Quran & Hadiths Series (Urdu)~A Historical Study of the Writing and Compilation of Hadith (Part-3)

Hadith studies (Arabic: علم الحديث‎ ʻilm al-ḥadīth "science of hadith", also science of hadith, or science of hadith criticism or hadith criticism)[1][Note 1] consists of several religious scholarly disciplines used by Muslim scholars in the study and evaluation of the Islamic hadith—i.e. the record of the words, actions, and the silent approval of the Islamic prophet, Muhammad. Determining authenticity of hadith is enormously important in Islam because along with the Quran, the Sunnah of the Islamic prophet—his words, actions, and the silent approval—are considered divine revelation (wahy), and the record of them (i.e. hadith) provides the basis of Islamic law (Sharia). In addition, while the number of verses pertaining to law in the Quran is relatively few, hadith give direction on everything from details of religious obligations (such as Ghusl or Wudu, ablutions for salat prayer), to the correct forms of salutations,[4] and the importance of benevolence to slaves.Thus the "great bulk" of the rules of Islamic law are derived from hadith, rather than the Quran. Because hadith were passed down orally and not compiled in written works until around the third century of Islam, there is no ancient written documentation to examine. Thus, according to the classical science of hadith, there are three primary ways to determine the authenticity (sihha) of a hadith: by attempting to determine whether there are "other identical reports from other transmitters"; determining the reliability of the transmitters of the report; and "the continuity of the chain of transmission" of the hadith. Traditional hadith studies has been praised as "unrivaled, the ultimate in historical criticism", and criticized as failing to filter out many hadith "which cannot possibly be authentic". Definition It has been described by one hadith specialist, Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti, as the science of the principles by which the conditions of both the sanad, the chain of narration, and the matn, the text of the hadith, are known. This science is concerned with the sanad and the matn with its objective being distinguishing the sahih, authentic, from other than it. Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani said the preferred definition is: knowledge of the principles by which the condition of the narrator and the narrated are determined. Types Some of the disciplines in the science of hadith, according to scholar İsmail Lütfi Çakan, include: the "study of the circumstances surrounding the genesis of each hadith," i.e. the reasons for why the hadith was uttered; the study of the gharib al-hadith, whose works provide "a kind of hadith glossary" of uncommon words found in hadith; the study of ilel al-hadith, which examines deficiencies in the text and/or the chain of a hadith; study of al-hadith al-muhtelif, which attempts to reconcile the contradictions of hadith; the study of naskh or nasikh and mansukh in hadith, which also attempts to reconcile contradictions in hadiths, but by determining which of the contradicting hadith abrogates the other;[ study of sharh al-hadith, which are commentary on hadith that attempt "to explain the intentions Prophet Muhammad"; study of ʿilm jarḥ wa taʿdīl (wounding and rectifying),hich attempts to verify the reliability of transmitters of hadith, their deficiencies and virtues; study of transmitters of hadith, ʿilm al-rijāl (science of men) which provides biographies of the narrators and the different categories they fall under. History Main article: History of hadith After the death of Muhammad, his sayings were preserved in both written and memorized form. According to Islamic tradition, Umar ibn al-Khattab, the second caliph, started the process of collecting all the hadiths together into one unified volume, but gave up the endeavor "for fear the Quran would be neglected by the Muslims" (according to Muhammad Zubayr Siddiqi). The Umayyad caliph, Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz (aka Umar II, who reigned from 717-720 CE) also started an effort to collect all the hadiths. Teaching and collecting hadiths was part of a plan of his to renew the moral fiber of the Muslim community. He supported teachers of fiqh, sent educators to ignorant Bedouin tribes, ordered weekly hadith lectures in the Hejaz, and sent out scholars of hadith to Egypt and North Africa, (according to Muhammad Zubayr Siddiqi). Umar also ordered the great scholar of Madinah, Abu Bakr ibn Hazm to write down all the hadiths of Muhammad and Umar ibn al-Khattab, particularly those narrated by Aisha. He had these hadiths collected in books which were circulated around the Umayyad Empire. Although these books are lost today, commentaries on them by Ibn al-Nadim reveals that they are organized like books of fiqh, such as the Muwatta of Imam Malik, the first large compilation of hadiths. The classification of Hadith into sahih, sound or authentic; hasan, good; da'if, weak, (another rating is mawḍūʿ, fabricated).