A similar (favour have ye already received) in that We have sent among you an Messenger of your own, rehearsing to you Our Signs, and sanctifying you, and instructing you in Scripture and Wisdom, and in new knowledge. Al Baqarah Ayah 151
no, I'm not talking about the food... I'm talking about the confusing world of ahadith.
I decided that I had enough of sunnah and ahadith for a while at least. Not until I had the next hadith in my inbox (ok, I subscribed to at least 3 different daily hadith mailers, lol) that seemed to be randomly quoted, without further explanation and a lot of islamic decoration and other rubbish to it. And it challenged me!
My mind is by nature critical, and this is how I came to Islam in the first place, when someone told me something and disclaimed it was truth, I would not believe it. Only the absolute truth is acceptable for me, or, what I can experience for myself, this of course, did not change after finding the truth and becoming a muslim (the shahada doesn't switch your brains off).
Ok, how come that I have such a unshakeable belief in Allah, is a different topic altogether. (That doesn't mean though that my faith in Islam and the Muslims is unshakeable.)
The Quran, ok that is a miracle in itself, everyone with open eyes can see the truth in that. But hadith? How can you proof the truthfullness of Hadith and what in fact does the existance of Hadith teach (that is just my personal conclusion I came to)
There is a lot of "the prophet said that we have to do this, and that we have to do that" in the virtual and real ummah, and a lot of fatwas are sometimes solely based on hadith, not Quran. And they often contradict each other and, in my view the most confusing thing of all, they contradict blatantly the Quran!
I have even a footnote in one of my Quran translations in regards to an ayah in an Nisa and some other places - it states that this ayah was later overruled by a hadith.
Hang on a moment!
Before I just even start to squish the bit of grey matter out of my brain wondering about single hadiths that I don't understand yet, I decided to investigate "the maze" from the outside in.
I found in several books and websites the common opinion that people who quote random hadith for educational purposes have to consider the validity of this saying. A lot of born muslims however quote sayings and deeds of the Prophet because it has been taught by their parents and they again had it told by their parents or community that they were raised in.
A lot of them would out of respect to their elders never question the authenticity of this saying, after all it often held the community together. These sort of people repeat what they have been told by their elders without thinking (the one's that can read have a much reverred ancient collection of ahadith in Quran lookalike books that only the man in the house is allowed to touch).
Ok.... my impression was that the weirdest ahadith with the strongest language were quoted most and considered as law.
If that doesn't need a thinking cap on then I don't know! Most muslims are good at thinking about how western society corrupts the ummah and conspiracy theories but they don't waste a critical thought on the core teaching of Islam.
Similar to tafseer of the Quran, the collections of Hadith have caused the establishment of a "science of hadith" in fact the first proper scientific examination of things in my view. Imam Bukhari, Muslim and Dawood were some of the most famous collectors and examinors of ahadith and their hadith are often considered as most authentic. Those famous early scholars, may Allah bless them, realized the need for clarification and authentication of ahadith.
I have found the following classifications according to these scholars, and that made a lot of things clear for me (sourced from several different websites e.g. islamic-awareness.org)
A hadith is usually structured in 3 parts, the isnad (the chain of reporters), matn (the text itself) and taraf (the part that refers to the saying, action or characteristic of the Prophet quoted).
Most scholars classify Hadith into 5 categories according to the 1) reference to a particular authority (e.g. a direct revelation from Allah swt - classified as Qudsi, sacred, from Muhammad saw is Marfu, elevated, mauquf "stopped" for instance from one of the Wives of the Prophet etc...)
2) the isnad, or links and chain of reporters "isnad" or transmission chain (ranging form "Musnad" meaning supported to "muttasil" - continuous back to the Prophet himself to "mu'allaq" - hanging chain)
3) number of reporters involved in the isnad, there are "mutawatir", many, or "ahad", isolated
4) nature of the text AND isnad, for example a "munkar" is a hadith that contradicts another authentic hadith and is reported by a weak narrator (denounced hadith), and a "mudraj" appears to be several hadith mixed up by accident and quoted as one.
5) The reliability and memory of reporters and narrators: "sahih" means sound and "mawdu" means fabricated and forged, and yes, those unfortunatly exist plentiful.
You wouldn't accept a court ruling by an insane, corrupt or even non present judge, would you?
I was very surprised to see how many hadith actually are classified as da'id and munkar but instead of being cancelled out of ahadith collections they are still being quoted and also used for fatwas, this again supposed to be done with certain rules.
Why did the famous scholars that did so much service for Islam did not just disregard questionable ahadith and left the 100% sure ones, however the fact that they still exist and being quoted invited to investigate, think about and question the available sources. I think it wasn't just because they couldn't agree between each other what was authentic and what was not!
I have concluded that instead of being a faulty or incorrect collection of sayings that would make the sunnah invalid or at least to be considered as a morality and ethics codex, not law it makes the collections of various ahadith perfect.
Perfect because it is an open challenge and invitation to question, test and examine the core if Islam, investigate histories and accept truths and disregard falseness after thorough check. It's lesson in itself is "do not believe things in blind faith - examine thorougly and critically"
I see it as a direct invitation and a hint not to take rules and teachings in blind faith and not follow things out of convenience. The paradox of an imperfect pillar of islam is that it's imperfection is a teaching a itself, a lesson that also includes the solution - if that is not wisdom!
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6 comments:
no wonder i have a headache now:)
As-salamu alaykum
I remember one of my teachers explaining that it's important to know what the weak and fabricated hadith are so that they can be noted as such as not used. And in fact, they are not used by scholars in formulating Shari'ah. But the compilers of the ahadith keep them there while noting their flaws.
Salam
Yes, like Amy says, a hadith which is weak cannot be used for a ruling. As an individual, if you choose to totally ignore weak hadith, there is no harm in that at all.
yes, except that the next day someone comes and tells you that it's a hadith and therefore rule
Salam
Easy solution: don't listen to those kind of people.
Praise be to Allaah.
Allaah has guaranteed to protect His religion, which includes preserving His miraculous Book, and preserving the Sunnah of His Prophet which helps us to understand the Qur’aan. Allaah says (interpretation of the meaning):
“Verily, We, it is We Who have sent down the Dhikr (i.e. the Qur’ân) and surely, We will guard it (from corruption).” [al-Hijr 15:9]
The word Dhikr here includes both the Qur’aan and the Sunnah.
Many people – in the past and at present – have tried to insert weak and fabricated ahaadeeth into the pure sharee’ah and the Prophetic Sunnah. But Allaah has thrown their plots back in their faces and has provided means of protecting His religion. Among these means are the trustworthy and reliable scholars who:
1. sifted through the reports and
2. checked their sources,
3. examining the biographies of the narrators and even
4. describing the point at which a narrator began to be confused in his narration, and
5. stating who narrated from him before he became confused and who narrated from him afterwards.
6. They described the journeys of the narrator,
7. which cities he visited and
8. from whom in each city he took reports.
9. They checked many details about each narrator, more than can be listed here.
All of this indicates that the religion of this Ummah is protected, no matter how hard our enemies try to plot and play about with the religion and distort it.
Sufyaan al-Thawri said: the angels are the guardians of the heavens and the scholars of hadeeth are the guardians of this world.
Al-Haafiz al-Dhahabi mentioned that Haaroon al-Rasheed was about to put a zindeeq (heretic) on trial, and the zindeeq said: “What are you going to do about the one thousand ahaadeeth I have fabricated?” Al-Rasheed said: “What are you going to do, O enemy of Allaah, about Abu Ishaaq al-Fazaari and ‘Abd-Allaah ibn al-Mubaarak, who will sift through those ahaadeeth and examine them letter by letter?”
The seeker of knowledge can find out about the fabricated (mawdoo’) and weak (da’eef) ahaadeeth very easily, by looking at the isnaads or chains of narrators, and finding out about the people mentioned there in the “books of men” i.e., narrators (kutub al-rijaal) and the books which state which narrators are sound or otherwise (kutab al-jarh wa’l-ta’deel).
Many scholars have compiled these fabricated and weak ahaadeeth in books devoted solely to these type of reports, so that it is easy to find out about them – then one can beware of them and warn others about them. These books include:
1. al-‘Ilal al-Mutanaahiyah by Ibn al-Jawzi,
2. al-Manaar al-Muneef by Ibn al-Qayyim,
3. al-La’aali’ al-Masnoo’ah fi’l-Ahaadeeth al-Mawdoo’ah by al-Suyooti,
4. al-Fawaa’id al-Majmoo’ah by al-Shawkaani,
5. al-Asraar al-Marfoo’ah fi’l-Ahaadeeth al-Mawdoo’ah by Ibn ‘Arraaq, and
6. Da’eef al-Jaami’ al-Sagheer by Shaykh al-Albaani, may Allaah have mercy on him.
7. Silsilat al-Ahaadeeth al-Da’eefah wa’l-Mawdoo’ah, by Shaykh al-Albaani, may Allaah have mercy on him.
The fact that you have heard about weak and fabricated ahaadeeth indicates that you are making the distinction – praise be to Allaah – between what is saheeh and what is not. This is by the grace of Allaah, and is a sign that Allaah is protecting this sharee’ah, as we mentioned above.
We advise you sister to read the “books of men” i.e., narrators (kutub al-rijaal), the books which state which narrators are sound or otherwise (kutab al-jarh wa’l-ta’deel) and the books of the science of hadeeth (kutub mustalah al-hadeeth), so that you can learn the extent of the efforts made by the scholars in the service of the Sunnah.
And Allaah is the source of strength.
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