Development of Early Hadith Literature, Principal of Collection And
Genre of Authenticity
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Introduction
The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) has a special place in the history and culture of Islam. Not
only was He the leader of the Muslim community, and the vehicle through whom the Qur`an was revealed,
but he was also considered, by virtue of his status as a final Messenger of God 1and to be a suitable model
for human behaviour.2 Because of this, His leadership guided the community while he was alive, but his
example was believed to be normative long after his death. The Qu’ran orders Muslims to follow the
example of the Messenger and so from the very beginning the Companions (sahaba) concerned themselves
with following the Sunnah (conduct or customs) of the Prophet, which was embodied in hadith (reports or
anecdotes narrating his words and deeds.) Since these hadĭths were an important source for the
development of Islamic law, the community had to know which traditions were reliable, and which were
clearly fraudulent. But the problems of hadĭth have led to much disunion over authenticity, and have led to
development of the complex science of hadĭth as it serves as an additional link between Prophet
Muhammad and the Qur'an. One can question the authenticity of the hadĭth, which contradict the Qur'an;
however, if one were to dismiss the whole corpus of hadĭth, the very foundations of practiced Islam would
be threatened.
As Sprenger wisely remarks that, while he is prepared to believe that no real books were produced before
A.H.120, he cannot believe that traditions before this trusted wholly to their memory and had not at least
written notes.3 The subject of this article is not corpus of hadĭth material, but only analysing the
collection of early period and its authenticity.
Early Western Approach to the Hadith
Before we attempt to portray a positive picture of the methodology of religious discipline in the earliest
period of Islamic history, which proved decisive for the subsequent religious development of Islam, a brief
critical review of the treatment of the subject of hadith by the leaders of modern Western scholarship in
this field is necessary.
Many Western scholars have accepted, with some reservations, these assumptions and used hadith as fairly
reliable historical sources, but for many others the authenticity and the date of origin of the Hadith material
are issues that have produced and continue to produce, heated debate.
Western studies of Islam since the second half of nineteenth century have pointed out that this method of
hadith criticism is unreliable and have concentrated on the content of the text when judging the
authenticity of a hadith. In 1848 Gustav Weil, after nothing that al-Bukhari deemed only 4,000 of his
original 600,000 hadith to be authentic, suggests that a European critic is further required to reject without
hesitation at least half of these 4,000. Aloys Sprenger,4 who also suggests that many of the haditth material
cannot be considered authentic?5
A Hungarian Scholar Ignaz. Goldziher’s thesis that the traditions ascribed to the Prophet and the
Companions (Sahaba) contained in the classical collections of hadĭth, are not authentic reports of these
persons but rather reflect the doctrinal and political developments of the first two centuries after
Muhammad’s death6 is based primarily on analysis of the content of the hadĭth, (matn) and not the
transmitters.
1 See Al-Quran. Surah Ahazab.40
2 Al-Qur’an Ahzab: 21
3. See. Robson ,j .Tradition, The Second Foundation of Islam ,.Ref: ZDMG, 1856, p.5.
4 . Berg ,H . The Development of Exegesis in Early Islam.. p. 9
5 Sprenger concludes his study of the sunna by saying that in his judgement the sunna is comprised of more true material than false, and that the sira more false
than tru. Sprenger, Das Leben und die Lehre des Mohammad, 3:civ
6 . See, Goldziher, Muslim Stdies, (volume) 2 :19
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Like Goldziher, Schacht7 proposed general statements concerning the time, first studied their contents and
classified them within the frame work of the development of the issue to which they were refer.8 He
considered criteria from the isnid only secondarily. But as historical facts, and he did not limit his
conclusion to the legal ahadith, on which he had based his theories. Goldziher introduced scepticism about
hadĭth. Schacht and Setter suggest plausible mechanisms for the creation of false hadĭth. Because this
scepticism strikes at the very foundation of early Islamic literature, the rest of the edifice begins to
crumble. The very piece of evidence that is meant to guarantee genuineness of the matn, the isnad, is being
summarily dismissed as a fabrication. Therefore, to non-sceptics the conclusions of Goldziher and Schacht
are wrong because they are based on a misunderstanding of the transmission system. In other words, their
(false) assumptions about the nature of hadĭth, has led then to (false) conclusions. And so, their arguments
seem contrived, circular, and contrary to reason to those who disagree with them.
Hadĭth its Meaning, Concept, and Authority
The Arabic word hadĭth has the primary connotation of ‘new’ being used as an antonym of qadim, ‘old’.
The term Hadĭth applied to specific reports of the Prophet’s words and deeds as well as those of many of
the early Muslims. The hadĭth literature means the literature, which consists of narrations of the life of the
Prophet and the things approved by him. Some other words were also used in the same sense, such as
khabar and athar9. However, there is another key word, though a little different from the term hadith in the
meaning, yet used mostly as synonymous, that is the term sunnah. Tariqah / shir’ah and minhaj10 are
parallel of the Sunnah.
The Divine guidance, which came verbally in the necessary in the form of Qu’ranic Revelation, provided a
kind of necessary background foundation for the Sunnah. Although, therefore, a difference can be made
between the Qur’an and the Sunnah, the two cannot be fundamentally divorced from each other.11For, the
Sunnah is, more or less, a concrete implementation of the Divine will. “Sunnah means a path, and is a
general term for the practice of a community.”12 It means tradition in the sense that certain customs are
traditional, weather or not there is a saying to support them.
In early Islam after death of Prophet (peace be upon him) when Islam was spreading the Qur’an and
Sunnah were lost in the heat of the controversy. It goes to the high credit of al-Shafi’i that he perceived the
utter futility of the pleading for the Sunnah as a separate entity, in which case it was bound to clash with
the express words of the Qur’an here and there and thus provide the opponents with an argument against
itself. Al-Shaf’i insisted13 on taking the Qur’an and the Sunnah together and at par so as to eliminate the
very prospect of having the one set against the other. Most significant is his denial that the Qur’an
constitutes the test of the veracity of the Sunnah.
7 .J.Schacht, Orgin of Muhammad ‘s Jurisprudance , Oxford 1950-
8 . See.J.. Schacht, the Organis of Muhammad Jurisprudance. P.1 and passim. See also Motzki,H. Journal
of Near Eastern Studies, 50 no. 1. 1991
9 However, some scholars mostly of Khurasan region used to differentiate between khabar and athar. They
used the khabar in the sense of hadith and the term athar restricted to the sayings and decisions of the
Companions
لكل جعلنا منكم شرعة و منهاجا: 10 . Cf. the Qur’anic verses
11. The Sunnah: Ist Place in Islam, Institute of Islamic Culture: 1966. P, 1
12 . Muslim, Sahih (Cairo, 1349/1930), I, p.48
وان قول من قال: تعرض السنة علي : 13 It is interesting to note the following ingenious retort to the anti-traditionists
القرآن, فان وافقت ظاهرهو والا استعملنا ظاهر القرآن و ترآنا الحديث, جهل لما وصفت,فابان الله لنا ان سنن رسوله فرض علينا بان نتهي اليهما, لاان
cf. Shafi al- Risalah, Cairo, 1940, p.224 لنا معها من الامر شياء الا التسليم لها و اتباعها, ولا انها تعرض عل قياس ولا علي شيء الخ
et seq.
