Editing Hadith (section)

==History, tradition and usage==
===History===
According to British historian of Arab world Alfred Guillaume, it is "certain" that "several small collections" of hadith were "assembled in Umayyad times."<ref name=Guillaume-1954-89>{{cite book|last1=Guillaume|first1=Alfred|title=Islam|date=1954|publisher=Penguin|page=89|edition=2nd (Revised)}} {{ISBN|0140135553}}</ref> There are conflicting reports as to whether recording hadiths from the pre-Umayyad period was recommended<ref>^ Tirmidhi, "‘Ilm," 12.</ref><ref>^ Collected in the Musnad of Ahmad (10\15-6\ 6510 and also nos. 6930, 7017 and 1720), Sunan Abu Dawud (Mukhtasar Sunan Abi Dawud (5\246\3499) and elsewhere.</ref> or prohibited, and there is no extant collection of hadiths from this period.<ref>Roman, provincial and Islamic law, Patricia Crone, p2</ref> (see:[[Ban on Hadith]])

In Islamic law, the use of hadith as it is understood today (hadith of Muhammad with documentation, isnads, etc.) came gradually. According to scholars such as [[Joseph Schacht]], [[Ignaz Goldziher]], and Daniel W. Brown, early schools of Islamic jurisprudence<ref name=DWBRTMIT1996:11>[[#DWBRTMIT1996|Brown, ''Rethinking tradition in modern Islamic thought'', 1996]]: p.11</ref>  used the rulings of the [[Sahabah|Prophet's Companions]], the rulings of the [[Caliph]]s, and practices that "had gained general acceptance among the jurists of that school". On his deathbed,  Caliph [[Umar]] instructed Muslims to seek guidance from the Quran, the early Muslims (''[[muhajirun]]'') who emigrated to Medina with Muhammad, the Medina residents who welcomed and supported the ''[[muhajirun]]'' (the ''[[Ansar (Islam)|ansar]]'') and the people of the desert.<ref>Ibn Sa’d, ''Tabaqat'', III/1, 243. Cf G.H.A. Juynboll, ''Muslim Traditions: Studies in Chronology, Provenance and Authorship of Early Hadith'' (Cambridge, 1983; Juynboll, G.H.A., "Some New Ideas on the Development of Sunna as a Technical Term in Early Islam", ‘’Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam’’ 10 (1987): p.108, cited in {{cite book|last1=Brown |first1=Daniel W.|title=Rethinking tradition in modern Islamic thought |date=1996 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0521570770 |url=https://www.scribd.com/document/116836545/Rethinking-Traditions-in-Modern-Islamic-Thought-Daniel-w-Brown |access-date=10 May 2018 |page=10 }}</ref>

It was Abū ʿAbdullāh Muhammad ibn Idrīs al-Shāfiʿī (150-204 AH), known as [[al-Shafi'i]],<ref>Joseph Schacht, ''The Origins of Muhammadan Jurisprudence'' (Oxford, 1950, repre. 1964) esp. 6-20 and 133-137): Ignaz Goldziher, ''The Zahiris: Their Doctrine and their History'', trans and ed. Wolfgang Behn (Leiden, 1971), 20 ff...)]</ref><ref name=DWBRTMIT1996:7/> who emphasized the final authority of a hadith of [[Muhammad]], so that even the Quran was "to be interpreted in the light of traditions (i.e. hadith), and not vice versa."<ref>J. SCHACHT, ''An Introduction to Islamic Law'' (1964),  supra note 5, at 47</ref><ref name="Forte-1978-13">{{cite journal|last1=Forte|first1=David F.|title=Islamic Law; the impact of Joseph Schacht |journal=Loyola Los Angeles International and Comparative Law Review |date=1978|volume=1|page=13 |url=http://www.soerenkern.com/pdfs/islam/IslamicLawTheImpactofJosephSchacht.pdf |access-date=19 April 2018}}</ref>  While traditionally the Qur'an has traditionally been considered superior in authority to the sunna, Al-Shafi'i "forcefully argued"  that the sunna was "on equal footing with the Quran", (according to scholar Daniel Brown) for (as Al-Shafi'i put it) "the command of the Prophet is the command of God."<ref>al-Shafii ‘’Kitab al-Risala’’, ed. Muhammad Shakir (Cairo, 1940), 84</ref><ref name=DWBRTMIT1996:8>[[#DWBRTMIT1996|Brown, ''Rethinking tradition in modern Islamic thought'', 1996]]: p.8</ref> According to the scholars Harald Motzki and Daniel W. Brown the earliest Islamic legal reasonings that have come down to us were "virtually hadith-free", but gradually, over the course of second century [[Hijri year|A.H.]] "the infiltration and incorporation of Prophetic hadiths into Islamic jurisprudence" took place.<ref>{{cite journal | first = Harald | last = Motzki | title = The Musannaf of Abd al-Razzaq al-San'ani as a Source of Authentic Ahadith of the First Century A.H. | journal = Journal of Near Eastern Studies | volume = 50 | year = 1991 | page = 21| doi = 10.1086/373461 | s2cid = 162187154 }}</ref><ref name=DWBRTMIT1996:12>[[#DWBRTMIT1996|Brown, ''Rethinking tradition in modern Islamic thought'', 1996]]: p.12</ref>

In 851 the rationalist [[Mu`tazila]] school of thought fell out of favor in the [[Abbasid Caliphate]].{{citation needed|date=January 2016}} The Mu`tazila, for whom the "judge of truth ... was human reason,"<ref name=Martin>{{cite book|last1=Martin|first1=Matthew|title=Mu'tazila - use of reason in Islamic theology|date=2013|publisher=Amazon|url=http://www.mutazila.net/|access-date=8 September 2015}}</ref> had clashed with traditionists who looked to the literal meaning of the Quran and hadith for truth. While the Quran had been officially compiled and approved, hadiths had not.
One result was the number of hadiths began "multiplying in suspiciously direct correlation to their utility" to the quoter of the hadith  ([[Hadith studies#Muhaddith as school of thought|Traditionists]] quoted hadith warning against listening to human opinion instead of Sharia; [[Hanafite]]s quoted a hadith stating that "In my community there will rise a man called Abu Hanifa [the Hanafite founder] who will be its guiding light". In fact one agreed upon hadith warned that, "There will be forgers, liars who will bring you hadiths which neither you nor your forefathers have heard, Beware of them."<ref name=Goldziher-1967-127>{{cite book|last1=Goldziher|first1=Ignác|title=Muslim Studies, Vol. 1|date=1967|publisher=SUNY Press|page=127}} {{ISBN|0873952340}}</ref> In addition the number of hadith grew enormously. While [[Malik ibn Anas]] had attributed just 1720 statements or deeds to the Muhammad, it was no longer unusual to find people who had collected a hundred times that number of hadith.{{citation needed|date=January 2016}}

{{multiple image
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| footer            = PERF No. 665: The earliest extant manuscript of The Sirah Of Prophet Muḥammad by [[Ibn Hisham]]. This manuscript is believed to be transmitted by students of Ibn Hishām (d. 218 AH /834 CE), perhaps soon after his death.<ref>{{Cite web |title=PERF No. 665: The Earliest Extant Manuscript Of The Sirah Of Prophet Muhammad By Ibn Hisham |url=https://www.islamic-awareness.org/hadith/perf665 |access-date=2022-06-27 |website=www.islamic-awareness.org}}</ref><ref>N. Abbott, Studies In Arabic Literary Papyri: Historical Texts, 1957, Volume I, University of Chicago Press: Chicago (USA), p. 61.</ref>
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Faced with a huge corpus of miscellaneous traditions supporting different views on a wide variety of controversial matters—some of them flatly contradicting each other—Islamic scholars of the Abbasid period sought to authenticate hadith.  Scholars had to decide which hadith were to be trusted as authentic and which had been fabricated for political or theological purposes. To do this, they used a number of techniques which Muslims now call the [[hadith sciences|science of hadith]].<ref>Islam – the Straight Path, John Eposito, p.81</ref>

The earliest surviving hadith manuscripts were copied on papyrus. A long scroll collects traditions transmitted by the scholar and qadi 'Abd Allāh ibn Lahīʻa (d. 790).<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Khoury |first1=Raif Georges |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uFdPklB61kIC |title='Abd Allah ibn Lahi'a (97-174/715-790) |last2=Lahiah |first2=Abd Allah Ibn |last3=Lahīʻah |first3=ʻAbd Allāh Ibn |date=1986 |publisher=Otto Harrassowitz Verlag |isbn=978-3-447-02578-2 |language=fr}}</ref> A ''Ḥadīth Dāwūd'' (''History of David''), attributed to [[Wahb ibn Munabbih]], survives in a manuscript dated 844.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Munabbih |first1=Wahb ibn |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kmiRyAEACAAJ |title=Wahb b. Munabbih |last2=Khoury |first2=Raif Georges |date=1972 |publisher=Otto Harrassowitz Verlag |isbn=978-3-447-01469-4 |language=de}}</ref> A collection of hadiths dedicated to invocations to God, attributed to a certain Khālid ibn Yazīd, is dated 880–881.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Tillier |first=Mathieu |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1343008841 |title=Supplier Dieu dans l'Égypte toulounide : Le florilège de l'invocation d'après Ḫālid b. Yazīd (IIIe/IXe siècle) |others=Naïm Vanthieghem |year=2022 |isbn=978-90-04-52180-3 |location=Leiden |oclc=1343008841}}</ref> A consistent fragment of the ''Jāmiʿ'' of the Egyptian Maliki jurist 'Abd Allāh ibn Wahb (d. 813) is finally dated to 889.<ref>{{Cite book |last=David-Weill |first=Jean |title=Le Djâmiʻ dʹIbn Wahb |publisher=Institut français d'archéologie orientale |year=1939–1948 |location=Cairo}}</ref>

===Shia and Sunni textual traditions===
{{Islam |texts}}
Sunni and Shia hadith collections differ because scholars from the two traditions differ as to the reliability of the narrators and transmitters. Narrators who sided with [[Abu Bakr]] and [[Umar]] rather than [[Ali]], in the disputes over leadership that followed the death of Muhammad, are considered unreliable by the Shia; narrations attributed to [[Ali]] and the family of Muhammad, and to their supporters, are preferred. Sunni scholars put trust in narrators such as [[Aisha]], whom Shia reject. Differences in hadith collections have contributed to differences in worship practices and shari'a law and have hardened the dividing line between the two traditions.

====Extent and nature in the Sunni tradition====
In the Sunni tradition, the number of such texts is somewhere between seven and thirteen thousand,{{#tag:ref|See the references and discussion by Abdul Fattah Abu Ghuddah ''Thalathatu rasa'il fi ulum al-hadith; risalat abi dawud ila ahl makkata fi wasf sunanihi'', pg 36, footnote. Beirut: ''Maktaba al-Matbu'at al-Islamiyah'': 2nd ed 1426/2005.|group=Note}} but the number of ''hadiths'' is far greater because several ''isnad'' sharing the same text are each counted as individual hadith. If,  say, ten companions record a text reporting a single incident in the life of Muhammad, hadith scholars can count this as ten hadiths. Thus, Musnad Ahmad, for example, has over 30,000 hadiths—but this count includes texts that are repeated in order to record slight variations within the text or within the chains of narrations. Identifying the narrators of the various texts, comparing their narrations of the same texts to identify both the soundest reporting of a text and the reporters who are most sound in their reporting occupied experts of hadith throughout the 2nd century. In the 3rd century of Islam (from 225/840 to about 275/889),{{#tag:ref|The earliest book, Bukhari's Sahih was composed by 225/840 since he states that he spent sixteen years composing it (''Hady al-Sari'', introduction to ''Fath al-Bari'', p. 489, Lahore: ''Dar Nashr al-Kutub al-Islamiya'', 1981/1401) and also that he showed it to Yahya ibn Ma'in<ref>(''Hady al-Sari'', introduction to ''Fath al-Bari'', p. 8</ref> who died in 233. Nasa'i, the last to die of the authors of the six books, died in 303/915. He probably completed this work a few decades before his death: by 275 or so.|group=Note}} [[Hadith terminology#Ṣaḥīḥ|hadith experts]] composed brief works recording a selection of about two- to five-thousand such texts which they felt to have been most soundly documented or most widely referred to in the Muslim scholarly community.{{#tag:ref|Counting multiple narrations of the same texts as a single text, the number of hadiths each author has recorded roughly as follows: Bukhari (as in Zabidi's ''Mukhtasar'' of Bukhari's book) 2134, Muslim (as in Mundhiri's ''Mukhtasar'' of Muslim's book) 2200, Tirmidhi 4000, Abu Dawud 4000, Nasa'i 4800, Ibn Majah 4300. There is considerable overlap amongst the six books so that Ibn al-Athir's ''Jami' al-Usul'', which gathers together the hadiths texts of all six books deleting repeated texts, has about 9500 hadiths.|group=Note}} The 4th and 5th century saw these six works being commented on quite widely. This auxiliary literature has contributed to making their study the place of departure for any serious study of hadith. In addition, Bukhari and Muslim in particular, claimed that they were collecting only the soundest of sound hadiths. These later scholars tested their claims and agreed to them, so that today, they are considered the most reliable collections of hadith.<ref>''Muqaddimah Ibn al-Salah'', p. 160 Dar al-Ma’aarif edition</ref> Toward the end of the 5th century, [[Ibn al-Qaisarani]] formally standardized the Sunni canon into [[Al-Kutub al-Sittah|six pivotal works]], a delineation which remains to this day.<ref>[[Ignác Goldziher]], ''Muslim Studies'', vol. 2, p. 240. [[Halle (Saale)|Halle]], 1889-1890. {{ISBN|0-202-30778-6}}</ref><ref>Scott C. Lucas, ''Constructive Critics, Ḥadīth Literature, and the Articulation of Sunnī Islam'', p. 106. [[Leiden]]: [[Brill Publishers]], 2004.</ref><ref>[[Ibn Khallikan]]'s Biographical Dictionary, translated by [[William McGuckin de Slane]]. [[Paris]]: Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland. Sold by [[Institut de France]] and [[Royal Library of Belgium]]. Vol. 3, p. 5.</ref>

Over the centuries, several different categories of collections have emerged. Some are more general, such as the ''muṣannaf'', the ''muʿjam'', and the ''jāmiʿ'', and some more specific, characterized either by the subjects covered, such as the ''sunan'' (restricted to legal-liturgical traditions), or by''their''s composition, such as the [[Forty hadith|''arbaʿīniyyāt'']] (collections of forty hadiths).<ref name="siddiqi">Muhammad Zubayr Siddiqi, ''Hadith Literature'', Cambridge, Islamic Texts Society, 1993, edited and revised by Abdal Hakim Murad.</ref>

====Extent and nature in the Shia tradition====
Shi'a Muslims seldom if ever use the [[six major hadith collections]] followed by the Sunnis because they do not trust many of the Sunni narrators and transmitters. They have their own extensive hadith literature. The best-known hadith collections are [[The Four Books]], which were compiled by three authors who are known as the 'Three Muhammads'.<ref name="Momen, Moojan 1985, p.174">Momen, Moojan, ''Introduction to Shi'i Islam'', Yale University Press, 1985, p.174.</ref> The Four Books are: ''Kitab al-Kafi'' by [[Muhammad ibn Ya'qub al-Kulayni]] al-Razi (329 [[Hijri year|AH]]), ''Man la yahduruhu al-Faqih'' by [[Al-Shaykh al-Saduq|Muhammad ibn Babuya]] and ''Al-Tahdhib'' and ''Al-Istibsar'' both by [[Shaykh Tusi|Shaykh Muhammad Tusi]]. Shi'a clerics also make use of extensive collections and commentaries by later authors.

Unlike Sunnis, the majority of Shia do not consider any of their hadith collections to be sahih (authentic) in their entirety. Therefore, each individual hadith in a specific collection must be investigated separately to determine its authenticity. The Akhbari school, however, considers all the hadith from the four books to be authentic.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Mohammad A. Shomali|title=Shi'i Islam: Origins, Faith and Practices|date=2003|publisher=ICAS Press|isbn=9781904063117|page=35|edition=reprint}}</ref>

The importance of hadith in the Shia school of thought is well documented. This can be captured by Ali ibn Abi Talib, cousin of Muhammad, when he narrated that "Whoever of our Shia (followers) knows our [[Shariah]] and takes out the weak of our followers from the darkness of ignorance to the light of knowledge (Hadith) which we (Ahl al-Bayt) have gifted to them, he on the day of judgement will come with a crown on his head. It will shine among the people gathered on the plain of resurrection."<ref name="Kafi2013"/> [[Hassan al-Askari]], a descendant of Muhammad, gave support to this narration, stating "Whoever he had taken out in the worldly life from the darkness of ignorance can hold to his light to be taken out of the darkness of the plain of resurrection to the garden (paradise). Then all those whomever he had taught in the worldly life anything of goodness, or had opened from his heart a lock of ignorance or had removed his doubts will come out."<ref name="Kafi2013"/>

Regarding the importance of maintaining accuracy in recording hadith, it has been documented that [[Muhammad al-Baqir]], the great-grandson of Muhammad, has said that "Holding back in a doubtful issue is better than entering destruction. Your not narrating a Hadith is better than you narrating a Hadith in which you have not studied thoroughly. On every truth, there is a reality. Above every right thing, there is a light. Whatever agrees with the book of Allah you must take it and whatever disagrees you must leave it alone."<ref name="Kafi2013">{{cite book|last1=ibn Ya’qub al-Kulayni|first1=Abu Ja’far Muhammad|title=Kitab al-Kafi|date=February 2013|publisher=The Islamic Seminary Inc.|location=New York|isbn=978-0-9890016-2-5|edition=eBook}}</ref>{{rp|10}} Al-Baqir also emphasized the selfless devotion of Ahl al-Bayt to preserving the traditions of Muhammad through his conversation with [[Jabir ibn Abd Allah]], an old companion of Muhammad. He (Al-Baqir) said, "Oh Jabir, had we spoken to you from our opinions and desires, we would be counted among those who are destroyed. We speak to you of the hadith which we treasure from the Messenger of Allah, Oh Allah grant compensation to Muhammad and his family worthy of their services to your cause, just as they treasure their gold and silver."<ref name="Kafi2013" /> Further, it has been narrated that [[Ja'far al-Sadiq]], the son of al-Baqir, has said the following regarding hadith: "You must write it down; you will not memorize until you write it down."<ref name= Kafi2013/>{{rp|33}}

===Modern usage===
[[File:Forty hadith nawawi taught by Sheikh Usama al Azhari in Sultan Hassan Mosque.JPG|thumb|[[Imam Nawawi's Forty Hadith]] taught in the [[Mosque-Madrassa of Sultan Hassan]] in Cairo, Egypt]]
Hadith as an Interpretation of the Quran:
 
{{blockquote|Move not your tongue with it, to hasten with recitation of it. Indeed, upon Us is its collection and its recitation. So when We have recited it, then follow its recitation. Then upon Us is Interpretation. Surah Al Qiyamah, verse 16–19.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Surah Al-Qiyamah {{!}} 2 of 4 {{!}} al-Q̈iyamah {{!}} Chapter: 75 - Quran O |url=https://qurano.com/en/75-al-qiyama/2/ |access-date=2022-09-16 |website=qurano.com |language=en}}</ref>}}

Modern approaches include criticism of the text and content in addition to classical approaches that don't go beyond the criticism of the chain of narrators called "sanad" in order to verify a hadith;{{Sfn|Brown|1999|p=157n5}} Weakness in the pronunciation of the text, the strange meaning, contrary to the dalil  syar'i (evidences of sharia),  and  the  mind,  related  to  the  priority  of  the  mind, contains  abominations, isra'iliyyat  and  bid'ah,  not  found  in  the  main  hadith  book  and  exaggerates  the  reward  or punishment for light deeds etc.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://journal.unisza.edu.my/jimk/index.php/jimk/article/view/582/461 | title=View of &#91;The Criteria of Hadith Mawdu' in the Book of Silsilah al-Ahadith al-Da'ifah wa al-Mawdu'ah by al-Albani&#93; Kriteria Hadith Mawdu' dalam Kitab Silsilah al-Ahadith al-Da'ifah wa al-Mawdu'ah oleh al-Albani }}</ref>

The mainstream sects consider hadith to be essential supplements to, and clarifications of, the Quran, Islam's holy book, as well as for clarifying issues pertaining to Islamic jurisprudence. [[Ibn al-Salah]], a hadith specialist, described the relationship between hadith and other aspects of the religion by saying: "It is the science most pervasive in respect to the other sciences in their various branches, in particular to jurisprudence being the most important of them."<ref>''Ulum al-Hadith'' by Ibn al-Salah, p. 5, Dar al-Fikr, with the verification of Nur al-Din al-‘Itr.</ref> "The intended meaning of 'other sciences' here are those pertaining to religion," explains Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, "Quranic exegesis, hadith, and jurisprudence. The [[hadith sciences|science of hadith]] became the most pervasive due to the need displayed by each of these three sciences. The need hadith has of its science is apparent. As for Quranic [[exegesis]], then the preferred manner of explaining the speech of God is by means of what has been accepted as a statement of Muhammad. The one looking to this is in need of distinguishing the acceptable from the unacceptable. Regarding jurisprudence, then the jurist is in need of citing as an evidence the acceptable to the exception of the later, something only possible utilizing the science of hadith."<ref name="Nukat">Ibn Hajar, Ahmad. ''al-Nukat ala Kitab ibn al-Salah'', vol. 1, p. 90. Maktabah al-Furqan.</ref>

=== Western scholarship ===
Western scholarly criticism of hadith began in colonial India in the mid 19th century with the works of [[Aloys Sprenger]] and [[William Muir]]. These works were generally critical of the reliability of hadith, suggesting that traditional Muslim scholarship was incapable of determining the authenticity of hadith, and that the hadith tradition had been corrupted by widespread fabrication of fraudulent hadith. The late 19th century work of [[Ignaz Goldziher]], ''[[Muhammedanische Studien]]'' (''Muslim Studies''), is considered seminal in the field of Western hadith studies. Goldziher took the same critical approach as Sprenger and Muir, suggesting that many hadith showed anachronistic elements indicating that they were not authentic, and that the many contradictory hadith made the value of the entire corpus questionable.<ref name=":0" />

The work of [[Joseph Schacht]] in the 1950s sought to obtain a critical understanding of the chains of transmission of particular hadith, focusing on the convergence of transmission chains of particular hadith back to a single "common link" from who all later sources ultimately obtained the hadith, who Schacht considered to be the likely true author of the hadith, which could allow dating of when particular hadith began circulating. This method is widely influential in Western hadith scholarship, though has received criticism from some scholars.<ref name=":0" /> Schacht's arguments regarding the validity of hadith have been vigorously disputed by Muslim scholars like [[Muhammad Mustafa Azmi]], who contended that hadiths were written down already during Muhammads lifetime, and that large scale creation of fraudulent hadiths was implausible.<ref>Herbert Berg, [https://books.google.com/books?id=2GGZ-jIQGoMC&dq=m.m.+azami&pg=PT26 The Development of Exegesis in Early Islam: The Authenticity of Muslim Literature from the Formative Period]. Routledge Studies in the Qur'an. Transferred to digital publishing in 2005. he died in 20 December 2017 [[Routledge]], 2013. {{ISBN|9781136115226}} p.23-26</ref>

Some modern scholars have contested Schacht's assertion that the "common links" were likely forgers of the hadith, instead suggesting that they were avid collectors of hadiths, though their arguments for this have been criticised by other scholars.<ref name=":0" />