Criticism by Ulama’ of Fiqh al-Hadith:
He (Muhammad Abduh) said also: Beside the criticism of the ulama’ of fiqh al-hadith against the asanid (chains of transmission) of reports and works, there was another criticism to the texts in respect of their meanings and expressions, and how viewed by reason and Islamic law (Shar’) and their contradiction with others. In this kind of criticism they were shared by men of philosophy, literature and history, and it is called in the present age the analytical criticism (al-naqd al-tahlili). Afterwards, they began to doubt and impeach many traditions, even the ones of the authentic asanid, speaking against their expositions, with some of them compiling books dedicated for this purpose, the most famous of which being: Mushkil al-athar of al-Tahawi.758
On the whole, the concern of men of jarh and ta’dil was concentrated on verifying the narrators of the traditions, in respect of goodness of memorization and precision, and non-oddity as far as possible. They were rarely charging the hadith to be confused, if the disagreement occurring in the text, but verifying the texts of narrations or their contradiction to the truth, and to the preponderant decisive religious usul and furu’ was not their profession, and practised by very few of the researchers among them. There were so many traditions, in the chain of transmitters of which only one trustworthy narrator can be found, while they be defective and weak, as the sahih one cannot be known only through its narrators but through comprehension and committing to memory.
Most of Ahadith al-Ahad Weren’t Abundant in First Age:
In the introduction to the book al-Mughni wa al-Sharh al-kabir, the following statement is cited:
“Out of proofs of the madhahib it can be deduced that most of the traditions that are used by men of hadith to argue men of opinion759 and analogy from among ulama’ of riwayah, being ahadith al-ahad that were not
758. Al-Manar Journal, vol.XXXIV, p.620. Mushkil al-athar was published in India in four big volumes. We can also find many problems in exposition of Ibn Hajar for al-Bukhari which is called Fath al-Bari.
759. Fiqh among Ahl al-Sunnah was on two systems of belief: the system of men of opinion and analogy (qiyas), who were from Iraq. And system (tariqah) of men of hadith who were from Hijaz. It is known that people of Iraq practised qiyas abundantly and skillfully, the reason for which they were called Ahl al-Ra'y. Their leader was Abu Hanifah, while the leader (imam) of people of Hijaz was Malik and after him al-Shafi'i, and Imami Shi'ah and other Muslims communities, and every community has its leader and sunnah.
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so abundant in the first stage of Islam, or nothing was reported from the Sahabah and Tabi’un contravening to their theme. Thus it became known for all that they couldn’t be counted of the universal legislation, according to which the Prophet and his Companions used to act, not among the precepts recommended by the Prophet, but were among the judicial questions the solutions of which people used to ask and get answers (verdicts). If he did not ask, he would be free to exert his opinion in its regard, and it would be better for him and people, as had it been among necessities of the Din that Allah wanted to impose upon His bondmen as duties, He would have manifested them without questioning, since Allah the Exalted knows better what benefits people more.760
The Prophet (S) was averse to asking abundant questions, forbidding from this habit so as not to be a cause to multiplying the obligations, the undertaking of which the Ummah will fail to do. Therefore the Messenger of Allah (S) said: “Let me alone as long as I leave you. Surely it was this asking abundantly and difference concerning the prophets which caused those who have gone before you to perish. When I forbid you from anything, you should refrain from (doing) it. And when I command you to do a thing you have to perform as much as you can of it.” This hadith was reported by al-Bukhari, and Muslim, but narrated by al-Daraqutin in another version. Thereat the following verse was revealed: “O ye who believe! Ask not of things which, if they were made known unto you, would trouble you...”
He (S) said also: “Allah has imposed upon you obligations, which you should not transgress, and laid down limits that you should not approach. He has prohibited things that you should not violate, and kept silent of (left) things out of mercy for you, not out of forgetfulness, so you should never inquire about them.” It is reported by al-Daraqutni and al-Nawawi in the book al-Arba’in.
On top of all this, comes the Almighty’s saying: “This day have I perfected your religion for you and completed My favour unto you, and have chosen for you as religion, al-Islam.” It would be verily glaring ignorance and
760. No one knows the reason or times or accasions of these issues, which are verily necessary factors for apprehending them.
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an offence against the Din to demolish these great foundations and principles with comparisons taken from conjectures of opinion and analogy (qiyas).
It is proven that the Prophet used to answer every questioner about any judicial issue in a way appropriate to his condition and level, and some of his fatawa were general or special permissions. For example he granted license to Aqabah ibn ‘Amir and Abu Burdah to sacrifice the jidh’ (trunk) or atud of the goat, which meant that one which used to pasture (of grass) and became strong, with completing one full year. Al-Jawhari said: The best of it is that which reached the age of one year. This hadith is unanimously concurred, while Ahl al-Sunnah, including the four imams (of the schools) prohibited sacrifice of the trunk and goats.761
Can Traditions be Counted a General Law?
Al-Sayyid Rashid Rida says: Can the traditions – which they call oral sunan – be considered a general Din and Shari’ah, though they weren’t followed sunan in practice (acts) with no dispute or controversy, particularly during the first era of Islam?
If we say yes, we will be faced with the biggest suspicion, as the Prophet (S) forbade from writing anything other than the Qur’an, and the Sahabah’s not committing the hadith to writing! Beside ignorance of their ulama’ and leaders, like the caliphs to reporting of traditions! It is reported rather, that they were disdaining from the hadith.
What is Refuting Khabar al-Wahid:
In his book al-Luma’, under the bab: “Bayan ma yuradd bihi khabar al-wahid”, al-Shirazi writes: If the khabar be related by a thiqah, it can be refuted by several things:
First: If it be contradictory to the necessities of minds, when its falsehood would be known since the shar’ can be approved by permissibilities of minds,762 not the contrary way.
761. See vol.I, pp.18, 19.
762. This issue is unanimously agreed by all farsighted men. Ibn Taymiyyah said: It is impossible for two definite evidences to contravene each other, whether they be both rational, or one of them be rational and the other be traditional (sam'i).
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Second: If it be contradictory to a text of the Book or successive (mutawatir) Sunnah, when it will be recognized to be of no origin or abrogated.
Third: If it disagrees with the unanimity (ijma’), the fact indicating its being abrogated, or baseless, as it can’t be correct and not abrogated while the Ummah is unanimously concurring on its contrary.
Fourth: If a single (wahid) narrates alone that which should be known by all people, the fact indicating its being of no root, as it is unreasonable that it has an origin but he alone be aware of it from among all people.
Fifth: If a single narrator narrates individually the tradition that is usually known to be reported by men of tawatur, as a result of which it can’t be accepted since he is unallowed to singly narrate such a tradition. If it came to be contradictory to qiyas, or the single narrator reports alone a tradition with which the calamity prevails everywhere, it would not be refuted. I have discussed the controversy regarding this elaborately in another book (Tawjih al-nazar, p. 82), so no need is there for reiteration.
In al-Mustasfa, al-Ghazali says: The second division of akhbar, the falsity of which is known, are confined in four kinds as follows:
First: That which can be known to be contrary to truth either by reason necessity, or view, or sense, or sighting, or akhbar al-tawatur. On the whole, whatever contradicted the commonly known rules through the six faculties (madarik).
Second: That which disagrees with the decisive confirmed text of the Book (Qur’an) and the mutawatir Prophetic Tradition (Sunnah), and unanimity of the Ummah, since it came to be contradicting Allah the Exalted and His Messenger and the Ummah.
Third: That khabar, the falsity of which is declared by a large number of traditionists who can never be generally collaborating on telling lies when saying: We were present with him at that time (at the meeting) and we haven’t found any root for the event he related.
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Fourth: That which the majority of narrators refrained from reporting and relating, though attending and witnessing the happenings of the episode, and despite the impossibility of refraining from citing it due to availability of motives encouraging to report it.
Al-Qarrafi is reported to have said: Five things indicate the falsity of any khabar: Its contradiction to what is necessarily known by all, or to consideration, or decisive evidence, or what was fit to be mutawatir but hasn’t come so, and the legal rules, or its contradiction to all of these things in a whole, like the miracles or that which was sought to obtain from the memories or books of the narrators after searching into the traditions, but could not be found.763
State of People during First Era and After It:
Al-Imam Abu Zayd al-Dabbusi, in his book Taqwim al-adillah, says: People of the first era (of Islam), i.e. the Sahabah and Tabi’un and Righteous (Salihun), used to base their affairs on the hujjah (proof). So they used to act according to the Book, then to the Sunnah of the Messenger,764 and after him to the utterances of those who succeeded him, particularly those which can be proved right through proof. Thus someone may act according to utterance of Umar in a certain issue, but then he may contradict it with a saying of Ali in another question. It is known about the companions of Abu Hanifah that they once agreed with him and disagreed another, in accordance with what be made clear to them through the hujjah. The legal madhhab was neither Umari nor Alawi but the ascription was in origin to the Messenger of Allah, as he was the source of ahadith, so he (S) extolled those people who used to depend on the proof not their ulama’ or own selves. But when people kept far from God-fearing during the 4th century, and lazied themselves from seeking the proofs, they turned to acknowledge their ulama’ as hujjah (authority), following and imitating them. As a result of this, some of hem became Hanafis, some Malikis, and some others Shafi’is, reinforcing the hujjah with
763. Tawjih al-nazar, p.82.
764. What is intended here by sunnah is the practical one (Prophet's acts).
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the rijal, believing the veracity to lie in being born on that madhhab. Then, every community coming after them embarked on following the guide of their leader, whomsoever, without any consideration to qualifications, the fact led to substituting the sunan with the bida’ (innovations) and making the truth lost among desires.765
Fiqh during the Prophet’s Lifetime:
Wali Allah al-Dihlawi, in his treatise ‘al-Insaf fi bayan sabab al-ikhtilaf, wrote:
During his (S) lifetime fiqh was not written down, and searching for the rules then was not like the searching made nowadays by the fuqaha’, who do their utmost to manifest the arkan (cornerstones), provisions and norms, portray the images from their own invention, embarking then on talking about these imposed images, laying down limits for what is fit for being limited, confining what can be confined, and so on.
During his lifetime, the Messenger of Allah (S) used to perform ablution and the Companions would learn from him and imitate him, without his embarking on clarifying which part being rukn and which are being recommended. Also when he was performing prayers, they would observe his way of praying and follow his example in prayers,766 and the same is said in the case of doing the rites of hajj ((pilgrimage to God’s House).767 That was his way of teaching the legal rules to the Muslims, without manifesting for instance, the obligations of wudu’ to be six or four, or supposing that some one might take ablution without muwalat (consecutive order), so as to judge his wudu’ to be valid or invalid, and they were rarely inquiring him about such matters.
Ibn Abbas is reported to have said: I have never encountered people better than the Companions of the Messenger of Allah (may God’s peace and benediction be upon him and his Progeny) ... they have not asked about anything except thirteen issues till he passed away, all of which being stated
765. Qawa'id al-tahdith, p.334.
766. The Messenger of Allah said: Perform prayers in the way you saw me pray. It is unanimously concurred.
767. Muslim and Abu Dawud and al-Nasa'i reported from Jabir that the Messenger of Allah said: Take (learn) your rituals (manasik) from me.
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in the Qur’an. Among them the following: “They question thee (O Muhammad) with regard to warfare in the sacred month,” and the verse: “They question thee (O Muhammad) concerning menstruation).” Then he (Ibn Abbas) said: They were not questioning but about things that avail them. Al-Qasim said: You are questioning with regard to things about which we never used to inquire, and searching for things that we were not seeking for ... I have never met people of easier conduct (sirah), or less strictness than the Sahabah.768
On the whole, such was his (S) noble habit, so each one of the Sahabah would take whatever he found easy to apply of his worship, verdicts (fatawa) and rules, which he learned by heart and comprehended, realizing for every one of them a certain aspect according to the evidences indicating it. Their main dependable criterion in this regard was only the inner consciousness and confidence,769 without paying attention to ways of inference, as the Arabs used to conceive the denotation of words among themselves.770
Aspects of Preponderance Contain Contradiction:
Al-Allamah al-Shaykh Jamal al-Din al-Qasimi, in his book Qawa’id al-tahdith, says:
“Whoever looks into conditions of the Companions and Followers, and their followers, will verily find them concurrent upon acting according to the preponderant rule and abandoning the preponderated. The ways of preponderation are so many, and pivot of preponderation would increase the investigator in strength of his insight, in a proper manner congruent to the legal channels, the product of which will be valid and preponderant. And preponderation can be got through the isnad, and the text, and the denotation, and an external aspect.”
Then he cited many aspects and factors of preponderation according to the isnad (chain of transmission), of which I state the following:
768. This statement of Ibn Abbas was reported by Ibn Abd al-Barr in his Jami' bayan al-'ilm was fadlih (vol.II, p.141). It is also stated by al-Suyuti in al-Itqan, by saying: They are twelve questions. But al-Razi cited them with the expression: 14 letters, eight of them in Surat al-Baqarah, in the following way (1) And when My servants question thee concerning Me; (2) They ask thee (O Muhammad) of new moons; (3) They ask thee what they shall spend, (4) They question thee with regard to warfare in the sacred month; (5) They question thee about strong drink and games of chance; (6) And they question thee concerning orphans; (7) They question thee concerning menstruation, (8) And they question thee what they aught to spend. Say: That which is superfluous. And six others in other surahs: (9) They ask thee was is made lawful for them; (10) They ask thee of the (destined) Hour; (11) They ask thee of the spoils of war; (12) They are asking thee concerning the Spirit; (13) They will ask thee of Dhu al-Qarnayn; (14) They will ask thee of the mountains... and those who ask concerning the Spirit and Dhu al-Qarnayn are the polytheists of Makkah and the Jews, as mentioned in Asbab al-nuzul, not the Sahabah. Hence the cleared ones will be 12 questions, as stated by al-Suyuti.
769. The Messenger of Allah said to Wabisah, when asked him about the birr (godliness): Consult your heart...the godliness is that in which the soul and heart have confidence, and then what is woven in the soul and what falters inside the bosom, even if people consult you and give verdict to you. This hadith is reported by Ahmad al-Darimi.
770. Al-Risalah, pp.2, 3, Hujjat Allah of the author of al-Risalah, vol.I, pp.140, 141.
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1. Preponderation by abundance of narrators: Al-Karkhi said: They are equivalent, and there may be a reliable narrator who was equal to a thousand thiqah (trustworthy) men, as said in regard of Shu’bah ibn al-Hajjaj that he was compared to two hundred men. Also the Companions used to give priority to narration of al-Siddiq over others.
2. Preponderating the narration of the faqih, since he being better knowledgeable of the denotations of words.
3. Preponderating the narration of that who being more authentic and better in memorizing.
4. One of them being one of the Four Caliphs not the other.
5. When the reliability of one of them be established through exculpation (tazkiyah), and the other by external aspect only.
6. Priority of the narration of that who was not disapproved over narration of that who was disapproved.
7. Priority of narration of that who was more known of reliability and trustworthiness than the other, as this can prevent falsity.
On the other side, the preponderation in consideration of other factors:
1. Priority should be given to what was supported by another evidence over that which was not supported.
2. Priority should be given to the narration that was applied in practice by the ancestors over that one which was not followed, as the former is more entitled to be correct.
3. If one of them be in agreement with the acts of the Four Caliphs.
4. The one that be more similar to the exterior of the Qur’an should be given priority.771
In al-Qasimi’s book Tanbih al-talib ila ma’rifat al-fard wa al-wajib,772 there are regular rules, of which I state the following:
1. It is concurred that the wujub (obligation) being one of the legal decrees (hukm). The ulama’ defined the hukm thus: It is an address (khitab) from Allah, related to acts of the mukallafun (responsible, charged with
771. Qawa'id al-tahdith, pp.301, 304.
772. Ibid., pp.13, 14, 37, 38.
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duties). And khitab is to address people with speech for making them comprehend. While the wujub is a hukm, and the hukm can’t be but from a hakim (ruler) and the ruler is Allah the Most High alone, no one else.
2. In regard of the product: Know that fairness tells us that there is no means for certainty to benefit from these verbal evidences, unless when they be yoked with contexts indicating yaqin (certainty), whether these contexts be witnessed or reported to us through tawatur. Because if they be neither witnessed nor mutawatir, they should be reported through ahad which indicating nothing but conjecture. That was a brief excerpt from Minhaj al-Baydawi.
3. Some of the Hashwiyyah inferred the hadith “Every serious matter” to indicate wujub of initiating with Basmalah in his view, when he said: Since the hadith is a predicate verbally, and composition of a meaning, as it gives the meaning of imperative, which indicates wujub; and it is said to him: the condition of the imperative (amr) indicating wujub lies in two facts:
First: Its establishment should be definite, that may be with a verse of the Book of Allah, or mutawatir tradition.
Second: Its indicating the meaning be definite, that it is improbable for the word to have another meaning. If one of the two factors of the imperative loses consideration, it will not indicate wujub. Then he became dumbfounded and amazed.
4. Only the mujtahid can issue fatwa: This was declared by Ibn al-Hammam (may God’s mercy be upon him). Ibn Yusuf and Zafar and others said: It is not lawful for anyone to issue fatwa on our utterance, unless he be aware of the source of our saying. That is because if he gives decision to obligate or prohibit anything, he should rely upon a manifest evidence, in which he has to do his utmost. Whereas the imitator is not permitted to do so since he has closed all the doors in front of him, loosening as much as he could of veil and cover. Al-Ghazali, in his book Faysal al-tafriqah, writes: It is more proper for the imitator to keep silent and to be left free (not to speak against him). That was the excerpt I quoted from this book.773
773. See pp.47, 55, 57.
