DAY ONE: DEFINITION OF HADITH Those unacquainted with the science of Mustalah al-hadith or Hadith Methodology, Terminology and Classification generally presuppose that a hadith is: an authentic statement by the Prophet Muhammad [peace be upon Him]. This is incorrect on three counts: 1- The term hadith is not exclusive to attributions made to the Prophet Muhammad [peace be upon Him] and also refers to statements by the Sahabah (prophetic companions) [may Allah be pleased with them] and the Tabi`un (students of the Sahabah) [may Allah shower them with mercy]. Scholars differ, however, as to whether the statements of the latter two categories constitute independent evidence. Most do not consider the statements of the Tabi`un to be independent evidence. 2- The term hadith is applied to all attributions made to the Prophet Muhammad [peace be upon Him] and not merely those which have been found to be authentic. As such even attributions of a fabricated nature are called ahadith [plural of hadith]. To distinguish between authentic attributions and those found to be unauthentic, scholars add an adjective to the term hadith such as in hadith sahih or a hadith found to be highly authentic. 3- The term hadith is not confined to the statements of the Prophet Muhammad [peace be upon Him] but includes his: a. statements, b. actions, c. tacit approvals, d. physical attributes and e. character descriptions. In fact it would be more correct to instead of statements employ the term utterances so that it includes utterances other than statements such as exclamations, questions, prohibitions and imperatives. Here one does well to remember that muhaddithun (scholars of hadith) find interest in all matters associated with the Prophet [peace be upon Him] and do not restrict their study of the Prophet [peace be upon Him] to his utterances. On the other hand scholars of other Islamic sciences restrict themselves to those matters that have bearing on their particular area of
study. This is why usuliyun (legal theorists) restrict their study of the Prophet [peace be upon Him] to his utterances, actions and tacit approvals as only these possess legal value. In this study we employ the usage of the muhaddithun as they are the experts of the field. As such, the hadith proper is: any utterance, action, tacit approval, physical attribute or character quality attributed to the Prophet Muhammad [peace be upon Him], any of His Companions [may Allah be pleased with them] or their students [may Allah shower them with mercy] regardless of its authenticity or not. The following are therefore all ahadith: a) `Umar [may Allah be pleased with him] reported that he heard the Messenger of Allah [peace be upon him] say: All actions are judged solely in light of their accompanying intentions and one shall have only that which one has intended. Bukhari: 1 and Muslim: 1907. b) `Aishah [may Allah be pleased with her] reports that the Messenger of Allah sometimes used to fast so regularly that we believed he would never again eat during the day and at other times he would avoid fasting for such long periods that we believed he would never again fast. Narrated by Bukhari: 1141 and Muslim: 1158. c) `Abdullah ibn `Umar [may Allah be pleased with him] narrates that at their return from Ahzab, the Prophet [peace be upon him] said: No one should perform the `Asr prayer before they reach the Quraythah tribe. Some were delayed and the time of `Asr arrived while they were still en route. These tardy individuals then differed as to what to do and some decided to pray on the road while others delayed their prayer till they arrived at Banu Quraythah. Afterwards this disagreement was raised to the Messenger of Allah [peace be upon him] who rebuked neither party. Narrated by Bukhari: 946 and Muslim: 1770. d) Bara [may Allah be pleased with him] reports that the Messenger of Allah [peace be upon him] was the most handsome of men and possessed the most attractive physical traits. He was (of average height) neither too tall nor too short. Narrated by Bukhari: 3549 and Muslim: 3337.
e) `Abdullah ibn `Abbas [may Allah be pleased with him] reported that the Messenger of Allah was the most generous of people and his generosity reached its apex during the month of Ramadan. Narrated by Bukhari: 6 and Muslim: 2308. f) Jabir said: We used to practise `azl [coitus interuptus] (as a contraceptive method) in the prophetic era when Quran was still being revealed (yet never did it or the Prophet forbid us the act). Narrated by Bukhari: 5209 and Muslim: 1440. g) Zuhrî said: These ahruf are on the same issue and do not differ in permissibility and impermissibility. Narrated by Abû Dâwud: 1475. They differ however in that: a) is an utterance of the prophet, b) an act of the prophet, c) a tacit approval by the prophet, d) a description of the prophet s physical appearance, e) a description of his character, f) a statement by a Sahabi, g) a statement by a Tabi`i. Finally the Arabic term hadith has numerous synonyms that convey the exact same meaning in most instances and according to most scholars. Some of its more popular synonyms in use include: a) sunnah, b) khabar and c) athar. Still, there are others who use: a) hadith, sunnah and khabar exclusively for reports attributed to the Prophet [peace be upon Him], b) athar only for those ahadith attributed to the Sahabah [may Allah be pleased with them]. This point is of particular importance when one accesses the classical legacy of this science written well before the crystallisation of the terminologies.
Exercise One 1- Define the Arabic term hadith. 2- Give two synonyms for hadith. 3- Would scholars call a fabricated attribution to the Prophet [peace be upon him] hadith? Provide motivation for your answer. 4- What does one call attributions made either to the Sahabah or the Tabi`un? 5- Why would muhaddithun include physical attributes and character traits of the Messenger [peace be upon him] in their definition of hadith? Why do usuliyyun omit these two in their definition of hadith? DAY TWO: ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS The essential elements of a complete hadith are two: 1- the matn or main body of text that comprises the narrated material and 2- the sanad or chain of narrators on whose authority the narrated material has come to us. For this reason amongst English-speaking scholars the latter is sometimes also called the chain of authorities. (haddathanâ) `Abdullâh ibn Yusuf (akhbaranâ) Mâlik (`an) Ibn Shihâb (`an) `Urwah ibn Zubayr (`an) `Abdurarhmân ibn Abdin al-qâri (annahû qâla) I heard `Umar ibn al- Khattâb saying I heard Hishâm ibn Hakîm ibn Hizâm reciting sûrah al-furqân different from how I recite it... so I went to the Messenger of Allâh [peace be upon him] and said: I heard him recite in a manner different from how your recited it to me. He [peace be upon him] said: Release him, and then he said to him: Recite, and so he recited. He [peace be upon him] said: So it was revealed. He [peace be upon him] then said to me: Recite, and I recited. He [peace be upon him] then said: So it was revealed. Verily the Qurân was revealed in seven ahruf so recite of it that which is easy to you. Narrated by Bukhârî: 2419 and Muslim: 818 In the example the section in bold is the sanad (chain of authorities) and the section in normal text is the matn (body-text).
Occasionally ahadith will be presented in an incomplete form for a variety of reasons. This is usually done in two ways: a) matn alone and b) sanad alone. The motivations for presenting the matn alone include: a) brevity; such as when it will be counterproductive to the aim of the work or counterintuitive to the occasion to include the sanad. It is for this reason that the omission of the sanad is the preferred method in most religious addresses of a limited duration such as with the khutbah of jumu`ah. b) simplicity; when the intended audience are laypeople or the author assumes responsibility for the authenticity of included hadith material. Works of the fada il genre intended for public readership, such as the Riyad al-salihin of Imam Nawawi, invariably employ this method. The reasons for producing the sanad but omitting the matn include: a) narrator focus; when the focus is only on narrator criticism, it is not uncommon for authors to present only asanid [plural of sanad] in which the narrator appears and to exclude the accompanying matn. This occurs commonly in rijal-works although works devoted to the study of weak narrators or those that merely incorporate them will frequently include the matn so that the unwary are not deceived by them. b) avoidance of unnecessary repetition; when the matn attached to the sanad in question appears exactly so without any difference in a previous hadith. This is the method of choice for hadith works that collate in one place all instances of a particular matn in one s collection such as is the practice of Muslim in his Sahih. Exercise Two: 1- How many essential elements make up a complete hadith? 2- Name the elements and define them.