How was Hadith/Prophetic narrations gathered and recorded?

How Hadith was gathered

This post was inspired by a lecture given by Sheikh Atabek Shukurov on hadith. I went into the lecture thinking that I knew the science quite well and there was very little to learn. As it turned out there was a lot I had yet to learn, which is something that happens regularly whenever I study with Sheikh! So the reason for writing this article was to increase my own knowledge and to explain this affair to some of the heedless who attack hadith.


What does hadith mean?

The hadith means “speech or report” from a root word “hadatha” which means to occur or take place.[1] Hadith, in Shariah terminology, can be defined as the speech, action or silent approval of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him). Or it can be simply defined as anything about the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him).


My previous understanding

I had read several books on about Islam which spoke briefly about hadith. They all state that Umar ibn Abdulaziz or Umar the second (may Allah show him mercy) commanded one of his governors to gather the hadith.[2]

The problem with this that there is a gap of around eighty five years,without any record from the time that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) passed away to the time when Umar Ibn Abdulaziz came to power.

If you read any books that are written about Islam they have a small section explaining how hadith was gathered. You would be confused because there are differing reports, none of which are satisfying in terms of understanding and relating the events clearly.

The differing opinions from the Orientalists and the like are: “Oral and written methods used,”[3] “Generations of Muslims wrote and recorded the Prophet’s words through various verbal and written records,”[4] In the same book the method of recording it is not mentioned[5] and there are other opinions, who like some people now, reject hadith totally.

Some individuals make the absurd statement that they do not know what is authentic and what is not. This opinion comes from those who do not have the tools to look for the authentic hadiths because of their own weakness and not because they do not exist. It’s the same as someone saying that there is no gold in his garden so there is no gold anywhere! If that person looked elsewhere he would find gold but he is real loser who cannot see the shinning gold of the hadith found in books.

For us to truly understand how hadith was gathered we have to go right back to time of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him). From there we can begin and from there we can grow to understand the narrative.


In the lifetime of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him)

There are different accounts about how hadith was recorded in the time of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) some take one account and neglect the other; to take either does not explain the picture in its entirety.

There are hadiths that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) orders the recording of hadith and in another hadith he orders them not to be written. Let us now look at the narrations.

Abu Sa’id Al-Khudari states that the Messenger (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said, “Do not write anything, from me, except the Quran. So whoever has something from me other than the Quran let him erase it.” (Muslim, At-Tirmidhi and Ad-Darami)

This also proves more than one companion was recording hadith because if it was one companion then they would be named. Also the verb used to command them not to write is in the plural form.

Abu Sa’id Al-Khudari said they sought permission to record prophetic narrations and it was not given to them. Ad-Darami

These narrations establish that the hadith/prophetic narration was ordered not to be recorded by the companions but there are other narrations...

Abdullah ibn Amr said, “I used to write all that I heard from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him). Some companions said, “Do not do that because the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, is human and he speaks when angered and happy. So I refrained from writing.” So he mentioned this to the Messenger, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, who said, “Write whatever I say. As I swear by the possessor of my soul nothing comes from me except the truth.” Imam Ahmed

Abu Hurayra stated about the matter of Abdullah ibn Amr, “The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, was sought permission to record what he heard so permission was granted to him.” Imam Ahmed and Al-Bayhaqi

Abu Hurayra said, “There was no companions of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, who had more hadith than me except that which Abdullah ibn Amr had. As he used to record them and I did not.” Al-Bukhari

So we can clearly see that Abdullah ibn Amr (may Allah be pleased with him) was given permission to record hadith over some other companions but why? The answer that is traditionally given is so that the companions would not confuse the Quran with the hadith. Which makes sense but then you may think that the Quran and the hadith are totally different in terms of syntax and sometimes words used, so why the confusion? Easy, because this command was specific to some companions who had recently entered into Islam. As for others who had been Muslims for some time it was not difficult for them to tell the difference between the Quran and the hadith. And the following narration explains it all.

Ali was asked, “Did the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) alloted you with something?” He replied, “I swear by the opener of the seed and creator of the soul, no. That was so the Quran was not mixed up but when we knew the Quran and could distinguish it, identify it precisely and memorise it. Then it was sure that it was not going to be mixed then permission was given to write (Hadith).”[6]

So when the companions could distinguish between Quran and hadith they were given permission to record hadiths.

Also please note the following narration concerning Abu Hurayra:
I said to Messenger of Allah, "I hear many hadiths from you but I forget them." The Messenger of Allah said, "Spread your Rida' (garment)." I did accordingly and then he moved his hands as if filling them with something (and emptied them in my Rida') and then said, "Take and wrap this sheet over your body." I did it and after that I never forgot any thing. (Sahih Bukhari 1.119, Sahih Bukhari 1.120)


After the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) passed away

The immediate concern of the companions, after the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) passed away, was to gather and record the Quran. Though this did not happen straight away this occured after a battle in which some companions who had memorised the Quran had been killed. The Quran was gathered and recorded by the companions (may Allah be pleased with them) after this event upon the insistance of Umar ibn Al-Khattab.

The following event confirms that not only did Abdullah ibn Amr record hadith other companions did as well.

It is related that 'Aisha said, "My father gathered the hadith of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) and it was about five hundred hadiths. He spent one night tossing and turning and this worried me. I asked, "Are you tossing and turning because of some aliment or have you heard some bad news?" In the morning he said, "Daughter, bring me the hadiths you have with you." I brought them, then he called for fire and burnt them. He said, "I fear lest I die with those (hadiths) still in your possession and there might be among them hadiths from someone trusted and believed, but it was not as he said to me, and I would have imitated him (in his error)."[7]

This, first and foremost, shows how sincere Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) was because he feared that he might narrate something that could be incorrect. The fear was from the following narration; The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said, “Whoever lies about me, knowingly. Let him prepare his seat in the hellfire.” Muslim[8]

During the Caliphate of Umar ibn Al-Khattab he wanted to record the hadiths and after a month of deliberation; he consulted with the senior companions about recording the hadith who agreed that it was something that they should do.[9]

Then he announced, “I intended to write the Prophet’s Sunnah but I remembered a community before you who wrote books and became preoccupied with studying them, abandoning the book of God. I swear by Allah that I am not to let anything be mixed with the book of Allah.”[10]

So the project was left in favour of keep the community occupied with the Quran. This did not mean that there was no recording of hadith, there was recording by companions and the students of companions. There was no official gathering of hadith at this time, yet.


The Scrolls of the Companions (may Allah be pleased with them all)

Many companions had copies of hadith from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) this is a list of some. Much of the hadith was not in any specific order except were detailed.

1. Abdullah ibn Amr Al-‘As had was is known as “As-Sahifa As-Sadiqa/the True Scroll” it contained one thousand hadith.[11] As we know this was one of the companions who recorded hadith during the lifetime of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him).

2. Ali ibn Abu Talib (may Allah ennoble his face) had some scrolls. He was one asked by Abu Jahifah, “I once asked Ali (may Allah be pleased with him), “Do you have a book?” He replied, “No, except the book of Allah or the understanding given by men or these scrolls.” I asked, “What are these scrolls?” He said, “It’s about ransom, hostage release and that a Muslim is not killed for a disbeliever.” Al-Bukhari
The Shia wrongly claim that some of these scrolls are “lost” pages of the Quran but as we can see from the narration itself it was scrolls of hadith.

3. Jabir Ibn Abdullah (may Allah be pleased with them) also had scrolls of hadith.[12]

4. Hammam ibn Munabbiah[13] was a student of Abu Hurayraih (may Allah be pleased with him) and wrote as he was dictated to. The scroll was one of the oldest to reach us in full.[14]

Other companions also had scrolls which include; Abdullah ibn Abbas,[15] and Abdullah ibn Mas’ud.[16] We have not given you a full list just some of the most famous ones, others can be found. The next development in Hadith recording is the topic of the next part.


Official orders to record Hadith

The official orders for gathering hadith was when Abdulaziz ibn Marwan ibn Al-Hakam wrote a letter to Kathir ibn Murra Al-Hadarmi stating, “Record for us what you have heard from the Companions except the hadith of Abu Hurayra as that we have."[17]

Al-Bukhari, in his authentic collection, narrates from Abdullah ibn Dinar that Umar ibn Abdulaziz wrote a letter to Abu Bakr ibn Hazm[18] “Look for the hadith of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, then write it down. As I fear that the effacement of knowledge and the scarcity of scholars. Do not except anything except the hadith of the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him. Disseminate the knowledge and sit until you are taught that which you know not. As knowledge does not destroy until it become secret.”

Note this is when the hadith was ordered to be preserved and protected by a ruler. This had not been the case before this date because the preserving of Prophetic narrations had been done by the companions and then succeeding generations. So now this is an order on the grand level of the government and it should be noted that Umar ibn Abdulaziz was a scholar as well. So this could be the reason why others did not order it.

This is also the date when most Orientalists say that hadith was gathered. As we can now see from all the information that we have given you previously this is simply not the whole picture. How could there be such a large gap between the times they were articulated to the time they were recorded. So now we have explained this I hope it is now clear for everyone.

Umar ibn Abdulaziz (may Allah show him mercy) appointed teachers, funded students and arranged weekly classes of hadith in Arabia as well as sending out men to other parts of the Islamic world to teach.[19]

It is also worth noting that the Governor Abu Bakr ibn Hazm drew support for this effort from Amrah bint Abdurrahman who was the custodian to the hadiths from Aisha daughter of the Caliph Abu Bakr.[20]


Some Famous narrators of hadith

The most famous narrator of Hadith is Abu Hurayra (may Allah be pleased with him) from the men and Aisha daughter of Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with them) from the women. These were two young companions who lived long after the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) passed away and this allowed them to teach what they heard. Here is a short list of the top six which includes the amount of hadith they narrated:

1. Abu Hurayra 5374

2. Abdullah ibn Amr 2630

3. Anas ibn Malik 2286

4. Aisha daughter of Abu Bakr 2210

5. Abdullah ibn Abbas 1660

6. Jabir ibn Abdullah 1540[21]

Comprehensive notes on the amount of hadith that was narrated by the Companions can be found in the books that this material is sourced from.


The Successors of Hadith

The following generation are the first generations that are known as Muhaddithun or Prophetic narration experts. The following is a list of such luminaries of this time:

Ibn Shihab Al-Zuhri (d.124/742) who had so many hadith that he needed several riding beasts to carry them,[22]

Abdulmalik ibn Abdulaziz ibn Jurayj (d.150/760) worked at Mecca,

Sa’ad ibn Aruba (d.157/774) in Mesopotamia,[23]

Imam Al-Awza’i[24] (d.159/775) in Syria,

Muhammad ibn Abdurrahman (d.159/775) in Medina,

Za’ida ibn Qudama (d.160/776) and Sufyan At-Thawri (d.161/777) in Kufa,

Hammad Ibn Salama (d.165/781) in Basra,[25]

Al-Layth ibn Sa’ad (d.175/791) in Syria and Abdullah ibn Mubarak (d.118/737) in Iraq.

This is not an extensive list rather this is a taste of the great scholars who lived and keep hadith alive in this time. Also please note that this list does not include scholars who were jurists. For more detail see Sheikh Gibril Haddad’s Sunna notes Volume one p.22 onward.


Famous books of Hadith

Then these narrations that the companions and then the next generation passed on lead to the more famous books that we know now as, Sahih As-Sitta or the authentic six. This is not to say that there was no other books written but these were the ones that we have come to know.

If you look into the characters of these compliers then you can see why their records reached us.
1. Imam Ahmed ibn Hanbal (b. 164/780-d.241/855) who complied Al-Musnad.
2. Imam Al-Bukhari (b.194-d.256) compiler of what is known as Sahih Al-Bukhari.
3. Imam Muslim (204h-264h) Sahih Muslim
4. Imam At-Tirmidhi (209-279h) Sunan At-Tirmidhi
5. Imam Abu Dawood (202h-275) Sunan Abu Dawood
6. Imam An-Nisa’i (210h-303) Sunan An-Nisa’i

There are other collections such as Imam Malik’s Muwatta, Imam Muhammad’s Muwatta, Sunan Ibn Majah, Ibn Hibban and others.


What protects hadith from being tampered?

One of the greatest gifts that this nation received is the “Isnad” this is a chain of narration from where the narrator took the hadith from. It is something totally unique to the Muslim nation. Not only can we be sure of the text but we can also be sure of the people who narrated it.
Ad-Dhahabi said, "Abu Bakr was the first to take precautions before accepting reports."[26]

Going back to the issue of isnad this means that you are taking your information from a trustworthy or valid source and the way that this is proven is the names of who you took information from.

Ibn Sirin famously stated, “People used to not ask about Isnads (chains of narration), but when the civil war (fitna) occurred, they began to say, “Name your narrators!”[27]

This proves two things: one that the chains of narration did exist and in a certain time people did not used to question the trustworthiness of a person. If it was a hadith then it was enough!
Ibn Sirin gave two similar statements, “This knowledge is religion. So look to whom you take your religion from.”[28] “The Hadith is religion. So look to whom you take your religion from.”[29]

Sufyan At-Thawri (may Allah show him mercy) said, “The chain of transmission (isnad) is the weapon of the believer. Whoever has no weapon, how can he fight?”[30]

Anyone, in our time, who is calling to the religion is calling to light and the only difference is some are connected and others are disconnected. The ones who are disconnected have no chain and no light. Those who have the light are the ones who are connected to the system of Isnad.


The Science of Hadith Criticism

This science gradually developed as the hadiths spread and as others began to scrutinise chains of narration, narrators and the actual text of the hadith. Here is an early example of the criticism that hadith would come under.

Fudail ibn Dukayn,[31] teacher of Imam Bukhari, said, “I came to Zufar[32] and he had wrapped himself in a cloth, so I said to him, “O’ Ahwal,[33] come so we can sift through the narrations and I would offer what I had heard. He would say, “This is acceptable, this is not acceptable, this abrogates and this is abrogated.”[34]

The hadiths came under rigorous scrutiny[35] and it was primarily aimed at narrators from whom the text was taken.[36]





Conclusion

The taking, the recording, the spreading, the explaining and the criticism of hadith was not something that could have been fabricated or forged.

It was documented on every level by thousands of scholars from thousand of successors from the Companions who took the hadith from the mouth of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him).

The companions recorded as much as they could and we have a wealth of hadith which is so great, how can one begin to fully comprehend it? May Allah be praised for sending us scholars of jurisprudence who helped us figure out a way that we can fully understand these hadith. As the understanding of the hadith did not just mean the actually text or the narrators this went beyond to events that occurred around the hadith.

Which cannot be simply picked up from reading the hadith, you have to read it with someone who read it with someone with Isnad and whose chain extents to the source, the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him). How else are you going to be sure that the information that you have got is correct? How many of us read hadith and do not understand it but see it fit for us to give a judgement on it and then force others? How many of us hear hadith and do not follow it up by acting upon it? I have to count myself as one of these, I cannot exclude myself.

The hadith science is not something that can be brushed to one side and be ignored. We have seen during this article that it is an immensely complex science which has great depth. Only those with a vested interest are elsewhere and compound ignorance can reject them. I am not just speaking about one I am speaking about the whole corpus of texts. We have to listen to madmen, in our time, who reject hadith outright! This can only mean one thing and one thing only, they have failed to read the Quran.

Allah said, “Obey Allah and obey the Messenger.” The Women 4:59

Sheikh Atabek commenting on this verse and said something to the effect of, How else can you obey the Messenger (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) if you do not do what he said?


Sources

[1] Dictionary of Modern Arabic 1994 Wehr Hans Spoken Language series p.161
[2] The Traditions of Islam 2003 Guillanme Alfred Kessinger Publishing p.17
[3] Introduction to Islam 2003 Waines David Cambridge university press p.40
[4] Oxford History of Islam 1999 Esposito J.L. Oxford university press p.121
[5] Ibid p.74
[6] Noble narrations handout lesson one page nine
[7] Al-Hakim from Ibn Kathir in the musnad al-saddiq inside his Jami' Al-Asanid from Sheikh Gibril Haddad’s Sunna notes p.122
[8] Abridged summary of Muslim p.429 no 1861
[9] A textbook of Hadith studies 2005 Kamali Mohammad Hashim The Islamic foundation p.28 from As-Suyuti Tadrib al-rawi p287
[10] Hadith status and role 2005 Nadwi Sayyed Abdul Hassan Ali Uk Islamic Academy p.16 from Ibn Abdul-Barr Jami’ Bayan Al-‘ilm vol.1 p.76
[11] A textbook of Hadith studies 2005 Kamali Mohammad Hashim The Islamic foundation p.25 from Al-Khatib al-Baghdadi Taqyid al-‘ilm p.84
[12] Ibid p.25 from Al-Bukhari Al-Tarikh Al-Kabir vol 4 p.182
[13] 101 or 102 died Islamic year
[14] Hadith: status and role 2005 Nadwi Sayyed Abdul Hassan Ali p.19 states that it was found the libraries of Damascus, Berlin and the University of Ankara which was later published by Dr M. Hamidillah in Hyderbad in 1955.
[15] Hadith: status and role p.18 At-Tirmidhi Al-Ilal
[16] Ibid from Ibn Abdulbarr Vol.1 p.72
[17] Noble narrations handout number five by Sheikh Atabek Shukurov Nasafi page p.3
[18] Passed away 120 Islamic year
[19] Hadith Literature: Its Origin, Development and Special Features 1993 Siddiqqi M.Z. Islamic Texts Society p.6 from Maqqari Nafta I, p.130
[20] Hadith Literature: Its Origin, Development and Special Features 1993 Siddiqqi M.Z. Islamic Texts Society p.6 from Ibn saad II/ii 134 and Bukhari chapter of writing
[21] Hadith Literature: Its Origin, Development and Special Features 1993 Siddiqqi M.Z. Islamic Texts Society p.15-18 from Ibn Jawzi Talqih 184-86
[22] Hadith Literature: Its Origin, Development and Special Features 1993 Siddiqqi M.Z. Islamic Texts Society p.7 from Ibn Saad II/ii 136
[23] Parts of Iran, Iran, Turkey and Syria
[24] founder of the Awza’i school of jurisprudence and one of the contemporaries of Abu Hanifa
[25] Hadith Literature: Its Origin, Development and Special Features 1993 Siddiqqi M.Z. Islamic Texts Society p.7 from Fihrist 225-27
[26] Sunna notes 2005 Sheikh Gibril Haddad Warda publications p. 120 from Ad-Dhahabi tadhkirat al-huffaz (1:2-3) cf. Al-A'zami, manhaj al-najd 'ind al-muhaddithin p.50.)
[27] Hadith Literature: Its Origin, Development and Special Features 1993 Siddiqqi M.Z. Islamic Texts Society p.79 from Schacht, Joseph 1959 The origins of Muhammadan Jurisprudance p.36
[28] Shamil At-Tirmidhi 2006 Imam Tirmidhi p.250 from Muslim
[29] Ibid p.249
[30] Sunna notes p.58 from Ibn Rajab Ilal At-Tirmidhi (‘Itr ed. 1:56-62)
[31] Abu Na’im Al-Fadal ibn Dukyan. Salah ibn Ahmed ibn Hanbal asked his father, “With Waqiah, Abdurrahman, Yazid ibn Haroon where does Abu Na’im stand with those?” He replied, “His narrations come from half of those, except he intelligently checked the truth.” He asked, “So is Abu Na’im more trustworthy or Waqiah?” He replied, “Abu Na’im has fewer errors.” He asked, “What about Abu Abdullah?” He replied, “Abu Na’im has better knowledge of the scholars, the lineages and of the men of narration. Waqiah has more jurisprudence.” Ahmed ibn Al-Hassan At-Tirmidhi was informed that Abu Abdullah said, “When Abu Na’im died his book came to the forefront so when the people differed they went back to it.” Abu Zarah’a said, “I heard Ahmed ibn Salah say I have not seen a prophetic narration expert as truthful as Abu Na’im.” He died on the doubtful days before Ramadan in the Islamic year two hundred and nineteen.
[32] Imam Zufar was one of Abu Hanifa’s students
[33] His nickname
[34] From the jurist and its follower by Al-Khateeb Al-Baghdadi 1/163
[35] Introduction to Islamic civilisation 1976 Savory, Roger Cambridge university press p.57
[36] And Muhammad is the Messenger (1985) Schimmel Annemarie the university of Carolina press p.27

More can read about this subject in Muhammad Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) by Fethullah Gulen from page 314.