Q: How were the ahadith compiled during the times of tab-e-tabeen?

The fourth period extends from the middle of the second to the fifth century Hijra
called the time of tab-e-tabeen. The Muhaditheen had up till now relied heavily on
memory, but with an ever increasing number of hadith coupled with the danger of
fabrication, the Ulama evolved an elaborate system of verifying the authenticity of a
hadith. Thus they developed the science of hadith called Uloom-ul-Hadith.

Asma-ul-Rijja was the science in which the condition, births, deaths, teachers and
students of narrators were gathered in detail and from these details judgments on
the position of the narrators, as to whether they were truthful, trustworthy or
unreliable, were made. This science is very interesting; details of over 500,000
narrators have been collated. In this science many books have been written. Some of
them are: Tahdheeb al-Kaamil of Imam Yusuf Muzee (d.742H), one of the most
important books in this field, Tahdheeb at-Tahdheeb of Haafidh Ibn Hajr, who also
authored the famous explanation of Bukhari in 12 volumes by the name of Fath
ulBaaree Sharh Sahih al-Bukhari, Tadhkirrat-ul-Huffaadh of ‘Allaamah Dhahabee
(d.748H)

Ilm Masatalah al-Hadeeth is the science in which under the light of this knowledge
the standard and rules of ahadith, their authenticity and weakness were established.

Ilm Ghareeb al-Hadeeth was the knowledge of the meaning of difficult words (in
Arabic) have been investigated and researched.

Ilm Takhreej al-Hadeeth is the knowledge from which we find where a particular
hadeeth pertaining to a particular science can be found from the well known books of
Tafseer (Exegesis of the Qur'an), belief and jurisprudence.

Ilm al-Hadeeth al-Mawdoo’ah is the science in which the people of knowledge have
written books in which they separated the mawdoo (fabricated, forged) narration’s
from the authentic ones.
 Ilm Naaskh wal-Mansookh is the science which is one of the most famous works is
that of Muhammad Ibn Musa Haazamee (d.784H at the age of 35) called Kitaab
alEe’tibaar.

Ilm at-Tawfeeq Bain al-Hadeeth is the science of the authentic (Sahih) ahadith that
seem to contradict each other have been explained and resolved. 8. Ilm Mukhtalif
wal-Ma’atalaf This science mentions the names of narrators, their titles, parents,
fathers or teachers, whose names may have shown similarities and due to this a
person may have made a mistake.

Ilm Atraaf al-Hadeeth is the science that helps to find a narration, the book of
hadeeth it may be found in and its narrators.

Fiqh al-Hadeeth is the science in which all the authentic ahadith related to rulings and
commands were compiled.

Compilers during the time of Tab-e-Tabeen include Ahmed bin Hanbal who was born
in Marw in 164 AH. Later on, when he was still an infant, he was brought to Baghdad.
He was 16 when he began to study ahadith in 179 AH. It is reported that in his career
he memorized a million ahadith. He was inspiring in his God-consciousness and in
defending Islam. He challenged the caliph and his religious authority, was imprisoned
for a long time and was treated very harshly by the authorities but he never
surrendered. The mutazilites, so called free thinkers in Islam, had a great impact on
the Caliph Mamun, AlMultasim and Al-Watih. The Caliphs accepted the viewpoint of
Mutazilite that the Quran was makhlooq. When the caliph AlMultasim forced him to
accept this viewpoint, he flatly refused. On this, he was trampled under the feet of
the Caliph’s servants and a large group of executioners was brought and each of
them whipped Ahmad-bin-Hanbal 2 stripes with all their strength. After a while, he
lost consciousness and when he regained it and was offered a drink which he refused
saying that he did not want to break his fast. The most interesting thing in his
character was what happened in the caliphate of AL-Mutawakil. The government
policy was changed in favour of the teachings of muhaditheens. He was then asked
by the caliph to take revenge from those who persecuted him but he refused and
showed mercy. In his, Musnad collection, he gathered 30,000 ahadith narrated by
700 companions. He followed a criteria to collect ahadith of a certain companion in
place. He arranged the isnad with the names of the 4 rightly guided caliphs followed
by the remaining 6 who had the tidings of entering paradise from the Prophet SAW,
his wives and so on. Under each individual, he mentioned different number of
ahadith narrated by that individual. It is reported that on his death bed, he was
revising his musnad and left it unfinished which was completed by his sons. The
compilers of the 6 authentic books, sahih-e-sitta are also the compilers of ahadith
under this era.

Hence, this era of tab-e-tabeen’s compilation is of great importance.