Hadith And the Importance of Prophetic Tradition

Islam is based upon (1) the Qur'an (sayings of God) and (2) As-Sunna' (sayings and actions of the Prophet Muhammad ), their consensus and their context, and how the Prophet taught these issues to them or how he interpreted a given verse or applied it. All of this information is vital to the interpretation of a given Islamic law and none of it can be taken in a vacuum of the rest, based upon personal whims. At times the Qur'an contains a given law, at others the law is found in the Hadith, and in still other cases the broad outlines of a given law are presented in the Qur'an and the details are explained in the Hadith.

The word "Hadith" (pl. Ahadith) literally means; "a saying", "a report", "an account". Within the Islamic circle and literature, the term Hadith is used to identify a text that is related to a "re-narrated" saying or account of deeds or approval by the Prophet . For example, the Qur'an only commands Muslims to "pray". The details of how to pray are found in the hadiths of the Prophet and described by the Companions who saw him teach it and were themselves taught by him directly. If a person does not like this system and rejects it then this in no way makes it any less the law of Islam or the command of God. Indeed this system itself is taught by God in the Qur'an. Examples of God commanding Muslims to obey the Prophet and abide by the laws of the Sunna' and Hadith in interpreting the Qur'an are:

"He who obeys the messenger has indeed obeyed Allah ..." Sura' An-Nissa(4):80

"And whatsoever the Messenger gives you take it, and whatsoever he forbids you, abstain [from it]. And guard yourselves from Allah, verily Allah is severe in punishment" Sura' Al-Hashr(59):7

"...And if you should differ in anything among yourselves then refer it to Allah and His messenger if you believe in Allah and in the Last Day. That is better for you and best in interpretation" Sura' An-Nissa(4):59

"Say: Obey Allah and the Apostle; but if they turn back, then surely Allah does not love the unbelievers." Sura' Ali-Imran(3):32

"And obey Allah and the Apostle, that you may be shown mercy." Sura' Ali-Imran(3):132

"And We did not send any apostle but that he should be obeyed by Allah's permission; and had they, when they were unjust to themselves, come to you and asked forgiveness of Allah and the Apostle had (also) asked forgiveness for them, they would have found Allah Oft-returning (to mercy), Merciful." Sura' Al-Maaidah(4):64

"O you who believe! Obey Allah and His Apostle and do not turn back from Him while you hear." Sura' Al-Anfaal(8):20

etc.

A messenger of God is not simply a tape recorder that records everything that is spoken into it and then regurgitates it without explanation. Far from it. A messenger of God is a teacher whose job it is to not only pass out the textbook but to also explain the text itself, teach it, answer the student's questions regarding it and clarify all passages wherein they find difficulty.

"O Messenger! Make known that which hath been revealed unto thee from thy Lord, for if thou do it not, thou will not have conveyed His message...." Sura' Al-Maaidah (5):67

"And We (God) have sent down unto you (Muhammad) the Reminder (Qur'an), that you might make clear to mankind that which was sent down unto them and perchance they might reflect." Sura' An-Nahl(16):44

"And We (God) have not sent down unto you (Muhammad) the Book (the Qur'an) except that you might make clear to them that in which they differ, and [as] a guidance and a mercy for a folk who believe." Sura' An-Nahl(16):64

Similarly, the command to interpret the Qur'an and the Hadith only as expressly understood by the Companions due to their companionship of the Prophet and their discipleship directly under his command and watchful eye can be found in quite a number of hadith, such as the hadiths of "La tajtami ummati ala dhalal" and "Alaikum bi sunnati wa sunnat al-Khulafa..." among countless others.

The history records that the adherence and compliance to this explicit Command of Allah (s.w.t.) was never ever questioned by the Prophet's Companions, his own family members and the rest of the Believers (the Umma'), who lived with the Prophet In other words, it would be correct to say that Sunnism (following the Sunna') was the original path followed by the Muslims.

Besides the under mentioned eighteen Classifications there are three basic Categories of Ahadith. 

1. 'Oral Traditions' - The oral statements of the Prophet .
2. 'Physical Traditions' - The acts or deeds of the Prophet .
3. 'Approved Traditions' - The acts or deeds that were performed in  presence of the Prophet .

The Classifications of Ahadith

Below is a list of common classifications used by the scholars to identify the various categories of the compiled narrations:

1. Dhai'f (weak) A narration which is not accurate enough to be classified as "sound" or "fair" and hence cannot used as a basis for the Islamic tradition. There are eight categories of Dhai'f Hadith.

2. Majhul (unknown) One of the narrator in the chain of narrators is unknown, meaning there is no (jarh or taadil) about him. In other words no compiler of the Ahadith has passed a judgement about this narrator. 

3. Gharib (unfamiliar - strange) The narration sounds unfamiliar not reported by others or differs with the versions narrated by the others. Even a Sahih (sound) Hadith could be Gharib (unfamiliar).

4. Mu'adal (faulty - perplexing) A narration who omits or misses two or more consecutive narrators in the chain.

5. Maqtu (disconnected -severed) A chain that remains incomplete or ends with someone who claims to have met a Companion of the Prophet or the text begins with the phrase such as "we used to do..."

6. Munqati (disconnected - broken) Similar to either number 2 or 5 above.

7. Mudtarib (confounding) There is a disagreement concerning the source or the narration itself.

8. Mauquf (untraceable - stopped) A narration which is related without transmitting the name of a Companion of the Prophet.

9. Mu'allaq (hanging - faulty) A narrator who omits the entire chain of narrators and quotes the Prophet directly. 

10. Mursal (disreferred - hurried) The chain between the first narrator and the Prophet is missing e.g. the first narrator says;  "The Prophet said...". 

11. Munkar (denounced) A weak narrator whose report goes against another that seems more authentic.

12.  Mudraj (interpolated) A narration that has additions to the text of the report by a narrator.

13. Maudu' (fabricated - forged) A report that goes against the norms of the sayings of the Prophet or one of the reporters is a liar or discrepancies are found in the dates or times of the incident.

14. Musnad (subjective - supported) The chain reaches the Prophet or the narrated report concurs with the others.

15. Hasan (fair) A reliable chain but not considered as a totally sound narration.

16. Muttasil (connected) A connected chain that could go up to a Companion or go up to the Prophet.

17. Maruf (traceable)  A traceable chain that could go up to a Companion of the Prophet.

After the passing away of the Prophet, "even the decisions of the Sahabah (r.a.) were recorded as Ahadith", acknowledges Dr. Khalid Mahmood Shaikh in his book "A Study Of Hadith" (p. 29), published by IQRA' International Education Foundation, Skokie, IL, 60077, USA.

18. Sahih (sound) A narration with an unbroken chain of narrators and the narrators are regarded as the reliable reporters.

The term As-Sunan As-Sittah (The Six Authentic Collections of Sunnah), is used for the compilations done by Imams/Scholars named; al-Bukhari (194-256H), Muslim (204-261H), at-Tirmidhi (200-270H), Nasai (215-313H), 'Abu Dawud (202-275H) and 'Ibn Majah (207-273H).

"As for those who divide their religion and break up into sects thou hast no part in them in the least: their affair is with Allah: He will in the end tell them the truth of all that they did." Sura' An-An'am (6):159

According to Ibnu Hamzin r.a., "Ahlus Sunna' are ahlul-haq, whereas anyone else besides them are ahlul-bid'ah".

What these "Qur'an Only" sectarians are doing is that they are breaking away from true Islam by borrowing from Christianity who uses the Bible as their sole yardstick, which they then force this system from the Christians upon Islam and the Qur'an. For the Christians there is only one divine reference; the Bible, which the Anti-Hadith people are trying very hard to emulate. In true Islam there are two; the Qur'an (No. 1 source: The WORD of God) and the Sunna' or Hadith (No. 2 source: Interpretation of the Qur'an by the Prophet ). The Qur'an cannot be interpreted by Muslims based upon their personal desires. It has to be done in the light of how the Prophet taught it. This is indeed the system which Allah commands us to follow in the above verses.

Muslims who study the hadiths and history of early Muslims stand to benefit. Those who discard them are putting themselves in a serious disadvantage, because hadiths and history tell us the situations and circumstances that are connected to teachings of the Qur’an. These Anti Hadith people prefer to take the short route of simply reading the Qur'an and then applying to it the meaning they chose, in spite of what the Prophet had to say in this regard and in spite of what the Companions of the Prophet had to say regarding the contexts of the verses, the times of their revelation, and the situations associated with each one, and the intended meanings or interpretations. Not only do they disregard the Hadiths, they also slander the Prophet's Compnions r.a. Thus the Anti-Hadith people are also innovators. Imaam Ahmad ibn Hanbal r.a. said in his "Usoolus-Sunnah" that, "... whoever disparages and degrades a single one of the Companions of the Messenger of Allah, sallallaahu 'alayhi wa sallam, or dislikes him on account of something that occurred from him, or mentions his shortcomings, then he is an innovator."

Thus, these anti-hadith sectarians are clearly a fitna' and a disaster to the Umma' in general, because it is clearly a lie and a deception.

It is a lie because the Ahadith have been compiled and rectified by the most respected 'ulema in Islam, e.g. Bukhari and Muslim. Granted, any Ahadith which contradicts the Qur'an should not be accepted, but denying all Ahadith just because of a few non-Sahih ones doesn't solve the probelm either.

IMO, the only reason they are present in this age is due to the reason that they serve the enemies of Islam pretty well. But that's only my guess. However, if the enemies of Islam can isolate the Muslims from the teachings of the Prophet , the Muslims will be very easily knocked out. If the Muslims do not know the sources that back up the Quran, they can be easily separated from the Quran. If the Muslims don't know how to apply the laws of the Quran, they will live and adapt themselves to a secular, a fully materialistic or a Christian system. Muslims will not know how to apply their laws. They won't know how to apply the lashing penalty for the fornicators, they won't know how to amputate the hand of the thief, and they won't know lots of other issues. Take for example the lashing of the fornicators. How would one do it according to the anti-hadith's sectarian way? Will they bring a big fat muscular man to apply the penalty in full impact so that the criminal will die from the fifth whip? How will they know that the right method requires that a medium-sized man should do the penalty and that the Qadhi should make sure there is a book in the size of the Quran tucked under his armpit -- in this way, if the book falls, it means that he is applying illegal force and he gets punished for using additional impact? Without the Sunna', the Islamic laws will be seriously manipulated by these sectarians.

I gave an example to one of those people on how will they react if they get in a quarrel with their wives. The Qur'an does not deny domestic violence. But how will those people beat up their wives? Would they do it with a twig or with a nunchaku or a baseball bat? Once they throw the Sunna' away, they get preyed upon very easily by Muslim critics. Any Muslim-hater will easily say, "Hey look, you people beat your wives!" And the anti-Hadith sectarian will not know how the Prophet taught us to react when treating our wives during anger. If he replies back and says, "No, but we use the miswak", they will be told: "But that's not in the Qur'an, and you said that ahadith are false." So, they live in their agony. There's also another anti-hadith person I know of who keeps posting his new law in regards to amputating the thief's hand. He claims that the hand should only be wounded, and not chopped. This idea can be easily refuted with this question: "How did you know?" Really, how did he know that the Prophet applied this method? If he plays with the language, he will be refuted, and if he claims that it is a historic fact, then he has refuted himself all by himself, because the Islamic history is documented in the hadiths.

"And they say: 'We believe in Allah and in the apostle and we obey'; then a party of them turn back after this, and these are not believers." Sura' An-Nuur(24):47

Allah has said in the Qur'an, that the believers are those who when reminded of what Allah and his Messenger have said, they say: "We hear and obey". Allah also says that when He and his Messenger have decreed a matter, the believers have no disobedience in their heart but hear and obey. We are Muslims, that means we submit to what Allah has said, as exemplified by his Messenger .