Hadith
Hadith is the Arabic word for a 'report' or an 'account ' and refers to the Islamic oral tradition of anecdotes containing the purported words, actions, and the silent approvals of the Islamic prophet Muhammad or his immediate circle.
After being compiled in the 10th and 11th centuries, the Hadiths began to be imposed by socio-political and spiritual authorities as the original words of Muhammad from the 14th century onward. For many Muslim sects, hadith was a reliable source for religious and moral guidance known as sunnah, which ranks second to that of the Quran in authority, widely respected in mainstream Islamic thought, so that the majority of Sharia rules derived from hadith rather than the Quran. However, in the early Islamic society the use of hadith as it is understood today came gradually. Sunnah originally meant a tradition that did not contain the definition of good and bad. Later, "good traditions" began to be referred to as sunnah and the concept of "Muhammad's sunnah" was established. Muhammad's sunnah gave way to the "hadiths of Muhammad" which were being transmitted orally, then recorded in the corpuses that continued to be collected, classified and purified according to various criteria in the following centuries. Scholars have categorized hadith based on their reliability, sorting them into classifications such as sahih, hasan, and da'if. This classification is subjective to the person doing this study and differences in classification have led to variations in practices among the different Islamic schools and branches. The study of hadith is a central discipline in Islam, known as the hadith sciences, and is also examined in the contemporary historiographical field of hadith studies.
Statements attributed to Muhammad and used in various conversations in the period after his death, which circulated orally for several centuries, began to be compiled by Islamic scholars known as muhaddiths in the 7th-10th centuries. Each hadith is associated with a chain of narrators, a lineage of people who reportedly heard and repeated the hadith from which the source of the hadith can be traced. The authentication of hadith became a significant discipline, focusing on the isnad and matn. This process aimed to address contradictions and questionable statements within certain narrations. Due to the gap in oral information between the recorded dates of Muhammad's life and the dates when these written accounts began to appear in sources, the reliability of this information is highly debated in academic circles. A minority of Muslims criticise the hadith and reject them, including Quranists, who assert that Islamic guidance should rely solely on the Quran. They argue that many hadith are fabrications from the 8th and 9th centuries, falsely attributed to Muhammad. Historically, some sects of the Kharijites also rejected the hadiths, while Mu'tazilites rejected the hadiths as the basis for Islamic law, while at the same time accepting the Sunnah and Ijma.
Western scholars participating in the field of hadith studies are generally skeptical of the value of hadith for understanding the true historical Muhammad. Reasons for skepticism include the late compilation of hadith, difficulties in verifying chains of transmission, the prevalence of hadith fabrication, and doubts about the traditional methods of hadith authentication. This skepticism extends even to hadith classified as sahih by Muslim scholars, as such narrations may still reflect later historical or theological concerns rather than the authentic teachings of Muhammad.
Etymology
In Arabic, the noun means 'report', 'account', or 'narrative'. Its Arabic plural is . Hadith also refers to the speech of a person.Definition / Evolution of the concept
In Islamic terminology, according to Juan Campo, the term hadith refers to reports of statements or actions of Muhammad, or of his tacit approval or criticism of something said or done in his presence. Classical hadith specialist Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani says that the intended meaning of hadith in religious tradition is something attributed to Muhammad, but that is not found in the Quran.In contrast, according to the Shia Islam Ahlul Bayt Digital Library Project, "when there is no clear Qur'anic statement, nor is there a Hadith upon which Muslim schools have agreed.... Shi'a... refer to Ahlul-Bayt to derive the Sunnah of the Prophet, implying that while hadith is limited to the "Traditions" of Muhammad, the Shi'a Sunna draws on the sayings, etc. of the, i.e. the Imams of Shi'a Islam.
Hadith may be hadith qudsi —which some Muslims regard as the words of God—or hadith sharif, which are Muhammad's own utterances. According to as-Sayyid ash-Sharif al-Jurjani, the hadith qudsi differ from the Quran in that the former are "expressed in Muhammad's words", whereas the latter are the "direct words of God". A hadith qudsi need not be a sahih, but may be da'if or even mawdu.
An example of a hadith qudsi is the hadith of Abu Hurairah who said that Muhammad said:
When God decreed the Creation He pledged Himself by writing in His book which is laid down with Him: My mercy prevails over My wrath.
Non-prophetic hadith'; Scholar Patricia Crone includes reports by others than Muhammad in her definition of hadith: "short reports recording what an early figure, such as a companion of the prophet or Muhammad himself, said or did on a particular occasion, preceded by a chain of transmitters". However, she adds that "nowadays, hadith almost always means hadith from Muhammad himself." Joseph Schacht quotes a hadith of Muhammad that is used "to justify reference" in Islamic law to the companions of Muhammad as religious authorities—"My companions are like lodestars."
According to Schacht, in the first generations after the death of Muhammad, use of hadith from and "was the rule", while use of hadith of Muhammad himself by Muslims was "the exception". Schacht credits Al-Shafi'i—founder of the Shafi'i school of —with establishing the principle of the using the hadith of Muhammad for Islamic law, and emphasizing the inferiority of hadith of anyone else, saying hadiths:
"... from other persons are of no account in the face of a tradition from the Prophet, whether they confirm or contradict it; if the other persons had been aware of the tradition from the Prophet, they would have followed it".This led to "the almost complete neglect" of traditions from the Companions and others.
Collections of hadith sometimes mix those of Muhammad with the reports of others. Muwatta Imam Malik is usually described as "the earliest written collection of hadith" but sayings of Muhammad are "blended with the sayings of the companions",.
In Introduction to Hadith by Abd al-Hadi al-Fadli, is referred to as "the first hadith book of the to be written on the authority of the Prophet". Hadiths were classified as follows according to the last person to whom they were attributed in the chain of narration; the acts, statements or approvals of Muhammad are called, while those of companions are called , and those of Tabi'un are called .
Relationship with ''sunnah''
The word is also used in reference to a normative custom of Muhammad or the early Muslim community. Joseph Schacht describes hadith as providing "the documentation" of the. Some sources limit hadith to verbal reports, with the deeds of Muhammad and reports about his companions being part of the, but not hadith.Another source distinguishes between the two saying:
Whereas the 'Hadith' is an oral communication that is allegedly derived from the Prophet or his teachings, the 'Sunna' signifies the prevailing customs of a particular community or people.... A 'Sunna' is a practice which has been passed on by a community from generation to generation en masse, whereas the hadith are reports collected by later compilers often centuries removed from the source.... A practice which is contained within the Hadith may well be regarded as Sunna, but it is not necessary that a Sunna would have a supporting hadith sanctioning it.
Sunnah originally meant a tradition that did not mean good or bad. Later, "good traditions" began to be referred to as sunnah in Islamic community and the concept of "Muhammad's sunnah" was established. Muhammad's sunnah gave way to the "hadiths of Muhammad" which were transmitted orally, then recorded in corpuses and systematized and purified within following centuries. Hadiths were later placed in a respected place among the sources of sharia in many Islamic sects, and thus replaced the sunnah in the establishment of sharia.
Similar literature
Islamic literary classifications similar to hadith are and. They differ from hadith in that they are organized "relatively chronologically" rather than by subject.- , biographies of Muhammad, written since the middle of the eighth century. Similar writings called preceded the literature, focusing on military actions of Muhammad, but also included non-military aspects of his life. Therefore, there is overlap in the meaning of the terms, although suggests military aspects rather than general biographical ones.
- may be used as a synonym for hadith, but some scholars use it to refer to traditions about Muhammad's companions and their successors from the following generation, in contrast to hadith as defined as traditions about Muhammad himself. Another definition describes them as "discrete anecdotes or reports" from early Islam that "include simple statements, utterances of authoritative scholars, saints, or statesmen, reports of events, and stories about historical events all varying in length from one line to several pages."
- Conversely, usually refers to traditions about the companions and successors, though sometimes connotes traditions about Muhammad.