Download Introduction to Hadith: The “Traditions” of the Prophet Muhammed

Introduction to Hadith: The “Traditions” of the Prophet Muhammad
Copyright 2001 James G. Lochtefeld, Assoc. Prof. of Religion, Carthage College. This
may be copied and duplicated for any non-commercial or educational use.
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Introduction
Hadith Components
Evaluation Criteria
Hadith Classifications
Introduction: As the final Messenger of Allah, Muhammad has a special place in the
history and culture of Islam. Not only was Muhammad 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 Messenger of God, to be close to God and to be a
suitable model for human behavior. Because of this, Muhammad’s leadership guided the
community while he was alive, but his example was believed to be normative long after
his death. Given this importance, the Muslim community recorded his words and actions
for posterity, and as the number of these reported conversations grew exponentially in the
century after his death, the community developed sophisticated methods for evaluating
their veracity. Since these Hadith were an important source for the development of
Islamic law, the community had to know which traditions were reliable, and which were
clearly fraudulent. The two most important compiler/evaluators were Bukhari (d. 870
CE) and Muslim (d. 875), although four other collections are accepted by all Sunni
Muslims (by al-Tirmidhi, Abu Da’ud al-Sijistani, al-Nasa’I, and Ibh Majah).
Hadith Components
A Hadith is composed of two major parts, the text (which gave the actual content) and
the chain of transmission (which named the people who had reported this, going back to
the time of the Prophet.
A. Text (matn)
The text or matn gave the actual account of
the Prophet’s words or behavior (“The
Prophet said….”). A particular Hadith’s
text was usually not questioned in itself,
unless it was contradicted by a more
authoritative source--either the Qur`an, or a
better-attested Hadith.
B. Chain of Transmission (isnad)
The reliability of Hadith were usually
judged by evaluating the chain of
transmission, according to the criteria
below.
Evaluating Hadith: Criteria include
A. The source to
whom attributed
1. Allah (Hadith
Qudsi): A limited
number of sayings are
attributed directly to
Allah, and relayed
through the Prophet
Muhammad
2. Muhammad: Reports
a narration from the
Prophet himself (e.g.,
“the Prophet said…”)
3. Companion: Reports
a narration from a
companion alone (e.g.,
“we were told to…”).
This is less
authoritative, but still
eyewitness experience.
4. Successor: Narrator
comes a time after the
Prophet. These cannot
be authoritative, since
these people could not
have had direct contact
with the Prophet.
B. The Number of Reporters in
each Generation
C. Links of the Isnad
1. "Supported": The most
authoritative. This is a
Hadith reported by a
person who learned it
from a teacher at an age
suitable for learning, who
had learned it from his
teacher (etc.)…. who
heard it from a
Companion of the
Prophet, who reported it
of the Prophet himself.
This is authoritative for
reporting the Prophet’s
2. A Few Reporters in one or More actual words and deeds.
Generations: In cases when only a
few people (or in the extreme case, 2. “Continuous”: a Hadith
one person) in a generation report with an uninterrupted
a Hadith, it must be examined with chain of transmission back
greater care, since fewer people
only to a companion of the
attest to it. Here the examiners
Prophet.
focused on the character of the
speaker(s)--in particular, whether
The other types of isnad
they were pious and learned,
(all invalid) all omit one
trustworthy, and whether they had or another of the people
good memories--in short, whether somewhere in this chain
they would have been able to
between the reporter and
understand what they said, and to
the Prophet—and this
transmit it unchanged. If all of
omission means that the
these were true, the traditions can
direct link back to Prophet
still be reliable, but if any of these has been broken.
are deficient, the tradition is much
weaker.
1. Multiple Reporters: If many
people in each generation report
and transmit an identical Hadith, it
is unlikely that they could have all
colluded to support a false Hadith,
and thus this Hadith is deemed
reliable, unless the Hadith
contradicts the teaching of the
Qur'an or a better-attested Hadith.
Hadith with multiple reporters in
every generation seem to have
been uncommon.
Final Hadith Classifications
Except for the rejected Hadith at far right, these classifications reflect the probability that
these Hadith are genuine, and do not presume to tell w/certainty.
A. Sahih (“exact”)
Sahih Hadith (the most
reliable) are of two sorts:
1. If the isnad has many
transmitters in every
single generation.
2. If a Hadith with an
unbroken isnad has only
a few transmitters (one,
two, etc.) in any
generation, it is reliable
if and only if the
transmitters were pious
Muslims, truthful,
reliable, of an age to
understand exactly what
they were learning, and
reported the Hadith’s
text verbatim.
B. Hasan
(“Fair”)
Hasan Hadith
are less reliable
than the Sahih
Hadith.
These are
Hadith in which
the isnad is
reliable and
unambiguous,
but the tradition
is not as strong
as for a Sahih
Hadith
C. Daif (“Weak”)
D. Rejected
These are unreliable
traditions, either
because
Munkar
(“denounced)”
1. The isnad is
interrupted, and thus
the chain of eyewitness
testimony does not go
all the way back to the
Prophet, OR
2. One or more of the
reporters is considered
unreliable (e.g., lacking
true piety, being a liar,
drinking alcohol, poor
memory, or any other
factor impugning that
person's testimony).
A Hadith
reported by a
weak narrator,
whose content
runs counter to a
better-attested
Hadith; this has
no authority, and
is denounced.
Maudu
(“forged”)
This clearly has
no authority.
One of the sub-disciplines of Hadith criticism was extensive biographical information for
the people mentioned in the Hadith. One reason for this was to list the “character”
factors that would be necessary to be a reliable transmitter, but the biographies also listed
biographical information about people’s eras and native places, contacts, travels, and
personal habits. These latter were done to help establish an unbroken isnad, since if a
Hadith claimed that Person A had learned it from person B, but if these two people did
not live in the same era or in the same place, that Hadith was clearly unreliable. The
energy and vigor that the early Muslim community put into this is a clear sign of how
important “getting this right” was to them.
Acknowledgements: The Arabic terms here (since I know very little Arabic) come from
“The Science of Hadith,” an article from Perspectives posted on the USC Islamic server
at http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/fundamentals/hadithsunnah/scienceofhadith/brief1/.
Other information (primarily historical background) comes from chapter nine in Frederic
Denny’s An Introduction to Islam (New York: Macmillan, 1994).