadhdha’, Zakariyya ibn `Abd Allah, Thawrab ibn Qamamah, Majd ibn Mughirah, Muhammad ibn Za’idah al-Khadrami, Mu`awiyah ibn `Amarah, Matlab al-Zahri, `Abd Allah ibn Maymun.
  4. This group of recorders of the hadith comprised of more than four-thousand of the people of Iraq, Hijaz, Khurasan and Sham (Syria), who related traditions from Imam Muhammad al-Baqir (A) or Imam Ja`far al-Sadiq (A).21

The pioneers in recording of the hadith among the Sunnis were Ibn Jurayj in Mecca; Ibn Ishaq and Malik in Medina; Rabi` ibn Sabih, Sa`id ibn Abi `Urubah, Hammad ibn Salamah in Basra; Sufyan ibn Thawri in Kufa; al-Awza`i in Syria, Haytham in Wasit; Mu`ammar in Yemen, Jarir ibn `Abd al-Hamid in Rey, and Ibn Mubarak in Harran.22 However, there is a disagreement among the Sunni scholars about who first started recording hadith. According to Ibn Hajr, Rabi` ibn Sabih (died 160/777) and Sa`id ibn Abi `Urubah (died 156/773) were pioneers in this field; they were followed by Malik in Medina and `Abd al-Malik ibn Jurayj in Mecca, who pursued the task of recording hadith.23 But according to Haji Khalifah, `Abd al-Malik ibn Jurayj and Malik ibn Anas were the first ones to do so, and the first man to classify them and divide them into chapters was Rabi` ibn Sabih.24 In any case, regardless of who it was to first record hadith among the Ahl al-Sunnah, whether Rabi` ibn Sabih or Malik or Sa`id ibn Abi `Urubah, all of them belong to the second century of Hijra, and lived one hundred years after the Shi`ah had already started this work.

As we mentioned above, the Muslims recognized the need to record the words of the Prophet (S) right after his demise; because they knew that it was the only way to safeguard the future generations against various problems. The realization of the significance of this work grew gradually. After the Prophet (S) his close companions formed the primary source of hadith. During their lifetimes, the solution of various problems that arose could still be found and the narrations of the Sahabah served as the guiding torch for the generation that followed them, the Tabi`un. It was during the generation of the Tabi`un that the Sahabah were questioned about various issues and their narrations were committed to writing. This was the beginning of the science of hadith. Hadith served as the key to the understanding of the Qur’an, and became an addendum to the Book for the Muslims. However, as pointed out earlier, the Shi`ah had felt this need earlier during the lifetime of the Prophet himself.

From the time that Muslims began to realize the need for collection and recording of ahadith, they took great pains in this regard. A man like Jabir ibn `Abd Allah al-Ansari would cover months on camel-back to hear a hadith.25

The number of the Companions of the Prophet from whom traditions have been related is put somewhere near 114 in some books.26 The most important of them were: `Ali ibn Abi-Talib (A), `Abd Allah ibn Mas`ud, Salman al-Farisi, Ubayy ibn Ka`ab, `Ammar ibn Yasir, Hudhayfah ibn al-Yaman, `Abd al-Rahman ibn `Awf, Anas ibn Malik, Abu Musa al-Ash`ari, `A’ishah, `Umar ibn al-Khattab, Abu Hurayrah, `Abd Allah ibn al-`Abbas, `Ubadah ibn Samit, Jabir ibn `Abd Allah al-Ansari, Abu Sa`id al-Khudri.

Among the Tabi`un, there were such as Sha`bi, Ibn Musayyab, Ibn Sirin, and others.27

The author of Tadrib al-rawi puts the number of traditions narrated from each of the Companions in the diminishing order as follows:

  • Abu Hurayrah: 5,374 hadith.
  • `Abd Allah ibn `Umar: 2,630 hadith.
  • `A’ishah: 2,208 hadith.
  • `Abd Allah ibn al-`Abbas: 1,660 hadith.
  • Jabir ibn `Abd Allah al-Ansari: 1,540 hadith.
  • `A’ishah: 2,208 >Abu Sa`id al-Khudri: 1,170 hadith.28

There is none among the rest of companions to be accredited with narration of more than one thousand traditions. Evidently, the political conditions prevalent during the Umayyad rule did not permit narration of ahadith from `Ali (A) and his followers. It is worth mentioning that not all of the first narrators of hadith were equally reliable. This issue will be discussed later in the chapter on dirayat al-hadith (critical examination of hadith). But before we enter the discussion on dirayat al-hadith, its origin and development, it is necessary to study the course of development of the science of hadith among the Shi`ah and the Ahl al-Sunnah from the point of view of style of compilation of the texts during various periods.

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