Conclusion
After finishing discussion of the Muhammadan hadith and its history, I found it proper to conclude my book with chapters containing researches related to hadith and comprehending it. And also which manner should be followed by the knowledge-seeker so as to realize the sahih of hadith, with rules and principles of Islam with which no one can dispense. Certainly these chapters are essential and complementary to the book, for which I will prelude with a pleasant statement for the eminent historian Ibn Khaldun in his discussion of philosophy of history and sociology.
In his widely-known Muqaddimah he wrote: When depending upon oral tradition in reporting the akhbar, without following the prevalent principles and rules of politics, nature of populousness, and conditions in the human society, nor analogy (qiyas) was adopted everywhere, then they would not be immune against slips and deviation from truth path. Mostly the historians, exegetes and leaders of transmission were liable to errors in tales and events due to reliance in citing them merely on oral tradition, whether be authentic or weak, without subjecting them to their foundations, nor comparing them to their identical ones, nor fathoming them with criterion of wisdom so as to be aware of the dispositions of mankind, nor investigating the akhbar, the fact caused them to wander from path of truth and go astray in the wilderness of illusion and error.734
And since falsity naturally creeps into the khabar, with necessitating causes, of which being inclinations and bigotry toward opinions and madhahib, then if the self be moderate in approving the report, it will put it to the test and investigation till distinguishing its true aspect from the false one.
734. Muqaddimat Ibn Khaldun p.9.
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But if be overwhelmed by tashayy’ (partiality) to an opinion or some creed, it will easily approve of all the reports that suit it, as this inclination and partiality would curtain the mind’s eye from scrutiny and investigation, as a result of which the self would have no alternative but to accept and report the lies.
Among the reasons prompting to falsification of akhbar we can refer to having confidence in the transmitters, the verification of which is owing to jarh and ta’dil. Of them also is diversion from the intentions, a large number of transmitters were not aware of the purpose of what they used to see and hear, reporting the hadith according to their surmise and conjecture, the fact entailing their liability to falsity. Also of the reasons is imagining the truth, which occurs mostly because of trusting the transmitters. Besides unawareness of application of the states with the incidents, because of the obscurity and affectation overwhelming them, so they would be transmitted by the reporter in the way he saw them, that is by feigning other than their truth. Another reason is the people’s seeking favouritism near the magnates and chiefs through flattery and adulation, with circulation of remembrance to the extent that the reports would convey that contrarily to reality, as the selfs being fond of hearing flattery, and people are anxious to gain the worldly lusts and means, like magnanimity and affluence, not interested mostly in virtues or competing to be of their owners. The foremost of reasons leading to falsity being unawareness of nature of conditions in populousness, as for every incident — abstract or act — there should be a certain nature belonging especially to itself in essence, and to what it encounters. If the hearer be acquainted with natures of events and conditions in the existence, and their requirements, that will verily help him rectify the khabar so as to discern truthfulness from falsity, which being the most effective way in verification from every aspect. Most often it may occur to the listeners to admit and transmit some impossible akhbar, that would be taken from them.735
735. Ibid., pp.35, 36.
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Verification of Akhbar by Recognizing
Tempers of People:
He (Ibn Khaldun) said also: The best and most authentic methods in verification of akhbar being only in recognizing the tempers of people, so as to discern the real from false ones. This method is prior to verification through ta’dil of the narrators, to which it should not be referred but only after realizing that the khabar being possible or impossible in itself. If it be impossible, then it would be futile to consider the ta’dil and tajrih (for giving judgement). Men of insight regarded impossibility of indication of the word and interpreting it with what is refused by reason, to be one of points of defamation in the khabar. Whereas ta’dil and tajrih (sarcasm) used to be the considered criterion for determining the veracity of legal reports, since most of them being originating impositions, which the legislator obligated to perform them till they were believed to be true, and the means to attain reality being having confidence in the narrators, in respect of reliability and precision.736
When talking about longevity of the world he said: During the first epoch of Islam it was depended in this regard upon the traditions reported from the Sahabah, particularly those who embraced Islam from among the Children of Israel, like Ka’b al-Ahbar and Wahb ibn Munabbih and their likes.
In his statement about exegesis of the Qur’an he wrote: The antecedents have compiled books and were engaged in this job, but their books and reported traditions contained the poor and authentic, the accepted and rejected things. That was because the Arabs were not educated or knowledgeable, but mostly bedouins and illiterate, and when desiring to know anything, among what all the human souls love much including causes of beings, initiation of creation, and secrets of existence, they would inquire people of the book who preceded them and learn from them. These people include the followers of the Torah, among the Jews and those who adopted their religion, of the Christians. And people of the Torah were that time
736. Ibid., p.37.
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bedouins like the Arabs, knowing nothing except what common people of the Book were aware of, most of whom were from Himyar, who embraced the Jewish religion. On embracing Islam, they kept on believing in things that had nothing to do with the legal rules for which they would take precautions such as reports on commencement of creation, and what is related to misfortunes of life and epics, and alike, among whom we can mention Ka’b al-Ahbar, Wahb ibn Munabbih and Abd Allah ibn Salam and their likes. The books of tafsir (exegesis) became then filled with these traditions reported by such people, since the exegetes showed leniency in this regard, filling their tafsir books with these reports brought by people of the Torah, the fact that made them acceptable among people since time immemorial.737
Research on Sciences of Hadith738
In this regard he said: The mujtahid leaders (imams) differed in opinion regarding being prolific or unprolific in this art. About Abu Hanifah, it is said that he narrated 17 traditions, and Malik approved of those traditions he recorded in his Muwatta’ which numbered about 300 ones, while Ahmad ibn Hanbal reported in his Musnad 50 thousand traditions.739 Those who narrated less among them have done so for evading the attacks that they faced on this way, and the defects they encountered, particularly the sarcasm that was launched by the majority of people. So this led them to abandon adopting the traditions and ways of isnad that causing them to face such campaigns, which when increasing would lead to diminish their narrations due to weakness in ways of transmission. The narrations of al-Imam Ahmad were only decreased when he became strict in the provisions of (accepting) the riwayah, tolerance, and weakness in the narration of the positive hadith when it be opposed by the psychological reaction,740 as a result of which he started to diminish his narrations. That should not be seen as if he had forsaken reporting of hadith deliberately, but due to the reasons cited before, while
737. Ibid., p.439.
738. Ibid., pp.444, 445.
739. Refer to my previous commentary on the Muwalta' and Musnad Ahmad.
740. That means to submit the matter to the psychological, environmental and social temperament.
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others showed more leniency in the provisions, as a consequence of which their traditions were so numerous, since everyone had his own opinion.
He further said:741 Not all the companions were competent to issue fatawa (verdicts), nor the teachings of religion were taken from them all, but these characteristics were appertaining only to the holders of the Qur’an, who being aware of its abrogating (nasikh) and abrogated (mansukh), mutashabih (allegorical) and muhkam (clear, decisive), and all other indications, in the way they learnt it from the Prophet or from those who heard it from him, who were called al-qurra’ (reciters), i.e. who used to recite the Book since the Arabs were illiterate at that time.
The Greatest Calamity Inflicted Islam:
Al-Ustadh Muhammad Abduh said: Islam was never inflicted with a calamity greater than the bida’ (heresies) ascribed to it by those pretending to be Muslims, and the fabrications invented by the Ghulat, which corrupted the minds of Muslims and made others mistrust the foundations of religion. Consequently falsification spread tremendously against the Muhammadan religion in its early centuries, continuing till the era of the Companions, and rather falsity was practised against the Prophet (S) during his lifetime. But the misfortune of falsification exacerbated and prevailed everywhere during the rule of the Umayyads, where the narrators increased in number and the truthful decreased, with many of the honourable Sahabah refraining from reporting the hadith, except from those whom they trusted to be truthful, for fear from the perversion that inflicted the narrations. In the introduction to his Sahih, Muslim said: “I have never seen the righteous people telling lies in anything more then in the hadith742 and then evil of slandering spread, with fabrication and invention exacerbating and extending with passage of time.” Whoever going through the introduction of al-Imam Muslim, would verily realize how intense toil and fatigue he experienced in compiling his Sahih, and how much falsified traditions were foisted by fabricators into religion with
741. Op. cit., p.446. For this reason Abu Hanifah never approved or adopted whatever verdicts reported by Abu Hurayrah and Anas ibn Malik and Samurah ibn Jundab, for several reasons, among which their not being among men of verdict (casutsts). Refer to my book Shaykh al-mudirah.
742. Muslim reported this statement in the introduction to his Sahih, from Yahya ibn Sa'id al-Qattan, with these words, and with the word al-salihin (the righteous) instead of ahl-al-khayr (benevolent).
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which it had nothing to do. And men of insight in history were fully aware of the fact that Islam has overshadowed sights of the world with brightness of might, rising above heads of nations with power of authority, inundating among people like rushing streams, with some of them covetting certain desires in it, and some imagining in it dreads, with manifest signs established for men of insight. Hence, those embracing this Din were of several divisions: Some people believed in it submissively to the need for it and for obtaining its light, and those were the truthful. Some others were of different cults who arrogated its title and began to be branded with its mark, either out of desire in its spoils, or out of fear from assaults of its followers, or priding themselves in belonging to it. So they covered themselves with it but couldn’t be conscious of its real slogan, covering their superficial conditions under the disguise of Islam, without sensing it by their hearts, following their religions inwardly while resembling the Muslims with their apparent aspects. Allah the Exalted said in regard of their equals: “The wandering Arabs say: We believe. Say (unto them, O Muhammad): Ye believe not, but rather say: “We submit,” for the faith hath not yet entered into your hearts.” Among these people there was someone exaggerating in riya’ (dissimulation) to the extent that people would start to count him among the pious. On seeing some people trusting and believing in his utterances, he would begin to relate them traditions from his old creed, ascribing them to the Prophet (S) or some of his Companions, as a result of which all the Jewish traditions (Israeliyyat) and whatever was contained in the expositions of the Torah were recorded in the Islamic books as being Prophetic traditions.743 And some of them have deliberately fabricated traditions which if their meanings be firmly rooted in the minds, they would deteriorate the morals and impel to neglect and think little of legal and religious duties, slackening people’s resolutes from supporting the truth. Of them those traditions indicating the end of life of Islam — we seek protection by God — or enticing greediness to God’s forgiveness with deviating from His shar’ (legislation), or those impelling full submission to the fate (qadar) through letting alone the reason indulged in what improving
743. Refer to the chapter of Isra'iliyyat in this book.
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the Din and the world. All these traditions were fabricated by the fabricators on purpose with the aim of corrupting the Muslims and diverting them from the original rules of their religion, so as to disturb the order of their life and weaken their might.
Among the liars there were some believing that increasing in the akhbar and narrating abundant sayings would elevate the position of religion, so they babbled whatever they willed, seeking by this reward and thawab, while they would not gain but heavy burden and punishment. It is them in regard of whom Muslim in his Sahih said: I have not seen the righteous telling lies more than in the hadith.744 He means by ‘the righteous’ those who used to prolong their sibal (beard), widen their trousers, bow down their heads, keep low their voices, frequent regularly to the mosques with their ghosts, while being the farthest among people from them with their spirits, move with remembrance their lips and follow them with moving their rosaries. But in fact they were as described by Amir al-Mu’minin Ali ibn Abi Talib who said in their regard: They made the Din one of the locks of insight and blockages of intellect. They are self-deceited and deluded, doing evil but thinking to do good. They imagine oppression to be justice, and treachery to be a virtue, so they believe that ascribing what they surmise to the Prophet’s Companions will increase in their honour and make others hold them in higher esteem, so as to be fit for what is said in their regard: “A wise enemy is much better than an ignorant lover,745 (with some abbreviation).
When broaching to `ilm al-hadith in the bill he laid down for reforming the education, and what method should be followed, he (Muhammad Abduh) said: “Art of hadith is considered acceptable when it is viewed as interpreting the Qur’an and exposer for it, with deleting from it whatever contradicting the Quranic text, like the unauthentic traditions and exertion of opinion (ijtihad), so as to restore the correct traditions to it, if their outward appearance deludes of being contradictory (to the Qur’an).746
In an address to one of brothers (in Din), counselling him to keep on reading the Qur’an and the Prophetic sirah (conduct), he said: “Keep on
744. Refer to the chapter "The Good Fabricators" in this book.
745. Ta'rikh al-isnad of al-Imam Muhammad Abduh, vol.II, pp.347-349.
746. Ibid., p.516.
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reading the Qur’an and learn its imperatives, the forbidden things, counsels and lessons, as it used to be recited for the believers and disbelievers in the time of (coming of) revelation. Beware of going over the books of tafsir but only for understanding the meaning of some word that you could not realize what the Arabs intended by it, or connection between a word and another the conjunction of which was unknown for you. Then betake yourself to what the Qur’an designated for you, bear down upon what it assaults, and attach to this study of the Prophetic conduct, admitting the reasonable correct matters, keeping your eyes away from the weak and rejected things.747
In interpreting the Qur’an and comprehending the religion, he said: In this regard that which should be followed is only the decisive proof, since this issue comes under bab al-aqa’id (doctrines), and it is dependable upon certainty that can’t be taken through conjecture and imagination.748
Believing in Message of Muhammad (S):749
Al-Ustadh Muhammad Abduh says:
It should be believed in what he (S) reported and had faith in whatever he brought, with which I mean what is expressed clearly in the holy Book, and what was successively narrated (mutawatir) through an authentic chain of transmitters that having all the necessary conditions. That is the khabar that is reported by a group of people against whom charge of collaboration on falsity can never be levelled by anyone, as is usual in the case of sensible matters, such as the conditions after death like resurrection (ba’th) and bliss in the paradise, or torment in the hell, reckoning for the merits (hasanat) and guilts, beside other known alike issues. But when it is related to belief and faith, we should depend only upon what is plain in the khabar, and it is impermissible to annex the conjectural to the decisive. The provision for soundness of belief lies in its devoidness of anything spoiling the probity and highness of the Deity above being resembled to the creatures.
747. Ibid., p.559.
748. Ibid., p.643.
749. Risalat al-Tawhid, pp.200-202.
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But in case of akhbar al-ahad, believing in whatever is cited in them is obligatory upon whoever heard them and trusted the veracity of their narration. Whereas that who has not received the khabar, or it reached him with a suspicion seeming to him in its veracity, while it being not mutawatir, entailing that non-believing it would not slander his faith. The basis to be followed in all that being: Whoever denies anything 750 while knowing that it was disclosed or acknowledged by the Prophet (S), he has in fact confuted the truthfulness of the message and negated it. The same is true in regard of that who neglected the successively narrated (mutawatir) knowledge, though being aware of its being necessarily of the religion and found in the Book, and little of the Sunnah is got from the acts.751
Can Anyone Authenticated by Earliers be Deemed Thiqah?
One of al-Azhar shaykhs was displeased with the behaviour of al-Sayyid Rashid Rida, when he criticized Ka’b al-Ahbar and Wahb ibn Munabbih, and declared distrust in their narrations. This was responded with a long, interesting and dumbfounding reply, of which I quote the following:
“If we admit that whoever is authenticated by the antecedent Jumhur to be thiqah — even if the opposite proved true by evidence — we will open the door wide for defamation against ourselves due to abandoning the proof, adopting its preludes through imitation, and contradicting the guidance of the holy Qur’an.”
And after stating the fact that criticizing the narrators of hadith was a subject of debate among men of jarh and ta’dil, he said: In regard of verification of the texts of narrations and their consistency or inconsistency with truth, matter of fact, the decisive or preponderant usul (foundations) or furu’ (branches) of the Din or other than this, being not of their (men of hadith) profession, and it was rarely practised by the researchers among them. And if any of them — like al-Imam Ahmad or al-Bukhari —practised it, he would not fulfill it as is due, as was stated by al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar when
750. That is of the rules of religion which being the subject of the message and propagation from God the Most High.
751. Most of the successive (mutawatir) sunan being the practical ones like the description of the salat and hajj. While the oral mutawatir traditions, it is said that they didn't amount to the maximum plural of paucity (commentary of al-Sayyid Rashid Rida).
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talking about the contradiction among the correct narrations for him and others. Besides, it was inaccessible for men of hadith to recognize congruity or contradiction of some traditions to the truth, like the outward of hadith of Abu Dharr in view of al-Bukhari and Muslim and others:752 Where will be the sun after it sets? As what was thought by the predecessors being that the sun sets away from the earth as a whole, with its light being stopped from shining over it during the night! resting under the Throne waiting for permission to rise again!! But it has become decisively known for hundreds of millions of people that the sun never sets from the earth during the night, but it sets from some countries and rises over others. So when it be day here, it will be night in the other hemisphere and vice versa, as is understood from the holy verse: “He maketh night to succeed day, and He maketh day to succeed night”. And also the verse: He covereth the night with the day, which is in haste to follow it.
So we — after coming to know for certain this established fact and decision in its regard — will have to choose one of the two alternatives left before us: Either impeaching the chain of transmission (sanad) of the hadith, even if it be rectified, as narrating what contradicting the decisively confirmed (hadith) was one of indications of fabrication in the eyes of the narrators themselves. And the least cause impelling to doubt veracity of the hadith whose narrators were known of truthfulness and precision, lies in the fact that the Companion or Follower heard it from Ka’b al-Ahbar or his likes. And it is known for all that Abu Hurayrah used to report from Ka’b al-Ahbar abundantly and trust him, the reason why we see many of his traditions appearing mu’an’anah, that he couldn’t declare to have heard them from the Prophet (may God’s peace and benediction be upon him and his Progeny). The indisputable fact being that he hasn’t heard so many of them directly from the mouth of the Prophet (S) due to embracing Islam so lately, and he most likely heard them from Ka’b al-Ahbar. And the Companion’s mursal tradition (one reported with no chain of transmitters) would be hujjah when
752. This hadith was reported by al-Bukhari, Muslim, authors of Sunan and Musnads, beside exegetes and al-Bayhaqi with similar words.
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being heard from another Compaion,753 the fact that can be said in regard of Ibn Abbas and others who used to report from Ka’b al-Ahbar and trust him.
Interpreting the hadith narrated on basis of meaning and which some of its narrators couldn’t comprehend what is intended by it, led them to express what they could conceive of it, as in the case of not comprehending of the narrator of this hadith – which I referred to as an example – what is denoted by the Prophet’s saying: “The sun will be prostrating under the Throne ... etc.”, about which he said what indicated that it sets of the earth as a whole. Till he said: The hadith was interpreted by the exposers of the two Sahihs in a way agreeing with the opinion of the precedent astronomers, whose ta’wil came to be feigned, that would be refuted by the outward aspect of the hadith, especially the prolonged narration by Muslim.
Like that is the relation of some of the narrators for Ka’b and Wahb from the books of the Children of Israel. Yahya ibn Mu’in, Ahmad, Abu Hatam and his son and their likes,754 were unable to discern which ones were correct and which ones were incorrect among these traditions due to their not being acquainted with those books, and non-availability of an evidence proving the falsity of the narrators well-versed in fabricating narrations which they ascribed to these books. If it appeared for those succeeding them during that age or before it or after it, what was not discovered by them in regard of non-truthfulness of two or more of these narrators, can he then argue pertinaciously or deny the truth and believe them falsely and hypocritically? Or can he hide the truth from the Muslims so as not to be disagreeing with those who were before him, in respect of whatever became known for him but not for them! Hence the critic,755 altruist over the Sunnah, couldn’t realize that the atheists, whose impeachment in the Sunnah with the ta’dil of Ka’b and Wahb, used to mistrust the Muslims in respect of the usul and definite issues, and even the Qur’anic texts! I reiterate and emphasize that exposure of falsity of Ka’b and Wahb for us would never entail loosing any of the usul or furu’ of our religion, as what is dependable in the Din being the Qur’an and the Prophet’s successive (mutawatir) sunan, the practical ones (his acts), like
753. This when the Riwayah was cited so, but it came to be otherwise, as the Companion would never refer to the name of the narrator from whom he heard the hadith, the case in which the argumenting authority vanishes.
754. He was one among leaders of hadith and ulama' of jarh and ta'dil.
755. The name of that critic who used to doubt the authenticity of Ka'b and other was al-Shaykh Abd al-Rahman al-Jamjamuni.
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way of performing prayers and other rituals, beside the oral traditions which were adopted by the antecedent Jumhur. All other than these sunan and traditions, such as ahadith al-ahad which being not decisively proved and confirmed, are liable to exertion of opinion (ijtihad). And it is known that some of the leading mujtahids have not approved of many sahih traditions, even those reported by the two Shaykhs (al-Bukhari and Muslim), the practice that is still followed by millions of people, for which other Muslims can never consider them as perverts. Al-Muhaqqiq Ibn al-Qayyim has cited more than a hundred excerpts of these sahih traditions that were opposed by the Hanafis and others, who constitute the majority of Muslims of present time.
So what value would be for the narrations of this Israeli man (Ka’b al-Ahbar) and this Persian (Wahb ibn Munabbih), the most of which are only Jewish superstitions, that distorted the books of exegesis (tafsir) of the Book of Allah and other books, and raised doubts against Islam that were misused by its atheist enemies to charge it with being religion of superstitions and suspicions. And other than the superstitions may contain bigger doubts, like the one stated by Ka’b about the description of the Prophet in the Torah,756 which was confirmed to be reported from him by the critic.
He continued by saying: The sarcasm we raise against them both (Ka’b and Wahb) was only for some defect that was unknown for earlier men of jarh and ta’dil, which being a reasonable and acceptable cause. And the narrations that were known to be authentic and correct are sufficient to prove their falsity.
After all that I would say: If through what I stated I could prove the falsity of these two men, out of what they mentioned, there will be no room for doubting that they used to cheat the Muslims, foisting into their religious books and narrations things entailing slander against their Din. Consequently no one would wonder to see them affiliating themselves with Jewish and Magian societies, which used to conspire against Islam and Arabs.757
756. See p.151 and the following pages.
757. Al-Manar Journal, vol.XXVII, pp.614-619.
