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(In the name of Allah the most Merciful Beneficient.) 1st (Quran) Al-Quran is the eternal miracle. It is the last Book of Allah sent for the guidance of humanity through the last Prophet, Muhammad, peace be upon him (PBUH) The Quran was revealed piecemeal throughout a period of about 23 years. The Prophet received the first revelation in 610CE, in the Cave of Hira in the Mountain of Light (Jabale-Noor), two and a half miles away from the House of Allah in the city of Makkah in Arabia. 2nd (HADITH) introduction The Muslims are agreed that the Sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) is the second of the two revealed fundamental sources of Islam, after the Glorious Qur'�n. The authentic Sunnah is contained within the vast body of Had�th literature. A had�th (pl. ah�d�th) is composed of two parts: the matn (text) and the isn�d (chain of reporters). A text may seem to be logical and reasonable but it needs an authentic isn�d with reliable reporters to be acceptable; cAbdull�h b. al-Mub�rak (d. 181 AH), one of the illustrious teachers of Im�m al-Bukh�r�, said, "The isn�d is part of the religion: had it not been for the isn�d, whoever wished to would have said whatever he liked." During the lifetime of the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) and after his death, his Companions (Sahabah) used to refer to him directly, when quoting his sayings. The Successors (Tabic�n) followed suit; some of them used to quote the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) through the Companions while others would omit the intermediate authority - such a had�th was later known as Mursal. It was found that the missing link between the Successor and the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) might be one person, i.e. a Companion, or two people, the extra person being an older Successor who heard the had�th from the Companion. This is an example of how the need for the verification of each isnad arose; Im�m M�lik (d. 179) said, "The first one to utilise the isn�d was Ibn Shihab al-Zuhr�" (d. 124). The other more important reason was the deliberate fabrication of ah�d�th by various sects which appeared amongst the Muslims, in order to support their views (see later, under discussion of Mauduah�d�th). Ibn Sir�n (d. 110), a Successor, said, "They would not ask about the isn�d. But when the fitnah (trouble, turmoil, esp. civil war) happened, they said: Name to us your men. So the narrations of the Ahl al-Sunnah (Adherents to the Sunnah) would be accepted, while those of the Ahl al-Bidcah (Adherents to Innovation) would not be accepted." 3rd(Brief History of Classification of Hadith). As time passed, more reporters were involved in each isn�d, and so the situation demanded strict discipline in the acceptance of ah�d�th; the rules regulating this discipline are known as Mustalah al-Had�th (the Classification of Had�th). Amongst the early traditionists (muhaddith�n, scholars of Had�th), the rules and criteria governing their study of Had�th were meticulous but some of their terminology varied from person to person, and their principles began to be systematically written down, but scattered amongst various books, e.g., in Al-Ris�lah of al-Sh�fic� (d. 204), the Introduction to the Sah�h of Muslim (d. 261) and the J�mih of al-Tirmidh� (d. 279); many of the criteria of early traditionists, e.g. al-Bukh�r�, were deduced by later scholars from a careful study of which reporters or isn�ds were accepted and rejected by them. One of the earliest writings to attempt to cover Mustalah comprehensively, using standard (i.e. generally-accepted) terminology, was the work by al-Ramahurmuz� (d. 360). The next major contribution was Ma'rifah Ul�m al-Had�th by al-H�kim (d. 405), which covered fifty classifications of Had�th, but still left some points untouched; Ab� Nu'aim al-Isbahan� (d. 430) completed some of the missing parts to this work. After that came Al-Kifayah fi Ilm al-Riwayah of al-Khat�b al-Baghd�d� (d. 463) and another work on the manner of teaching and studying Had�th; later scholars were considered to be greatly indebted to al-Khat�b's work. After further contributions by Qadi 'Iyad al-Yahsub� (d. 544) and Ab� Hafs al-Mayanj� (d. 580) among others, came the work which, although modest in size, was so comprehensive in its excellent treatment of the subject that it came to be the standard reference for thousands of scholars and students of Had�th to come, over many centuries until the present day: Ulum al- Had�th of Ab� cAmr cUthm�n Ibn al-Salah (d. 643), commonly known as Muqaddimah Ibn al-Salah, compiled while he taught in the D�r al-Had�th of several cities in Syria. Some of the numerous later works based on that of Ibn al-Salah are: An abridgement of Muqaddimah, Al-Irsh�d by al-Naw�w� (d. 676), which he later summarised in his Taqr�b; al-Suy�t� (d. 911) compiled a valuable commentary on the latter entitled Tadr�b al-R�w� Ikhtis�r cUl�m al-Had�th of Ibn Kath�r (d. 774), Al-Khulasah of al-T�b� (d. 743), Al-Minh�l of Badr al-D�n b. Jama'ah (d. 733), Al-Muqnic of Ibn al-Mulaqqin (d. 802) and Mahasin al-Istilah of al-Balqin� (d. 805), all of which are abridgements of Muqaddimah Ibn al-Salah. Al-Nukat of al-Zarkash� (d. 794), Al-Taqyid wa 'l-Idah of al-cIraq� (d. 806) and Al-Nukat of Ibn Hajar al-cAsqalan� (d. 852), all of which are further notes on the points made by Ibn al-Salah. Alf�yyah al-Had�th of al-cIraq�, a rewriting of Muqaddimah in the form of a lengthy poem, which became the subject of several commentaries, including two (one long, one short) by the author himself, Fath al-Mughith of al-Sakhaw� (d. 903), Qatar al-Durar of al-Suy�t� and Fath al-Baq� of Shayth Zakariyyah al-Ansar� (d. 928). Other notable treatises on Mustalah include: Al-Iqtirah of Ibn Daqiq al-'Id (d. 702). Tanqih al-Anzar of Muhammad b. Ibr�h�m al-Waz�r (d. 840), the subject of a commentary by al-Am�r al-Sanc�n� (d. 1182). Nukhbah al-Fikr of Ibn Hajar al-Asqal�n�, again the subject of several commentaries, including one by the author himself, one by his son Muhammad, and those of Al� al-Qari (d. 1014), Abd al-Ra'uf al-Munaw� (d. 1031) and Muhammad b. Abd al-H�d� al-Sind� (d. 1138). Among those who rephrased the Nukhbah in poetic form are al-T�fi (d. 893) and al-Am�r al-Sanc�n�. Alfiyyah al-Had�th of al-Suy�t�, the most comprehensive poetic work in the field Al-Manzumah of al-Baiqun�, which was expanded upon by, amongst others, al-Zurq�n� (d. 1122) and Naw�b Sidd�q Hasan Kh�n (d. 1307). Qawa'id al-Tahd�th of Jam�l al-D�n al-Q�sim� (d. 1332). Taujih al-Nazar of Tahir al-Jaza'ir� (d. 1338), a summary of al-H�kim's Ma'rifah 4rth (Mustalah Al Hadith) Mustalah books speak of a number of classes of had�th in accordance with their status. The following broad classifications can be made, each of which is explained in the later sections: According to the reference to a particular authority, e.g. the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace), a Companion, or a Successor; such ah�d�th are called Marf�c (elevated), Mauq�f (stopped) and Maqt�c (severed) respectively According to the number of reporters involved in each stage of the isnad, e.g. Mutaw�tir (consecutive) and �h�d (isolated), the latter being divided into Ghar�b (scarce, strange), Az�z (rare, strong), and Mash'h�r (famous According to the manner in which the had�th has been reported, such as using the (Arabic) words 'an ("on the authority of"), haddathana ("he narrated to us"), akhbarana ("he informed us") or sami'tu ("I heard"). In this category falls the discussion about Mudallas (concealed) and Musalsal (uniformly-linked) ah�d�th. [Note: In the quotation of isn�ds in the remainder of this book, the first mode of narration mentioned above will be represented with a single broken line thus: ---. The three remaining modes of narration mentioned above, which all strongly indicate a clear, direct transmission of the had�th, are represented by a double line thus: ===.] According to the nature of the matn and isn�d, e.g. an addition by a reliable reporter, known as ziyadatu thiqah, or opposition by a lesser authority to a more reliable one, known as Shadhdh (irregular). In some cases, a text containing a vulgar expression, unreasonable remark or obviously-erroneous statement is rejected by the traditionists outright without consideration of the isn�d: such a had�th is known as Munkar (denounced). If an expression or statement is proved to be an addition by a reporter to the text, it is declared as Mudraj (interpolated). According to a hidden defect found in the isn�d or text of a had�th. Although this could be included in some of the previous categories, a had�th Mucallal (defective had�th) is worthy to be explained separately. The defect can be caused in many ways; e.g. two types of had�th Mucallal are known as Maqlub (overturned) and Mudtarib (shaky). According to the reliability and memory of the reporters; the final judgment on a had�th depends crucially on this factor: verdicts such as Sah�h (sound), Hasan (good), Dacif (weak) and Maud�c (fabricated, forged) rest mainly upon the nature of the reporters in the isnad. |
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