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History and compilation of Hadith

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Describe how were the Ahadith collected into six authentic compilations.

From the earliest times Muslims had realised the importance of Hadith in their life as
they could not understand Quran fully and act upon its teachings without the help of
Hadith. The companions of the prophet used to learn every word of the Prophet
Mohammad and passed them on to others. The companions famous for memorising
HADITH were Hazrat Ayesha, Abu Huraira, Abdullah bin Umar ect. In Makka the
prophet discouraged the writing down Hadith , but in Madina he encouraged
Muslims to write them down. Most important contribution was of ashab al sufa ,
who had devoted them for this work specially Abu Huraira who used to write down
every Hadith in book form known as Sadiqa. Hazrat Ali used to carry a booklet in
which he wrote down sayings and judgments passed by the Prophet. Abdullah bin
Umar compiled HADITH in Prophet's time known as Kitab-e-Fraiz.
Prophet said at the end of his farewell sermon,"whoever is present here should pass
on my words to those who are not present". Therefore the companions considered it
their duty to pass on Hadith of the Prophet specially after his death. The students of
the companions
Continued their work and made collections of Ahadith from various angels and
adopted different methods in arrangements of the material. Hadith were traced to
each companions was put together under his name. Such a collection is called
Musnad. The most famous of this kind is Musnad of Imam Ahmed bin Hanbal.
Second category of Hadith are grouped into chapters according to themes. The best
known work of this type is Al Muwatta by Malik bin Anas andw Al Musannaf of Imam
Abd Al-Razaq.
The great period of Ahadith collection came in the third century of Islam, when the
successors of the students of the companions Tabe Tabieen, graded each HADITH
into categories like Sahih- authentic , Hasan- lesser authentic and da if-week. At that
time six books of authentic Ahadith -sihah sitta were compiled. Imam Mohammad
bin Ismael Bukhari was the first scholar who compiled his book known as Sahih
bukhari . He travelled for sixteen years to collect 600,000 Ahadith , but only
included 7397 in his book which he ensured to be authentic . There are 97 books in
his collection arranged according to their themes.
Second sahih collection was made by Imam Muslim known as Sahih Muslim. It
included 12000 authentic ahadith. Like Bukhari he checked the isnad and matn of
the text and included only the authentic Ahadith .
Other Hadith experts who followed their example were Abu Dawood , his book has
4300 Ahadith and is known as Sunan Abu Dawood . Imam Tirmidhi compiled his
book ' Jame Tirmidhi ' in which he divided Ahadith into many categories . Imam

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Nasai compiled his Sunan after years of travelling in which he included reliable
HADITH only. Imam Ibn Majah also compiled his Sunan including 4000 Ahadith .j
,.These six books are known as 'Sihah al sitta' the six sound collections , and provide
the second source of shariah to the jurists.
In the later years many new collections of Hadith were made with the help of these
books. The most important one is Mishkat al masabih , which included HADITH
from the above six books and provide an easy access to the authentic Ahadith .

B. Describe what are Musnad and Musanaf.?

The Hadith compilation which name it's chapters under the name of the companion
who came last in the chain of transmitters, the isnad is known as Musnad . For
example the name of chapters are like munad of Ayesha , Musnad of Abu Huraira ,
munad of Abu Bakr ...... This kind of Hadith collection help Muslims to look for
Ahadith narrated by a particular companion. The best example of this kind is
Musnad of imam Hanbal.
Musannaf means divided up, it is the kind of Hadith collection in which the Ahadith
are grouped into themes. Each chapter is divided into themes like prayer, zakat,
tauheed.... The best known example of this type of collection is Sahih al Bukhari ,
which is divided into 97chapters known as Book on zakat, book on sale, book on
divine unity ect, ect. This kind of collection help the legal experts to look for Hadith
on particular topic.

Q. What is a Hadith Qudsi?

There are some Ahadith that contain words from Allah , but such words are not part
of Quran. These are sayings of Hazrat Mohammad related from Allah himself.
Saying of this kind is known as Hadith e Qudsi or divine HADITH . For example, "
when Allah completed creation , he wrote in his book which is with Him , above the
throne,' truly, my mercy overcomes ,My wrath'". And
" From all the deeds of Adams sons fasting is for Me and I shall compensate the
reward for it".

Q. Describe the methods used by the major collectors to ensure that HADITH they
accepted were genuine .
How did legal experts use isnad and Matn to decide that the Hadith had come from
the
Prophet
The third century of Islam is called the golden period of Hadith collection. The
kingship had entered in Islam there fore the Hadith experts decided to sift out the
authentic HADITH . They divided the Hadith into three types, Sahih , Hasan and Daif
, one which were proven false were declared Maudu . The famous Muslim scholar al
Shafi gave a criteria to check how Hadith could be divided into different categories

To ensure the authenticity of HADITH the compilers established a special study

known as Usool e Hadith . For this they checked two parts of Hadith the Hadith into
two , the isnad , chain of transmitters and Matn or text of the Hadith or the words of
the Prophet . Isnad include the names of all the people involved in handing down the
Hadith over a period of time. For example in the following hadith, " Yahya narrated
from Malik who narrated from Nafey who narrated from Abdullah bin Umar that the
Prophet said,' He who misses the Asr prayer is as if he has lost his family and
property'". In this HADITH there are four people in the chain of transmitters.
To check that Hadith is from the Prophet the compilers examined the Isnad very
closely to make sure that these chains go back to the Prophet through reliable
Muslims who met each other and passed on the saying directly. Means that each
person had met the person before him. The HADITH compilers made sure that the
people in the chain were of firm faith , were known for their truthfulness , could
understand what they reported and had good memory, and they were at an age
where they knew what they reported. They collected so much information about
them that a new science of critical biography called ' Asma ar Rijal', developed and
more than 100.000 books were written on the narrators. For this the compilers
travelled widely all over the Muslim world to collect HADITH and information about
the narrators. For example Imam Bukhari took sixteen years to collect information
to compile his Sahih.
The compilers also looked for Ahadith that had been reported by many different
companions and come down to them through chains of different narrators called
matawatar Hadith . However the Hadith which have come through only one chain
and one companion, the Ahad Hadith were scrutinised ( checked) thoroughly , to
make sure wether they were authentic or not.
The compilers also checked the matn or text of Hadith to consider that Hadith was
sound. That it should not be contradictory to Quran or any other authentic HADITH .
It should not be against common sense or observational facts. It should not include
words that were out of use of the Prophet. It should not give details of the events
that took place after the death of the Prophet. After using the strict criteria they
divided the Hadith into four categories . Sahih or authentic , which has passed all the
test mentioned above and is not contradictory to Quran and any other authentic
Hadith ,Hasan or good which raises some doubt about one of the narrator who had
been found defective in memory in comparison to the narrator of Sahih Hadith . Daif
or weak which raises many doubts about its narrators , who were known to be liar or
had bad memory. Maudu or fabricated, which was not from the prophet.