Introduction To Hadith and Sunnah. Lecture 4

Introduction to hadith and sunnah
Hadith:
Hadith refers to the sayings or narrations of the Prophet
Muhammad ‫’ﷺ‬s speech, his deeds, acts of approval &
disapproval (verbal or by way of action) about something.
Sunnah:
Literal meaning: habitual or customary practice, whether
this practice is good or bad.
Technical meaning: The ‘sunnah’ refers to the traditions
and practices of the Prophet Muhammad, which are
believed by Muslims to be a model for them to follow.
َ‫ّٓ رۡ َۡٓۡر ۡۡ رَ ۡٓأل خِ ر‬ ‫ّٓ ُ ج َۡ رٌۡ ة رَ ر‬

‫ خّۡ رََ رَاَر َر َۡ جُْۡا ل ر‬ٞ‫ََ ةر‬ ‫ۡلَر ۡۡ رَاَر ۡر جَ َۡ ِخي رَ ج‬
‫َۡ خِ ل خ‬
‫رۡ رَ رَ رَ ل ر‬
ََْ‫ّٓ رَِخ ر‬
Indeed in the Messenger of Allah (Muhammad ‫ )ﷺ‬you

have a good example to follow for him who hopes in (the
Meeting with) Allah and the Last Day and remembers
Allah much. (Surah Al-Ahzaab: Verse 21)
The sunnah are documented in the hadith, which are the

records of Muhammad’s teachings, deeds, and sayings,
as noted by his companions.Hadith plays a significant role
in Islamic jurisprudence and theology, as it provides
guidance on various aspects of life, including matters of
faith, worship, ethics, and social conduct. Hadith
collections are considered secondary sources of Islamic
law, after the Quran, and are studied and analyzed by
scholars to derive legal rulings and moral teachings.
Kinds of Hadith:
There are three basic kind of hadith.
Qawli Hadith: What Prophet said and spoke Himself.
Fai’li Hadith: The action of the Prophet what He perfomed
and demonstrated.
1
Taqreeri Hadith: Which comes from Prophet silence
regarding any action.
Division of Hadith:
Marfu;a: Hadith which sanad streches back to the
Prophet.
Moqoof: Hadith which sand reaches to the companion of
theProphet.
Maqtu’a: Hadith where student of the companion of the
Prophet tabi is the end of the sand.
Compilation of Hadith:
The Compilation of Hadith The history of compilation of
hadith can be divided into five periods. The efforts and the
endeavours of the Muslims in gathering together and
preserving hadith is one of the greatest achievements of
the Muslims. The care and honesty with which this task
was carried out by the scholars is the brightest chapter of
Muslim history. We can be justly proud of them.
The First Period:
The first period obviously begins with the Prophet (peace
and blessings be upon Him) himself. During this period he
emphasized the importance of his Sunnah. ‘Whoever
turns away from my Sunnah is not amongst us.’ (Bukhari)
Consequently, the Sahaba followed the Sunnah in
minutest detail and eagerly memorised his sayings.
Several Sahaba had written ahadith during the Prophet’s
life. Furthermore, the Prophet himself dictated many
letters and other documents. Thus the compilation of
hadith had already started.
The Second Period:
The second period extends from the Prophet’s death to
the end of the first century Hijra. The Sahaba were very
cautious about relating anything to the Prophet, since they
had heard him say, ‘Whoever lies about me, let him take
his place in the hell fire. Many Sahaba had compiled small
books of hadith. Some prominent ones are Abu Huraira,
Abdullah bin Abbas, Abdullah bin Umar, Zaid bin Saabit
and Abdullah bin Amr.
2
The Third Period:
The third period begins from the turn of the second
century Hijra and is spread over a period of fifty years.
This is a formative period of science of hadith. Due to
political and sectarian divisions, many ahadith were
fabricated. So the scholars began to exercise great care in
accepting a hadith. They developed methods of verifying
the authenticity of a hadith. A set of terminology was
devised for this purpose. Books of hadith were being
compiled in major Islamic cities; Mawatta of Imam Maalik
in Madina, Jama`e Sufiyan Sauri in Kufa etc.
The Fourth Period:
The fourth period extends from the middle of the second
to the fifth century Hijra. The Muhaddiseen 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. During this period, many voluminous books of
hadith were compiled, some of them were:
 Musannaf Abdul Razzaq 211 AH
 Musnad Abu Dawud Tialsi 204 AH
 Musnad Abu Bakr Ibn Abi Shaiba 225 AH
 Musnad Imam Ahmed Bin Hanbal (A compilation of
30,000 ahadith) 241 AH
 Musnad Abdullah Ibn Hameed 243 AH
 Musnad Haras Ibn Usama 280 AH
 Musnad Abu Bakir Bin Bazzaz 296 AH
• Six Canonical Books (Al‐Sihah al‐Sittah) The third
century Hijra is aptly known as ‘The Golden Period of
Hadith’. During this period, scored of voluminous books of
hadith were complied. However six of these books called
‘The Six Canonical Books’ or ‘Al‐Sihah Al‐Sittah’ are very
famous:
The author No. of hadith Date
Imam Muhammad Bin Ismail Al‐Bukhari 7200 256 AH
Imam Muslim Bin Hajjaaj Al‐Qushairi 7000 261 AH
3
Ahmed Bin Shoaib Al‐Nasai 5761 303 AH
Abu Dawood Sulaimaan Bin Ash`ath 4800 275 AH
Abu Eesa Muhammad Bin Eesa Tirmazi 460 274 AH
Muhammad Ibn Yazeed Ibn Maja 4341 273 AH
The Fifth Period:
This period is the completion of compilation of Hadith. The
major objective of the compilers of the six canonical books
was authenticity of the hadith, consequently they compiled
only a fraction of the ahadith they knew. For
instance, Imam Bukhari knew 600,000 ahadith but only
compiled 7200 in his Sahih. However, the later compilers
wanted to preserve all the ahadith irrespective of their
authenticity, so we have voluminous collections in this
period. The following are major works of this period:‐
 Musnad Imam Abu Yaala 307 AH
 Musnad Imam Tahawi 321 AH
 Sahih Ibn Hibaan 354 AH
 Tabraani 360 AH
 Daara‐Qutni 386 AH I
 mam Haakim 405 AH
 Imam Baihaqi 458 AH
 Ibn‐e‐Huzaima 311 AH

Introduction To Hadith and Sunnah. Lecture 4

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Introduction To Hadith and Sunnah. Lecture 4

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Introduction To Hadith and Sunnah. Lecture 4

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Introduction to hadith and sunnah

َ‫ّٓ رۡ َۡٓۡر ۡۡ رَ ۡٓأل خِ ر‬ ‫ّٓ ُ ج َۡ رٌۡ ة رَ ر‬

Indeed in the Messenger of Allah (Muhammad ‫ )ﷺ‬you

The sunnah are documented in the hadith, which are the

You might also like