The Role of Isnad

[This is an article written by Ustadh Kamal Abu Zahra which explains the paramount importance and critical position of the "isnad" (chain of transmission between the final narrator and source of the narration) in Islam, in its role as a preserver of the Sunnah of the Prophet Mohammad (peace and blessings be upon him). Footnotes will be detailed in the final post)
Introduction
The Islamic ideology derives from the Qur’an and Sunnah. Legislation in Islam also derived from these two sources. Therefore if any one of these sources is lost or distorted then the risk is to the ideology as a whole. In this respect the study of Isnad is not a peripheral discipline in Islam but fundamental to the preservation of the ideology itself. Without Isnad the Sunnah as a source of ahkam would cease to exist. Without Isnad we would lose the ability to elaborate, specify and restrict the ambivalent, general and absolute import of the Quranic text since the role of the Sunnah is to clarify the Qur’an. Without Isnad, extraction of Sharee’ah rules for new realities from the Sunnah would cease to exist. Without Isnad foreign elements could have been incorporated within the ideology due to their false attribution to the Prophet (saw). Thus, Isnad is crucial for the purity, clarity and crystallization of the Islamic ideology and its ability to solve new problems from its legislative source. That is why ‘Abdullah b. Mubarak the teacher of Imam al-Bukhari (Rahmatullahi ‘alayhim) did not exaggerate when he said:
"The isnad is part of the Deen: had it not been for the isnad, whoever wished to would have said whatever he liked."
It is also precisely for this reason that the Orientalists, have sought to create doubt in the efficacy of the Isnad. The wholesale rejection of hadith as a historical source was first argued by an Orientalist named Ignaz Goldziher in volume 2 of his book: Muslim Studiess. Goldziger was then followed by Joseph Schact who developed his ideas and tried to present a substantial body of proof to this effect in his work: ‘The origins of Muhammadan jurisprudenc’ which was published in 1950. And more recently Gautier Juynboll in his, Muslim Tradition. Studies in chronology, provenance and authorship of early hadith’ has developed further techniques to prove the false nature of the hadith literature. The general thrust of orientalism since Goldziher has tended to impute doubt, in various degrees, on the corpus of hadith literature. For them the elaborate isnad which the Muslims adduce as proof of authenticity have either been doctored or embellished such that the hadith literature is more a reflection of the time in which they were fabricated, ie the political and sectarian milieu of the 2nd and 3rd centuries, than the time they are supposed to go back to which is the time of the Prophet and his noble companions. This is one of the more serious and fundamental attacks by Orientalists on the Islamic ideology. By throwing doubt on these sources it would be possible to demolish the whole edifice which rests upon them. It was in this vein that attempts were made to discredit the historicity of the hadith literature.
In addition we see the influence of this thought on modernism and modernist thinking where Sunnah as a source of legislation is markedly absent in the political field. Hence we see amongst some Muslims an attitude which considers the Sunnah of lesser importance than the Qur’an simply because the hadith requires further study and scrutiny as compared to the Qur’an. This has led to people either disregarding or neglecting ahkam simply because it is not found explicitly in the Qur’an. Hadiths discussing the unity of the Muslims, the obligation to appoint a Khaleefah, or the ruling that a woman cannot be ruler to name but a few are brushed aside or not given their due weight because they are ‘hadith’ and not an ayah of the Qur’an.
Dr Asghar Ali Engineer in his book The Islamic State says: ‘There is no fixed concept of an Islamic state – much less a divinely ordained one to be treated immutable. The Koran, as pointed out, elucidates a concept of society, not of a state. The theory of Islamic state, as we have seen in the preceding chapters, changed and conformed more to the concrete situations than to any a priori concept.’[1] The hadiths discussing the Khilafah were fabricated by the rulers to justify their rule. He says: ‘In the metamorphosed state set-up there was nothing more Islamic than the fact that the ruler professed Islam and enforced certain provisions of the Sharee’ah in personal and criminal matters. It was the result of such circumstances that a number of traditions were coined justifying any regime which did as little as enforcing the Islamic way of prayer.’ He then proceeds to quote the rigorously authenticated hadith in Sahih Muslim as example of such fabrication. The text of that hadith is: ‘In the near future there will be Amirs and you will like their good deeds and dislike their bad deeds. One who sees through their bad deeds (and tries to prevent their repetition by his hand or through his speech), is absolved from blame, but one who hates their bad deeds (in the heart of his heart, being unable to prevent their recurrence by his hand or his tongue), is (also) safe (so far as God”s wrath is concerned). But one who approves of their bad deeds and imitates them is spiritually ruined. People asked (the Prophet): Shouldn’t we fight against them? He replied: No, as long as they say their prayers.’ This is exactly the view held by Goldziher who claimed that the political hadith literature was a product of the political and sectarian background of the Umayyad caliphate. Recently Dr Engineer gave a presentation in which he sought to prove gender equality and his approach was solely his own personal interpretation of the Qur’an without any recourse to the Hadith. His reason for this is that hadith was recorded a hundred years after the event, they are contradictory or contradict his own reading of the Qur’an and therefore not a reliable source for Tafseer of the Qur’an.
This attitude is dangerous as it is tantamount to disregarding the revelation of Allah (swt) and the reason for this reverts back to the pragmatic view of the Sharee’ah and a sense that Hadith is somehow of lesser worth due to the difficulties posed in establishing its authenticity.
Therefore the aim of this article is to establish the firm conviction in Sunnah as a source of legislation by demonstrating the sophistication and success of the hadith methodology in preserving the Sunnah. However, the way I will be discussing this topic is not to present it as discipline of Musatalah al-Hadith as has been traditionally done but to take relevant aspects of the discipline to give us an outline and conception of the methodology and system itself. As for a detailed refutation of Orientalist arguments and proofs, this will not be possible here due to lack of time but it is thoroughly dealt with in my forthcoming work: ‘The Role of Isnad in the Preservation of the Islamic Civilization’
Historical background and the Birth of Isnad
But before we discuss the key aspects of the hadith methodology I wish to recount the historical background of Isnad so that we can appreciate the context in which the Isnad was born and the problems and challenges Muslims faced in protecting the ideology from the pernicious activities of fabricators.
If we start with the time of the Messenger (saw) we find that questions of authenticity was not an issue since the Prophet was amongst them and the Sahabah were able to correct each other if any mistakes were made in narration. So for example ‘Umar once narrated that the Messenger (saw) said: ‘The deceased is punished due to the weeping of his family’ but ‘Aisha corrected him by saying: ‘The Prophet (saw) said this regarding a Jewess that she was punished whilst her family were crying for her’ meaning that she was punished due to dying upon kufr while the family wept and not because the family was weeping for her.[2] At this time Isnad was at its rudimentary stage because of the proximity to the Prophet (saw) but this did not stop the Sahabah from checking strange attributions or corroborating reports when in doubt.
The earliest record of fabrication of hadith started after the first civil war between Ali and Mu’awiya from 35 A.H following the murder of Uthman. According to Ibn Sirin who died in the year 110 AH: ‘They did not ask about the Isnad but when civil war (fitna) arose they said: Name to us your men; those who belong to Ahl al-Sunnah, their traditions were accepted and those who were innovators their traditions were neglected.’ After this time the fabrications increased with varying motivations. Initially the false attributions reflected political differences. According to Ibn Abi al-Hadid: ‘Lies were introduced in Hadith on merits originally by Shi’a. They in the beginning fabricated many hadith in favor of their man motivated by enmity towards their opponents. When Bakriyya (ie supporters of Abu Bakr) found out what the Shi’a had done they fabricated on their part hadith in favour of their man.’
Disagreements in ‘Aqaa`id also led the unscrupulous to fabricate hadith in support of their sectarian positions. So there are one set of narrations which say that the Prophet (saw) said that Imaan increases and decrease wile another set say Iman does not increase or decrease and all of them are fabricated.
Another faction which fabricated hadith were the Zindeeqs ie people who outwardly manifested Islam but hated it and wanted to destroy it being giving an ridiculous and irrational impression of Islam through their fabrications.
Some fabricated hadith to support the founder of their own school like the report which says: ‘There will be among my Ummah a man named Abu Haneefah who will be the Suraj (light) of my Ummah.’ Or the the fabrication referring to ash-shafi’I which says: ‘There will be among my Ummah a man named Muhammad b. Idrees who will be more harmful to my Ummah than Iblees.’ Other categories of people who fabricated hadith were well intentioned pious people who wanted encourage Ta’aat or the story tellers (Qussas) who wanted to entertain the people with their wild and amazing stories.
The Biographical (rijal) Literature
The first step in verifying a report is to know the reality of the person reporting a piece of news. That is why Allah (swt) says:
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا إِنْ جَاءَكُمْ فَاسِقٌ بِنَبَإٍ فَتَبَيَّنُوا أَنْ تُصِيبُوا قَوْمًا بِجَهَالَةٍ فَتُصْبِحُوا عَلَى مَا فَعَلْتُمْ نَادِمِينَ
‘O you who believe! If a Fasiq comes to you with a news, verify it, lest you harm people in ignorance, and afterwards you become regretful to what you have done.’ [49:6]
Here the ‘illah for verifying or scrutinizing a report is the potential harm that will be caused by accepting a false report. It is on the basis of this ayah that the Muhadditheen began to seek out information about narrators in order to verify their narration. But what about recording and publicizing the defects of such narrators, what is the Shar’I justification for doing this? Al-Bukhari reported on the authority of ‘Aisha that: ‘A man asked permission to enter upon Allah’s Apostle. The Prophet said, “Admit him. What an evil brother of his people or a son of his people.” But when the man entered, the Prophet spoke to him in a very polite manner. (And when that person left) I said, “O Allah’s Apostle! You had said what you had said, yet you spoke to him in a very polite manner?” The Prophet said, “O ‘Aisha! The worst people are those whom the people desert or leave in order to save themselves from their dirty language or from their transgression.’ [3] This hadith teaches us that in warning the Muslims from a harm it is allowed to backbite because the man Rasulullah was warning about is one man named ‘Uyaynah b. Hisn who outwardly showed that he was a Muslim thought in reality he was not a Muslim. Rasulullah wanted to warn the people about this man so he said what an evil man he is. This is indicated by the Prophet’s answer to A’isha when she asked him why he used bad language, he replied that he one who used bad language is the worst of people yet he (saw) used bad language to describe this man. Therefore the reason must be that he wanted to warn the people and not to abuse the man and hence when he met him he was very polite to him. Imam al-Qurtubi commenting on this hadith said: ‘The Hadith contains the permission to backbite the one who publicly shows his Fisq or Fahsh and the like from unjust rulers or those who call to innovation though its allowed to do it in a polite manner as long as long as it does not lead to compromising the Deen of Allah Ta’aala.’ [4] Thus, when we come to narrators of hadith it is clear that unscrupulous hadith narrators are not only harmful to Muslims but to Islam itlsef and therefore their faults must be recorded so no hadith will be accepted from them.
The endeavor to verify the reports gave rise to the science of Rijaal (ie the knowledge and collation of the biography of narrators) and the Science of Jarh (disparagement) and Ta’deel (attestation). Information regarding the probity and precision of narrators were recorded whether the information was disparaging or confirmed the reliability. The honest defamation or Ta’n was considered part of the Deen since it was necessary to protect the Deen. In collecting this material the Rijal critics spared no one to the extent that the son would criticize his father. It is reported that ‘Some people asked ‘Ali b. al-Madeeni, the great Rijal scholar, about his father. He said: Ask somebody else. They repeated the question. He fell silent and then lifted his head and said: This (is part) of the Deen. He (my father) is weak (da’eef).’ It is for this reason that people like the great Tabi’I ‘Ata b. as-Saa`ib and well known Seerah writer Ibn Ishaq were not spared from criticism. Yayha b. Ma’een said: ‘We disparaged people who had already been admitted to Jannah more than a hundred years ago.’ Their prime motivation for doing this was fear of Allah and not the fear of the people. It is reported that Yahya b. Sa’eed al-Qattan was asked: Do you not fear that those people whose hadith you have rejected will dispute against you before Allah? He said: no, that these people should dispute with me is better than the Messenger of Allah (saw) disputing with me by saying: Why did you narrate a hadith which you thought was a lie?’


[Click here to read part 2]
The Stringent Isnad Criteria

Five strict conditions were set to rigorously assess the authenticity of a hadith. The early pioneer in this field, as in so many other fields of Islamic learning, was the great Imam Shafi’I who spelt out a methodology to verify authenticity. Before Shafi’I people were taking munqati and mawquf hadiths until he came along and established the indispensability and supremacy of the muttasil (continuously liked) narration over all other forms of transmission. They were rejecting certain traditions because they seemed to contradict with other narrations. It was Shafi who devised a system of jam’ and tarjeeh to reconcile and outweigh the narrations. The two jurisprudential approaches prevalent in his time was the Ahlul hadith and Ahl ar-Ra’I who were either taking hadith which they should not take due to their weakness or rejecting sound hadith in favor of Qiyas.
Shafi’I reconciled both approaches and set out a systematic methodology which was referred to by all the Mazaahib from that time onwards. So no one should underestimate the significance of following quote from ar-Risaalah which had such a profound influence on how the Ummah referred to the Sunnah in subsequent generations. In the chapter on ‘Proof of the Khabar al-Wahid’ Shafi states:
“Each reporter should be trustworthy in his religion; he should be known to be truthful in his narrating, to understand what he narrates, to know how a different expression can alter the meaning, and report the wording of the hadith verbatim, not only its meaning. This is because if he does not know how a different expression can change the whole meaning, he will not know if he has changed what is lawful into what is prohibited. Hence, if he reports the hadith according to its wording, no change of meaning is found at all. Moreover, he should be a good memoriser if he happens to report from his memory, or a good preserver of his book if he happens to report from it. He shouId agree with the narrations of thehuffaz, if he reports something which they also do. He should not be a mudallis, who narrates from someone he met something he did not hear, nor should he report from the Prophet contrary to what reliable sources have reported from him. The same qualification must be possessed by transmitters preceding him until the transmitter relates back to the Prophet or to him who carries it back to closest to him, for each of them vouches for the tradition as he received it and verifies it for him to whom he passes it. So none of them should lack the qualifications I have just described.’
In other words a Sahih hadith is a report ‘whose chain is continuous by the trustworthy and meticulous transmitters whose report contain no abnormality (shuzuz) or defects (‘illah).’ [5] Thus, the conditions in this definition can be listed as the following:
1. Ittisal as-Sanad (continuity of the chain)
2. ‘adalatur ruwwaah (probity or trustworthiness of narrators)
3. Dab tar-Ruwaah (The precision and accuracy of narrators)
4. The absence of shuzooz and al-‘illah ie the absence of conflict with stronger narrations and hidden defects (‘ilal).
The continuity of the chain of transmission (Ittisal as-Sanad)
Isnad is the backbone of any report. Imam ash-Shafi’I used to say: ‘The one who looks for a hadith without Isnad is like the one who looks for firewood in the night.’ In other words he is groping in the dark and does not know what he is picking up. One of they key methods establishing continuity was the science of dates of birth and death of transmitters. Sufyan ath-Thawri said: ’when they (the fabricators) used lies we used dates’ [6] By identifying when a narrators was born and when died it is possible to ascertain of there was a likelihood that he met the narrator from whom he claims he got the report. Look at the following example given by al-Khateeb in his al-Kifayah fee ‘ilmir riwaayah: Once a man named ‘Umar b. Musa came to Homs. The people gathered round him in the mosque and so he began speak: ‘We were informed by your pious Shaykh such and such hadith. When he kept mentioning him ‘Afeer b. Mi’daan asked him: Who is our pious Shaykh? Give us his name so we can identify him.
Umar b. Musa replied: he is Khalid b. Mi’daan.
‘Afeer asked him: which year did you meet him?
He said: I met him in the year 108 AH.
So he asked: where did you meet him?
He replied: I met him in the battle of Armenia.
So Afeer said: ‘Fear Allah O Shaykh and do not lie. Khalid b. Mi’dan died in the year 104 AH but you claim that you met him after his death by four years. Le me add he did not just fight in Armenia only but also fought the Byzantines.’
The weakest link in the chain is what makes or breaks the credibility of a report. So the Muhadditheen set out the classification of broken chains depending on where they occur and discussion of their value. For example a mu’allaq isnad is where one or more transmitters is missing at the beginning of the chain and mursal is when the Tabi’I omits the name of the sahabi. A mu’dal chain is where two or more transmitters are missing in one more place whilst the munqati’ is any break excluding mu’allaq, mursal and mu’dal. All of these chains are rejected except Mursal about which there is some difference of opinion. Some reject it, others like Abu Haneefah accept it because the omission of the Sahabi who is trustworthy is inconsequential whilst others accept it with certain conditions like Imam ash-Shafi’I. The usefulness of cataloging such chains is that it may be possible to fill the gap afterwards if other chains come to light which establish the continuity.
The Probity of Narrators (‘adaalatur ruwwaah)

After establishing continuity it is necessary to establish the trustworthiness of narrators. Since one can only go by the overt indications it is stipulated that for someone to be ‘adl he must not be known to be a liar or accused of lying or an open fasiq (ie someone who openly transgresses the ahkam) and he must be free from dishonorable behavior (khawaarim al-muroo’ah). Here we can see that it is not enough not to violate the Sharee’ah but the person must not violate the norms of society in order to be accepted by his peers. So, someone who constantly changes his opinion or (madhab) would be deemed as performing an action which may be permitted but would lose credibility i.e. such person would lose his ‘adaalah. Thus we can see the concept of ‘adaalah in narration of hadith is stricter than the concept of ‘adaalah when giving testimony before a Qadi. And finally, another disqualification of ‘adaalah is if the narrator is Majhool al-‘Ayn ie we know his name but do not known his reality.
The way we would know if someone is trustworthy if his probity is attested by other trustworthy people (mu’addileen or if they well known among scholars such as Sufyan b. ‘Uyaynah, Sufyan ath-Thawri or al-Awza’I.
The Precision (dabt) of Narrators (Dab tar-Ruwwaah)
Dabt is the precisian and accuracy of narrators in taking and conveying information. One of the qualities of a transmitter who is dabit is that he must be very alert and cautious lest he records a report from his master in which tadlis has occurred. Yahya b. Qattan heard Shu’ba saying : ‘I used to sit with Qatada (to learn hadiths from him). When he used to say ‘I heard such and such person say…’ I would write it down, but when he would say ‘ such and such person said (without specifying the sama’ from him)I would not write that report down’. [7] Above all he must verify and be meticulous in anything he transmits or receives.
Human beings naturally make mistakes but the one who is dabit should not make too many mistakes. Al-Ramhurmuzi reported form ‘Abd ar-Rahman b. al-Mahdi who said: ‘The Muhaddithoon are three types: The one who is of good memory and meticulous and there is no disagreement about him. The one makes mistakes but most of his haidth are sound and his hadith is not left. And the one who makes mistakes in the majority of his hadiths and this ones hadith is rejected (matrook).’ [8] Thus the narrator must have a good retentive ability and not contradict the narrations of more trustworthy narrators.
Sometimes it can happen that a good narrator of hadith loses his retentive abilities later in life in which it case it is necessary to identify when a hadith was received from him. Ibn Lahee’ah started to muddle up his reports after his books got burned and so the muhaditheen stopped narrating from him father that point. Ahmed b. Hanbal said: ‘Anyone who had heard Ibn Lahee’ah long ago is valid (for report).’ The way in which dabt was ascertained is if his reports generally agree with other trustworthy narrators.
Absence of Shuzooz and ‘Illah
A hadith is considered Shaz when an acceptable transmitter transmits a matn or sanad which contradicts the matn or sanad of more trustworthy narrators. This is different to the munkar which is the narration of untrustworthy narrator which goes against the report of other trustworthy narrators. The benefit of this study is that one can detect mistakes and fabrications while at the same time assess the dabt and ‘adaalah of transmitters.
As for the study if ‘ilal or hidden defects this is one of the most delicate and difficult work of a Hadith critic. Whilst in Usul al-Fiqh it is enough to grasp the intellectual aspects and the key discussions but in the science if ‘Ilal one needs a breadth of knowledge which can encompass and recall a mass of reports and their asaneed in order to compare and detect that which is undetectable to the untrained eye . In this regard the Muhaddith is like a detective looking for clues which will allow him to trace a mistake to its source. Few have mastered this field due to breath of knowledge required to undertake such an investigation. al-Bukhari, Ali al-Madeeni and ad-Daarqutni are a few examples of those who became proficient in this branch of ‘Ilm al-Hadith. Ibn Hatim al-Razi sums it up nicely when he says: ‘The goodness of a Dinar is known when it is measured against another. Thus if it differs in redness and purity, it will be known known that it is fake. The kind of diamond if examined through measuring one another. If it differs in sparkle and firmness, it will be known to be glass. The authenticity of a hadith is known by its coming from reliable narrators and the statement itself must be worthy of being the statement of the Prophethood.’ [9]
The hidden defects can exist in the matn and sanad, and it is the task of the Isnad critic to detect the fault through a scrutiny of multiple narrations and also rectify the defect where possible. For example Yu’la b. ‘Ubayd narrated from ath-Thawri from ‘Amr b. Dinar that the Messenger (saw) said: ‘The seller and the buyer have the right to keep or return goods.’ [10] Here Yu’la has made a mistake because it should be Abdullah b. Dinar and not ‘Amr b. Dinar who should be in the Isnad. How was it possible to catch this? This was because all the students of ath-Thawri reported the hadith from Abdullah b. Dinar and not ‘Amr b. Dinar and therefore Yu’la must have made the mistake.
Grading and classification of Ahadith
The hadith has been further graded [11] as Sahih, Hasan and Da’eef.
Once it has been established that a hahdith has a continuous isnad, made up of reporters of trustworthy preservers from similar authorities, and which is found to be clear from shuzuz and any hidden defects then the Hadiths is classed as Sahih. As for the Hasan Al-Khattabi (d. 388) states: ‘It is the one where its source is known and its reporters are prominent. It is the most regular hadith, and most scholars accept it, and it is used by the fuqaha generally’ [12] Hasan however comes in two varieties:
i. one with an isnad containing a reporter who is mastur (i.e., no prominent person reported from him) but is not totally careless in his reporting, provided that a similar text is reported through another isnad as well;
ii. one with an isnad containing a reporter who is known to be truthful and reliable, but is a degree less in his preservation of hadith in comparison to the reporters of sahih ahadith.
In both categories however the hadith should be free of any conflict with more reliable narrations (shuzuz).
As for the Da’eef it is the narration which lacks the attributes of Sahih and Hasan. Whilst the last two are sound and relied upon as evidence Da’eef on the other hand cannot be adduced as proof.
After this the hadith were divided according to the manner in which it was transmitted to us. Although people disagreed about the details a basic distinction which everyone one accepts is that hadiths are either Ahad or Mutawatir.
Click here to read part 4
Techniques in Averting Errors
A number of measure have been adopted to insure that errors are kept to a minimum. For example the use of textual comparisons. Cross-comparisons were made between the hadiths of different students of a given scholar or the statements of a scholar made at different times. Written versions were also compared with the oral record. Dabt, for example, was measured by using this procedure. In fact, this was the earliest method of checking the accuracy and truthfulness of traditionalists. There are reports which indicate that even Companions such as Abu Bakr, Umar b. al-Khattab and ‘A’isha cross examined people purporting to know traditions from the Prophet. This practice was continued by the Successors and developed to greater degrees of sophistication. The Successor, Ayyub al-Shakhtiani (d.131) used to say :’If you wish to know the mistakes of your teacher, then you ought to sit with others as well’.
This was the key technique in detecting interpolations (mudraj) in the text. For example, al-Khatib relates via Abu Qattan and Shababa — Shu’ba — Muhammad b. Ziyad — Abu Huraira — The Prophet, who said,
“Perform the ablution fully; woe to the heels from the Fire!”
Al-Khatib then remarks,
“The statement, ‘Perform the ablution fully’ is made by Abu Huraira, while the statement afterwards, ‘Woe to the heels from the Fire!’, is that of the Prophet. The distinction between the two is understood from the narration of al-Bukhari, who transmits the same hadith and quotes Abu Huraira as saying, “Complete the ablution, for Abul Qasim said, ‘Woe to the heels from the Fire!’.”
They used these techniques to detect alterations to the expression or meaning of a hadith. For example: The expression salla ila can mean to send blessings upon or to pray before something. Look at the misunderstanding of Abu Musa al-‘Anazi who said: we are a noble people for we are from ‘Anazah. The Messenger of Allah (saw) sent blessings meaning the hadith which says: anna an-nabi (saw) sallah ila ‘Anazah. He thought the prophet was seding blessings on his tribe when in fact what the statement meant is that the Prophet prayed before a ‘Anazah which is the name of spear placed in front of the Musalli when he prays.
Detection of forgery and deception
Techniques of detection came under two categories:
a) Techniques relating to the sanad.
b) Techniques relating to the matn or diraayah
In terms of the sanad there are times when a fabricator would confess, in such cases their names were recorded and narrations bearing that persons name were rejected. If a narrator did not meet the scholar from which he is narrating the tradition , or if he was born after the death of that scholars, or had not gone to the area or region from which claims he claims he heard the hadith, that would be an indication of fabrication. Also narrators lives were inspected if they had any vested interest in quoting a certain narration. Many hadiths were rejected using this technique. For example the hadith ‘The Hareesah (a certain dish) strengthens the back.’ It tuned out that its fabricator Muhammad b. Hajjaj an-Nakha’I used to sell Hareesah! [13]
As for the techniques relating to matn or what’s known as the study of Diraayah they include the following: The style and linguistic qualities of the texts were studied to see if they matched with the style of the Prophet which they had become accustomed to from well established authentic hadiths. Text containing corruptions and wild exaggerations in meaning were rejected or statements which were rationally unacceptable. [14] E.g. aubergines are the cure for all diseases. Texts which contradicted the Qur’an were also rejected. Also discarded were texts which contradicted well established facts of history during the time of the Prophet or when a narration agreed with sectarian views of extremely partisan narrators.
Perhaps one of the best examples of textual analysis is the one quoted by Ibn Qayyim in his Naqd al-Manqool. He quotes a report which says that an agreement was made with the people of khaybar exempted them from the payment of Jizyah.’ This report was declared a fabrication due to the following indications in the Matn:
i. Text mentiones Sa’d b. Mu’az but Sa’d had died before then in the battle of Khandaq.
ii. It mentions that Mu’awiyyah b. Abi Sufyan wrote the letter but Mu’awiyyah had not embraced Islam until the conquest of Makkah which is much later than this incident.
iii. The hadith mentioned Jizyah but that was not revealed until after Tabuk.
iv. It mentions that certain types of taxes were levied but these did not exist at the time.
v. The treaty us unspecified by time, how can this be when he did not grant them unspecified security?
vi. How could this happen without the knowledge of this who conveyed the Sunnah such as the Sahabah and Tabi’een but it so happens that the Jews know about it?
vii. The Jews of Khaybar fought Messenger and his companions, what did they deserve to be granted such an exemption from the obligation of Jizya, when other tribes just as bad were not exempted?
viii. Had the Prophet exempted them from the Jizya he would not have stipulated that they be expelled whenever he (saw) willed. This does not fit with the ruling that the Ahl al-Zimmah cannot be expelled as long as they abide by the rules of Islam.
ix. If the Prophet had exempted them when did none of the Sahabah exempt them? [15]
Science of Conflicting Hadith (Mukhtalaful Hadith):
It is inevitable that some reports will seem contradictory since one hadith may be general while the other is specific, or one is misquote while the other is accurate or if one has abrogated the other. Therefore, it was necessary to establish a methodology by which such seeming contradictions can be reconciled. It was for this reason that the science of Mukhtalaf al-Hadith was developed.
When presented with two sets of contradictory hadith one of three options are possible. Either one can resort to Jam’ or reconciliation of the hadith by considering whole host of issues such as textual indication (madlool al-Lafz) or if this is not possible then outweigh (tarjeeh) one report over the other if the chronology is not known and finally accept abrogation if the chronology known.
Imam al-Asnawi said: ‘When two evidences contradict then one is outweighed over the other if it is not possible to act upon both of them. If it is possible to act upon them even if it is from one aspect and not in another then we should not proceed to Tarjeeh (outweighing). This is because acting upon both evidences is better than neglecting one text completely since in origin a daleel should be acted upon and not neglected.’ [16]
Thus, the means of removing the contradiction are three:
a) Jam’ (reconciliation)
b) Tarjeeh (outweighing if the chronology is not known)
c) Naskh, abrogation if chronology is known.
d) If none of the above methods are possible then revert back to the original rule and assume the contradictory texts are non-existent.
The process of Jam’ is where you try to reconcile two contradictory texts due to certain linguistic and circumstantial considerations. For example the textual indications (madlul al-Lafz) can assist in the reconciliation between two texts. In one hadith it says: ‘Water is pure so nothing can make it impure.’ [17] While another says: ‘If the water is enough to fill two pots (qullatayn), it carries no impurity.’ [18] The first text is ‘Aam for all amounts of water but the mafhum of the second text indicates that water can become impure if its nature is changed. This is a specification (takhsees) of the first text by the mafhum of the second.
As for Tarjeeh this can happen in a number of ways. One way is if one of the conflicting hadith accords with another authentic hadith. For example one hadith says: ’There is no Nikah without a wali.’ [19] This hadith stipulates the presence of a wali but it seems to contradicts with another hadith which indicates the wali is not stipulated. That hadith is as follows: ‘The matron has greater right than her guardians and the virgin her permission is sought. Her permission is her silence’ [20] But the first hadith stipulating the presence of wali agrees with another sound narration which says: ‘Any woman who gets married without the permission of her guardian (Wali), her marriage will be void, her marriage will be void, her marriage will be void’ [21] Therefore, the Tarjeeh will be that the hadith which says there is no nikah without wali is outweighed and accepted because it is supported by another authentic narration.
As for abrogation this happens when Jam’ is not possible but abrogation is possible because the chronology is known. For example one hadith says: ‘The one who cups blood and is cupped has broken his fast.’ But another ahdith says: ‘That the Prophet (saw) was cupped while he was fasting.’ If we scrutinize the circumstances of these hadiths we find that first hadith took place in year eighth of the Hijrah during Fath while the second hadith is in the Farwell speech (Hijjatul Widaa’) in the year 10 after Hijrah. Thus, ash-Shafi’I took the view that the second hadith has abrogated the first thereby allowing the cupping of blood while fasting in Ramadan.
Conclusion

The Muslims rose to the challenge when the source of their way of life was being threatened by destructive activities of hadith fabricators. They were able to amass a data base of thousands of narrators, set out rigorous criteria to asses authenticity, classify and adopt a grading system for chains narrators, devise techniques to detect and avert mistakes and fabrications and adopt a methodology to reconcile the differences within certain texts. The result was the effective preservation of the ideology and its legislative capacity.
If we compare the system of Isnad to the modern system of historical analysis we will find the former much more sophisticated and successful in establishing the veracity of historical incidents and events. What the Muslims called a Da’eef hadith is perhaps stronger in historicity, in some of its forms, than modern sources such history textbooks, numismatics or historical criticism of literary texts. This is because Da’eef does not mean fabrication but that it did not satisfy our stringent criteria. So when Nizam al-Islam mentions that riwaayah or narration is the strongest and most reliable source of history, not archeological findings, it assumes knowledge of the above discussion of the Isnad system.
Thus, the Muslims protected their ideology, insured the legislative capacity and preserved their Islamic civilization. Muslim historiography in this regard is a testament to how the Ummah can solve her problems, progress and revive if she adopts the Islamic ‘Aqeedah as the basis for her thoughts, society and state.
Kamal Abu Zahra
References
[1] The Islamic state p.199
[2] Sahih Zarkashi’s al-Ijaabah li-iraad maa istadrakathu ‘aisha ‘alas Sahabah p.76
[3] Bukhari, Kitab al-Adab, hadith: 80
[4] See Fathul Bari and section on Ibn Hajars discussion of Aisha’s hadith.
[5] Taqreeb see page 37
[6] See al-Kifayah fee ‘ilm ar-Riwaayah pp119
[7] See Abu Bakr Ahmed b. ‘Ali b. Thabit ( al-Khatib al-Baghdad ), Kitab al-Kifaya fi ‘ilm ar-Riwaya ( al-Maktaba al-’ilmiyya bi al-Madina al-Munawwara, n.d.) see p.164.
[8] al-Muhaddith al-Fasil p.406
[9] see Abn Abu Hatim al-Razi, al-Jarh wat-ta’deel
[10] an-Nukhba an-nabhaniyyahp. 123. the hadith is in bukhari in kitab al-buyu’.
[11] ‘ghareeb in matn for some is like shaz (contradiction of thiqaat) but for others its just irregular but not a cause for ta’n……but gharaabah in sanad it is saheeh but point is it is low in value, hence Imam Malik said: ‘the worst knowledge is the ghareeb and the best knowledge is the zaahir narrated by the people.’
[12] Ma’aalim as-sunan, vol 1, p.11.
[13] See as-Siba’I, as-Sunnah wa makaanatuhu fit tashree’ al-Islami
[14] Al-Khatib al-Baghdadi says: ‘All the statements come under three categories. Of them one is to be known to be erroneous. The cause of this knowledge is that ‘Aql refused to accept it.’ [Kifayah p. 17]
[15] Naqd al-Manqool, Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah, p.90-93
[16] Nihayat as-suwal vol 3 p.214.’
[17] Abu dawud.
[18] An-Nasa`i
[19] Abu Dawud
[20] Sahih Muslim
[21] al-Hakim

The of Isnad

The Role of Isnad in the Preservation of the Islamic Civilisation

(PART 1)
The Islamic ideology derives from the Qur'an and Sunnah. Legislation in Islam is also derived from these two sources. Therefore if any one of these sources is lost or distorted then the risk is to the ideology as a whole. The Isnad is the chain of narrators through which the Sunnah reaches us. In this respect the study of Isnad is not a peripheral discipline in Islam but fundamental to the preservation of the ideology itself. Here follows an article in two parts that will attempt to the address this important issue. Part one will look at the history and challenges involved in preserving the Sunnah and part two will describe the techniques used to guarantee the correctness of narrations.

Without Isnad, the Sunnah as a source of ahkam (rules) would cease to exist. Without Isnad, we would lose the ability to elaborate, specify and restrict the ambivalent, general and absolute import of the Quranic text since the role of the Sunnah is to clarify the Qur'an. Without Isnad, extraction of Shar'iah rules for new realities from the Sunnah would cease to exist. Without Isnad, foreign elements could have been incorporated within the ideology due to their false attribution to the Prophet r. Thus, Isnad is crucial for the purity, clarity and crystallization of the Islamic ideology and its ability to solve new problems from its legislative source.

That is why 'Abdullah b. Mubarak the teacher of Imam al-Bukhari did not exaggerate when he said:

"The Isnad is part of the Deen: had it not been for the Isnad, whoever wished to would have said whatever he liked.'

It is also precisely for this reason that the Orientalists have sought to create doubt in the efficacy of the Isnad. The wholesale rejection of hadith as a historical source was first argued by an Orientalist named Ignaz Goldziher in volume 2 of his book: ‘Muslim Studies’. Goldziger was then followed by Joseph Schact who developed his ideas and tried to present a substantial body of proof to this effect in his work: 'The origins of Muhammadan jurisprudence' which was published in 1950. Also more recently Gautier Juynboll in his, 'Muslim Tradition. Studies in chronology, provenance and authorship of early hadith' has developed further techniques to prove the false nature of the hadith literature. The general thrust of Orientalism since Goldziher has tended to impute doubt, in various degrees, on the corpus of hadith literature. For them the elaborate Isnad which the Muslims adduce as proof of authenticity have either been doctored or embellished such that the hadith literature is more a reflection of the time in which they were fabricated, i.e. the political and sectarian milieu of the 2nd and 3rd centuries, than the time they are supposed to go back to which is the time of the Prophet (salAllahu alaihi wasallam) and his noble companions (ra). This is one of the more serious and fundamental attacks by Orientalists on the Islamic ideology. By throwing doubt on these sources it would be possible to demolish the whole edifice, which rests upon them. It was in this vein that attempts were made to discredit the historical authenticity of the hadith literature.

In addition we see the influence of this thought on modernism and modernist thinking where Sunnah as a source of legislation is markedly absent in the political field. Hence we see amongst some Muslims an attitude which considers the Sunnah of lesser importance than the Qur'an simply because the hadith requires further study and scrutiny as compared to the Qur'an. This has led to people either disregarding or neglecting ahkam simply because it is not found explicitly in the Qur'an. Hadith discussing the unity of the Muslims, the obligation to appoint a Khaleefah, or the ruling that a woman cannot be ruler to name but a few are brushed aside or not given their due weight because they are 'hadith' and not an ayah of the Qur'an.

Dr Asghar Ali Engineer in his book ‘The Islamic State’ says: 'There is no fixed concept of an Islamic state - much less a divinely ordained one to be treated immutable. The Koran, as pointed out, elucidates a concept of society, not of a state. The theory of Islamic state, as we have seen in the preceding chapters, changed and conformed more to the concrete situations than to any a priori concept.' [1] The hadith discussing the Khilafah were fabricated by the rulers to justify their rule. He says: 'In the metamorphosed state set-up there was nothing more Islamic than the fact that the ruler professed Islam and enforced certain provisions of the Shari'ah in personal and criminal matters. It was the result of such circumstances that a number of traditions were coined justifying any regime which did as little as enforcing the Islamic way of prayer.' He then proceeds to quote the rigorously authenticated hadith in Sahih Muslim as example of such fabrication. The text of that hadith is:
'In the near future there will be Amirs and you will like their good deeds and dislike their bad deeds. One who sees through their bad deeds (and tries to prevent their repetition by his hand or through his speech) is absolved from blame, but one who hates their bad deeds (in the heart of his heart, being unable to prevent their recurrence by his hand or his tongue), is (also) safe (so far as God"s wrath is concerned). But one who approves of their bad deeds and imitates them is spiritually ruined. People asked (the Prophet): Shouldn't we fight against them? He replied: No, as long as they establish their prayers.'

This is exactly the view held by Goldziher who claimed that the political hadith literature was a product of the political and sectarian background of the Umayyad caliphate. Recently Dr Engineer gave a presentation in which he sought to prove gender equality and his approach was solely his own personal interpretation of the Qur'an without any recourse to the hadith. His reason for this is that hadith were recorded a hundred years after the event, they are contradictory or contradict his own reading of the Qur'an and therefore not a reliable source for Tafseer of the Qur'an.

This attitude is dangerous as it is tantamount to disregarding the revelation of Allah (subhanahu wa ta'aala) and the reason for this reverts back to the pragmatic view of the Shar'iah and a sense that hadith is somehow of lesser worth due to the difficulties posed in establishing its authenticity.

Therefore, it is crucial to demonstrate the firm conviction in Sunnah as a source of legislation by demonstrating the sophistication and success of the hadith methodology in preserving the Sunnah. However, the way I will be discussing this topic is not to present it as discipline of Musatalah al-Hadith as has been traditionally done but to take relevant aspects of the discipline to give an outline and conception of the methodology and system itself. As for a detailed refutation of Orientalist arguments and proofs, this will not be possible here due to lack of space but it is thoroughly dealt with in my forthcoming work: 'The Role of Isnad in the Preservation of the Islamic Civilisation'


Historical background and the Birth of Isnad

Before we discuss the hadith methodology, I wish to recount the historical background of Isnad so that we can appreciate the context in which the Isnad was born and the problems and challenges Muslims faced in protecting the ideology from the pernicious activities of fabricators.

If we start with the time of the Messenger (salAllahu alaihi wasallam) we find that authenticity was not an issue since the Prophet (salAllahu alaihi wasallam) was with the Sahabah (ra) and they were able to correct each other if any mistakes were made in narration. So for example 'Umar (ra) once narrated that the Messenger (salAllahu alaihi wasallam) said: 'The deceased is punished due to the weeping of his family'

But 'Aisha (ra) corrected him by saying: 'The Prophet (salAllahu alaihi wasallam) said this regarding a Jewess that she was punished whilst her family were crying for her' meaning that she was punished due to dying upon kufr while the family wept and not because the family was weeping for her [2]. At this time Isnad was at its rudimentary stage because of the proximity to the Prophet (salAllahu alaihi wasallam) but this did not stop the Sahabah (ra) from checking strange attributions or corroborating reports when in doubt.

The earliest record of fabrication of hadith started after the first civil war between Ali (ra) and Mu'awiya (ra) from 35 A.H following the murder of Uthman (ra). According to Ibn Sirin who died in the year 110 AH: 'They did not ask about the Isnad but when civil war (fitna) arose they said: Name to us your men; those who belong to Ahl al-Sunnah, their traditions were accepted and those who were innovators their traditions were neglected.' After this time the fabrications increased with varying motivations. Initially the false attributions reflected political differences. According to Ibn Abi al-Hadid: 'Lies were introduced in Hadith on merits originally by Shi'ah. They in the beginning fabricated many hadith in favour of their man motivated by enmity towards their opponents. When Bakriyya (ie supporters of Abu Bakr) found out what the Shi'ah had done they fabricated on their part hadith in favour of their man.'

Disagreements in 'Aqaa`id (aspects of belief) also led the unscrupulous to fabricate hadith in support of their sectarian positions.

Some fabricated hadith to support the founder of their own school like the report which says:'There will be among my Ummah a man named Abu Haneefah who will be the Suraj (light) of my Ummah.'
Or the fabrication referring to ash-Shafi'i which says: 'There will be among my Ummah a man named Muhammad b. Idrees who will be more harmful to my Ummah than Iblees.' Other categories of people who fabricated hadith were well-intentioned pious people who wanted encourage Ta'aat or the story tellers (Qussas) who wanted to entertain the people with their wild and amazing stories.

Another faction which fabricated hadith were the Zindeeqs i.e. people who outwardly manifested Islam but hated it and wanted to destroy it by giving a ridiculous and irrational impression of Islam through their fabrications.
The Challenges faced by the Muslims:

Revival is intellectual elevation. When society is elevated in thoughts it looks at problems in an enlightened manner and derives solutions on an enlightened basis directed by its viewpoint about life and hence that society progresses and solves its problems effectively and thereby achieves revival. One of the best examples of revival or elevation in thought is the way Muslims dealt with the problem of hadith authenticity and fabrication. From the brief account of history given above the enormous task faced by the Muslims is clear. There were thousands of transmitters scattered throughout the Islamic lands and an even greater number of reports to sift through. From these they managed to select the sound narrations from the weak and compile them along with their chains of transmitters in such an effective manner that it is unparalleled by any form of historical verification known at the time and beyond. And this was done in the days when the best form of data storage was the human memory or parchment and messengers on horses were the quickest form of communication.

To appreciate how challenging this was, let us look at the difficulties the Muslims had to resolve in order to safeguard the hadith. The first hurdle to overcome was to establish continuity of the chain i.e. that there were no gaps in the chain. This required that the birth and death dates of narrators had to be catalogued as well as the cities form which they came in order to establish the possibility that they had met and hence were able to transmit the hadith. The second issue that had to be ascertained was the probity and mendacity of transmitters. It is not enough to have an unbroken chain if one of the transmitters is of unsound character. Like any chain, all that is necessary for the whole thing to collapse is one weak link, which would allow it to fall apart easily. So one liar in the chain will weaken the report even if the rest of the chain is littered with illustrious and trustworthy personalities. In fact it was the names of illustrious and respected people that were used by fabricators to pass off their dishonest material. For this reason the Muslims needed to gather information about the narrators, which if one thinks about it is not an easy accomplishment, since it involved assessing the character and state of mind of thousands upon thousands of transmitters. This repository of biographical material then would be used to identify each and every transmitter in the chain. Now having amassed this information there needs to be some criteria as to what would constitute a reliable narrator whose report could be believed. So is it enough for the narrator to be trustworthy before we take his report or should we impose extra safeguards? What about memory? Some people are trustworthy but prone to forget or make significant mistakes or get their reports muddled up. How do we deal with these problems?

Also, as we know, usually there is more than one chain for a single hadith; how can we classify these to indicate the various levels of strength and authenticity since the Shari'ah has imposed different criteria in respect to actions and belief? As with all human dependencies, mistakes will be made so how can we avert mistakes and maintain accuracy in transmission? What about the ostensibly sincere fabricators of hadith who are of sound memory but concoct reports for what they believe to be well- intentioned and noble aims? How do we catch them out? What kind of techniques and approaches can be developed to detect forgery and deception? And finally, at times we find two reports both of which are authentic according to the stringent criteria laid out but they contain an apparent contradiction. This is not surprising when you are dealing with reports describing sayings and actions taking place in diverse circumstances in their generic and specific contexts spanning the prophetic lifetime of the Messenger r. Coupled with this is the possibility of a mistake that has gone undetected due to forgetfulness or misunderstanding the intent of a statement or action. Since the Wahy (revelation), as we know, in principle does not contradict itself, how do we reconcile such seemingly apparent contradictions?

These are just a glimpse of the key issues the Muslims had to answer if the Sunnah was to be protected from loss and corruption from foreign elements. The result was the development of four distinct sciences to combat fabrication, namely:

1.

'ilm tareekh rowaah, which dealt with the crucial issue of the dates of birth and death of transmitters.

'ilm jarh wat ta'deel, consisting of the manners of disqualification and authenti cation of transmitters.

ilm ghareeb al-hadith, which is study of the irregular aspects of matn and Isnad.
2.

'ilm mukhtalafil hadith, which discusses the techniques of reconciling and outweighing seemingly contradictory hadith.

In the ensuing discussion I will highlight the key features of the above sciences to show how the problems posed above were tackled.
The Biographical (rijal) Literature

The first step in verifying a report is to know the reality of the person reporting a piece of news. That is why Allah (subhanahu wa ta'aala) says:
'O you who believe! If a Fasiq comes to you with a news, verify it, lest you harm people in ignorance, and afterwards you become regretful to what you have done.' [49:6]
Here the 'illah (divine reason) for verifying or scrutinizing a report is the potential harm that will be caused by accepting a false report. It is on the basis of this ayah that the Muhadditheen began to seek out information about narrators in order to verify their narrations. But what about recording and publicizing the defects of such narrators, what is the Shar'iah justification for doing this? Al-Bukhari reported on the authority of 'Aisha (ra) said that:
'A man asked permission to enter upon Allah's Apostle. The Prophet said, "Admit him. What an evil brother of his people or a son of his people." But when the man entered, the Prophet spoke to him in a very polite manner. (And when that person left) I said, "O Allah's Apostle! You had said what you had said, yet you spoke to him in a very polite manner?" The Prophet said, "O 'Aisha! The worst people are those whom the people desert or leave in order to save themselves from their dirty language or from their transgression.'[3]

This hadith teaches us that in warning the Muslims from a harm it is allowed to backbite because the man Rasulullah (salAllahu alaihi wasallam) was warning about is one man named 'Uyaynah b. Hisn who outwardly showed that he was a Muslim though in reality he was not a Muslim. Rasulullah (salAllahu alaihi wasallam) wanted to warn the people about this man so he said what an evil man he is. This is indicated by the Prophet's (salAllahu alaihi wasallam) answer to A'isha (ra) when she asked him why he used bad language, he (salAllahu alaihi wasallam) replied that the one who used bad language is the worst of people yet he (salAllahu alaihi wasallam) used bad language to describe this man. Therefore the reason must be that he wanted to warn the people and not to abuse the man and hence when he (salAllahu alaihi wasallam) met him he (salAllahu alaihi wasallam) was very polite to him. Imam al-Qurtubi commenting on this hadith said: 'The Hadith contains the permission to backbite the one who publicly shows his Fisq or Fahsh and the like from unjust rulers or those who call to innovation though it is allowed to do it in a polite manner as long as it does not lead to compromising the Deen of Allah Ta'aala.'[3] Thus, when we come to narrators of hadith it is clear that unscrupulous hadith narrators are not only harmful to Muslims but to Islam itself and therefore their faults must be recorded so that no hadith will be accepted from them.

The endeavour to verify the reports gave rise to the science of Rijal (i.e. the knowledge and collation of the biography of narrators) and the Science of Jarh (disparagement) and Ta'deel (attestation). Information regarding the probity and precision of narrators were recorded whether the information was disparaging or confirmed the reliability. The honest defamation or Ta'n was considered part of the Deen since it was necessary to protect the Deen. In collecting this material, the rijal critics spared no one to the extent that even the son would criticize his father. It is reported that 'Some people asked 'Ali b. al-Madeeni, the great Rijal scholar, about his father. He said: Ask somebody else. They repeated the question. He fell silent and then lifted his head and said: This (is part) of the Deen. He (my father) is weak (da'eef).' It is for this reason that people like the great Tabi'I 'Ata b. as-Saa`ib and well-known Seerah writer Ibn Ishaq were not spared from criticism. Yayha b. Ma'een said: 'We disparaged people who had already been admitted to Jannah more than a hundred years ago.' Their prime motivation for doing this was fear of Allah (subhanahu wa ta'aala) and not the fear of the people. It is reported that Yahya b. Sa'eed al-Qattan was asked: 'Do you not fear that those people whose hadith you have rejected will dispute against you before Allah?' He said: 'No, that these people should dispute with me is better than the Messenger of Allah (salAllahu alaihi wasallam) disputing with me by saying: Why did you narrate a hadith, which you thought was a lie?'

Kamal Hussain

Part II will appear in next month's issue

References

[1] Dr Asghar Ali Engineer-The Islamic State p.199
[2] Sahih Zarkashi's al-Ijaabah li-iraad maa istadrakatahu 'aisha' alas Sahaba p.76
[3] See Fathul Bari and section on Ibn Hajar's discussion of Aisha's (ra) hadith

Difference Between Sunnah Tashri'iyyah and non-Tashi'iyyah

This article explores the different kinds of Sunnah, which along with the Qur'an form the main reference of Islamic Law.

Scholars of Islamic Law differentiate between two types of Prophetic actions and sayings: actions and sayings that are meant to be part of the Shari`ah (Islamic way and rules for life) and others that are only part of the Prophet's life as a human, which are not always meant to be a law for every Muslim to follow.

They call these two kinds of Prophetic tradition as-sunnah at-tashri`yyah (legislative Tradition) and as-sunnah ghair at-tashri`yyah (non-legislative tradition). For example, one of the Prophet's Companions , Talha, narrated the following:

I was walking with the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) when he passed by some people at the tops of their palm trees. He asked, "What are they doing?" They answered, "Pollinating the male into the female." He replied, "I do not think that this will be of benefit." When they were told about what the Prophet said, they stopped what they were doing. Later, when the trees shed their fruits prematurely, the Prophet was told about that. He said, "If it is good for them they should do it. I was just speculating. So pardon me. But if I tell you something about God, then take it because I would never lie about God." Another narrator said that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) added, "You know your worldly affairs better than I." (Muslim)

This hadith shows one such non-legislative judgment given by the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), which he made to the best of his knowledge. The hadith even shows an error in this technical advice, which the Prophet and his Companions discovered later via human experience, rather than via divine revelation.

The rationale behind this hadith may be to show that it is not part of the Prophet's mission to contribute to technology and other similar worldly affairs through the revelation. Rather, human empirical experience is meant to be the only means for these developments.

Regarding the error that happened concerning the palm trees, the word `ismah (protection) is mentioned in the Qur'an in the context of the Prophet being protected from people's whims and Satan's delusions. The protection of all prophets in the above sense is an Islamic belief, which is a precondition to trusting the prophets' message and following their example. However, the Islamic definition of infallibility does not necessarily include technical worldly matters that are not part of conveying the message, as the above example shows.

Not for Every Muslim

Furthermore, if the tradition or hadith is of the legislative type, it is not always necessarily and literally meant for all Muslims. Some rulings are for rulers only, some are for judges only, and so on. The following is one example:

Hind bint `Utbah complained to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) about the greediness of Abu Sufyan (her husband) and asked whether she was allowed to take from his money without his knowledge. So the Prophet said, "Take what you and your children normally need (without telling Abu Sufyan)." (Al-Bukhari)

Scholars commented on this hadith that the Prophet was acting here as a judge rather than a prophet. In other words, he allowed Hind in her specific case to do that, but the hadith does not give every woman a right to take whatever she wants from her husband's money without his knowledge, just for her own whim. Scholars maintain that this hadith is for judges to learn from when they make a similar judgment, but not for every Muslim.

The Margin of Error

It is true that there is a chance of error in this process. That is why scholars differentiated between different levels of authenticity, concerning the discipline of knowledge of Prophetic Hadith, by setting precise and rigid criteria. The following are two of these levels —among others— that are relavant here:

1. Mutawatir (recurring, most famous). These are narrations that are conveyed through a large number of people who could not possibly agree to lie.

The Qur'an and a certain number of Prophetic traditions fall under this category. The Qur'an, for example, was recited by thousands of people, and their recitations are the same. It is a logical conclusion that one can build firm beliefs and true obligations on this level of authenticity.

2. Ahad (individual, single-chained narrations). These are narrations according to one or two narrators, and hence are less "confirmed" than the first kind.

Scholars judged that these kinds of narrations could teach us about halal (lawful) and haram (forbidden), but could not be evidence of faith in their own right. This is because of the possibility of error in something that is narrated by only one or two people.

But a possibility of error in Companions' narrations should not discredit them completely. There are levels of authenticity and there are many sources of error that do not necessarily discredit a person. So if the person is trustworthy, Muslims accept the person's account but do not build matters of faith on it unless it is confirmed by a number of other narrators or witnesses.

In addition, scholars reject many hadiths because they are not up to the level of authenticity that implies any credibility. One example is when the narrator is known to be forgetful, ill-intentioned, or biased one way or another. That is why it is important to check the authenticity of a hadith before taking it, especially in matters related to Islamic creed and jurisprudence.

Muslim scholars have also set specific criteria for narrators of hadith before they can be accepted as narrators. These criteria are related to the biography of the narrator, including his or her reputation and moral attitude. Hadith authenticity is an independent discipline of knowledge in itself.

Approaching the Sunnah: Comprehension & Controversy

Dr. Qaradawi’s book ‘Approaching the Sunnah: Comprehension and Controversy’ is a masterpiece in the study of the Sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad (saas). The author, himself an authority in this field, has extensively dealt in this book with the issue of the Sunnah of the Prophet and discussed almost everything related to its proper study. This was a timely presentation by Dr. Qaradawi, for the Ummah has long been confronted with many challenges and objections, borne sometimes out of sheer misunderstanding, misrepresentation, and ignorance, and sometimes out of prejudice, ulterior motives and enmity, against the Sunnah of the Prophet (saas). The author established very vehemently that the Sunnah still provides the stable moral framework- the grammar- that enables Muslims, by formal rules and inward sense, to know right from wrong. This book explains how the Sunnah can function as the grammar of a living, adaptive language, capable of guiding the mainstream.





Synopsis of ‘Approaching the Sunnah’

Name of the Book: Approaching the Sunnah: Comprehension & Controversy

Name of the Author: Dr. Yusuf Al-Qaradawi

Published by: IIIT, London, UK & Washington, USA

Year: 2006

Page: 215

Reviewed by: Md. Mokhter Ahmad

Assistant Professor & CoordinatorCentre for University Requirement Courses

International Islamic University Chittagong,

Dhaka Campus



There is a great news for the Bangla-speaking people that BIIT, a name associated with research and publication for more than a decade, is going to publish very soon the Bangla translation of Dr. Yusuf Al-Qaradawi’s monumental work ‘Approaching the Sunnah: Comprehension and Controversy’. Dr. Qaradawi does not need any introduction. He is the most widely respected and most prolific living scholar of the Muslim world. He is best known for his modern, moderate and original approaches to every issue facing the Muslim Ummah while remaining within the very parameters of Islam. He is the creator of a large number of masterpieces with different titles including the world-class ‘Islamic Awakening Between Rejection and Extremism’ and ‘The Lawful and the Prohibited in Islam’. He has been voted to be the third most influential living public scholar of the world[1].



Dr. Qaradawi’s book ‘Approaching the Sunnah: Comprehension and Controversy’ is a masterpiece in the study of the Sunnah[2] of the Prophet Muhammad (saas). The author, himself an authority in this field, has extensively dealt in this book with the issue of the Sunnah of the Prophet and discussed almost everything related to its proper study. This was a timely presentation by Dr. Qaradawi, for the Ummah has long been confronted with many challenges and objections, borne sometimes out of sheer misunderstanding, misrepresentation, and ignorance, and sometimes out of prejudice, ulterior motives and enmity, against the Sunnah of the Prophet (saas). The author established very vehemently that the Sunnah still provides the stable moral framework- the grammar- that enables Muslims, by formal rules and inward sense, to know right from wrong. This book explains how the Sunnah can function as the grammar of a living, adaptive language, capable of guiding the mainstream.



The Sunnah occupies a great status in Islam. This is the only valid explanation of the Qur’ān and the second source of Islamic Sharī’ah. It promulgates rules often independently and often dependently. The Qur’ān has categorically ordained the believers to offer their unconditional and unqualified obedience to the Prophet and made it to be an integral part of their faith[3]. Still there is growing tendency among many people to deny the authority and authenticity of the Sunnah of the Prophet on various pleas. The development of the menace was well-predicted by the Prophet (saas) when he said: I have indeed been given the Qur'ān and something similar to it besides it. Yet, the time will come when a man leaning on his couch will say, “Follow the Qur'ān only; what you find in it as halāl, take it as halāl; and what you find in it as harām, take it as harām.” But truly, what the Messenger of God has forbidden is like what God has forbidden.[4]



The author most conveniently apportioned the book into three chapters. The first chapter sets out the qualities that characterize authentic application of the Sunnah: universality, coherence (so that different spheres of human responsibility are not split), compassionate realism, moderation, and humility. The second explains standards and procedures for determining the Sunnah in the fields of jurisprudence and moral instruction. The third chapter illustrates through detailed examples common errors in understanding the Sunnah reading hadīths singly without sufficient context, confusing legal and moral injunctions, means and ends, figurative and literal meanings... and it proposes remedies for these errors.



According to the author, the Sunnah is distinguished by comprehensiveness and completeness in its length, breadth, and depth. It is comprehensive in length because it covers vertically every dimension from birth to death, indeed even what comes after death, and comprehensive in breadth because it comprehends horizontally all spheres of life, while in length because it covers even the deeper dimensions of human life like thought and intentions. The Sunnah also characterized with a balanced and moderate attitude towards everything. It does not put more emphasis on one aspect of life at the cost of another. Islam does not recognize any dichotomy between various aspects of human life dividing those between secular and religious, and this philosophy of Islam is expounded by the Sunnah. For example: on seeing the excess of ‘Abd Allah ibn ‘Amr in fasting, keeping vigil, and recitation of the Qur’an, the Prophet returned him to moderation, saying: “Indeed, your body owns a right over you, your eyes own a right over, and your family owns a right over you… (p.3). It is also integrated, realistic and easy. Neither does the Sunnah regard people as if they are winged angels, nor does it consider them to be originally/intrinsically sinners[5]. It made the lifestyle easy and convenient. The Prophet said: “Assuredly God did not commission me for affliction, nor for bringing affliction to others; on the contrary, He commissioned me as an educator and as means of ease for others” (p.9).



Dr. Qaradawi, who wrote extensively on every issue facing the Ummah ranging from educational to jurisprudential to cultural to preaching of Islam, this time he picked up the issue of the crisis facing the Muslim. He said: ‘The foremost crisis facing the Muslims in this time is the crisis in thought. According to Dr. Qaradawi, what most clearly represents that crisis in thought is the crisis in insight into the Sunnah and its application of it (p.11). Thus it is incumbent on Muslims to learn how to become proficient in insight into the Sunnah, how to apply it. But he warned of three evils which did the Prophet indicate in one of his statements: “From every generation its just and upright ones will carry this knowledge, expelling from it the distortion of the extremists, the deviation of the falsifiers, and the interpretation of the ignorant.”



The author then expounded a few fundamental principles for the application of the Sunnah, so that one can purge it of the deviations of the falsifiers, the distortions of the extremists, and the interpretations of the ignorant. Firstly, one should verify the proof of the Sunnah and its soundness in terms of sand and matn according to the scientific methodology established by the pious predecessors. Secondly, one should be proficient in understanding the Prophetic text in harmony with the meanings indicated by the language. In this case, one should know the particular circumstance of any hadīth, the totality of the purposes of Islam, the general intent of the hadīth, the distinction between a legislative and a non-legislative Sunnah etc. (p.20). Thirdly, one should assure himself of the safety of the text from contradiction by what is stronger than it from the Qur’an and other hadīths which are more abundant in number of sources, or more sound in proof of their authenticity, or more consonant with original principles, or more fitted to the purpose of the Legislative measures. He then mentioned that one should ensure the authenticity of Sunnah of both legislation and guidance. But, surprisingly, many people are seen to be more concerned with the authenticity of legislative Sunnah and do not care fro the authenticity of Sunnah for guidance. This is why the books of preaching and what softens the hearts, and the books of Sufism abound in false hadiths. He refuted the proposition of some people that they mention false and fabricated hadiths even knowingly with the objective of promoting good among people. He expressed his consternation saying that these people dared presumably to correct God or strengthen His Messenger through manufacturing hadiths as if God did not or could not perfect the religion, and thus it needs their help!! According to the author, this is another dangerous tendency seen among many people to reject sahih hadith, out of caprice or pride or presuming to know better than God and His Messenger. Rejection of Sunnah is not a new phenomenon. Since ancient times, heretics and innovators have raised doubts and allegations in refutation of the Sunnah. In our times, the missionaries and the orientalists or people tutored and/or influenced by them, directly or indirectly are raising doubts about the Sunnah. Sometimes the enemies use subtle arguments to reject the Sunnah saying that the Qur’an is sufficient as the guide (and hence no need for Sunnah), considering the fact that there is detailed exposition in it of everything. Sometimes, sahih Sunnah is denied because of miscomprehension, like poor understanding or reckless haste in explaining any hadith. For example: many people rejected the hadith narrated by ‘Aishah, “He would command me to put on izār, then would be intimate with me, while I was having my monthly period”, on the plea that this is at variance with the Qur’anic verse[6], or the hadith from Abū Hurayrah from the Prophet: “God will send to this Community at the head of every century one who will renew for it its religion”, on the plea that religion is not subject to renewal, it is firmly established and does not change, or the hadith narrated by Ibn ‘Umar and others, “Islam is founded on five (foundations")”, on the plea that the hadith does not mention jihad, despite its great importance in Islam. But these people failed to understand the first hadith in fact provides commentary on the Qur’an, because the Qur’an prohibited bodily intimacy of sexual intercourse while the Sunnah clarifies that mutual pleasure between husband and wife other than that is not prohibited during menstruation though it is also prohibited to the Jews. Likewise, renewal of religion in the second hadith does not mean alteration or brining a new edition of it, but it means returning it to its original status and freeing it from all superstitions and bad elements penetrated into it over time. As well the third hadith is misunderstood, because though jihad is important and obligatory but is not upon everyone always except in special circumstances for most particular considerations, while the five foundations are imposed on the generality of all people (p.30-37).



Dr. Qaradawi also explained the stance of ‘A’ishah on certain hadiths and he termed her rejection of those hadiths based on mere conjecture. Take for example the hadith narrated by Ahmad ibn Hanbal from ‘Alqamah, he said: “We were with ‘A’ishah. Then Abu Hurayrah entered, so she said: Are you the one who narrated the hadith – that a woman tormented a cat, confining her and then not feeding her, not giving her water - ?” Then he said: “I heard it from him” meaning the Prophet. Then she said: “Do you know what the woman was? At the time she did (that) she was an unbeliever. Indeed the believer is more noble with God, the All-Powerful and Sublime, than that He would punish him for a cat! So when you narrate a hadith from the Messenger of God, then watch how are doing so.” According to Qaradawi, ‘A’ishah misunderstood the hadith, because the woman was to suffer for the hardness of her heart and cruelty to God’s weak creatures, and the conspicuous absence of a greatest human value in her character, that is compassion towards the weak.



Dr. Qaradawi arranged chapter two of his book with two sub-headings where he discussed a large number of issues. He said that the Sunnah is a source for both Jurisprudence and Preaching. Imam Al-Awzā‘ī even said, “The Book is more in need of the Sunnah than is of the Book.” Though there are many exaggerations on this point, the author referred us to Al-Shawkānī who said: “The conclusion is that the need for the Sunnah is established, and its independence [as a source] for the legislation of the injunctions is a religious necessity. No one disagrees on that except one who has no share in the religion of Islam.” Qaradawi says that the books of Jurisprudence abound in hadiths with which the scholars of different schools of thought, whether those are affiliated to the school of ra’y or to the school of hadīth, reached to their conclusions. He then vehemently refuted a false propaganda that Imam Abū Hanīfa[7], the well-famous Imām A’zam, affirmed the authenticity of only seventeen hadiths. The author then discussed the necessity of linking hadith and fiqh in a way that the hadith specialists should master the science of fiqh and vice versa the absence of which had done a great damage to both of these sciences. Most hadith practitioners are not good in fiqh and its principles and the same is applied to the fiqh practitioners. This is why the books of fiqh are replete with weak and fabricated hadiths, and according to him, it does not only apply for the so-called ahl al-ra’y, it is also applied for all the surviving schools of Law. (p.50) He says: “I myself have noted, while researching the fiqh of zakat, a number of hadiths that scholars of fiqh of still-followed schools rely on, and which have been challenged by the leading scholars of hadith. For example: “There is no sadaqah on vegetables”, “‘Ushr and kharāj do not combine”, “There is no duty (right) on wealth besides zakah.” (p.48) So the duty of the learned scholars of our time is to review the legacy of fiqh with the objective of sorting out any injunctions based on weak hadiths. For example, the hadiths regarding bloodwit for non-Muslims, bloodwit for the women.



The author says the Sunnah is equally important as a source in Preaching and Guidance. The religious teachers, preachers and guides can and should draw on the Sunnah for their lessons and sermons. In this case, they should rely on the authentic sources of hadiths including the sahīh of al-Bukhārī and the sahīh of Muslim. According to Qaradawi, the scholars of hadith should make source critique and exposition of the rank of all hadiths mentioned in different hadith books so that these people may rely on them. In the meantime, a lot has been done in this regard; still many things are yet to be accomplished soon. Though everyone is under obligation to check out the authenticity and import of a given hadith before its presentation, but in many cases it is not done by the preachers and admonishers. Thus sometimes they mumble from the hadiths what moves people, has touching effect on them and creates emotion and sensation among them, while these hadiths are either feeble or rejected or fabricated. By way of example, he mentioned the hadiths: “The first [entity] that God created is the light of the Prophet”, “Whoever is called by the ‘Muhammad’, intercession for him is obligatory”, The scholars of my Community are like the prophets of the Israelites”.



Dr. Qaradawi does not support the opinion of some people that weak hadiths may be accepted in case of admonition and stimulation (targhīb and tarhīb). He says that Allah and His Apostle are independent of leaving any vacuum to be fulfilled by someone. Islam is complete and does not need anything extra. He then draws our attention to some certain realities: Firstly, Rejection of weak hadiths even on Targhīb and Tarhīb, Secondly, Non-adherence to the conditions stipulated by the majority (I, e,. a weak hadith will be accepted on fulfilling three conditions: the hadith is weak but not extremely weak, it conforms with the established legal principles, and not attributing it to the Prophet), Thirdly, Prohibition of narrating in a style of certainty (narrating a weak hadith in the style of a positive, definitive statement saying that ‘God’s Messenger said this and this’), Fourthly, The sufficiency of the Sahīh and the Hasan hadiths, Fifthly, Warning against unbalancing the order among the deeds (as giving to some righteous deeds a value greater than their due, or giving to some bad deeds a punishment greater than is proper to them), Sixthly, a weak hadith cannot itself establish an injunction. For example, a well-circulated fabricated hadith ‘Whoever is generous in giving to his kith and kin on the day of ‘Āshūrā’, God will be generous to him for the rest of his years’, and it is seen that people make much of thios day throughout the Muslim world, sacrificing animals, considering it to be an ‘Īd or a day fixed for regular annual remembrance, whereas it is certain that some ignorant Sunnis fabricated this hadith to rebut the exaggerations of the Shi‘a. And Finally, Two complementary conditions for the acceptance of a weak hadith, (a) the hadith should not contain exaggerations offensive to reason or Law or language, (b) the hadith should not contradict a Legal proof stronger than itself, for example the so-called hadith, ‘Abd al-Rahmān ibn ‘Awf entered Paradise on all fours on account of his wealth’, whereas he is one of the ten given glad tidings of Paradise.



Dr. Qaradawi says the preachers should not transmit anything that is ambiguous or unclear to people. He then mentions a hadith for detailed examination and showed that how people were absorbed in absurdities concerning a hadith due to misunderstanding. The hadith is the one narrated by Anas, the he heard the Prophet saying, ‘Every age is worse than what preceded it.’ Some people have taken this hadith to justify sitting back from taking action, from striving for reform, change and deliverance. While some others held back from or refuted accepting this for a number of reasons. First, it encouraged hopelessness and despondency. Second, it urged negativism in facing up to oppression from deviant rulers. Third, it opposed the idea of progress. Fourth, it moved away from the historical reality of the Muslims. And fifth, it opposed the habits that have come on the appearance of khaliīfa who will fill the earth with justice…



Dr. Qaradawi extensively deals with the issue of principles for correct understanding of the Sunnah in the third chapter which is the most important part of the book. He discussed here eight principles and offered many hadiths under each principle for the sake of elaboration and clarification. Fortunately this chapter of the book solves a lot of problems regarding understanding many hadiths and against which objections were raised by many quarters including the enemies and the orientalists. These principles are:



Firstly, Understanding the Sunnah in the light of the Qur’an. It is because the Sunnah is the exposition of the Qur’an. That is why the sahīh, established Sunnah is not found to contradict the injunctions of the Qur’an. If people have supposed such contradiction to exist, then it must be a sunnah that is not sahīh, or the understanding of which is not sahīh, or it may be that the contradiction is not real but merely conjectured. Thus the hadith about the alleged ‘gharānīq’ is undoubtedly rebutted because it is contradictory to the Qur’an. Similarly the hadith about women – “Consult with them and then oppose them” – is invalid and false because it contradicts a verse of the Qur’an: ‘And if the two of them desire [to engage a wet-nurse] by mutual consent and consulting one another, then it is no sin for either of them” (al-Baqarah, 2: 233). Again if there is any apparent contradiction between the Qur’an and the Sunnah, then Qur’an should be preferred over the Sunnah. For example, the following hadiths – “There is no sadaqah on vegetables”, “The one burying alive and the one buried are [both] in the Fire”, “Indeed your father and my father are in the Fire”, are rejected or refrained away from because they contradict respectively the following Qur’anic verses – “…and yield up its due on the day of its harvesting” (al-An‘ām), “And when the infant girl buried alive is asked for what sin she was slain” (al-Takwīr, 81: 8-9), and “ And they are not punished until We have sent a messenger” (al-Isrā’, 17:15).



Secondly, gathering relevant [sahih] hadiths on a subject together and juxtaposing the ambiguous alongside the explicit, the absolute alongside the restricted, the general alongside the particularized with the objective of interpreting one with the other making the intended meaning plain and clear. For the example, the hadiths on wearing the izār (the lower garment) long where the treat against doing so is made severe, like the one narrated by Muslim on the authority of Abū Darr, “[There are] three to who God will not speak on the Day of Resurrection: the benefactor who does not give anything except as a favor; the quick profiteer whose commodity is [sold] by a lying oath; and the one who wears his izār long.” If all the relevant hadiths are put together is will be evident that the implication of this hadith is not general or absolute, but is restricted, as is clear from many hadiths, like the following one narrated by Muslim from Ibn Umar, “ I heard God’s Messenger, with these my two ears. Saying: ‘One who trails his izār not meaning by that [anything] but conceit, then indeed God will not look at him on the Day of Resurrection.’” Similarly, the hadith in al-Bukhārī that Abū Umāmah saw an implement of tillage (a plow) and said: “I heard God’s Messenger, saying: ‘This does not enter the house of a people except that God causes disgrace to enter it [also].’ ” Apparently the hadith portrays Islam to be averse to agriculture, which is also exploited by the Orientalists. Whereas if the relevant group of hadiths are put together, it will be plain that the aforementioned hadith is confined to a particular context, and that Islam simulates agriculture and cultivation and promises splendid virtues for this. Take for example the following hadith, “[There is] not one from the Muslims who plants a plant or sows a seed, then a bird eats from it, or a person, or a animal, except that there is from it an act of charity [recorded] for him.” Umar even asked a person who was in his death-bed to plant his land before death embraces him.



Thirdly, Dr. Qaradawi prefers reconciliation and combination (Tawfīq) between two apparent contradictory sahīh hadiths rather than recourse to preference (tarjīh). For example, the hadiths on restraining women from visiting the graveyards like the one – ‘God’s Messenger condemned women visitors (zawwārāt) to the graves’, and the hadiths on permitting them like the one – ‘I had forbidden you to visit graves, but [now I say:] visit them.’ This apparent contradiction between these two categories of hadiths may be resolved through combination and reconciliation that is that the ‘condemnation’ mentioned in the hadith – as al- Qurtubī said – as referring to over-frequent visiting, which is the connotation of (the intensive form of) al-zawwārāt, the expression used in the hadith. Similarly, the hadiths on ‘Azal[8] (coitus interruptus): ‘From Jābir, he said, ‘We used to practice withdrawal with the knowledge of God’s Messenger, while the Qur’an was being revealed (agreed upon),’ and, Muslim and Ahmad narrated from Jābir, ‘Practice withdrawal from her if you wish. But indeed there would come to her what is decreed for her,’ and the hadith mentioned in Muslim and Ahmad that when the Prophet was asked about it he said, ‘That is a hidden [form of] burying alive, and she ‘When the infant girl buried alive shall ask…,’ and the hadith in Ahmad from Ibn Abbās, ‘He forbade withdrawal from a free woman except with her permission.’ It would appear from the group of hadiths cited that they demonstrate the acceptability of withdrawal. That is the position of the majority of jurists, except that one may not practice withdrawal from a free woman without her permission and consent in view of her right of enjoyment of the act. The author then discussed the issue of abrogation in hadiths and termed some people’s recourse to it hastily without much consideration. He then mentioned a statement of Imām al-Shāfi‘ī to clarify its policy: ‘Whenever it is feasible of two hadiths that they be acted upon together, let them be acted upon together, and [let] not one of the two be suspended [for] the other. If nothing is feasible of the two hadiths except [their] difference, then the difference in them [can be regarded from] two distinctions: (a) that one of the two [hadiths] is abrogating, and the other is abrogated, so one acts according to the abrogating, and one leaves the abrogated, (b) or that the two differ and there is no evidence as to which of the two is abrogating, and which is abrogated. In this case we are to go for one and leave the other when that one is stronger than the other, or that one is more established than the other, or more comfortable with the Book of Allah, …or what the greater number of the Companions of God’s Messenger were on.



Fourthly, the Sunnah is to be understood alongwith the causes, associations, and objectives of a given hadith. According to al-Qaradawi, as one is obligated to know the background of revelation for a proper understanding of the Qur’an, one is also required to know particular circumstances which the hadith text addresses. A penetrating observer will find that many hadiths are based upon particular reasons, or associated circumstances, or aimed to specific intentions. When one is equipped with these knowledge, one will not mix up between what is particular and what is general, what is temporal and what is eternal, what is partial and what is all-comprehensive. For example, the following hadiths: ‘You know better the affairs of your worldly life’, ‘I am quit of any Muslim who settles [among] the associationists,’ ‘A woman may not travel except a mahram is accompanying her,’ ‘The leaders are from the Quraysh.’ Many people misunderstood the hadiths whereas these are associated with certain reasons, circumstances and objectives. The first hadith is mistaken by many to be free license to formulate rules on the issues of economics, civic, and political duties, and the like, because these are of their worldly concerns, whereas these are related with a specific occasion/incident of the pollination of date-palm. Accordingly, the second hadith is mistaken by many to mean prohibition of settling in any non-Muslim country, whereas it is absolutely related to the obligation of Hijrah from the land of the Associationists to the Prophet in order to help him. The same is also applied for the third and the fourth hadiths. The Companions of the Prophet and their successors also investigated the underlying reasons and circumstances of the texts and acted accordingly. Different attitudes shown by the Prophet and the first two caliphs, and by ‘Uthmān, and ‘Ali towards ‘stray camels’ is a case in this regard. The Prophet and the first two caliphs ordered for leaving the stray camels alone in their ways, whereas ‘Uthmān ordered them to be sold and the price be given to the owners, and on the contrary, ‘Ali ordered them to be rounded up and kept safe for their owners. ‘Ali and ‘Uthmān did not in fact oppose the Prophet, but they looked at the purpose, that is protecting the owners from any eventual loss, and then they acted accordingly. The same is applied for the traditional measures of the prophetic period replaced by volume or weight in our time, the traditional two nisābs of gold and silver for calculating zakāt replaced by money in our days, and despite the hadiths on zakāt al-fitr to be given in between fajr and ‘Īd prayer, and to be given in foodstuffs, the ruling is now changed to be allowed to make the payment anytime before ‘Īd days and in money, etc.



Fifthly, one is to distinguish between changeable means and stable ends. Failing to do so is one of primary causes for confusion and error in the understanding of Sunnah. Some people focus their energy and concern upon the medicines, nutriments, herbs, grains, and other things to be Prophet’s prescribed medication for certain bodily diseases, whereas, Qaradawi thinks, these prescriptions and their like are not of the spirit of the Prophetic medicine, rather its spirit is preservation of the life and health of the human being. The same is applied to the hadiths – ‘The weight is the weight of the people of Makkah, and the measure is the measure of the people of Madinah’, and – ‘Fast upon sighting the crescent and stop fasting upon sighting it’. In the first hadith the Prophet prescribed the weight of Makkah and the measure of Madinah for the sake of standardization and unification with much more precision and because those were the most progressive in that era. Today we may use any other standard rather than those which will ensure the desired objectives. In the second hadith the Prophet prescribed such a method that is sighting the crescent with the eyes, which was practical and available to the majority of people, one that does not put extra hardship or impediment on them. Qaradawi says that today we have a better alternative at our disposal which is the use of definitive mathematical and astronomical calculation and it will better realize the objective of the hadith remaining further from erroneous interpretation or conjecture or falsehood in determining the opening and end of the month.



Sixthly, distinction should be made between literal and figurative expressions in the hadiths. The author says that in Arabic there is plentitude of figurative expressions. Being the most expressive in spoken Arabic, the Prophet also made extensive figurative expressions. Some of these figurative expressions convey information while some other conveys injunctions. Thus a distinction is to be demarcated between these two, failing which made some people even in our time prone to prescribe the forbidden and vice versa, making the supererogatory obligatory and vice versa. Dr. Qaradawi says that closing the door to figurative expression in understanding the hadiths has led to many contemporary misunderstandings of the Sunnah by Muslims and non-Muslims. According to Qaradawi, the following hadiths which were exploited by the enemies to trivialize and vilify Islam are to be understood figuratively: - ‘The Black Stone is from the Garden’, ‘Know that the Garden is under the shade of the sword’, ‘The Nile and the Euphrates are from the Garden’. Similarly, the author warns against latitude in leaving the literal meaning. For example, the hadiths on Anti-Christ (Masīh al-Dajjāl) are interpreted by some people to symbolize the now dominant Western civilization.



Seventhly, a proper distinction is to be made between the Unseen and the Visible. The hadiths contains information regarding the Seen and the Unseen world. Qaradawi says that the affairs of the Unseen world should not be interpreted on the basis of the Seen worldly affairs. This is where the Mu‘tazilis, the so-called school of rational theology, stumbled.



Finally, Dr. Qaradawi suggests that the Sunnah is to be understood in most of the cases in light with the lexical meanings of the words in which the Sunanh has come. For words surely change in their connotations from one epoch to another, which is known to every student of the evolutions of language and vocabularies. Thus people should not read current terms into old texts. A pertinent word in this case is taswīr (image) which has come in many sahīh hadiths and about those who make image (musawwir) the Prophet threatened them with the severest torment. According to Qaradawi, many people preoccupied with hadiths and fiqh include under the category of musawwir the so-called operators of the electronic device called ‘the camera’ in our age. These people tend to forget that ‘copying a form’ (shakl) through a device is quite different from ‘making/curbing an image’ (taswīr), and that the Arabs did not coin the word taswīr to mean this.



In conclusion, through this short synopsis on this great book of Dr. Yusuf al-Qaradawi I would love to urge every one including the general Muslims and the Islamic scholars, educationists and intellectuals to study the book. In this epoch of human civilization when the attack on Islam is all-round and all-comprehensive, especially centering the Sunnah of the Prophet, this book will help us a great deal to understand the Sunnah, to resolve the cotemporary crises, and to rebut the machinations and false propaganda made by the internmokhteral and external enemies against Islam, especially, against the Sunnah of the Prophet.

[1] The list was unveiled by Foreign policy, the award-winning magazine of global politics, and Britain’s Prospect magazine on Monday, June 23. The two magazines have conducted a global public poll to pick the world’s top intellectuals and thinkers who are shaping the tenor of our time with their ideas. More than 500,000 people voted for their top choices from the original long list of 100 figures, and the results came out with ten Muslims from all walks of life atop 20-figure list. For more details, see: www.islamonline.net/multimedia/library/newsanalysis/2008/06/07.shtml.

[2] Sunnah of the Prophet (saas) is his sayings, actions and tacit approval.

[3] For more details, see: Kamali, Muhammad Hashim, Principles of Islamic Jurisprudence, Second Revised Edition, ILMIAH Publishers, Malaysia, p.48-50.

[4] The Hadith is reported on the authority of Al-Miqdam ibn Ma`di Karib and is mentioned in Sunan Abū Dawūd and Dārimī.

[5] According to Christianity, human beings are originally sinners because of the sinfulness of Adam. This doctrine is known as “Original Sin” in Christianity.

[6] Allah says: ‘They ask you about menstruation. Say: it is a hurt; so keep apart from the women in menstruation, and do not go near them until they are cleansed (of it)’. (Al-Qur’an, 2:222)

[7] Imām Abū Hanīfa is the founder of Hanfi school of thought. He is better known as the greatest Imām (al-Imām al-A’zam). He is the first in terms of taking any systematic research for Islamic Jurisprudence. Today nearly 70% Muslims the world over are followers of his school of thought.

[8] ‘Azal is the withdrawal of the man from his woman during intercourse, whereby he casts the sperm outside the vulva so that she does not conceive by him.

You Must Know This Man

You may be an atheist or an agnostic; or you may belong to anyone of the religious denominations that exist in the world today. You may be a Communist or a believer in democracy and freedom. No matter what you are, and no matter what your religious and political beliefs, personal and social habits happen to be - YOU MUST STILL KNOW THIS MAN!

He was by far the most remarkable man that ever set foot on this earth. He preached a religion, founded a state, built a nation, laid down a moral code, initiated numberless social and political reforms, established a dynamic and powerful society to practice and represent his teachings, and completely revolutionized the worlds of human thought and action for all times to come.

HIS NAME IS MUHAMMAD, peace and blessings of Almighty God be upon him and he accomplished all these wonders in the unbelievably short span of twenty-three years.

Muhammad, peace and blessings of God Almighty be upon him was born in Arabia on the 20th of August, in the year 570 of the Christian era, and when he died after 63 years, the whole of the Arabian Peninsula had changed from paganism and idol-worship to the worship of One God; from tribal quarrels and wars to national solidarity and cohesion; from drunkenness and debauchery to sobriety and piety; from lawlessness and anarchy to disciplined living; from utter moral bankruptcy to the highest standards of moral excellence. Human history has never known such a complete transformation of a people or a place before or since!

The Encyclopedia Britannica calls him "the most successful of all religious personalities of the world". Bernard Shaw said about him that if Muhammad were alive today he would succeed in solving all those problems which threaten to destroy human civilization in our times. Thomas Carlysle was simply amazed as to how one man, single-handedly, could weld warring tribes and wandering Bedouins into a most powerful and civilized nation in less than two decades. Napoleon and Gandhi never tired of dreaming of a society along the lines established by this man in Arabia fourteen centuries ago.

Indeed no other human being ever accomplished so much, in such diverse fields of human thought and behavior, in so limited a space of time, as did Muhammad, peace and blessings of God Almighty be upon him. He was a religious teacher, a social reformer, a moral guide, a political thinker, a military genius, an administrative colossus, a faithful friend, a wonderful companion, a devoted husband, a loving father - all in one. No other man in history ever excelled or equaled him in any of these difficult departments of life.

The world has had its share of great personalities. But these were one sided figures who distinguished themselves in but one or two fields such as religious thought or military leadership. None of the other great leaders of the world ever combined in himself so many different qualities to such an amazing level of perfection as did Muhammad, peace and blessings of God Almighty be upon him.

The lives and teachings of other great personalities of the world are shrouded in the mist of time. There is so much speculation about the time and the place of their birth, the mode and style of their life, the nature and detail of their teachings and the degree and measure of their success or failure that it is impossible for humanity today to reconstruct accurately and precisely the lives and teachings of those men.

Not so this man Muhammad, peace and blessings of God Almighty be upon him. Not only was he born in the fullest blaze of recorded history, but every detail of his private and public life, of his actions and utterances, has been accurately documented and faithfully preserved to our day. The authenticity of the information so preserved is vouched for not only by faithful followers but also by unbiased critics and open-minded scholars.

At the level of ideas there is no system of thought and belief-secular or religious, social or political-which could surpass or equal ISLAAM- the system which Muhammad peace and blessings of God Almighty be upon him propounded. In a fast changing world, while other systems have undergone profound transformations, Islaam alone has remained above all change and mutation, and retained its original form for the past 1400 years. What is more, the positive changes that are taking place in the world of human thought and behavior, truly and consistently reflect the healthy influence of Islam in these areas. Further, it is not given to the best of thinkers to put their ideas completely into practice, and to see the seeds of their labors grow and bear fruit, in their own lifetime. Except of course, Muhammad, peace and blessings of God Almighty be upon him, who not only preached the most wonderful ideas but also successfully translated each one of them into practice in his own lifetime. At the time of his death his teachings were not mere precepts and ideas straining for fulfillment, but had become the very core of the life of tens of thousands of perfectly trained individuals, each one of whom was a marvelous personification of everything that Muhammad peace and blessings of God Almighty be upon him taught and stood for. At what other time or place and in relation to what other political, social, religious system, philosophy or ideology-did the world ever witness such a perfectly amazing phenomenon?

Indeed no other system or ideology secular or religious, social or political, ancient or modern - could ever claim the distinction of having been put into practice in its fullness and entirety EVEN ONCE in this world, either before or after the death of its founder. Except of course ISLAAM, the ideology preached by Muhammad, peace and blessings of God Almighty be upon him which was established as a complete way of life by the teacher himself, before he departed from this world. History bears testimony to this fact and the greatest skeptics have no option but to concede this point.

In spite of these amazing achievements and in spite of the countless absolutely convincing and authentic miracles performed by him and the phenomenal success which crowned his efforts, he did not for a moment claim to be God or God's incarnation or Son - but only a human being who was chosen and ordained by God to be a teacher of truth to man kind and a complete model and pattern for their actions.

He was nothing more or less than a human being. But he was a man with a noble and exalted mission-and his unique mission was to unite humanity on the worship of ONE AND ONLY GOD and to teach them the way to honest and upright living in accordance with the laws and commands of God. He always described himself as A MESSENGER AND SERVANT OF GOD, and so indeed every single action and movement of his proclaimed him to be.

A world which has not hesitated to raise to Divinity individuals whose very lives and missions have been lost in legend and who historically speaking did not accomplish half as much-or even one tenth-as was accomplished by Muhammad, peace and blessings of God Almighty be upon him should stop to take serious note of this remarkable man's claim to be God's messenger to mankind.

Today after the lapse of some 1400 years the life and teachings of Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings of God Almighty be upon him, have survived without the slightest loss, alteration or interpolation. Today they offer the same undying hope for treating mankind's many ills which they did when Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings of God Almighty be upon him, was alive. This is our honest claim and this is the inescapable conclusion forced upon us by a critical and unbiased study of history.

The least YOU should do as a thinking, sensitive, concerned human being is to stop for one brief moment and ask yourself: Could it be that these statements, extraordinary and revolutionary as they sound, are really true? Supposing they really are true, and you did not know this man Muhammad, peace and blessings of God Almighty be upon him or hear about his teachings? Or did not know him well and intimately enough to be able to benefit from his guidance and example? Isn't it time you responded to this tremendous challenge and made some effort to know him? It will not cost you anything but it may well prove to be the beginning of a completely new era in your life.

Come, let us make a new discovery of the life of this wonderful man Muhammad, peace and blessings of God Almighty be upon him the like of whom never walked on this earth, and whose example and teachings can change YOUR LIFE and OUR WORLD for the better. May God shower His choicest blessings upon him!

Written by S.H. Pasha