Uloom Al Hadith Summer 2010

Beginning Sciences of Hadith IV

General introduction to the various branches of hadith sciences. During this summer session, the topic of Sahih Hadith will be discussed in detail, including an in-depth look at the collections of authentic hadith.

Prerequisite: NONE (Course material is independent of any previous sessions).

Required Text: Usool al-Hadeeth: The Methodology of Hadith Evaluation by Bilal Philips

Time: Sundays 3:10 - 4:20 PDT

Basic Outline of the Class

Topic 1:  Hadith Sahih (Philips, pp. 54-60)

Topic 2:  Sahih Literature (Philips, pp. 170-177)

In the summer session of this series entitled, “Beginning Uloom al-Hadith,” the topic of discussion will be restricted to the discussion of “sahih hadith,” including its definition, the main references for sahih hadith and other important topics.

2010-06-20 Class Notes

Review of previous sessions

Acceptable means in which hadith are transferred from scholar to student, a scholar to another scholar, etc.  There are acceptable means and unacceptable means. We also discussed what kind of narrators we would accept as quality narrators and those that are not acceptable narrators. And then we defined the attributes of sahih hadith.

Repetition is good because it enforces the ideas and makes them more clear.

Orientalists Attack on Hadith

Orientalists are trying to attack islam, some of their attacks or tactics were quite developed. And there are many Muslims who will not be able to answer their attacks.

Andrew Vargo, a Christian missionary, it is quite difficult to know despite Hadith Science, which of the reports in Sahih Bukhari are true, ... he rejected ... reports

One more example, .... said Bukhari collected ... reports and rejected 10,000 .....

Another quote, Rand Corporation, which has great influence on US govt, Muslim govt and Muslims, they wrote in a paper titled “Democratic Islam”, many Muslims read these papers,  one of their goals is to support and give credence to modern muslim .... In this paper they say, “Objectively speaking there is no doubt that hadith is weak science ...” Rand Corp writes “Consider that Al-Bukhari is the compiler of what is generally considered to be the most authoritative and reliable collections of hadith. He collected 600,000 hadith, examined them for their authenticity, eliminated all but 7,600 of them, deleted some for redundancy, and was left with a collection of about 4,000.”

These attacks influence muslims and we should be aware how to refute their attacks.

The attack is that Imam Bukhari collected many reports but he rejected many as false and hence you cannot give credence to any of the reports.

Discussion: There are many chains for one report. So if you reject some chains for the one report does not mean that you now have to reject the authentic hadith collected by Imam Bukhari. If they only had read the title of the book of Bukhari, they would have understood what is being done and collected by Imam Bukhari.

At the end of this class, Insha-allah, we would be equipped to deal with it, insha-allah. So this is our motivation for this class.

Sahih Hadith

Defintions and conditions for hadith to be sahih (authentic). For a hadith to be sahih it has to meet the following five conditions:

1. Isnaad or chain has to be unbroken all the way back to prophet

2. Every narrator has to be adl (righteous and integrity, otherwise we won’t be able to trust them with our deen)

3. Every narrator must be dhaabit (academic capability, is capable of transmitting knowledge, we might have pious people but that this is not sufficient to accept hadith from them, they have to be capable of transmitting knowledge)

4. Free of shudooh (cannot contradict stronger source with respect to both the text and the chain)

5. Free of illah (hidden damaging defect)

If we meet the first three conditions, then the isnaad (chain) is sahih.

Hassan Hadith

The only condition that can be relaxed is number 3, you can categorize hadith for narrators who are not dhaabit or proficient as a hassan hadith.

Hadith that are hassan or sahih are considered to be acceptable hadith. And the general term for these two categories is sometimes referred to as Sahih hadith.  For example, Sheikh Albani’s works titled sahih, he is referring to hadith that are sahih and hassan.  In this class we will use the specific definition of sahih and hassan, but sometimes we will use the general definition of sahih. For example, when we talk about hadith, there are two major categories: mutawattir and ahad, any hadith that is not mutawattir is ahaad.

Mutawattir Hadith

It is report that is transmitted in such a way that we have no doubt that it is authentic. We can rule our collusion among the narrators and also rule out same mistake made by all of the narrators. There are so many independents narrations that reinforce the authenticity of the hadith. Quran is considered mutawattir. Mutawattir hadith are considered authentic.

Ahaad Hadith

Any hadith that is less than mutawattir is considered ahaad. When we discuss sahih hadith, we will be talking mostly about ahaad hadith(???)

Levels of Confidence

We will try to determine the level of confidence in hadith that is ahaad and sahih. What is the level of confidence the ahaad/sahih hadith?  We will be discussing this in our class.

Al Yaqeen and Ad Dhann

What level of knowledge is reported by hadith that is sahih and ahaad?

Al Yaqeen or certainity, a high level of trust and acceptance of reports that that report is true. Mutawattir will reach that level of yaqeen.

Most Probable (Ad Dhann)

In Quran, dhann means certainity. Ad Dhann here means most probable. Preponderance of evidence shows this to be the case.

Below this we have shaqq and others. In matters of aqeedah, we should have yaqeen, and if the report does not reach that level of yaqeen then you cannot accept it. We can act upon hadith that reaches the level of dhann.

Difference between Fuqaha and Scholars of Hadith

Fuqaha sometimes reject hadith that are accepted by scholars of hadith and they accept hadith that are rejected by the scholars of hadith. So they fall into both alpha and beta errors. We will study this issue if we have time left in the class.

Hadith Literature

Where do we find sahih hadith? And what should be know about them? Such that when Rand Corp attacks them, we can easily refute them.

We listed Sahih Bukhari and Sahih Muslim as two works in our last class. We also mentioned Sahih Ibn Hibbaan. Ibn Hibban forced his readers to become familiar with the book to be able to find the hadith, he purposely listed hadith in random order. Somebody came later and then rearranged them according to topics. Another collection is Sahih ibn Khuzaimah. Another work is Al Mustadrak ala al Sahihain by Al Hakim.

If a hadith met the criteria of Imam Bukharia and Imam Muslim, even if the hadith is not reported in their collection, shouldn’t it be at a highest level? Every hadith stands on it own, and you cannot judge the collection of Imam Bukhari versus collection of Imam Muslim. This does not make sense to compare. Hadith stand on their own.

Next time we will review chains that are considered strongest, it is good to be familiar with them. And we will review weak narrations, it is good be familiar with them also.

2010-06-27 Class Notes

2010-07-04 Class Notes

Usooli views of Bukhari compiled by author ....   Bukhari has unique views, he says that ghusl is not needed if private parts of husband and wife come in contact, witr before or after bowing, etc

Bukhari said that it is permissible for man to see a perspective bride before marriage, and the evidence he presents is the hadith of the prophet, in a dream he was presented his future wife and when the veil was removed, he saw it was Ayesha.

The dreams of the prophet are true and what occurs in them are true and are hujjah.

All madhabs claim that he belonged to their madhab. Bukhari belong to Ahl al Hadeeth not to be confused with the modern madhab of ahle hadith.

Bukhari lived during the time wherein there was not a strong connection to the madhab.

He belonged to madhab which followed the authentic hadith. It distinguishes him from Imam Ahmad.

Personality cult could contribute to the success of the madhab and the attachment that people have with the madhab. Ahl al Hadeeth had adherence to a methodology and not to a particular scholar, that lead to the weakening of the madhab, however the ideas continue on.

Ahl al hadith had something of a literalist approach, they were not dhahiris, however they believed that the dhahir or most apparent meaning of text unless there is proof otherwise. Ahl al hadith were much more restrictive when it came to straying from the apparent or clear meaning of the text.  The more stringent you are, the more you are following the apparent meaning and the more lenient you are, then you are willing to stray away from the apparent meaning of the text.

For example, the case of breaking fast during the month of Ramadhan.  A person broke his fast by having sexual intercourse during the day with his wife. The expiation is freeing a slave or fasting two consecutive months or feeding sixty people.  According to Imam Bukhari this expiation is only if they broke the fast if they had sexual relationship as the reason for breaking the fast. This expiation is not for breaking fast if you had food or water as the reasons. So they stick to the most apparent or dhahir meaning of the text and do not stray from it.

By the close of the end of his life, he had gained a strong reputation as a scholar of hadith. When he was returning to Bukhara, towards the end of his life, there had reason a great fitnah during the time of Imam Ahmad, which was whether the Quran was created or not.

The Mutazillah imprisoned those who did not believe that the Quran was created. As a consequence, Imam Ahmad was imprisoned and tortured. Other scholar such as Ali ibn Madini, gave into the pressure and said what the rulers wanted to say. He was the teacher of Imam Bukhari.

Some scholars rejected the narrations of Ali ibn Madini because he gave into this pressure.  

During the time, there was this fitnah of Quran is created or not between the rationalist and the literalist. There was also a fitnah among the followers of different madhab.

Bukhari had a teacher Ad Dhuhli (Mohamed)  from Naysabour, who belonged to the uber Sunnis group.

Group A and Group B both agree that Quran is uncreated, that it is speech of Allah swt.

However these two groups disagreed whether the recitation of the Quran is creation or not. They raised the issue whether this recitation is creation or not. Sometimes we raise an issue to such a high level importance, since it is not in the Quran and it is not something that was discussed by the prophet.

And when Bukhari was asked this question, he refused to answer because of the reasons above. And when he was forced to answer, then he answered that the acts of human beings are a creation.  And he said that the inquisition or imtihan is bidah.

And this answer was wrong according to group A. They said that it was kufr. And Imam Bukhari’s teacher Ad Dhuhi from Naysabour was from Group A and he launched an attack on Imam Bukhari. As a result of this inquisition, he had to leave Naysabour.

Governer of Bukhara and he also has the name Ad Dhuhli, and he wanted private tutorship for his children. Imam Bukhari refused, he said that if your children want to learn, then they can come and study with him at his house or the masjid. As a consequence he had to leave Bukhara and he went to Samarkand.

And this is when he made the dua that if death is better for him then let death come to him. He died in a small town of .... in the year ....

Discussion of authentic and weak hadith in the collections which I failed to capture.

Books written by Imam Bukhari

Adab al Mufrad - Book of Manners

Musnad al Kabeer

Khalq al alf3al al ibad Book about creation of human beings - Qadr and the actions of human beings

Book of raising the hand in prayers

Book about reciting prayers behind the imam

The most famous book that is known as Sahih Bukhari is not the name that he gave, the name of the book is  Al jame3 al sahih al musnad al mukhtasir min umur rasool Allah wa ayyamih wa sunnatihi

Discussion of the title of the book Al-jame3 al sahih al musnad al mukhtasir min umur rasool Allah wa ayyamih wa sunnatihi

Al Jameh - Kind of hadith collection

Al Sahih - Authentic collection of hadith

Al Musnad - Hadith that is both marfooh (report is traced back to the prophet) and muktasal (chain is unbroken). This is a technical term and it does not mean the same thing as musnad or collection.

Al Mukhtasir - Abridgement (it is not comprehensive collection of all of the authentic hadith, he did not included all of the authentic hadith because he was afraid that the book would be too long).

These hadith were the cream of the crop. It had to meet strict requirement then simply hadith being sahih. Bukhari had stronger requirements than the conditions for being simply sahih. He said that I do not collect any hadith  except that it is sahih. He would pray two rakat of istikharah before entering hadith in his collection.

A scholar who came later, Darul Qutni, he blamed Bukhari for including a lesser known isnaad then that was available at the time.  Darul Qutni missed the point. Bukhar would choose isnaad of lesser quality due to some other point such as maybe due to some other reason. Bukhari was focusing on the text of the hadith and he knew the text was sahih and then he choose the isnaad that was inferior for some beneficial point to be provided by the isnaad. So to criticize the collection on the isnaad is not accurate, since the text was authentic and Imam Bukhari had the choice of isnaad. Sometimes he chose narrators to show intentionally that he approves of their narrations.

He spent 16 years collecting the hadith and he must have collected them by 233 Hijri, since he took it for approval to Imam Yahya.

Al Bukhari lived for at least 23 years after the sahih. He had 23 years to teach the collection to a a large number of students. some 900 students studied the collection from him. He also had time to edit his collection.

Common numbering - between 7000 to 9000 which includes repetition. He had fiqh and aqeedah consideration and that is the reason why he repeated the hadith. Muslim does not do this.  Bukhari would repeat the same hadith in different chapters where it was relevant.  If you remove the repititions, the numbers fall from 2600 to 4000

Modern scholars use the numbering used by ....

A book about books that have been written by Bukhari. There is nothing that is untouched about Bukhari.

2010-07-18 Class Notes


Discussion of the title of the book Al-jame3 al sahih al musnad al mukhtasir min umur rasool Allah wa ayyamih wa sunnatihi

The title tells us that it is a collection (jame3),  sahih - it is collection of authentic hadith, musnad - hadith that are marfoo and mursal,

A subset of hadith that are included in Sahih Bukhari are musnad reports.  He is making a declaration of the subset of the entire hadith that are sahih.

Mauqoof - report coming from a sahaba and not from prophet

Maqtoo3 - report coming from tabieen and not from sahaba or prophet

Do you find reports of that nature in Sahih Bukhari? Yes.

Where do you find them?

Sahih Bukhari is not just a collection of hadith. He was also expressing a number of important points. He was refuting the groups in matters of aqeedah and in matters of fiqh. It is also a book of fiqh and aqeedah.

Sahih Bukhari is made of two parts. One part is chapter headings. Chapter headings are not described in the title. And then you have the body of the chapter.  And here you will find the hadith.

Sheikh opened a page randomly

Chapter 57 - Superiority of accompanying funeral processions and after saying the title he says qala ibn zaid reported ....  

Is the report of ibn Zaid is not musnad, he does not give you isnaad. (remember we need isnaad since Imam Bukhari did not meet ibn Zaid who is a sahaba).  

However when you goes to the body of the chapter, he mentions the isnaad, hadathaanaa etc.

And then he flipped to another page randomly

Chapter heading which discusses the woman giving zakat to her husband and then he continues, abu said reported that ....

The reports in the title or chapter headings are known as muallaqat of Imam Bukhari.  You cannot say that this is hadith, you have to say recorded by Imam Bukhari is muallaq form.

How do we deal with the muallaq of sahih Bukhari?

You don’t find it in Sahih Muslim, it is very common in Sahih Bukhari. There 1341 muallaq reports in Sahih Bukhari.


Many of those reports are found in Sahih Bukhari itself. So you can simply find the report somewhere else in the book as a body of chapter.  We know that they are authentic. Any good commentary on Sahih Bukhari will tell you where you can find it in Sahih Bukhari.

Muallaq means suspended on hanging. Bukhari - A - B - C - D - E  In muallaq, Imam Bukhari is not reporing A - C, he just says D - E. For example Abu Said said that the prophet said ... So in this example D is Abu Said and E is prophet.

Bukhari repeats hadith very often. He will rarely repeat the hadith in the same format.  He will use a muallaq hadith in different way, using some other chain but the same text.  Sometimes terminology within the chain would be different, for example hadhathana or samihtu etc

So there are benefits by him doing so: We get hadith from multiple chains, we get additional information about how the hadith was transmitted.

However there are 160 muallaq reports that are not found anywhere else in Bukhari.  Some of them are in Sahih Muslim. However they do not meet Imam Bukhari’s qualification for sahih. Some of the 160 muallaq reports are hasan and some are daif or weak.

We can distinguish between two categories of muallaq reports.

When Imam Bukhari gives us muallaq report, he gives us a partial isnaad, but he has to start by quoting someone. So we see how he quotes that individual. If he uses seegha tal jizm or active voice, for example qala, then we say the muallaq report is sahih. If he used seegha tal  tamreedh or passive voice, for example it has been said qila or it has been reported yurwi  then we cannot make any conclusions about the muallaq report.

Ibn Hajr has a five volume book, tableeq al taleeq, where he traces the muallaq reports of Imam Bukhari. He traces them to Sahih Bukhari or to outside source.

Four categories of muallaq reports in active voice

1. Can be found in Sahih Bukhari

2. Cannnot be found in Sahih Bukhari even though it is sahih but not according to the standard of Imam Bukhari (For example hadith of Ayesha that the prophet used to remember Allah the most....)

3. Hasan (For example, Allah has most right for you to be shy, it is only in chapter heading)

4. Weak after the part that is reported by Imam Bukhari. (Chain from Imam Bukhari to taba-tabieen is authentic, but the chain from taba tabieen to let’s say the sahaba is broken, he did not meet the sahaba, so the isnaad is broken)

Daif hadith: Prophet paid off the debt of the deceased before distributing the inheritance. After Imam Bukhari reports the hadith, he states that it is not sound.

Chapter heading, knowledge comes before actions. And then he states a statement without attributing the statement to anybody. It happens to be a hasan hadith and since it does not meet his standards, he just makes the statement without elevating it to the level of a hadith or attributed statement.

Conclusion, the hadith included in the body of the chapters of Sahih Bukhari are musnad. However the hadith reported in the title, known as muallaq hadith are not musnad.

 

2010-07-25 Class Notes

We finished for now our discussion of Al Bukhari and his sahih, we will revisit it later.

What importance should we give to the muallaq hadith of Bukhari? Or how should we deal with them?

Vast majority of muallaq hadith, Imam Bukhari has them elsewhere in the body of the chapters. If you are unfamiliar with the muallaq hadith, then a commentary of Sahih Bukhari will have notes on where you can find the muallaq hadith in the body of the chapters.

Even those that are not found in body of the chapters are hasan and sahih. So you can rely on them, unless you happen to be in Usool al Fiqh class and the instructor were to pick one example that is an exception. So when an exception occurs, you do not have to be shocked by them.

If you are quoting from Imam Bukhari and the hadith you are quoting is in muallaq form, you have to mention it, otherwise you are deceiving the audience.

Make sure you read the whole chapter heading.

An example of weak hadith from muallaq of Sahih Bukhari

Narration from Muadh where he was collecting jizyah, you can exchange cloth for sheep, .... we used this hadith to discuss the principle of exchanging the kind of payment for expiation of sins.

Chain to Taus from Imam Bukhari is authentic, but Taus never met Muadh and here he is narrating a report from Muadh. So the chain here is broken.

Imam Muslim ibn Hijaz Naysabouri

Was born in 204 or 206 in city of Naysabour, not to far from Bukhara. He owned some property just like Imam Bukhari which gave him freedom to study. He travelled like most of the scholars, he went to Madina. He studied with Abdullah .... (student of Imam Malik, transmitter of muwatta of Imam Malik)

Important teachers

Abdullah .... (student of Imam Malik)

Ahmad ibn Hambal

Uthman abi Shayba

Abu Bakr abi Shayba

Leading scholars of his time

He went back to Naysabour and he became one of the major references for hadith.

In 250 Imam Bukhari also moved to Naysabour. And during this stay Imam Muslim became close to Imam Bukhari, until the time of Imam Bukhari’s fitnah. Ad Dhuhali was the one who participated in the fitnah (debate about whether when we recite quran, is that considered to creation or not). He was teacher of Imam Muslim.

Imam Muslim returned all books of Ad Dhuhali and he refused to have anything to do with Ad Dhuhali.

Why was Imam Bukhari was singled out and not Imam Muslim?

One of the differences was Muslim was a native of Naysabour and that made it difficult for him to be target of attacks of the people who were debating the creation of Quran.  However this is a speculation.

He travelled until his last year of his life. Muslim died in 261. There is a famous story regarding his death. Muslim was meeting some scholars and there was a mention of hadith which he has not familiar or could not recall. He went back to his house and started searching for the hadith. And he is so intent on the search and without paying attention, he consumed a basket of dates, and this lead to his death.

His works

They are very specific in the field of uloom al hadith.

At Tameez - Complete work has not survived. Edited by Sheikh Mustafa Azmi. It discusses how to critique hadith.

Those narrators who have only narrated one hadith - Book discussing them

Book discussing the Qunyas of hadith narrators

People of Sham

Children of the sahaba

Collection on mistakes of the muhadatheen

Al Alal - defects of hadith

He also collected what is now known as Musnad al Kabeer, which collected majority of the hadith that he knew.

Most well known for is Al Musnad Al Sahih which we know refer to as Sahih Muslim.

Imam Muslim has an introduction where he lays down principles of uloom al hadith and how to avoid weak narrations. He sifted from about 200,000 thousand hadith. It does not mean different text, but one hadith with many different chains or isnaad.

Sahih Muslim has approx 4000 hadith.

There are not muallaqat hadith in Sahih Muslim.

THere are no statements of sahaba or mawkoof hadith

Statement he makes in the introduction is that he divides narrators of hadith into three categories

Highest level of proficiency

Second level of proficiency, they are still honest narrators

Even though they are honest, their proficiency is debated or their honesty is debated

And he discussed that we do not move from one category unless you have exhausted your search.

Some scholars say that Imam Muslim was going to publish two collections of hadith, one with highest level and the second one with second level of proficiency and that he died before doing so.

Arrangement of hadith in Sahih Muslim

His arrangement of hadith is fascinating. He was careful about differences of wording and chains.  He has all of the variations in one chapter.  They way he organized these variations is fascinating. Strongest narration comes first. He ranked the different narrators according to the quality. When there was a tie on the quality of narrators, then he would put the well known narration first and the less well known narration second. And when there was a tie in the popularity, then he would put the shortest isnaad first.

Contemporary disputes with respect to Sahih Muslim

Published by Dar as salaam in English (translated by Abdul Hameed Siddiqui and now a new translation?)

On page 32 from volume 1, in the introduction of the new translation.  Translator makes a claim that all of the variations of hadith in Sahih Muslim are free from defect and he makes some allegations against a thesis of a student. Sheikh Jamaal mentions that Imam Muslim himself mentions in his book At Tameez some of the weak hadith. Imam Muslim arranged his Sahih and he put the hadith that are weak at the end of the collection of the variations of the hadith. This is the claim made by the thesis student.

For example the Salaat al Khusuf, prayer at the time of eclipse. Each rakah has two rukuh.  He presents the hadith that mentions three rukuh in each rakah  last. This narration of hadith is malool (defective). This practice is consistent with how the hadith are arranged by Imam Muslim.

There are some political undertones of this debate.

Hadith #3700 from Sheikh Jamaal’s translation

Sell date palm trees and fruit is still on the tree. Hadith of the prophet, if anyone buys the palm tree and the flowers are pollinated, then the seller owns the fruit unless the seller makes the provision.

Another narration that mentions something else. That additional statement there is a debate is it statement of Umar or the prophet.

Narration of salaam - it treats the additional statement of prophet

Narration of nafi - it treats the additional statement as statement of Umar

Ibn Hajjar says that narration of nafi is stronger, that it is the statement of Umar.

Muslim knows that it is malool and he puts it in the end to show that this additional statement is defective.

Conclusion is that the last variation of a hadith in some chapters might be defective and it was put in purposely by Imam Muslim to highlight its weakness. Remember this was done for the benefit of the scholars who would come across the various narrations of a hadith. It does not deter from the authenticity of the work. It is for a secondary purpose.

So sometimes what is a criticism of the hadith of Sahih Muslim are in reality consistent with the principles of how hadith are arranged by Imam Muslim. We have to be aware of this fact. And how we can get the benefit from the works of Bukhari and Muslim.

 

2010-06-20 Class Notes

Comparison between Bukhari and Muslim

All hadith stand on their own merit. When you say X is superior than Y, that does not mean that all hadith of X are superior to Y. You have to study each hadith on their own.

Some say Bukhari is superior to Muslim. Some scholars of Andalus and west say that Muslim is superior than Bukhari.

Large percentage of hadith are recorded by both Bukhari and Muslim. And then there are some hadith only recorded by Bukhari and some only recorded by Muslim.

Bukhari and Muslim use same  narrators. But there were some narrators that Bukhari used that Muslim did not use and vice versa.

Reasons for superiority of Bukhari

Narrators unique to Bukhari - 430, out of those 430 narrators, some scholars had some doubts  or different opinion about 80 narrators, approx 18%. However more than half of the 80 narrators were Imam Bukhari’s teachers and he knew them personally.

Narrators unique to Muslim - 620, out of those 620 narrators, some scholars had some doubts about 160 narrators, about 25%. However here these 160 narrators were before Imam Muslim’s time and he did not meet them personally.

1. Muslim purposely included these narrators because he thought they were valid. For example Suhail ibn Salih, some say they were not samihtu from his father but they were transmitted via book from his father, and this would not be an acceptable means of transmission, because of this doubt that some people cast, because of that Imam Bukhari did not transmit any hadith from the chain of Suhail but from other narrators of Suhail ibn Salih’s father. However Imam Muslim had information that the chain of transmission between Suhail and his father was sound and he included the hadith on purpose.

Please note that if a hadith is not included in sahih bukhari, it does not mean that, that the hadith is not sahih.

2. More than half of the doubtful narrators were personally known to Imam Bukhari or his teachers, the 160 doubtful narrators are from previous generation from Imam Muslim

3. Claim is made that narrators of Imam Bukhari are of the highest quality

4. A particular requirement for accepting hadith  --

According to Mohammed Hashim Kamali, he says that Imam Muslim accept narrations from two narrators in a chain who did not meet each other. Isn’t this a broken chain?  This is a kind of mu3ann3an hadith. Do you remember the word 3an?

Review of tadlees (deception)

The word 3an is vague and instead of saying B heard hadith of A via C, but while narrating it B says that he heard it from A. There is a narrator missing. This is the practice of tadlees. Scholars spent time identifying those narrators who performed tadlees.

Let’s say we have X 3an Y (X is narrating hadith from Y via 3an transmission).

Let’s say X and Y had possibility of meeting each other and we know that X did not commit tadlees. So even though we don’t know when X and Y met each other, we would say that the chain is not broken and it is not case of tadlees.

Ali ibn al Madeeni teacher of Bukhari and Muslim, rejected that any hadith from X via Y, unless you have direct proof that X and Y had sessions for hadith transmission. We need the word hadathani.

Bukhari’s work meets Ali ibn al Madeeni’s conditions. Even though Bukhari does not consider it to be a necessary condition for sahih. Muslim did not accept this condition and in his introduction he refutes the condition of X and Y to have met and recorded via hadathana.  This refutation was not of Imam Bukhari since he does not impose this condition for hadith to be sahih, it is of Ali ibn al Madeeni. Please note that this does not apply to many hadith but to only a very small subset of the hadith.

5. If we take all of the criticisms (whether they are correct or not) of all hadith of Bukhari and Muslim. We can say that 210 hadith have been critiqued for both Bukhari and Muslim. Only 80 are found in Sahih Bukhari. The number of hadith criticized of Imam Bukhari is much less than Imam Muslim. We can we assume that more than 80 but less than 210 of Muslims hadith are criticized.

Bukhari would use kunya or nickname of the narrator. Whereas Muslim would give the complete name of the narrator.

For Bukhari, hadathani and akbarahani would mean the same, whereas Muslim was very careful about this distinction.  

Laymen had problems understanding the muallaqat hadith of Imam Bukhari, there is no muallaqat hadith in Muslim, you will rarely find anything else other than hadith of prophet in his work.

You will see these short forms for the means of transmission

thana means hadathana

na means akbarahana

There are other terms such as .......

Transmitters of Sahih Bukhari

Sahih Bukhari has come down to us via his students. Some of the important narrators of Bukhari are Abu Darr al Harawi,  al Saqeer, al Kushmayahani, al Hamari, Karima

Sheikh is showing a copy of page from book by Muhammad Zuhair an Nasir (Center for hadith studies in Saudi Arabia) - Darr Tauq Al Najjat Publisher. In the notes, he cross references where the hadith of Bukhari appears in Tuhfa (index for hadith, who collected it and who are the different sahaba who narrated, which books it is recorded in, but it does not have the entire text of the hadith), Tirmidhi, Muslim. In the bottom you will see where it is repeated in Bukhari. ON the left hand side margin of the page you will see notes, letters in different colors, where he highlights differences between the different transmitters of Imam Bukhari. His default is Abu Darr and he is highlighting the differences between the other students of Imam Bukhari who transmitted the Sahih Bukhari.

Commentaries on Bukhari and Muslim

Bukhari’s was considered standard for hadith by Shafiee and Hambali. Malikis said muwatta of Imam Malik was the standard for hadith. Over time they accepted Bukhari and Muslim as standard. The last to accept it as a standard were Hanafis, it does not mean that they adjusted their madhab, they relied on Tahawi’s work who happened to be Hanafi.

500 page book  which discusses all of the commentaries of Sahih Bukhari. If you add recent PhD thesis it would add 100 more pages.

Al Khattabi (died 360 Hijri) wrote the first commentary 100 years after death of Imam Bukhari (died 260 hijri)

Ibn Battan from Qurtaba died in 449, published 10 volume work on commentary of Sahih Bukhari.

Zarqahsi (died 794)

Al Tawdeeh (died 805) 36 volume commentary

Fath al Bari - written by ibn Rajab

Fath al Bari written by ibn Hajr

Al Ayni (died 885 hijri) related via marriage to ibn Hajr, they did not like each other, he was Hanafi, ibn Hajr was Shafiee. They refuted each other in their books

Shaqwani says there is no more commentary on Sahih Bukhari after Fath al Bari

Al Qustani - 10 volume book

Muhammad Anwar Shah al Kashmiri

 

2010-08-08 Class Notes

The five conditions were not enumerated during the time of .... but this was the actual practice, the textbooks came on later and they were documented. And these five conditions have not changed. It is fixed and standardized much earlier.  So the principles are fixed but some scholars might disagree on when they apply it to specific hadith.

We will now mention some commentaries on Sahih Muslim for completeness, there are 22 mentioned in Shaikh’s notes. The most famous are:

Al Mazari (died 536 hijri) - He did not complete this commentary, Qaqi Ayad (died 544) completed it.

Qurtubi from Andalus

An Nawawi (died 676) has the most famous commentary, Minhaj, or Sharh Sahih Muslim

Most of them are Al Ashri scholars.

Indo-Pak scholars who have a commentary

Siddique Hasan Khan al Qunuji  al Bukhari

Shabeer Ahmad and completed by Taqideen al Uthmani

The most important commentary is a 4-5 volume work by Mubarakpuri - minnatul mun3im fi sharh sahih muslim.

Some of the critiques of Sahih Bukhari and Sahih Muslim

We will go to the other extreme and discuss what has happened to these two sahihs.

Practice of khatam - start reading two months before Ramadan and finish it on laylatul Qadr. We also find a common practive to read Sahih Bukhar to seek intercession with Allah specially in times of calamities in Egypt in 790 Hijri when bubonic plague, it was read in the Azhar mosque to seek relief. It was read loud again and then again in front of orphans.

Also when crusaders invaded egypt, it was read in Azhar mosque. Ibn Hajr says that ibn Katheer says the Sahih Bukhari can be read for invocation of rain. It is difficult to imagine ibn Katheer making this statement.

This is one extreme, what do you think of that?

This was not heard during the time of Bukhari, but 100 years later you hear about the blindness and cure of blindness?

What is the idea of reading Sahih Bukhari?

It is connection with the prophet and that they are trying to seek some baraqah from the words of the prophet.

Did this occur in Sham during a plaque in the time of the Sahaba and Tabieen? No it did not.

This happens when people loose the understanding and then try to cling to anything that they can get, such as the hair of the prophet. And this happens in every religion.

Rescue from distress such as sinking of the ship - some say that reading Sahih Bukhari is tried and true mechanism to seek relief.

However most of the students of the class disagree with this.

It also exists today, the king of Morocco referred to as Ameir al Muminoon, he claims to be descendant of the prophet, there is reading of Sahih Bukhari on his birthday.

Now we move from this extreme to somebody critiquing the two saheehs and rejecting the hadith of Sahih Bukhari and Sahih Muslim.

You need to have some strong evidence to make this claim.

Some say that they make distinction between sunnah and hadith. So they do not reject the sunnah but some say that they reject the hadith.

Some person said that the hadith of the fly in water or milk, he would reject it even if it was the sunnah of the prophet.

Common lay person cannot start judging hadith.

Sanaani from Yemen, wrote that there is no ijmaa among the scholars

ibn al Wazeir - wrote ...

Shawqani

All of them are from Zaidi background, but they rejected that madhab.

Over the years there have been some scholars

Contemporary scholar Al Albaani rejected one hadith, he was strongly opposed by the madhabi people (rigidly follow the madhab).

Why did Albaani receive such heavy criticism from madhaabi people for his criticism of Sahih Bukhari and Sahih Muslim. (He did present evidence)

Because they are institutions of Islaam, if you can destroy the Sahih Bukhari or Sahih Muslim, then you can go ahead and destroy the institutions. That is the reason why they are going to oppose, it is kind of threat to them.

Note a critic is not always correct. When you analyze their evidence, you can find some mistakes that they have done.

One of the earliest critic was Dar al Qutni. He never travelled east of Baghdad. Alal al Dar al Qutni, a book about the obscure defects of hadith. He wrote a critique of Bukhari and Muslim. It was not criticism of the text, it was mostly about isnaad. However ibn Hajar has answered many of his criticism, and so did some later scholars. In case where ibn Hajr gave up in trying to respond criticism, for example description of Adam as being 60 units long, he is very tall and ibn Hajar gives up trying to answer his criticism.

Al Albaani completely rejects the isnaad of Zubair  ‘an Jabir... and Harith  which we discussed in another class. By the way we defended this isnaad and rejected the criticism of Albaani.

Scholars of shafiee madhaab were also scholars of hadith and they did their best to preserve the hadith of Bukhari and Muslim.

Recitation of Bismilla before reciting Surah of the Quran - hadith of Anas. Shafiee madhab is the only one that accepts this view of saying bismilla loud.

Dal al Qutni and ... reject this hadith of saying bismilla from Sahih Muslim.  The debate about the hadith of Anas follows the various madhab viewpoints, if they don’t say bismillah loud, then they reject this hadith, and vice versa.

.......

Standing on the graves - some scholars have shortcomings in their understanding of this hadith. The understanding of the prophet was correct and it is concurred by the revelations in the Quran.

Scholars who rejected hadith they did a lot of analysis and then rejected some hadith, but then other scholars came along and showed them their mistakes. This kind of analysis of Sahih Bukhari and Muslim is the reason for their elevated status.

They are most reliable and authentic books.

Most of their criticism have been refuted by the scholars.

Characteristics of Sahih Bukhari and Sahih Muslim

There are important points to keep in mind before a lay person goes ahead and criticizes the hadith in Sahih Bukhari and Muslim.

1. These are the works of individual human beings.

It is not just a work of one individual. Bukhari took his work to Yahya, Ali ibn Madini ........ and they rejected only four hadith. There is some difference of opinion whether he kept the hadith or rejected them.

Correctling a sheikh was not unknown in study of hadith. There are many cases of young students who corrected their teachers. We have no evidence of students of Imam Bukhari ever criticizing the hadith of Bukhari in their study sessions. Most of his students became scholars of hadith.

Imam Muslim took his work to Abu Zarra who was a leading scholar of defects of hadith. Any hadith that he objected too, Imam Muslim removed it from his collection.

Imam Muslim was once asked why he did not include a hadith from Abu Hurrairah. He says that he did not include all hadith that were authentic, but he included all sahih hadith that the scholars agreed were authentic.

So it is not an individuals work, it was consensus of the leading scholars of hadith.

2. Hadith have been critiqued and the number is very small.

3. Nature of hadith in Bukhari and Muslim

They were not as interested in recording the best isnaad for the hadith. This became problematic to some later scholars such as Daraqutni and he critiqued the hadith.

Imam Bukhari said in the introduction. I might have a longer chain from a wellknown chain, but I might have a smaller chain which is less authentic, because I have concluded the hadith text is authentic.  If a later scholar is not familiar with this aspect then he might fall into a trap of criticizing the hadith based on isnaad.

4. Mustafreez hadith

Famous hadith of the fly and if it falls into the hadith to immerse it completely. Bukhari shows only two chains, but in reality there are 50 well known chains.

A later scholar has collected 50,000 chains for the 4000 hadith of Sahih Bukhari

5. Imam Muslim would use a narrator who has critiqued to highlight or demonstrate that the narrator is acceptable.

For a person to reject hadith of Bukhari and Muslim have to be a scholar of hadith and present evidence for it.  So for a lay person, we have to accept all of the hadith. Lay person become confused the hadith but that must not be a reason for rejecting the hadith.

The eclipse prayer - Salat ul Khusoof. Hanafis completely reject this hadith, he says it is mutarr, there is lot of conflict in the narrations, which is true, and Imam Muslim puts the weaker narration at the back of the list of narrations.  But that cannot be a reason for rejecting the hadith. That’s the reason why non-Shafiee people have not heard about the eclipse prayer.

You cannot use ignorance for rejecting a hadith.

End of the session.