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Hadith as Viewed by Harald Motzki
Shamrizi, PhDa, Mohammad Rahim Janipourb
a
Islamic Azad University – Yazd Branch
Abstract
Introduction
Historical Creditability of Hadith
Origin of Hadith and Mohammadian Tradition
Elucidation of Harald Motzki’s Viewpoint
Traditions of Islamic Hadith Narration
Elucidation of Harald Motzki’s Viewpoint
Written or Verbal Reception of Hadiths
Harald Motzki’s Hadith Studies Tradition
Origins of Harald Motzki’s Viewpoints
Analysis of Harald Motzki’s Methodology
Strengths and Weaknesses of Motzki’s Hadith Studies Tradition
Conclusions
Resources
Abstract
Since revelation of Islam and prophecy of the Holy Prophet Mohammad (peace be upon Him), there were drastic
spiritual and political changes in this religion and tremendous conquests were made in a short while. This was one of
the Holy Prophet’s miracles and His religion that was tried to be riddled out by many scholars. Among distinguished
orientalists such as Herblore (1625-1695), Alois Matthews (1813-1893), Goldziher (1850-1921), Yonbel (18661948), and Schacht (1902-1969), one may refer to Harald Motzki born in 1947.
In this research, attempts are made to study the last-mentioned, still alive, scholar’s viewpoints on Hadith and its
impacts on progress of Islam and Muslims. It is a library-based study in which electronic tools such as computer
internet are employed.
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More especially, investigation of the impacts made by scientific services, field research, and articulation of facts and
realities on formation of Islam are hoped to pave the path for making the youth aware of, and eliminating, the doubts
expressed by some biased orientalists.
Keywords: Hadith; orientalists; Islam; Harald Motzki
Introduction
Acquaintance with viewpoints and works presented by orientalists who have been for centuries studying hadith is
the initial phase to enter the arena of identification and criticism of researchers in this regard. This is, however, a
demanding job as it requires a strong mastery over several foreign languages. Among all orientalists who have left
valuable works in this respect, the German orientalist Harald Motzki is a leading one. This is, therefore, intended to
shed light on his views and attempts regarding his tradition of hadith studies together with his strengths and
weaknesses in this respect. To do so, the priceless book Hadith in View of Orientalists written by Forough Parsa,
published by Al-Zahra Uni. Press, along with other books and resources have been employed in order to, may the
Almighty God will, reach at the desired outcome.
Historical Creditability of Hadith
Undoubtedly, the most important problem of Western scholars regarding Hadith is clarification of its historical
origin and creditability. This has, although, been expressed in Muslims’ Hadith studies tradition in another way due
partly to Muslims’ different viewpoints about Hadith. Muslims look at hadiths narrated by the Holy Prophet and His
immaculate progeny as an invaluable source along with the Holy Quran in order to get insight into Islam and its
commands. While, Western scholars regard Hadith solely as a historical source, intending to reconstruct history of
Islam through contents of hadiths and information therein. They, as a matter of fact, seek to discover “Essentially,
what has happened?!” They, additionally, hunt for religious and theological beliefs, exegetical trends, schools of
law, political currents and institutions, and other issues. Hadiths, as reckoned by Western orientalists, are neither
sanctified nor significant thanks to their being uttered by the Holy Prophet and/or His immaculate progeny. Rather,
they are taken into account as they possibly constitute a historical document. That is why orientalists try primarily to
discover historical origins and creditability of hadiths.
Investigation of hadith studies in the West indicates that chief questions brought by Western scholars are as follows:
“Who and when formed hadith? Why?” “How much is reliability of hadiths?” “Do hadiths have sufficient
creditability and authenticity for historical studies?” “How one may recognize early and correct hadiths from false
and distorted ones?” (Hadith in View of Orientalists by Forough Parsa, p: 29)
Elucidation of Harald Motzki’s Viewpoint
Muslims make use of the word hadith in reference to two cases: (a) in reference to a narration by the Holy Prophet
or His companions, (b) in reference to such narrations in general. Hadith is also applied to the narrations by those
who came after them. Therefore, all questions on hadith are also applicable to narrations made by such successors.
According to Harald Motzki, hadiths may be found in Holy Prophet’s and His progeny’s lifestyles books, reports
from early Islam, Holy Quran interpretations, legal treatises, and biographies in addition to hadith books because of
different themes found in hadiths. In elucidation of the term tradition, Motzki says: tradition has different meanings:
(a) Content and message of a certain hadith intended to convey an example, inhibition, permission, and/or
recommendation; (b) All Holy Prophet’s individual practical methods, dispositions, and practices; and (c) Common
customs and traditions in early Islamic society.
Motzki maintains: “Since Goldziher, Islamic scholars and Western scientists have been divided on the issue whether
the term tradition means an assortment of the Holy Prophet’s practices and early concepts or it has been formed
thereafter.” According to Harald Motzki, Westerns are more inclined to regard tradition as an equivalent of customs
and conventions dominant on early Islamic community, since they believe that concept of tradition, as a synonym of
the Holy Prophet’s practices, has been generalized during the 2nd century Hijri and its dominance has been obtained
since the 3rd century Hijri afterwards. Muslims, in contrast, believe that the Holy Prophet’s tradition has been
prevailed since His lifetime.
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Harald Motzki suggests: “Judgment on origin of the Mohammadian tradition is not an easy task, and requires more
in-depth studies.” “Even if we take the outlook that many Holy Prophet’s companions had benchmarked and
imitated His practices during His lifetime,” he says somewhere else, “this is not to mean that the concept of
Mohammadian tradition had been there during the Prophet’s lifetime and has been obligatory to follow. Tradition,
ranked second after the Holy Quran, has been the second source for Muslims’ guidance.”
Traditions of Islamic Hadith Narration
Explication of hadith narration traditions is another index which is closely entangled with historical validity of
hadiths. Respecting historical creditability and originality of hadith, the way hadiths have been narrated is of
paramount importance, as each narration is subject to probable distortion especially if has not been in written form.
Verbal narration of hadith, as suggested by Harald Motzki, is much fragile and sensitive, thereby the longer the
period during which hadiths have been narrated, the higher the probability by which primary information has been
subject to deformation, unless more confident methods and mechanisms had been adopted for genuine reception and
conveyance of materials. This is not, however, to pronounce that written narration is fully impervious to all defects,
since misunderstanding, mal-deduction, neglect of protection, and deliberate manipulation are hard to disregard.
As architects of exhaustive and well-documented research on hadith, nineteenth century orientalists believe that
hadiths have customarily been transmitted in verbal manner, and the first hadith constellations which are presently
inexistent, but they constitute the foundation on which the most renowned later hadith communities have based their
work have been compiled in the first half of the 2nd century Hijri.
Muir maintains: “This is hard to deny that some of narrations made by the Holy Prophet have been somehow
documented during His lifetime and deducted afterwards. Such documentation, however, has not possibly been a
prevalent practice.” He believes that initiatives of the Umayyad Caliph Umar bin-Abdul Aziz together with various
personal incentives provoked a group of skilled narrators to compile and put into words a huge number of available
hadiths in the first century Hijri. These narrators conveyed the content of their works mainly through their verbal
teachings to their disciples, who took note of materials and recited them to other students. Consequently, the most
important hadith communities were established, whose numbers were increased in the course of following centuries.
Muslim scholars sought to unveil that there are enormous collections of Islamic news and narrations that endorse
composition of hadiths in the 1st century and compilation of hadith constellations in the 2nd century Hijri. By
finding segments of old versions of such constellations, Muslim scholars argued that these are able to be
reconstructed based on their narration documents. Mrs. Nabia Abbott was one of the first Muslims who tried to
show that there has been an old and steady movement intended to take down hadiths. By old, she meant the Holy
Prophet’s companions who recorded hadiths. By steady, furthermore, she meant to say that hadiths were parallelly
recited and narrated in both verbal and written manners before they were officially collected. In Abbott’s opinion,
recording of hadith is guarantee of its originality and authenticity. “Literacy,” she indicates, “was not common
among Arab people, and during the Holy Prophet’s lifetime, there were some compositions attributable to pre-Islam
period.”
This is important to note that Shiite Imams were supporters—and enticers—of recording hadiths. That is why there
was an early movement among Shiites to record hadiths, as referred to a countless list of which in such books as Ebn
Nadim Index (385 AD), Sheikh Toosi Index (460 AD), Rejal of Najashi (450 AD), etc.
Harald Motzki’s Hadith Studies Tradition
According to a horde of theorists, Harald Motzki is the most contemporary prominent and influential Western
scholar in area of hadith and jurisprudence. In his Islamic jurisprudence illuminations, Harald Motzki rejected the
Schacht’s theory on origin of Islamic jurisprudence that was in most part accepted by many orientalists. He proved
that a reconstruction of history of Islamic jurisprudence in another form is promising using earlier sources and more
advanced methodologies. Many Western scholars consider as highly treasured the Motzki’s attempts to shed light on
doubts about Islamic jurisprudence. They believe that Harald Motzki has been able to modify orientalists’ criteria
about early Islamic jurisprudence, which beforehand had their roots largely in Schacht’s theories. Appropriate
methodology adopted by Motzki helped him move further back nearly 50 to 70 years the tally provided by Schacht
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to mark the inception of Islamic jurisprudence, demonstrating that whereabouts of its origin has been not Medina or
Iraq, but Mecca.
Origins of Harald Motzki’s Viewpoints
Harald Motzki is one of the leading figures of the current which examines Islamic hadith with a particular approach.
In the meantime of his relatively extensive studies, Motzki could manage to prove historical creditability of hadith to
a substantial extent by taking advantage of modern research methods and ancient texts which had recently been
reconstructed from among other sources. He could invalidate uncertainties and doubts raised by a throng of
orientalists about lack of hadith’s credibility.
Analysis of Harald Motzki’s Methodology
A deliberation on Harald Motzki’s works shows that his methodology is the same method which is central to
common historical studies. Making use of a combination of bibliographical, codicological, and paleographical
methodologies, Motzki has also made endeavors to utilize statistics to analyze data and test validity of evidence.
Seemingly, differences among Motzki’s hadith viewpoints are more attributable to his culture-based approach. A
sense of sympathy with the Islamic culture and civilization is clearly perceptible in Motzki’s hadith studies tradition.
Harald Motzki’s methodology is mainly based on two strategies: utilization of early resources which have recently
been recovered (in connection with which Musannaf of Abd al-Razzaq occupies a special position) and
simultaneous analysis of hadith’s text and evidence.
Harald Motzki has used a horde of statistics to represent historical creditability of Musannaf of Abd al-Razzaq’s
works. Revealing heterogeneous frequency of different narrations by Musannaf of Abd al-Razzaq and different
structures of such hadiths and their other features, Motzki came to the conclusion that this work is by Abd al-Razzaq
San’ani and its materials are not counterfeit. Although, a group of skeptic scholars still believe that this work is not
composed by Abd al-Razzaq, but by a faction of other writers in following centuries. They accuse Harald Motzki of
simplicity and believe that heterogeneity of Musannaf’s structure does not prove authenticity of hadiths.
Nonetheless, it seems that Harald Motzki’s analytical method has not yet reached required maturity and
sophistication. Motzki believes that this method can be used for criticism of a group of hadiths and/or a special
hadith; while, he has applied it only in limited cases. Although Motzki has negated outcomes by other orientalists,
there are ambiguities in his own conclusions. Harald Motzki has presented indices for simultaneous analysis of text
and evidence, whereas he does not apply determined standards when he undertakes to analyze a text.
Seemingly, Harald Motzki has not paid adequate attention to instruments, causes, and complexities of hadith.
Accreditation of a hadith for which different resources exist is possible only to a limited extent.
Shiite’s hadiths is another potential issue: Motzki has probably carried out no research on Shiite resource and
hadiths, while his general methodology may be applicable to Shiite hadiths, as well.
Strengths and Weaknesses of Motzki’s Hadith Studies Tradition
Undeniably, the most outstanding hadith studies advantage presented by Harald Motzki compared with Western
hadith researchers and even Muslim ones is his methodology in hadith studying. In order to criticize hadiths, Motzki
applies a text-evidence combined method, the method which has formerly been employed by other Western scholars
but in a less ordered manner. Harald Motzki believed that a sole hadith examination is not sufficient to criticize a
hadith and its authenticity due to the long time distance between hadith narrators and us and also unavailability of
early resources. Consequently, the only solution is analysis and examination of text of a hadith. Coordination among
different evidence, i.e., different ways of narration of a hadith and reported texts with implications available in the
text, provides logical evidence for accreditation of hadiths (Hadith in View of Orientalists by Forough Parsa, p:
201).
Harald Motzki’s ambiguous basics in application of rijal resources and his undefined indices in analysis of a text are
among weaknesses found in his methodology. Motzki’s hadith studies have been carried out in an extra-religious
manner. And, since his theoretical principles and purposes are distinct from Muslims’ studies, his methodology in
hadith studies may possibly dispossess needed efficiency for Muslim hadith research (Hadith in View of Orientalists
by Forough Parsa, p: 366).
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It seems that Harald Motzki’s analytical method has not yet reached required maturity and sophistication. Motzki
believes that this method can be used for criticism of a group of hadiths and/or a special hadith (that of Musannaf of
Abd al-Razzaq); while, he has applied it only in limited cases. Although Motzki has negated outcomes by other
orientalists, there are ambiguities in his own conclusions.
One of the critical scientific activities undertaken by Harald Motzki is his two pivotal criticisms made to Panbol’s
hadith studies: (a) Panbol prefers to develop doubts for silence-based argument accreditation; (b) Panbol offers an
interpretation different from common ring to be more compatible with early Islam’s educational system (“The First
Encyclopedia in Western Hadith Studies” by Seyed Ali Aghaei, p: 4).
Using his modern methodology in hadith studies, Harald Motzki shows that the method dominant in early Islam has
been verbal-written combined methodology, as observed in some hadith composition traditions in the first century
Hijri (“Hadith Narration Traditions in Comparative Investigation of Orientalists’ Viewpoints” by Parsa Forough, p:
1). Criticizing the positivist approach adopted by methodology of previous studies, Harald Motzki, unlike his
predecessors, seeks to avoid unnecessary generalizations and generalizing his findings. “In my studies on hadith
narration traditions,” Harald Motzki indicates, “I have drawn to the conclusion that this has been fully ordinary to
record hadiths in written forms despite unofficial, verbal hadith narrations since the second half of the first century
through establishment of an educational system” (“Hadith Narration Traditions in Comparative Investigation of
Orientalists’ Viewpoints” by Parsa Forough, p: 12).
Conclusions
From the viewpoint of Islamic hadith studies, Harald Motzki’s views on composition of hadith and its starting line
are some conspicuous steps forward compared to other orientalists. Historicist movement, represented by Will,
Muir, and Douzi, attributes initiation of hadith recording to the beginning of the 2nd century Hijri, the date which is
regarded by the Scepticist current to be the 3rd century. Harald Motzki, however, has found evidence on hadith
recording in the first half of the 1st century. It appears that Motzki’s views and the date presupposed by Muslims as
starting line of hadith recording are wide apart. This is a fairly widespread belief among Muslims that hadiths
professed by the Holy Prophet (pbuh) have been recorded during His lifetime (“Hadith Narration Traditions in
Comparative Investigation of Orientalists’ Viewpoints” by Parsa Forough, p: 20).
The German orientalist Harald Motzki has been working as a professor since 2000 in the Center for Middle Eastern
Language and Culture at the University of Nijmegen, Netherlands. A major part of Motzki’s works is in the area of
jurisprudence, hadith, the Holy Quran, and history—the issues which are indicative of Motzki’s broad interest in
study on Islam and ear-splitting velocity of Islam’s progress, especially under the leadership of the Holy Quran, the
Holy Prophet Mohammad ,and His hadiths. As mentioned hereinabove, Harald Motzki has made massive attempts
and developed invaluable works. Other orientalists and scientists around the world are hereby asked to, just like
Motzki, pursue realities and present their services to the global scientific community. They are recommended to
abandon their aberrant favoritisms and ill-placed doubts in investigation of various religions around the globe and
cast eyes of fairness on books and opinions in order for their research works to constitute factors of people’s
guidance and their own forgiveness.
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