Hadith
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Hadith (الحديث; pl. ahadith) literally translates to mean "talk", but is most commonly used as an Islamic term that refers to the orally-transmitted accounts of Muhammad's life, wherein Muhammad does, says, or tacitly (that is, silently) approves of something. The hadiths, passed down orally before being written down, for the most part, some 150-200 years after Muhammad's death, are second in their religious authority only to the Qur'an and, since the collections of hadith are far, far vaster (and more detailed) than the (at times vague) Qur'an, they form the basis for the great majority of Islamic law and the Sunnah. Indeed, even the details regarding the Five Pillars of Islam are found only in the hadith (the Qur'an, focused more on matters of belief, simply mentions these rituals every once in a while without providing anything in the way of clear details).
More broadly, the word "Hadith" refers to the statements and actions of Muhammad as well as his companions. In the Shi'ite tradition, the term "Hadith" extends to include the statements and actions of the ahl al-bayt (Muhammad's descendants through Fatima, as well as the twelve Imams). Criticism of the Hadith
Religious and sectarian perspectives
Oral traditions and early sectarianism
Though the authenticity of any of the Hadith has come under increasing scrutiny in modern times (in light of scholarship on the reliability of oral traditions, virtually unending political conflicts after Muhammad's death, frequent internal contradiction, and, often, clear cases of fabrication), the early scholars of Islam responsible for the transcription of the hadith did themselves employ a seemingly sophisticated method of verification that relied on the plausibility of: the "chains" of transmission (or asaneed; sing. isnad) allegedly connecting the hadith back to the prophet, the reliability of the narrators' morals and memory, and, indeed, the matn, or text, of the hadith itself (that is, the plausibility of the prophet actually having said/done what the report attests to).
Despite this apparent rigor, the hadith would ultimately be compiled along sectarian, political, and polemical lines, generally with narrations supporting the compiling group's point of view (matn-based analysis playing no small part in this outcome). Today, Sunnis and Shi'ites have separate collections of hadiths. That the meaning of "hadith" extended to include the sayings and doings of Muhammad's companions, many of whom would be deeply embroiled in the political turmoil that would follow Muhammad's death (prominently, Ali and Aisha), only facilitated the splitting of the tradition.
Sunni perspective
The word 'Sunni' comes from the word 'Sunnah', and most of the world's Muslims (as many as 80-90%)[1][2][3][4][5] follow this Sunni form of Islam. There are certain Hadith collections considered by most Sunnis to be trustworthy and these are commonly known as the Authentic Six. Only two of them, however, are considered entirely authentic (sahih), and these are Bukhari and Muslim. These collections are second only to the Qur'an in authority. The others are from Abu Dawud, Tirmidhi, Nasa'i, and Ibn Majah. In strength, Malik's Muwatta' is placed just below the two Sahihs, but is not generally included among the authentic six.[6]
Shi'ite perspective
In Shi'ite Islam (approx 10-20% of the world's Muslim population)[1][7][4][5] they have their own collections and are more particular in regards to the Hadith narrations they will accept. If a narrator was not a member of the Ahl al-Bayt (Muhammad's household) or one of their supporters, then the narration is typically rejected. For example, they reject narrations from Abu Huraira. Al-Kafi is considered the most reliable collection of Shi'ite hadith.[8]
Qur'anist ("submitters", "Reformists", etc.)
This minority group rejects the Hadith altogether and are classed as heretics by mainstream Islam. This "Qur'an-only" approach to the Islamic faith is not without its criticisms, as in the absence of hadith, much of Islamic ritual and religious history lacks basis.
Degrees of authenticity
While circumstances surrounding and preceding the compilation of the hadith cast the entire corpus in a dubious light, the hadith cannot be viewed as entirely reliable or unreliable, as even hadith scholars themselves differentiate(d) between what they grade(d) as:
Sahih (authentic),
Hasan (good),
Da'if (weak),
and Munkar (rejected; referring usually to less reliable hadith that contradict more reliable hadith).
Consequently, even from an Islamic standpoint, the vast, vast, majority of hadith floating around prior to the compilation of the hadith are considered unreliable. Most famously, the Sunni scholars Imam Bukhari (d. 870) and Imam Muslim (d. 875) are said to have sifted through hundreds of thousands of narrations to ultimately decide only a few thousand were truly reliable. Slightly earlier collections of hadith do exist, famously the collections of Imam Malik (d. 795) and Imam Ibn Hanbal (d. 855), but these are not considered as altogether reliable (even if individual traditions within these works are reliable) as the collections of Bukhari and Muslim.
Collections of hadith, unlike the Qur'an, are generally grouped topically, chronologically, or by the companion who is alleged to have narrated them (this last type of organization within a collection of hadith renders the work a musnad, such as the Musnad of Imam Ahmad).[9]
References in the Qur'an
Historians' views on the reliability of the hadith
Ignác Goldziher (d. 1921)
Ignác Goldziher, considered one of the "founder[s] of modern Islamic studies in Europe", wrote the following:
Joseph Schacht (d. 1969)
Joseph Schacht, the leading scholar on the history of Islamic law during his time, wrote the following:
G.H.A. Juynboll (d. 2010)
G.H.A. Juynboll was a leading scholar of hadith. His contributions to hadith studies have been called "substantial and groundbreaking"[10], and he has been called "talented and tireless".[11]
Patricia Crone (d. 2015)
Patricia Crone was the leading scholar of early Islamic history during her time and held academic positions at institutions including Princeton, Oxford, and Cambridge universities.
Robert G. Hoyland
Robert G. Hoyland, Professor of Late Antique and Early Islamic Middle Eastern History at New York University and a leading historian of early Islam, writes:
Andreas Görke
Andreas Görke is senior lecturer of Islamic studies at the University of Edinburgh
1. The Muslim accounts of the life of Muḥammad are only recorded in written sources that date from more than 150 years after Muḥammad’s purported death; they are neither supported by non-Muslim sources, nor substantiated by archaeological findings.
2. Some accounts are apparently inspired by verses from the Qurʾān. They thus do not constitute independent sources, but are only attempts to interpret Qurʾānic verses and to place them into a context.
3. Some accounts display obvious secondary tendencies that reflect later political, theological or legal debates.
4. Often, the existing accounts are contradictory. They contain conflicting information regarding chronology, persons involved, and the course of events that cannot be reconciled.
5. The motivation of the accounts’ creators and transmitters should not be considered to be purely historiographical. Instead, it has to be assumed that they aimed at presenting the life of Muḥammad as salvation history, to provide a context for the Qurʾānic text, support certain legal positions by tracing them back to the Prophet, provide certain persons with a particular status by emphasising their role in the Prophet’s surroundings, or simply to entertain. The accounts are thus not only reshaped and distorted by secondary tendencies, but were never meant to present the life of Muḥammad in any objective way.
See also
External links
Online hadith collections in English
- Sahih Bukhari
- Sahih Muslim
- Sunan Abu Dawud (partial)
- Malik's Muwatta
- Jami al-Tirmidhi
- Hadith Qudsi (hadith which contain non-Qur'anic words from Allah, repeated by Muhammad)
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Comparison of Sunni and Shia Islam - ReligionFacts
- ↑ Islām - Encyclopædia Britannica (2010)
- ↑ Sunnite - Encyclopædia Britannica (2010)
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Mapping the Global Muslim Population: A Report on the Size and Distribution of the World’s Muslim Population - Pew Research Center, October 7, 2009
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Tracy Miller - Mapping the Global Muslim Population: A Report on the Size and Distribution of the World's Muslim Population - Pew Research Center, October 2009
- ↑ Various Issues About Hadiths - by Sh. G. F. Haddad
- ↑ Shīʿite - Encyclopædia Britannica Online (2010)
- ↑ Al Kafi - The Bukhari of Shi'ism - AHYA
- ↑ A. C. Brown, Hadith: an Introduction, 2009
- ↑ Brown, Jonathan A. C. (2008). "Book Reviews". Journal of Islamic Studies. 19 (3): 391. doi:10.1093/jis/etn054. JSTOR 26200800.
- ↑ REINHART, A. KEVIN (2010). "Juynbolliana, Gradualism, the Big Bang, and Hadîth Study in the Twenty-First Century" (PDF). Journal of the American Oriental Society. 130 (3): 417. Retrieved 4 June 2020.