A Note on Dating

Muslims mark the beginning of the Islamic era from the year of Muhammad's emigration (hijra)
from Mecca to Medina, 622 CE. Individuals are most often identified in time by the Hijri year
(Anno Hijri, abbreviated AH) in which they died. With the exception of the Qur'an, Islamic
literature is generally dated according to the year in which the author or compiler died. In this
chapter, individual Muslim authors or compilers'death years are given in both AH and CE years.
The lmportance of Hadith
The Arabic noun hadith (pl. ahadith) literally means something that is said, told, or related, that
is, a story. As a religious technical term, the word ltadith is used to refer to stories about the
Prophet and the early community of Muslims. Each hadith has two parts: a chain of narrators,
known in Arabic as isnad (literally (lit.) support) and textual content, known as matn (lit. body).
The following is an example from the $al.il.t of al-Bukharr:
al-Humaydi 'Abd Allah ibn Zubayr told us > Sufyan told us >Yahya the son of Sa'id
al-Ansari told us > Muhammad the son of Ibrahrm al-Taymi informed me that he
heard >'Alqama the son of Waqqas al-Laythi say that he heard >'Umar the son al-
Khattabb, may God be pleased with him, say from the pulpit: I heard the Messenger of
God, peace and blessings be upon him say: Actions are according to intention, and
each man will have that which he intends. Whoever immigrated for worldly gain he
will achieve it, or for a woman, he will marry her; thus, his immigration is to that
for which he immigrated.
The first section is the isnad, and the second is the matn.The rest of the text provides the context
in which the initial communication of the report occurred.

Hadith fall into two general categories: stories of a legal/juridical nature (hadlth al-
ahkam) and stories of a historical nature (sira/ maghazi) (Ginther 1998, 439). Not only do these
stories play an integral role in all of the Islamic intellectual disciplines (a/-'alum al-islamiyya),
from history to law to Qur'anic exegesis, they also serve as the foundation of both faith-based
and academic narratives of Islamic history. Moreover, they are seen by the vast majority of
Muslims as the repository of the Prophetic Sunna or the habitual practices of the Prophet,
reporting things that Muhammad said, did, or of which he tacitly approved. The Sunna is
recognized as the second source of religious law and guidance by the majority of Muslims.
Hadith are so closely linked to the Sunna that many people use the two terms synonymously. As
the repository of the Sunna, more details of Islamic law come from the Hadtth than from the
Qur'an.
Not all stories of the Prophet carry equal status, however. The most authoritative reports
are found in the collections that form the Hadlth canon. Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims each have
their own recognized canon of Hadith literature. There are also Hadith collections that never
became part of the canon. In addition to Hadith collection, per se, stories of Muhammad and the
early community are found in other genres of literature, such as biographies (sira), battle
chronicles (maghazi), histories (tarikh), and Qur'anic commentaries (tafsir).

The Problem of Authority

While the vast majority of the world’s Muslims recognizes the authority of Hadith as a
repository of the Prophetic Sunna and have done so for centuries, this was not always the case. In
the first few centuries after the Hijra, there was clear opposition to the use and authority of texts
other than the Qur'an which all Muslims consider to be God's divine revelation sent in Arabic to
the Prophet Muhammad. It was in the early third century after the Hijra that Muhammad ibn
Idris al-Shafi'i (d.204 AH/820 CE) - the eponymous founder of the Shafi’I school of Sunni law-
first successfully articulated arguments for the necessity of the Hadith that are still used today
(Musa 2008,61).
The Problem of Authenticity
From the earliest centuries, Muslims have recognized the existence of problematic content in
prophetic reports, which were used to make the religion an object of ridicule (Ibn Qutaybah,
'Abd Allah ibn Muslim, 1970, 9-10). This, in part drove much of early Hadtth scholarship. It was
the desire for a short comprehensive work that contained only authentic stories that is said to
have motivated Muhammad ibn Isma'il al-Bukhari (d.256 AH/870 CE) to compile his Sahih
(Siddiqi 1993, 56).

The Relationship of the Qur'an and Hadith

Although more details of religious law and practice come from the Hadith, they are still
considered second to the Qur'an in authority. This is because they are seen by Muslims as a
secondary supplemental form of divine revelation (wahy). The vast majority of Muslims
recognize two types of divine revelation (Musa and Shafi’i, Imam Muhammad b.Idris al-
2007,163-97). The Arabic Qur'an is believed by Muslims to be the direct and literal words of
God, which were dictated to the Prophet Muhammad by the angel Gabriel at God's command.
Therefore, the Qur'an is considered to be God's words in both utterance (lafz) and meaning
(ma'ana). Because Muhammad is believed to have been under the influence of divine inspiration
at all times, the Prophetic Sunna, which is found in the Hadith, is considered the second form of
divine revelation. Unlike the Qur'an, however, the Hadith are deemed God's revelation in
meaning (ma'ana), but Muhammad's words in utterance (lafz).

Sources of Prophetic Reports

The earliest Islamic literature other than the Qur'an dates from the mid-second/eighth century
and includes hadith, sira, and maghazi works. An important feature of these early works is that
in addition to the words and deeds of the
Prophet himself, they also report the words and deeds of the Prophet's companions and their
successors. Moreover, the reports may or may not be accompanied by a chain of narrators
(isnad).It is the chain of narrators that ultimately determines the quality and authoritativeness of
a given report.

HadithTerminology
 Sahih – sound/authentic;
 Hasan – good;
 Da’if – weak
 Mawadu; fabricated
Each report is graded according to a variety of intersecting criteria. The first criteria on which a
report is judged is whether or not it goes back to the Prophet Muhammad himself, or to one of
his companions or their successors.

After determining the authority to which a particular report is attributed, the strength or
weakness of the chain of narrators (isnad) is assessed. This assessment is dependent upon the
integrity and reliability of each individual transmitter as well as on whether the chain itself is
uninterrupted.
Hadith are divided into six classifications, on the basis of the linkages in the
isnad:
 Musnad - supported: a hadith that is reported by an uninterrupted chairy in which each
narrator heard directly from the previous narrator, going back to one of the Prophet's
companions, who heard directly from the Prophet.
 Muttasil - uninterrupted: a hadith that is reported by an uninterrupted chain, in which
each narrator heard directly from the previous narrator, going back to a companion or
successor, not directly to the Prophet.
 Mursal - incomptletely transmitted: a hadtth going back to a successor in which link
between the successor and the Prophet is missing.
 Munqati' - interrupted: a hadith in which any link before the successor is missing.
 Mu'adal - problematic: a hadith in which two or more consecutive narrators are missing
from the chain.
 Mu'allaq - suspended: a hadith that quotes the Prophet directly, with no chain of
transmission.
In addition to the continuity of chains of transmission, the number of reporters at each stage of
transmission also affects the soundness of Hadith. The more widely reported a hadith is at each
stage, the less likely it is to be fabricated. The two main categories defined by Muslim scholars
of Hadith are mutawatir and ahad/wahid. Amutawatir report is one that is widely reported by
various chains of successive, reliable narrators. Scholars do not agree on the number of
narrations needed for a hadith to quality as mutawatir. Some scholars reportedly set the
minimum at four, while others required 70 or more (Siddiqi 1993, 110) Ahad/wahid Hadith is
any report that does not have enough chains of successive, reliable narrators to qualify as
mutawatir. The category of Ahad/wahid reports is further broken down in to three subtypes:
 Mashhur - well-known: a hadtth reported by more than two narrators.
 ‘Aziz - rare: a Hadtth reported by only two narrators.
 Gharib – uncommon/odd: a Hadith reported by a single narrator.
Different schcrols of law give different weight and authority to ahad/wahid reports in the
formulation of legal rulings. Juristis of the Shafi’i and Hanbali schools are more likely to give
authority to such reports than their counterparts in the Hanafi school.
Types of Hadith Collections
Hadith collections are generally classified according to their purpose and (Brown 2009, 308)
organization. Some types of collections appeared earlier than others, suggesting development in
the literature over time. Two key features distinguish later Hadith works from earlier sources of
Prophetic reports: first, a focus on the words and deeds of the prophet himself; and second, a
concern for the chains of narrators, which serve to authenticate the reports (Brown 2009,28-34).

Sahifa, juz' , and nuskha

These are the earliest Hadrth works identified as personal collections believed to have been
composed by the Prophet's companions and their immediate successors for the purpose of
studying and/or teaching. These early collections are referred to by several different terms,
including sahifa (notebook), juz' (volume), and nuskha (copy) (Graham 1.977, 82)

Musannaf
The most famous and authoritative musannaf works are the two works that eventually came to
form the centerpiece of the Sunni Hadtth canon: the compilations of al-Bukhari (d. 256 AJJI 870
CE) and Muslim, also known in Arabic as the sahihayn (the two sound (collections]).

Musnad
Musnad collections are those in which the reports are arranged according to the name original
narrator. Emerging after the musanna.f collections of the late second/eighth and early third/ninth
centuries, these collections focus on reports about the Prophet himself.
Sunan
These are arranged topically according to the practices (sunan) of the prophet that they report.
Among the most important of the Sunan works are those of Abn Dawud (d.275 AH/888 CE), al-
Tirmidhi (d. 279 AHl892 CE), al-Nisa'i (d.303 AH/915 CE), Ibn Maja (d.273 AH/886 CE), al-
Darimi (d. 255 AH/868 CE), and al-Daraqutni (d. 385 AH/995 CE).

The Sahihs of al-Bukhari and Muslim

Al-Bukharr reortedly decided to compile the Sahth after one of his contemporaries expressed the
wish that someone would produce a concise, but comprehensive work containing only
authenticated reports. Al-Bukhari was the first to attempt to develop a system of authentication
that could serve to determine the relative reliability with which such stories might be traced back
to the Prophet.

Even after his death, however, al-Bukhari remained just one of many scholars who collected,
studied, and taught Hadtth throughout the Muslim world. It took two more centuries for his
Sahih to become part of the emerging canon of Sunni Hadith literature.

Al-Bukhari's Sahih it is divided into more than 90 chapters arranged by topics, from the opening
chapter on revelation to the final chapter on the oneness of God. The topical arrangement allows
Muslims to quickly find answers to questions about day-to-day issues of belief and practice.

The Sunni Canon

The solidification of the canon in the seventh/eleventh century did not signal the end of
Muslim Hadtth criticism. The various formal disciplines of that criticism continued to develop
over the ensuing cenfuries
Through detailed analysis of the sources, M. Z. Siddiqi has identified eight general
principles of matn criticism used by various scholars.
1. A report must not be contrary to the text of the Qur'an, the absolute consensus of the
community, a mutawatur hadith, another report on the same topic that has already been
accepted as authentic, or the basic principles of Islam.
2. A report should not go against reasory the laws of nafure, or corunon exPerlence.
3. A report that establishes disproportionately high rewards for minor good deeds or severe
punishments for minor sins must be rejected.
 4. Reports of the excellence of particular parts of the Qur'an may not be authentic.
5. Reports of the superior qualities of particular persons, tribes, or place should be generally
rejected.
6. Reports containing detailed prophecies of future events that include dates should be
rejected.
7. Reports containing remarks that are not part of the Prophet's prophetic vocation, or that
are unsuitable for him, should be rejected.
8. Matns should not violate the basic rules of Arabic grarrunar and style (Siddiqi
1993,1.1.4).

Sira and Maghazi Works

In addition to collections of Hadith proper, stories about the life of the Prophet are also found in
other genres of literature such as Sira (biography) and Maghazi (battle chronicle) works,
histories (tarikh) and commentaries on the Qur'an tafsir). Stories found in these genres have
come to be referred to as khabar (meaning news, story report pl. akhbar) rather than hadith;
however, in the earliest centuries these terms seem to have been used interchangeably
(Musa 2008,35).
It is important to note that Hadith collections often contain sections dedicated to sira, maghazi,
tarikh, and tafsir, demonstrating the overlapping interconnectedness of the various genres of
Muslim literature. The most significant distinction between the stories found in Hadith
collections and other genres of literature is the isnad, or chain of narrators. The Arabic word
isnad llterally means "support," and, as noted above, it is the strength or weakness of the isnad
that determines the reliability and authoritative weight of a particular Hadtth. Stories in the
Hadith collections are reported with their chains narration, while stories in other genres of
literature may be reported with only a partial chain or no chain at all. Stories in these other
genres are also not subject to the critical classifications applied to Hadrth proper.

lbn lsbaq's Biography of Cod's Messenger

The earliest known biography of the Prophet Muhammad, which predates all of the canonized
collections of Hadith, is Sirat Rasul Allah attributed to Muhammad ibn Ishaq ibn Yasar (d. ca.
151 AHl767 CE), known as Ibn Ishaq, who is said to have been commissioned by the Abbasid
Caliph al-Mansur (reigned 136-158 AHl754-775 CE) to write a history of creation from the time
of Adam (Schoeler 2009,28). The biography of the Prophet was originally part of that much
larger work.
Ibn Ishaq is a controversial figure whose trustworthiness was disputed by both his
contemporaries and later scholars. Among his strongest critics were noted scholars such as Malik
ibn Anas and Ahmad ibn Hanbal, after whom two of the surviving Sunni schools of law are
named, and al-Tirmidhi, and al-Nisa'i, whose collections of Hadtth are part of the Sunni canon
(Guillaume 2003, xxxiv-xl). This kind of criticism is part of what excludes stories from the Stat
Rasul Allah as authoritative sources of religious legal judgment.

The Works of al-Weqidr and lbn Sa'd

Abu'Abd Allah Muhammad Ibn 'Umar Ibn Waqidi was born in approximately 130 AH/748 CE,
making him a younger contemporary of Ibn Ishaq. While there is no way of knowing whether the
two ever met, yet even though al-Waqidi never mentions Ibn Ishaq his work closely corresponds
to the maghazt portion of lbn Ishaq's Sira (Jones 1983, 346). Like Ibn Ishdq, al-Waqid enjoyed
the support of the Abbasid court and was appointed a judgeship in Baghdad by the Caliph
Harun al-Rashid. His Kitab al-maghazi is particularly noteworthy because of the attention he
pays to chronology and the dating of Muhammad's military expeditions. An English translation
of this important early work is now available, entitled The Life of Muhammad: Al-Waqidi's
Kitab al-Maghazi, trans. Rizwi Faizer, Amal Ismail, and Abdul Kader Tayob (New York:
Routledge,2011)

Muhammad ibn Sa'd (d. 230 AH/845 CE) is popularly referred to as katib al-waqii, meaning al-
Waqidi's scribe. The two had a close relationship, and Ibn Sa'd drew from and expanded on al-
Waqidr's work in his monurnentalal -Tabaqat al-Kubra(The Great Generations), in which he
chronicles the lives of Muhammad, his companions, and the ansar of Medina, and the generation
immediately following. These, according to Hadith, are the best generations. Later biographers
repeat and build on the work of Ibn Sa'd, as he did upon the work of his mentor, al-Waqid and
more than a millennium since his death Ibn Sa'd's work remains one of the most widely used and
respected biographies of the Prophet and the early community.