HADITHS - THE LESSER KNOWN ASPECT

The Arabic word “hadith” literally means a story, or saying. Any story, or saying, from anyone.In Islam,it means collection of sayings and actions of Prophet Mohammad.

Sunni Muslims view the six major hadith collections as their most important. They are, in order of authenticity:

Sahih Bukhari, collected by Imam Bukhari (d. 870), includes 7275 ahadith

Sahih Muslim, collected by Muslim b. al-Hajjaj (d. 875), includes 9200 ahadith

Sunan al-Sughra, collected by al-Nasa'i (d. 915)

Sunan Abu Dawood, collected by Abu Dawood (d. 888)

Jami al-Tirmidhi, collected by al-Tirmidhi (d. 892)

Sunan ibn Majah, collected by Ibn Majah (d. 887)

The first two, commonly referred to as the Two Sahihs as an indication of their authenticity, contain approximately seven thousand ahadith altogether if repetitions are not counted.

A Hadeeth is composed of two parts

1) Matn (Text)

2) Isnad (Chain of reporters or narrators).

The Muhadditheen (Scholars of the Hadith) have classified the Ahadeeth in four main categories.

1. Saheeh (Authentic/Sound)

2. Hassan (Good)

3. Da'eef (Weak)

4. Mawdoo (Fabrication)

Al Hasan al Hadith (the 'good' hadith) is a term used to describe any hadith whose text (matn) is absolutely true but whose narrators (isnad) do not pass the test of complete reliability and accuracy based on the stringent criteria established by the hadith compilers. Al Da’if al Hadith (the 'weak' hadith) is a term used to describe any hadith whose truthfulness in both text (matn) and transmission (isnad) is not absolutely beyond question.

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COLLECTION OF HADITH

Hadith collections began on a small scale during the Messenger's prophethood and accelerated tremendously a century after his death. The companions of Prophet Mohammad, tried to preserve his sayings and judgements mainly in the form of memory. So basically, Hadiths were originally part of the oral tradition of Islam. There were no written records of the Prophet’s sayings and deeds during the first century after his death but after two hundred years of transmission and circulation, they were crystallized into written form by the compilers of hadith (the muhaddithun). Forgery had been rampant during the caliphate of the Prophet’s immediate successors, and it only increased under the Umayyads, who considered hadith a means of propping up their rule and actively circulated traditions against Ali and in favour of Mu'awiya.  Ummayad dynasty was overthrown by the Abbasids more than a century after Muhammad's death. The abbasids were more theocratic than the Ummayads. They encouraged the development of the sharia and even employed the court theologians to advise the caliphs. The rise of sunna had begun in the ummayad period but it was the Abbasids who gave it the official recognition. But, there was still a gap between Quran and Islam as a complete way of life. The scholars sought to fill this gap from materials from other sources like the Roman law or even their own opinions. Abbasids even encouraged circulating Prophetic hadith which predicted the reign of each successive ruler. Some of the religious leadership concentrated on ensuring the unity of the Ummah through law and other institutions. Such unity has, no doubt, reigned in the Muslim World but at the cost of inner growth.

Some striking points about hadiths :

LONG TIME GAP (MORE THAN 200 YEARS): After the destruction of the Baghdad Caliphate and the breakup of the political unity of the Muslim World. It is striking that the compilation of hadith started more than 200 years after the physical death of Prophet Mohammad. By that time, many generations had passed. The compilation was nothing but collection of hearsays and stories that were passed on from generation to generation.

HAdiths  are based on memory and hearsays and oral transmission from generation to generation.The historical records of seventh century Arabia show that oral communication (based on memory) was the primary mode of transmitting literature, history, culture, social customs and local tradition from one generation to the next. Arabia had been a land that had neither paper nor the abundance of scribes to write anything down. It’s an undisputed fact that collection of hadith mainly started after more than 200 years of Prophet Mohammad. The Hadith compilers took the herculean task of travelling to different places, even door to door in order to collect any sayings of prophet Mohammad. The people used to share with them stories and sayings of Prophet Mohammad what they had learnt from their forefathers ,who, in turn, had learnt from their forefathers. It’s very practical that even the gist of the message is highly vulnerable of being distorted when it involves: numerous messengers & long time period. In case of Hadeeths, it involved both. Then, How could after more than 200 years of prophet's period, Imam Bukhari suddenly emerge in the scene and not only collect thousands of hadith but also manage to trace back to its source (i.e. the Prophet) by establishing all the links in a chain which cannot possibly have been genuinely reconstructed? How could Bukhari and other hadith-collectors manage to bridge the gap of eight generations? Who can guarantee that any narrator of the chain had not lied or not made any unintentional mistake in stating things. How could one be fully certain that the narrator fully remembered what he had heard from another narrator and that any of the narrators involved in the chain had not made even the slightest mistake in communication, thus passing verbatim message. If we talk of consecutive generations, How can one be so certain that the chain of narrators, through the oral transmission , had been successful in transmitting the same message verbatim from generation to generation, when even in the same generation, or say, even in the same year or month or day, people are often found unable to exactly reproduce one’s utterances.

COMPILERS AND NARRATORS

 No human is infallible. The compilers and narrators could have been biased and prejudiced in their choice of narrators ,in their choice of hadith’s matter(matn) based on their personal ethical, theological, rational or even political thoughts. The collectors of Hadith made very little effort to examine the internal evidences and the genuineness of each Hadith was determined by the characters and personalities who were alleged to be its transmitters. Who can guarantee that the fallible compilers and narrators involved, had never distorted or manipulated the message? If we talk about the matn, the matn was almost never questioned; only if the content of a tradition with a sound isnad was in flagrant contradiction to the Qur'an, it was rejected; if the content could in any way be interpreted so that it harmonized with the Qur'an and other traditions, it was left uncriticized.

Some other causes that led to the fabrication of hadiths were:

.POLITICAL CONFLICT AND SECTARIAN PREJUDICE: Corrupt political leaders and partisan theological parties began to exploit the existing hadith and sunnah in order to promote their own sectarian views especially after the reigns of the four Rashidun caliphs.The Shia’s, particularly in Iraq fabricated many hadiths in praise of Hazrat Ali.Hadith were also fabricated just to please the king. For example, Giyath ibn Ibrahim ibn al Nakh’I fabricated a hadith about virtues of pigeons, to please the Caliph Mahdi (who was very fond of pigeons).Various factions attempted to justify and/or propagate their own schools Of philosophical thought in the name of the Prophet, e.g. Sufic Orders, Qadariyah, Jabariyah, Rawafid, Ikhwan-as-safa, Mu'tazila, etc. These were the groups that appeared after the death of Hazrat Ali.

The desire to translate the underlying meaning also led to distortion of the verbatim.

Not only this, various factions attempted to justify and/or propagate their own schools Of philosophical thought in the name of the Prophet, e.g. Sufic Orders, Qadariyah, Jabariyah, Rawafid, Ikhwan-as-safa, Mu'tazila, etc.These were the groups that appeared after the death of hazrat ali.

Some hadiths  were fabricated to instill and indoctrinate strict piety (taqwa) among the believers.For example, there were narrators who invented hadiths on "the merits of each Sura of the Qur’an" when they found people deserting the Qur’an. For example, Abu Isma Nuh ibn Abi Marayam admitted fabricating Hadith on the virtues of each Surah of the Qur’an stating that people were over-occupied with fiqh issues to the detriment of the Qur’an so “I invented these hadith for the sake of reward (from Allah)”.

Some more points to consider:

1..If one believes that all the Hadiths in Sahih Muslim are authentic then he should read this hadith "Do not write anything from me except Quran. Anyone who wrote anything other than the Quran shall erase it." [Ahmed, Vol. 1, Page 171, and Sahih  Moslim, Zuhd, Book 42, Number 7147].This also reflects self-contradictory nature of Hadith-compilation.

2.Abu Hurayra narrated more hadiths than anybody else including Abu Bakr, Omar, Ali, and Aysha who lived with the Prophet all their lives.Less than three years before the passing away of the Prophet, Abu Hurayrah joined Islam.Still Abu Hurayra narrated more hadiths than all these companions of the Prophet altogether. He narrated 5374 hadiths. Ibn Hanbal quoted 3848 of  his hadiths in his book.Compare the number of hadiths given by Abu Baker i.e 142 to those given by Abu Hurayra while keeping in mind that Abu Baker

accompanied the Prophet for about 23 years, while Abu Hurayra accompanied the Prophet for less than 2 or 3 years. Some of the Prophets companions (Sahaba) and Aysha, the Prophet's wife, accused him of being a liar, telling lies about the Prophet just to make up hadiths and gain some status.

 3. Bukhari collected about 600,000 hadiths and accepted 7275 hadiths(They further reduce to 2762 Hadith without repetition) and considered 592,725 hadiths to be un-proven hadiths, lies and/or fabrications, that is almost 99% of what he collected .Similarly, Imam Muslim collected 300,000 hadiths and only accepted 4000 of them, and refused about 296,000, that is almost 99% of these collected hadiths .

Ask yourself: Is it possible for Imam Bukhari or Imam muslim to have meticulously considered over several lakhs of hadith texts to pick his so-called authentic 7275 hadith texts in his lifetime in an age when the camel journey was the only available means to cover long desert distances to collect prophetic sayings. Even if we assume that they actually did so , who could vouch that the hadith they considered worth of including were actually authentic and rest lakhs of hadiths were actually worth of rejection?

4.Why was the official compilation not made earlier, especially during the time of Prophet Mohammad or the righteous caliphs when the the eye witnesses, were still alive and all hadiths could have been well examined? Just because Prophet and all Caliphates prevented people from any such compilation because they feared such compilation would lead to too much honouring of the traditions and sayings and neglect of the Quran, a fear that unfortunately, has got justified to a great extent by in the contemporary world.

CONCLUSION

This gives us an idea of how much corruption entered or tried to enter Islam from the back door. Now we should understand one of the reasons why God promised to preserve, protect and safeguard Quran.

Quran 15:9  Surely We have revealed the Reminder and We will most surely be its guardian.

 Remember Allah promises to preserve and safeguard the Quran and no other text. Even after so many hurdles, some hadith ,might still be fortunate enough to maintain their authenticity but the darker side seems to be too overweighed. Needless to say, large number of hadith texts do in fact contradict the Quran, defy all common sense reason or logic, or scientific truths or ethics.Some are salacious.There are many hadiths which record conflicting accounts of the same event!See This

Instead of validating or invalidating  hadeeths on the basis of its historical roots or reliability of its isnad(chain of narrators),  why do not so-called scholars of islam validate or invalidate it on the basis of reason or ethics or on humanitarian and egalitarian ground. Progressive and Rational muslims should assemble and a serious recompilation of Hadith is needed if they are not completely done away with. Masses should be made aware about the fabricated aspect of Hadith. The issue is of paramount importance and need to be addressed immediately as it would shape the mind-set of  generations to come.