Ghazali against the Hadith Scholars

[Criticism of the Distraction of Hadith Scholars]

And there’s another group [of harmfully distracted people]. They spend all their time studying Hadith, that is, attending audition sessions where hadiths are recited, collecting many narrations of hadiths, and seeking out obscure and short chains of transmission (isnads). An average member of this group is primarily concerned with traveling all over the land and meeting old teachers so that he may say “I am the one who has the most narrations from so-and-so,” or “I saw so-and-so,” or “I have chains of transmission that no one else has.” 

[ذم غرور أهل الحديث]

وفرقة أخرى استغرقوا أوقاتهم في علم الحديث أعني في سماعه وجمع الروايات الكثيرة منه وطلب الأسانيد الغريبة العالية فهمة أحدهم أن يدور في البلاد ويرى الشيوخ ليقول "أنا أروي عن فلان" و"لقد رأيت فلانا" و"معي من الإسناد ما ليس مع غيري" 

They are harmfully distracted in several ways, including:

وغرورهم من وجوه:

(a) They are like [asses] carrying books [Cf. Q 62:5]. They do not devote their attention to understanding the meanings of hadiths. Their knowledge is very limited. All they do is transmit [hadiths], [mistakenly] thinking that this is sufficient for them.

منها أنهم كحملة الأسفار فإنهم لا يصرفون العناية إلى فهم معاني السنة فعلمهم قاصر وليس معهم إلا النقل ويظنون أن ذلك يكفيهم 

(b) Since they don’t understand the meaning of what they teach, they don’t act upon it. Moreover, when they happen to have an understanding of some aspects of it, they often still don’t act upon it.

ومنها أنهم إذا لم يفهموا معانيها لا يعملون بها وقد يفهمون بعضها أيضا ولا يعملون به

(c) They fail to possess the knowledge [transmitted on the Prophet’s authority], the knowledge that every Muslim is required to possess, the knowledge that is understanding how to treat what ails the heart. Instead, they preoccupy themselves with gathering multiple chains of transmission and seeking the shortest ones. But these preoccupations are unnecessary for them! 

ومنها أنهم يتركون العلم الذي هو فرض عين وهو معرفة علاج القلب ويشتغلون بتكثير الأسانيد وطلب العالي منها ولا حاجة بهم إلى شيء من ذلك

(d) The [following mode of harmful distraction] most characterizes our contemporaries: They do not uphold the most basic standards of learning Hadith by listening to its recitation. Listening to a hadith, even if it has no benefit by itself, is important for affirming that hadith, since understanding comes after affirmation and action comes after understanding. The first step is listening to a hadith, then understanding it, then memorizing it, then acting upon it, & finally spreading the word. But these guys ignore most of these steps, limiting themselves to listening. They’ve even abandoned the true meaning of listening. And so, you’ll often see a boy attending an old teacher’s teaching session. While the teacher’s hadith is being read aloud in his presence, the old teacher sleeps and the boy plays. Then, they write down the boy’s name in the audition notice. When [the boy] grows old, people go out of their way to listen to hadiths on his authority. 

ومنها وهو الذي أكب عليه أهل الزمان أنهم أيضا لا يقيمون بشرط السماع فإن السماع بمجرده وإن لم تكن له فائدة ولكنه مهم في نفسه للوصول إلا إثبات الحديث إذ التفهم بعد الإثبات والعمل بعد التفهم فالأول السماع ثم التفهم ثم الحفظ ثم العمل ثم النشر وهؤلاء اقتصروا من الجملة على السماع ثم تركوا حقيقة السماع فترى الصبي يحضر في مجلس الشيخ والحديث يقرأ والشيخ ينام والصبي يلعب ثم يكتب اسم الصبي في السماع فإذا كبر تُصُدِّيَ لِيُسْمَعَ مِنْهُ

Adults who attend [teaching sessions] are often careless. They don’t listen, don’t pay attention, and don’t record things accurately [in their mind]. Often, they’ll get distracted by conversation or by jotting something down. 

The old teachers, whose traditions are read aloud to them in their presence, don't notice or recognize if something is read wrongly or inaccurately.

والبالغ الذي يحضر ربما يغفل ولا يسمع ولا يصغي ولا يضبط وربما يشتغل بحديث أو نسخ 

والشيخ الذي يقرأ عليه لو صحف وغير ما يقرأ عليه لم يشعر به ولم يعرفه

All of this is ignorance and harmful distractedness, since the basic principle of Hadith is to listen to it directly from God’s Messenger (may God protect him and grant him peace!), to memorize it as it was heard, and to narrate it as it was memorized. The narration is done from memorization and the memorization is from listening. If you are unable to listen to the report from God’s Messenger (may God protect him and grant him peace!), then you should hear it from his Companions or their Successors. When you listen to a report from a transmitter, it becomes as if you listen to it from God’s Messenger (may God protect him and grant him peace!). And so, you should pay attention so that you may listen and memorize. Then, you should narrate as you have memorized, and you should memorize as you have listened, insomuch that you don’t change a single letter [of the original hadith]; and so that if someone else changes a single letter or makes a mistake, you’ll identify the mistake.

وكل ذلك جهل وغرور إذ الأصل في الحديث أن يسمعه من رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم فيحفظه كما سمعه ويرويه كما حفظه فتكون الرواية عن الحفظ والحفظ عن السماع فإن عجزت عن سماعه من رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم سمعته من الصحابة أو التابعين وصار سماعك عن الراوي كسماع من سمع من رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم وهو أن تصغي لتسمع فتحفظ وتروي كما حفظت وتحفظ كما سمعت بحيث لا تغير منه حرفا ولو غير غيرك منه حرفا أو أخطأ علمت خطأه

There are two ways for you to commit things to memory: 

ولحفظك طريقان

(a) One is to memorize things by heart and make them permanent by mentioning them often and by repeating them, just as you would memorize something that you hear. 

أحدهما أن تحفظ بالقلب وتستديمه بالذكر والتكرار كما تحفظ ما جرى على سمعك في مجاري الأحوال

(b) The other way is to write down what you hear, then to proofread what you’ve written and to make sure that nobody gets his hand on it and makes changes to it. When going by this way, you must always keep your notebook with you or safely stored away. For, if someone other than you were to get his hand on it, he may make changes to it and unless you’ve memorized the text you will not notice the changes. You should remember the text by heart or with a written aid that will serve as a reminder of what you have heard and that will help protect you you from [unwanted] changes and deviations. 

والثاني أن تكتب كما تسمع وتصحح المكتوب وتحفظه حتى لا تصل إليه يد من يغيره ويكون حفظك للكتاب معك وفي خزانتك فإنه لو امتدت إليه يد غيرك ربما غيره فإذا لم تحفظه لم تشعر بتغييره فيكون محفوظا بقلبك أو بكتابك فيكون كتابك مذكرا لما سمعته وتأمن فيه من التغيير والتحريف

But, let's say you don’t memorize [the text of a teacher] by heart or with a written aid; and you hear some random sounds [during the teaching session]; and you leave the teaching session and you encounter a copy of that teacher’s hadiths; and you granted that this copy’s contents may differ from the copy that you heard, even by a single letter. In such a case, you may not say that you heard this book. After all, you do not know if you ever heard its contents. Moreover, you may have heard something that is different from what’s in this book even by one word.

فإذا لم تحفظ لا بالقلب ولا بالكتاب وجرى على سمعك صوت غفل وفارقت المجلس ثم رأيت نسخة لذلك الشيخ وجوزت أن يكون ما فيه مغيرا أو يفارق حرف منه للنسخة التي سمعتها لم يجز لك أن تقول سمعت هذا الكتاب فإنك لا تدري لعلك لم تسمع ما فيه بل سمعت شيئا يخالف ما فيه ولو في كلمة

Since you have not memorized this text by heart or with an accurate and reliable written aid which you may compare with other copies, then how can you know that you have heard it? For God (exalted be He) said: “Do not follow what you don’t know!” (Cf. Q 17:36)

فإذا لم يكن معك حفظ بقلبك ولا نسخة صحيحة استوثقت عليها لتقابل بها فمن أين تعلم أنك سمعت ذلك وقد قال الله تعالى ولا تقف ما ليس لك به علم

But these days, all the teachers say: “We heard everything that’s in this book.” [They say this], even when they have not met our requirements [for proper memorization]. This is a blatant lie on their part. The most basic requirement for listening [to a hadith] is that you hear all of it, while memorizing it to some degree, so that you’ll be able to detect changes. 

وقول الشيوخ كلهم في هذا الزمان إنا سمعنا ما في هذا الكتاب إذا لم يوجد الشرط الذي ذكرناه فهو كذب صريح وأقل شروط السماع أن يجري الجميع على السمع مع نوع من الحفظ يشعر معه بالتغيير 

Were you allowed to write down hadiths that were “heard” by a little boy or someone not paying attention or someone sleeping or someone distracted by copying, then you’d be allowed to write down what was “heard” by a baby in his crib or a lunatic. Then, when the baby would reach maturity or the lunatic would revert to sanity, you could listen to hadiths from them. Yet everyone agrees that this is prohibited. Were that permitted, then it would be permitted to write down hadiths “heard” by a fetus in the womb. However, you do not write down the hadiths “heard” by a baby in his crib, because he cannot understand and cannot commit things to memory. Therefore, a child who plays around or someone not paying attention or someone distracted from listening by copying also cannot understand and cannot commit things to memory.

ولو جاز أن يكتب سماع الصبي والغافل والنائم والذي ينسخ لجاز أن يكتب سماع المجنون والصبي في المهد ثم إذا بلغ الصبي وأفاق المجنون يسمع عليه ولا خلاف في عدم جوازه ولو جاز ذلك لجاز أن يكتب سماع الجنين في البطن فإن كان لا يكتب سماع الصبى في المهد لأنه لا يفهم ولا يحفظ فالصبى الذى يلعب والغافل والمشغول بالنسخ عن السماع ليس يفهم ولا يحفظ

Some ignoramus may be so audacious as to say: “You may write down hadiths heard by a baby in his crib, but you may not write down those ‘heard’ by a fetus in the womb,” and he may [justify this] by drawing a distinction between fetuses who cannot hear anything and babies who can hear things. How is this helpful for the baby, who is supposed to be transmitting the hadith not the sound?! If such a baby ever becomes a teacher, let him be content with saying: “When I came of age, I was told that as a baby I attended a teaching session in which hadiths were taught. The sound of these hadiths made contact with my ears while I could not understand what this sound was.” Of course, everyone agrees that this form of teaching is not valid. What is more, it is a blatant lie. 

وإن استجرأ جاهل فقال يكتب سماع الصبي في المهد فليكتب سماع الجنين في البطن فإن فرق بينهما بأن الجنين لا يسمع الصوت وهذا يسمع الصوت فما ينفع هذا وهو إنما ينقل الحديث دون الصوت فليقتصر إذا صار شيخا على أن يقول سمعت بعد بلوغي أني في صباي حضرت مجلسا يروى فيه حديث كان يقرع سمعي صوته ولا أدري ما هو فلا خلاف في أن الرواية كذلك لا تصح وما زاد عليه فهو كذب صريح 

If you were allowed to record the hadiths “heard” by a Turk with no knowledge of Arabic, who happened to hear a random sound, then you would be allowed to record hadiths “heard” by a baby in his crib. This is the height of ignorance! From which source could one learn this?! There is no better prooftext for the requirement to listen [to a hadith] than the saying of God’s Messenger (may God protect him and grant him peace!): “May God’s light shine upon the person who heard something I said, comprehended it, and passed it on as he had heard it!” In light of this, how can someone who doesn’t know what he heard pass on what he heard?! This is the most despicable form of harmful distraction. Our contemporaries are plagued by it. 

ولو جاز إثبات سماع التركي الذي لا يفهم العربية لأنه سمع صوتا غفلا لجاز إثبات سماع صبي في المهد وذلك غاية الجهل ومن أين يأخذ هذا وهل للسماع مستند إلا قول رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم نضر الله امرأ سمع مقالتي فوعاها فأداها كما سمعها وكيف يؤدي كما سمع من لا يدري ما سمع فهذا أفحش أنواع الغرور وقد بلي بهذا أهل الزمان 

If people today were to practice caution, they would see that there are no living teachers except that they are of the sort who heard hadiths as children in this way without paying attention. The problem is that there’s an aura of respect and reverence around hadith scholars regarding this matter. [Becuase of this aura], the downtrodden are afraid of demanding such requirements [from the Hadith transmitters]. [Were they to do so], the number of those who meet these requirements would drop in their circles of learning, the [Hadith transmitters] would lose their respected status, and they would be able to transmit only the few traditions that they heard according to these requirements. Heck, maybe they wouldn’t be able to transmit any traditions and they would be totally embarrassed. On account of this, they established only one requirement: that the din of a hadith make contact with the student’s ear, even if he has no idea what is going on. 

ولو احتاط أهل الزمان لم يجدوا شيوخا إلا الذين سمعوه في الصبا على هذا الوجه مع الغفلة إلا أن للمحدثين في ذلك جاها وقبولا فخاف المساكين أن يشترطوا ذلك فيقل من يجتمع ذلك في حلقهم فينقص جاههم وتقل أيضا أحاديثهم التي قد سمعوها بهذا الشرط بل ربما عدموا ذلك وافتضحوا فاصطلحوا على أنه ليس يشترط إلا أن يقرع سمعه دمدمة وإن كان لا يدري ما يجري 

The true nature of listening [to a hadith] cannot be ascertained from the views held by the Hadith scholars. For it is not part of their scientific method. However, it is part of the scientific method of the scholars who specialize in the fundamentals of jurisprudence. What we have described [concerning the proper transmission of knowledge] is laid out clearly in the rules of the fundamentals of jurisprudence.

وصحة السماع لا تعرف من قول المحدثين لأنه ليس من علمهم بل من علم علماء الأصول بالفقه وما ذكرناه مقطوع به في قوانين أصول الفقه 

This is how these [Hadith scholars] are harmfully distracted. Even if they were to listen to hadiths according to the [correct] requirements, they would still be harmfully distracted because they focus only on transmission, wasting their lives collecting narrations and chains of transmission, and they avoid the important aspects of religion, by misunderstanding the meanings of what they transmit. Quite the opposite is true: If someone seeks to walk the path that leads to [a heavenly] afterlife by appealing to Hadith, then a single hadith may be sufficient for him throughout his lifetime. 

فهذا غرور هؤلاء ولو سمعوا على الشرط لكانوا أيضا مغرورين في اقتصارهم على النقل وإفناء أعمارهم في جمع الروايات والأسانيد وإعراضهم عن مهمات الدين ومعرفة معاني الأخبار بل الذي يقصد من الحديث سلوك طريق الآخرة وسالك طريقها ربما يكفيه الحديث الواحد عمره 

Thus, it is narrated that one of the teachers attended a session where people listened to hadiths. The first hadith that was taught in this session was the saying of [the Messenger of God] (may God protect and grant him peace!) that “one of the best signs that someone has totally submitted himself to God is his turning away from things that do not interest him.” The old man stood up and said: “That’s enough for me. When I'm done with this one, I'll then go on to listen to another.” Thus, the wise men who are careful not to stumble into harmful distractions listen to hadiths.

كما روي عن بعض الشيوخ أنه حضر مجلس السماع فكان أول حديث روى قوله صلى الله عليه وسلم من حسن إسلام المرء تركه ما لا يعنيه فقام وقال يكفيني هذا حتى أفرغ منه ثم أسمع غيره فهكذا يكون سماع الأكياس الذين يحذرون الغرور