Islamic Community: Hadith

Hadith, Arabic Ḥadīth (“News” or “Story”), also spelled Hadīt , record of the traditions or sayings of the Prophet Muhammad, revered and received as a major source of religious law and moral guidance, second only to the authority of the Qurʾān, the holy book of Islam. It might be defined as the biography of Muhammad perpetuated by the long memory of his community for their exemplification and obedience. The development of Hadith is a vital element during the first three centuries of Islamic history, and its study provides a broad index to the mind and ethos of Islam.

Nature and origins

The term Hadith derives from the Arabic root ḥ-d-th meaning “to happen” and so “to tell a happening,” “to report,” “to have, or give, as news,” or “to speak of.” It means tradition seen as narrative and record. From Hadith comes the Sunnah (literally, a “well-trodden path”—i.e., taken as precedent and authority or directive), to which the faithful conform in submission to the sanction that Hadith possesses and that legalists, on that ground, can enjoin. Tradition in Islam is thus both content and constraint, Hadith as the biographical ground of law and Sunnah as the system of obligation derived from it. In and through Hadith, Muhammad may be said to have shaped and determined from the grave the behaviour patterns of the household of Islam by the posthumous leadership his personality exercised. There were, broadly, two factors operating to this end. One was the unique status of Muhammad in the genesis of Islam, and the other was the rapid geographical expansion of the new faith in the first two centuries of its history into various areas of cultural confrontation. Hadith cannot be rightly assessed unless the measure of these two elements and their interaction is properly taken.

The experience of Muslims in the conquered territories of west and middle Asia and North Africa was related to their earlier tradition. Islamic tradition was firmly grounded in the sense of Muhammad’s personal destiny as the Prophet—the instrument of the Qurʾān and the apostle of God. The clue to tradition as an institution in Islam may be seen in the recital of the shahādah, or “witness” (“There is no god but God; Muhammad is the prophet of God”), with its twin items as inseparable convictions—God and the messenger. Islamic tradition follows from the primary phenomenon of the Qurʾān, received personally by Muhammad and thus inextricably bound up with his person and the agency of his vocation. Acknowledgment of the Qurʾān as scripture by the Islamic community was inseparable from acknowledgment of Muhammad as its appointed recipient. In that calling he had neither fellow nor partner, for God, according to the Qurʾān, spoke only to Muhammad. When Muhammad died, in 632 ce, the gap thus created in the emotions and the mental universe of Muslims was shatteringly wide. It was also permanent. Death had terminated the revelation embodied in the Qurʾān. By the same stroke, scriptural mediation had ended, as well as prophetic presence.

The Prophet’s death was said to have coincided with the perfection of revelation. But the perfective closure of both the book and the Prophet’s life, though in that sense triumphant, was also onerous, particularly in view of the new changing circumstances, of both space and time, in the geographical expansion of Islam. In all the new pressures of historical circumstance, where was direction to be sought? Where, if not from the same source as the scriptural mouthpiece, who by virtue of that consummated status had become the revelatory instrument of the divine word and could therefore be taken as an everlasting index to the divine counsel? The instinct for and the growth of tradition are thus integral elements in the very nature of Islam, Muhammad, and the Qurʾān. Ongoing history and the extending dispersion of Muslim believers provided the occasion and spur for the compilation of Hadith.

Historical development

The appeal of the ordered recollection of Muhammad to the Islamic mind did not become immediately formalized and sophisticated. On the contrary, there is evidence that the full development of Hadith was slow and uneven. Time and distance had to play their role before memory became stylized and official.

Literary tradition in pre-Islamic Arabia

The first generation had its own immediacy of Islamic experience, both within the life span of the Prophet and in the first quarter century afterward. It had also the familiar patterns of tribal chronicle in song and saga. Pre-Islamic poetry celebrated the glory of each tribe and their warriors. Such poetry was recited in honour of each tribe’s ancestors. The vigour and élan of original Islam took up these postures and baptized them into Muslim lore. The proud history of which Muhammad was the crux was, naturally, the ardent theme, first of chronicle and then of history writing. Both needed and stimulated the cherishing of tradition. The lawyers, in turn, took their clues from the same source. While the Qurʾān was being received, there had been reluctance and misgiving about recording the words and acts of the Prophet, lest they be confused with the uniquely constituted contents of the scripture. Knowledge of Muhammad’s disapproval of the practice of recording his words is evidence enough that the practice existed. With the Qurʾān complete and canonized, those considerations no longer obtained, and time and necessity turned the instinct for Hadith into a process of gathering momentum.

Developments of the 1st and 2nd centuries ah

Within the first century of the Prophet’s death, tradition had come to be a central factor in the development of law and the shape of society. Association by Hadith with Muhammad’s name and example became increasingly the ground of authority. The 2nd century brought the further elaboration of this relationship by increasing formalism in its processes. Traditions had to be sustained by an expert “science” of attestation able to satisfy rigorous formal criteria of their connection with the person of Muhammad through his “companions,” by an unbroken sequence of “reportage.” This science became so meticulous that it is fair (even if also paradoxical) to suspect that the more complete and formally satisfactory the attestation claimed to be, the more likely it was that the tradition was of late and deliberate origin. The developed requirements of acceptability that the tradition boasted simply did not exist in the early, more haphazard and spontaneous days.

It is clear that many customs and usages native to non-Arab societies prior to their Islamization found their way into Islam in the form of reputed or alleged traditions of Muhammad, though always on the condition of their general compatibility with Islamic tradition. Implicit in this sense in Muhammad’s personal example and genius, tradition inferred an elasticity and an embrace large enough to comprehend and anticipate all that Islam in its wide geographical experience was to become.

Qurʾānic commentary, as it developed in the wake of these other factors of law and custom, also leaned heavily on traditional material, for the incidents of the Qurʾānic narrative and the occasions of revelation could best be understood by what tradition had to say in its reporting of them. Further, since the patterns of Qurʾānic commentary were largely hortatory, Hadith was a ready mine of word and story calculated to exemplify and reinforce what exhortation commended. Except in rare and controversial cases (the so-called Ḥadīth Qudsī, or Holy Tradition), these traditional factors in Qurʾānic interpretation were only elucidatory, and the substance of tradition could in no way dispute or displace the essential, primary authority of the Qurʾānic text; the obiter dicta (incidental observations) of Muhammad, though sacrosanct, lacked the hallmark of revelation, which belonged solely to the Qurʾān. Among earliest developed examples of Hadith are the narratives of the biographer Ibn Isḥāq (died ah 150 [767 ce]) and the compilation of laws by Mālik ibn Anas, known as al-Muwaṭṭaʾ (died ah 179 [795 ce]). But they preceded by less than half a century the success of the theory that made tradition indispensable to the valid development of Islamic law.

3rd century ah and subsequent developments

The chief protagonist of the view correlating tradition and law was Muḥammad al-Shāfiʿī (died ah 204 [820 ce]), who claimed for tradition a divine imprint as an extension of the revelation of the Qurʾān. It was in line with this conviction that the phrase “the Qurʾān and the Sunnah” became current to describe the fount of authority in Sunni Islam (the major traditionalist sect). By this mandate and out of the needs and inventiveness of lawyers, the mass of tradition grew apace. When virtually no issues could be argued, still less settled, except by connection with cited acts and opinions of Muhammad, the temptation to require or to imagine or to allege such traditions became irresistible. Supply approximated to demand, and the growth of both made more ingenious and pretentious the science of supporting attribution. The increasing volume and complexity of the material contained in Hadith necessitated larger compilations and more detailed classification. These factors worked together to inspire a critical editorial activity that in the course of the 3rd century generated what have come to be regarded as the six canonical collections of Hadith by Sunnis. The first two of them have acquired a status of great sanctity. Before noting these, it is convenient to describe the editorial task and the editorial procedures that constitute the developed science of Hadith criticism.

The science of Hadith

The study of tradition (ʿilm al-ḥadīth) distinguishes between the substance, or content, known as the “gist” (matn) of the matter, and the “leaning” (isnād), or chain of corroboration on which it hangs.

Form of Hadith and criteria of authentication

That Muhammad observed “Seek knowledge, though it be in China” or “Beware of suspicion, for it is the falsest of falsehoods” reveals the matn, or “the meat of the matter.” The formula introducing such a Hadith would speak in the first person: “It was related to me by A, on the authority of B, on the authority of C, on the authority of D, from E (here a companion of Muhammad) that the Prophet said….” This chain of names constituted the isnād on which the saying or event depended for its authenticity. The major emphases in editing and arguing from tradition always fell on the isnād, rather than on a critical attitude to the matn itself. The question was not “Is this the sort of thing Muhammad might credibly be imagined to have said or done?” but “Is the report that he said or did it well supported in respect of witnesses and transmitters?” The first question would have introduced too great a danger of subjective judgment or independence of mind, though it may be suspected that issues were in fact often decided by such critical appraisal in the form of decisions ostensibly relating only to isnād. The second question certainly allowed a theoretically objective and reasonably precise pattern of criteria.

If the adjacent names in the chain of transmission overlapped in life, there was certainty that they could have listened to one another. Their travels were also investigated to see if their paths could have really crossed. Biographies could be built up to show that they were honest men and spoke truly. Comparative study could be made of their reputations for veracity as acknowledged by their contemporaries or indicated by their traditions when compared. The frequency of currency through several sources was yet another element in the testing of traditions. Most important of all was the final link with the “companion,” who in the first instance had the tradition from his or her contact with the Prophet.

Classifications

In all these ways, and others involving more minutiae, it was possible to establish categories of Hadith quality. Traditions might be sound (ṣaḥīḥ), good (ḥasan), or weak (ḍāʿīf). Other terms, such as healthy (ṣāliḥ) and infirm (saqīm), were also current. Each of the three classifications was liable to subdivisions, depending on refinements of assessment and, later, on their standing with the classic compilers. Distinctions were less rigorously seen if the traditions were cited not for legal definitions but merely for moral purposes. A ḍāʿīf tradition, for example, might well be salutary for exhortation, even if lawyers were required to exclude or ignore it. Traditions also varied in strength according to whether one or more “companions” could be adduced, whether the isnād had parallels, and whether they were continuous back to Muhammad (muttaṣil) or intermitted (mawqūf). The subtleties in these and other questions were part of the active competence that attended the whole science.

The repute and authority of the canonical collections did much to stabilize the situation, but only because their emergence demonstrated that the zest for tradition had overreached itself. By the end of the 3rd century ah it was sorely necessary to solidify Hadith into a stable corpus of material to which no new element could credibly be added and from which extravagances had been purged. The Hadith tradition within the various traditions had by then become a permanent and disciplined element in the authority structure of Islam—the second great source of law and practice, complementary to the Qurʾān and available for analogical handling (qiyās) and for consensus (ijtihād) as further sources of legislation, arguing from the Qurʾān and the Sunnah as primary. Shīʿite tradition stands apart from this structure of authority.

The compilations

The most revered of all traditionalists was al-Bukhārī (ah 194–256 [810–870 ce]), whose Al-Jāmiʿ al-ṣaḥīḥ (“The Authentic Collection”) has a unique place in the awe and esteem of Muslims as a work of great historical import and deep piety. While a boy, he made the pilgrimage to Mecca and gathered traditions in wide travels. According to tradition, he was inspired to his task by a vision of the Prophet Muhammad being pestered by flies while asleep—flies that he (al-Bukhārī) fanned from the Prophet’s face. The flies represented the cloud of spurious traditions darkening the true image, and the fan was its tireless rescuer. Whatever the truth of this narrative, it captures the temper of al-Bukhārī’s vocation. His Ṣaḥīḥ occupied 16 years of editorial pains and scrutiny. He included 7,397 traditions with full isnād. Allowing for repetitions, the net total was 2,762, gathered, it is said, from more than 600,000 memorized items. He arranged the whole into 97 books and 3,450 chapters or topics, repeating the traditions that bore on several themes.

Of comparable stature was the Ṣaḥīḥ of Muslim ibn al-Ḥajjāj (ah 202–261 [817–875 ce]), to which the compiler prefaced a discussion of the criteria of Hadith. The material largely confirms his contemporaries, and all such traditions common to these two authorities are known as agreed (muttafaq). It became characteristic to give freer rein to prevailing or communal assent in matters of isnād.

There are four other classical collections of tradition, all belonging within the 3rd century ah and interdependent in part. Abū Dāʾūd al-Sijistānī (ah 202–275 [817–889 ce]) produced his Kitāb al-sunan (“Book of Traditions”), containing 4,800 traditions relating to matters of jurisprudence (as the term sunan indicates, in contradistinction to a jāmiʿ, or collection embracing all fields). Abū ʿIsā Muḥammad al-Tirmidhī (died ah 279 [892 ce]) edited the Jāmiʿ al-ṣaḥīḥ, adding notes on the distinctive interpretations of the schools of law (madhāhib). Abūʿ Abd al-Raḥmān al-Nasāʾī (ah 216–303 [830–915 ce]) produced another Kitāb al-sunan with special concern for the religious law relating to ritual acts. Abū ʿAbdallāh ibn Mājā (ah 210–273 [824–886 ce]), a pupil of Abū Dāʾūd, compiled another with the same title but tended to a readier tolerance of less than satisfactory traditions. Preferences shifted between these four, and some were slower of recognition than others. Nor did they oust the earlier collection of Mālik ibn Anas, which maintained, if intermittently, its wide appeal. But they formed the increasing reliance of generations of Muslims, within the unique eminence of the master “pair,” and formed the sources of later popular editions, intended to conflate material for didactic purposes. One such was the work of Abū Muḥammad al-Baghawī (died ah 516 [1122 ce]) called Maṣābīḥ al-Sunnah (“The Lamps of the Sunnah”). Commentaries on all these classical musannafāt, or compilations, were many, and they were important in education and piety.

Sectarian variations

The tradition of the Shīʿites, the most significant minority branch of Islam in terms of number of adherents, distinguished from the tradition of the Sunni majority by belief in the special role of the Prophet’s cousin ʿAlī and his descendants, diverges sharply from a very early date, though the emphasis on the personality of Muhammad was identical. The Shīʿites broke away from the Sunni stream of Islam for deep reasons of politics, emotion, and theology. There was the dispute about caliphal succession and the role of ʿAlī, the fourth caliph, cousin and son-in-law of Muhammad, and bitter cleavage because of the tragic fate of his two sons and especially of Ḥusayn in the massacre of Karbalāʿ, from which there ultimately evolved the theology of vicarious suffering epitomized in Shīʿite devotion and ritual. All these factors inevitably involved the business of tradition. The schism read the origins according to the divided loyalties, and there was little that was not potentially contentious, apart from obvious matters—e.g., Muhammad’s intentions for ʿAlī and the caliphate. The issues were fought out in rivalry for the mind of the Prophet, the authority of which was the sole agreement in the very disputing of it. The Shīʿites thus rejected the tradition of the Sunnis and developed their own corpus of tradition (though there is evidence that al-Nasāʾī, at least, among the classical compilers, had sympathy with aspects of their cause). They also questioned the Sunni notions of isnād and of the community as a locus of authority and evolved their own system of submission to their imams. This altered the whole role that tradition might play. The major Shīʿite compilations date from the 4th and 5th centuries ah and allow only traditions emanating from the house of ʿAlī. The first of them is that of Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad al-Qulīnī (died ah 328 [939 ce]), Kāfī fī ʿilm al-dīn, which might be translated: “Everything You Need to Know About the Science of Religious Practice.”

Significance of Hadith

Canonical collections of Hadith are, for the non-Muslim, an introduction to a world of faith—of behaviour, authority, and almost encyclopaedic inclusiveness. Provisions of law are the primary element, enlarging Qurʾānic legislation. They contain a whole array of moral, social, commercial, and personal matters, as well as the themes of eschatology. All reaches of public and private conduct may be found there, from the disposal of a date stone to the crisis of the deathbed, from the manner of ablution to the duties of forgiveness, from the physical routines of digestion to the description of the Day of Judgment. There is a Talmudic capacity for detail and scrupulousness in legal and ethical prescriptions and precepts. There are stories of integrity and right action—for example, that of the purchaser of a plot of ground who subsequently unearthed in it a pot of gold, which he brought back to the former owner, protesting that it was not within his bargain. The vendor, likewise, refused to claim it since he had not known the gold was there when he sold his field. An arbitrator solved their dilemma of honesty by proposing the marriage of the son of one with the daughter of the other so that, after alms, the gold might be settled on the couple. Through and in tradition, Islam aligned itself authoritatively with all it found compatible in local usages and brought hospitably and masterfully within its purview the continuity of many cultures. There is wide evidence of the impact of Jewish and Christian elements, notably in the realm of eschatology, in the elaboration of the stark and urgent Qurʾānic doctrine of the Last Judgment. But always the imprint of Islam is clear. Tradition is at once a mine and a kind of currency, the source and the circulation of the values it makes and preserves.

Albert Kenneth Cragg The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica