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Title: Actual status of Hadith in comparison with the Noble Quraan Post by: Zainab_M on February 11, 2008, 04:22:52 am BismEm
by G.A. Parwez The Noble Quraan What did the Messenger Muhammad PBUH do to implement this command of the Almighty Allah? All of us are aware of it. Whatever was revealed unto the Messenger, he had each and every letter of the revelation dictated to his disciples or followers. Thousands of them were made to memorize the revelations that came to Muhammad PBUH by heart. Not only that, Muhammad PBUH himself listened to those verses who had learnt them by heart and then cast his seal of approval upon them. Messenger Muhammad PBUH before taking his last breadth, ascertained and made sure that whatever had been revealed unto him, had been delivered to humankind in its complete form. In his famous final sermon of Friday in the month of Ramadan before his soul departed from this world, he bore Allah as his witness and confirmed from his audience that he had delivered all revelations to them in its complete form. In the caliphate period, after the unbearable demise of Muhammad PBUH, the four caliphs made it obligatory upon themselves - the sacred duty of preserving the Holy Quran. Henceforth, these Divine verses which are in the hearts of millions of Muslims and also on paper, are coming down through the years in its original and true form. Even foreign religious scholars do not question its verity. Hadith Hadith somehow, does not seem to hold water. We must not omit the fact that nowhere has Allah held the responsibility of hadith, as He has done in the case of the Holy Quran. If Hadith is part of Deen, then the procedures the Messenger adopted for Quran are not implemented in the case of hadith. Like having it memorized, then listening to his followers for any errors or that he satisfactorily approved what had been dictated and written, that over and above all, it was in its pure and authentic form. Though the mind questions, if hadith is all that significant, why did the Messenger not take the same measures as he did in the case of Holy Quran? On the contrary, we find in that very hadith, Muhammad PBUH clearly says: Do not have anything else dictated from me, save the Quran. If anyone of you has written any word other than the Quran, erase it! We are told by the Hadith followers that this was a temporary mandate from the Messenger. That at another time, it is observed, upon the request of Abdullah bin Omar (R), the Messenger permitted them to write down his sayings. As is noticed, the Messenger only permitted his followers, he did not make it mandatory for them to write, as we find he did in the compilation of the Holy Quran. Moreover, he did not at anytime, ask as to what they had written or heard or question the verity of their writings. Neither we find Muhammad PBUH adopting measures to safeguard or preserve those hadiths as he had done with the Quran. It is usually said and believed that in those days the Arabs had stupendous memory and also those sayings (hadiths) were very dear to the hearts of the disciples. Now the mind again questions, if memory was enough of a viable resource to be depended upon, why then was the need felt to have the Holy Quran dictated and written on paper, then recited again to remove any possibility of errors or mistakes during the process of its dictation. If any disciple of the Messenger had learnt those hadiths or sayings of the Messenger by heart, we still are not in a position to vouch for it. Until and unless those sayings were not verified, and the seal of approval cast on them by the Messenger Muhammad PBUH himself, we cannot depend on them. We also have no knowledge of the Messenger ever giving to the Muslims the Hadith in the form of a book coming down to us through the generations. We observe the Messenger MuhammadPBUH did not take any of the precautions in the case of hadith, as he did for the Holy Quran. What we have gathered from the historical resources is that we do find documents other than the Quran, that were written under the orders of Muhammad PBUH. For example, contracts, treatises and letters that he sent to other tribes / countries. What in this matter has come to our knowledge and what we have been able to gather at the time of Messenger's demise, are the following: - A register containing the list of names of 1500 holy disciples or followers of Muhammad PBUH. - The letters Muhammad PBUH wrote to various kings and rulers of that age or time. - Documents of treatise and other obligatory rules. - Hadiths from Abdullah bin Omar (R), Ali (R) and Uuns (R) who wrote them on their own. No one knows if these sayings written down were ever verified by the Messenger himself or not, and whether they have come down to us in its original version. We have no knowledge of any collected works or hadith that Messenger himself gave to the Muslims before his departure from this world. We do in fact find in the Hadith of Bukhari, that someone asked Ibn e Abbass as to what Muhammad PBUH had left behind for the Muslims. He said, 'The Messenger left behind nothing, save the Quran.' (Bukhari, Vol. III, Fuzail ul Quran.) Deeds of Disciples (1) Imam Zuhbi quotes another parable of the Messenger's wife Aisha (RA) and writes: "The wife of the Messenger mentions that her father (Abu Bakr Siddiq RA) had collected the Hadiths of the Messenger which were five hundred in number. She says, 'One night I noticed that my father was restless in his bed and was very perturbed. I asked him if he was in some bodily pain or was this condition due to any bad news that he might have heard? He did not answer my question. In the morning he asked me to bring him the collection of Hadiths and then he made a bonfire of them all." (Quoted in Tudween e Hadith, page 285-88) (2) As far as Omar bin Khattab's (RA) caliphate is concerned, Allama Ibne Abdulbur has mentioned him in his famous book Jama e Biyaan ul ilm, wherein he says: "Omar (R) wanted to compile the sayings and parables of the Messenger PBUH. He asked from the companions of Messenger Muhammad PBUH to grant him a decree, to which they faithfully conceded. Inspite of the companions consent Omar (R) was not convinced. For complete one month Omar (R) performed Istekhara. Then one morning when Allah calmed his body and mind and he was able to concentrate on the issue at hand in serenity, he talked to his people about his decision to compile the hadiths. But then he said I thought about the generations that have passed before us, who wrote books and adhered to those books so strongly that they forgot the Book of Allah. I swear upon Allah, I will not let the word of Allah be amalgamated with other words." (Quoted in Tadween e Hadith, page 394) This was decided because the Messenger had ordered every companion not to ask him to dictate anything else besides the Quran. Whosoever has written anything else besides Quran must erase it. Omar did not finish the matter here. He not only prohibited and banned the collection of ahadith, he went a step ahead and as is written in Tubqaat ibn Sa'ad: "During Hazrat Omar's caliphate the ahadith were in abundance. He made sure by putting the people under oath that whatever hadith the people had in their possession ought to be brought before him. As ordered, the public submitted whatever they possessed. He then ordered to make a public bonfire of those hadiths." (vol.5, page 141) This was the third incident of igniting the hadith collection. The first ignition took place when the Messenger commanded. The second instance was when Abu Bakr (R) did the same with his own collection and the third time Omar bin Khattab (R) took all the collections from the people under oath and publicly burnt them. All this took place in the capital city. Recapitulation 1) The Messenger ordered his companions not to ask him to dictate anything else besides the Quran. 2) Whatever Hadith collection was present among the companions, it was ordered to be burnt. 3) Hazrat Abu Bakr made a bonfire of his own collection and banned others from quoting any hadith. 4) Hazrat Omar after giving his best thought for one month, reached the conclusion to ban the compilation and collection of ahadith. 5) Hazrat Omar also asked to submit all ahadith in possession of the public who were under oath and then ignited them all. 6) He also sent a circular in all cities to destroy any evidence of hadith. This did not happen by chance .. this policy was adopted with a definite purpose in mind. More Strict Measures Day after day Hazrat Omar bin Khattab (R) became more strict on this issue of transmission of hadith. According to Qaza bin Qa'ab, " When Caliph Omar sent us to Iraq he emphatically drummed it into our heads, that Iraq was a place where sounds of Quran echo like wild bees and we must exercise extreme precaution as not to distract their minds with all kinds of ahadith." It was asked from Abu Huraira if during Hazrat Omar's caliphate he ever remembered stating the hadith in the same way as he was doing now. To that he replied, if he had done so Hazrat Omar (R) would have physically scolded him. It has also come down to us that Hazrat Omar bin Khattab (R) had imprisoned Abdullah bin Ma'sood, Abu Durda and Abu Ma'sood Ansari for illegal possession of ahadith. It is quite possible these ahadith may have been weeded out because of ambiguity, although according to the author of this book they are closer to being true than the present collection of ahadith, as they were according to the principles of Quran and also parallel to the desire of Muhammad PBUH. We however, are not interested in debating on this point. Even if we do not have the early hadiths, we still are in possession of another historical fact that cannot be denied. We observe that by the end of the caliphate period, there isn't a single copy of Hadith that was compiled and completed under the supervision of any Caliph of that period. From these historical facts it can easily be determined, if those Caliphs or the Messenger PBUH had ever considered the hadith to be a part of the Deen of Islam, they would have adopted the same measures as were taken towards the Noble Quran. Hence after the demise of the Messenger, NO steps were taken towards the collection of Hadith. Muqaam-e-Hadith (The actual status of Hadith) (http://www.tolueislam.com/Parwez/mh/mh_01.htm) Title: Re: Actual status of Hadith in comparison with the Noble Quraan Post by: Ruhi_Rose on February 11, 2008, 08:28:46 pm Though this is the first time I've seen the name of this author, he's written a very satisfying article - MaashAllah. It is usually said and believed that in those days the Arabs had stupendous memory and also those sayings (hadiths) were very dear to the hearts of the disciples. Now the mind again questions, if memory was enough of a viable resource to be depended upon, why then was the need felt to have the Holy Quran dictated and written on paper, then recited again to remove any possibility of errors or mistakes during the process of its dictation. If any disciple of the Messenger had learnt those hadiths or sayings of the Messenger by heart, we still are not in a position to vouch for it. Until and unless those sayings were not verified, and the seal of approval cast on them by the Messenger Muhammad PBUH himself, we cannot depend on them. We also have no knowledge of the Messenger ever giving to the Muslims the Hadith in the form of a book coming down to us through the generations. We observe the Messenger MuhammadPBUH did not take any of the precautions in the case of hadith, as he did for the Holy Quran. I can't but agree with this thru and thru. I've talked to so many hadithers who've said this that I've literally lost count of them. First, the author's perceptive logic brazenly exposes the contradictory claim of these hadithers. If memory of the 'sahabas' can be trusted in connection with hadith, why didn't the Prophet (pbuh) trust their memory concerning the Noble Quran? Secondly, if Arabs had great memories 1400 years ago, why has it changed now? Why do Arabs have memories just like anyone else now? 1400 years is not that long a period at all to bring about such vital natural & functional changes in the human mind or body. The capacity of the human mind doesn't alter with different historical periods. There's absolutely no spiritual nor scientific reasons for that. I haven't heard or read about this anywhere except from the hadithers in their desperate effort to cover up the inconsistencies of hadith. Acts of desperation usually make people end up doing or saying silly and contradictory things. This is a fact that's very well established, not that myth about Arabs having stupendous memories 1400 years ago. Those people who are naive enough to believe this story that Arabs had perfect memories in the 7th century should know that the Prophet (pbuh) had himself rejected any such ideas. For more info on this topic, check former posts Hadith - contradiction within itself (http://muslimvilla.smfforfree.com/topic/121.0.html) Compilation of the Glorious Quran (http://muslimvilla.smfforfree.com/topic/938.0.html) AsSalaam alaykum and peace! |