DEVELOPMENT OF HADITH LITERATURE (SCIENCE OF...
Transcript of DEVELOPMENT OF HADITH LITERATURE (SCIENCE OF...
1 Ssekimwanyi Musa – 0705 332705 / 0777 023795 – Kyaddondo ss Dept.
notes.
DEVELOPMENT OF HADITH LITERATURE
(SCIENCE OF HADITH). Development of hadith literature involves 3 major aspects;
1. The collection.
2. The preservation.
3. The compilation.
These 3 elements have developed in development of hadith literature from the prophet’s time
up to today in an effort to study how hadith literature developed in a number of stages, this led
to the science of hadith.
Necessity for the science of hadith.
The development of the science of hadith came up because of the following;
Because of the need to preserve the prophet’s traditions due to the importance attached
on him.
It also developed in an attempt to stop those who had started misusing and
misinterpreting hadith for their own purposes.
There is need to organise prophet’s traditions for proper use for different purposes e.g.
law.
Science of hadith also developed because of some disagreements that developed among
scholars (hadith) and each group made research which culminated into the development
of science of hadith.
They developed the science of hadith because of the love and respect companions had
to the prophet.
There was also the development of the Muhadithins (group of people whose interests
was in the study of hadith).
There was also the development of sunni schools of law. The different Imams who
formed these schools of law found it necessary so as to make use of hadith in their
schools of law.
There was need to study and analyse the first collection of hadith.
THE COLLECTION OF HADITH.
The collection of hadith was gradual which took about 3 centuries. It was also done in
stages. These stages include the following;
i) The first stage of hadith collection (610AD – 632AD).
- Prophet’s time.
- It took place between 610AD – 632 AD.
- Main methods used were memorisation, transmission and little writing.
- Muhammad (S.A.W) was the only source of information.
ii) The second stage.
- It was the companion’s time.
- It took place between 11 – 100 AH.
- Main methods were memorisation, transmission and writing.
- Companions were the major source of information.
- Companions put up schools in their homes.
- Companions moved long distances to justify hadith.
- Events were still fresh in the minds of memorisers / companions.
-
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iii) Third stage.
- It was a period of the followers of the companions of the prophet (Tabiyuns /
Tabiins).
- It took place between 101 – 200 AH.
- Transmission, writing and memory continued.
- Writing materials were abundant.
- Hadith could be studied by going to centres instead of inquiring from
individuals.
- Emergency of written manuscript inform of pamphlets though they were not
exhaustive.
- The four great imams or schools of thought developed.
iv) The fourth stage.
- It was a period of the Tabi – Tabiins. (Followers of the followers of the
companions of the prophet).
- It ranged between 201 – 300 AH.
- Writing materials were majorly used and in abundance.
- It is referred to as the golden age of hadith literature.
- The six books of hadith emerged and arranged in the systematic way.
v) The fifth stage.
- Period from 301 – 600AH.
- Period of Muhadithins (students of hadith).
THE FIRST STAGE OF HADITH COLLECTION
(610AD – 632 – PERIOD OF THE PROPHET).
This is a period / stage when Prophet Muhammad was still alive. It was between 610 – 632
AD. During this stage, the prophet was the source of information. Whatever the prophet did,
said, recommended was all taken and adopted by his companions. This was mainly because;
In family life, the prophet had people who were seeing and copying everything from
him for example he had wives like Aisha, a daughter like Fatumah, he had adopted sons
like Zaid bin Harith.
In public life, he had close companions like Abu-Bakr, Umar, Uthuman, Abu Musa
who were always close to him and he would report whatever he used to do / say, hated,
recommended etc.
The prophet used to send messages to different leaders and information in these
messages later became hadith.
Prophet used to involve himself in several activities like administration, preaching and
signing treaties.
Prophet used to encourage his companions to adopt his behaviours as example.
Why companions adopted to whatever came from the prophet?
It is very clear that whatever the prophet did, recommended was adopted to his companions by
the following reasons;
Because of the love and respect the companions had for the prophet.
The prophet used to pray for those who used to copy and adopt to his practices and the
companions did not want to miss rewards from the prophet’s prayers. He used to say;
“May Allah guide everybody who hears my words and takes it to anybody”
The prophet used to encourage his companions to preserve his hadith.
The holy Quran had encouraged Muslims to take an example of the prophet (Q 33:21)
says “Surely you have got the best example from the messenger of Allah….”
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It was because of the need for hadith to be used as a source of law and for administration
for example whenever the prophet sent a governor to the conquered places he used to
tell them adopt his traditions.
Hadith was used to interpret the holy Quran as it was revealed.
Hadith was also used to teach the new Muslim converts.
The companions also used hadith to solve their daily problems.
They always wanted to please the prophet because he used to tell them thus, “Transmit
from me even if a single word”.
By then Quran was still under revelations and was always interpreted and explained by
the prophet using the hadith, so the companions took hadith to be very important.
Methods used by the prophet to teach and disseminate hadith.
There were a number of methods the prophet used to teach and disseminate hadith to his
companions and these include the following;
Practical demonstration. The prophet would do certain things in the presence of his
companions, they would copy whatever he used to do and then take them to others for
example they used to see the prophet perform prayers, they would follow, adopt
whatever he used to do and take it to others.
He also directed his companions to pass on the knowledge / information to others. The
prophet said; Transmit from me even if a single word”.
On the farewell pilgrimage, the prophet when delivering sermon he said; “Hear this
from me, take it to those who are not here with us”
The prophet used to promise rewards to students (those who were learning hadith from
others) and said; “If anybody undertakes a path in search of knowledge, Allah will
thereby take for him easy path to paradise”
The prophet promised rewards to teachers of hadith. He said; “If anyone dies, all his
acts come to an end except three types of acts; one with knowledge which benefits
others, prayer from a good son and charity (swadakatul jalia).
The prophet used to send people with messages to different places whereby
encouraging transmission of hadith.
The fact that the prophet physically participated in most of the activities his companions
involved in gave them an opportunity to learn more from him.
He allowed some companions like Ali bin Abu – Twalib to write down hadith.
He used to encourage memorisation of hadith, memorisation of hadith at this time was
the most effective method of preserving hadith.
Through establishment of schools. Prophet established schools in Medina on his arrival.
They were mainly in mosques and used to send teachers and preachers to different areas
outside Medina like Yemen to preach Islam.
He physically participated in the teaching of hadith to his companions in various
mosques especially after congregational prayers.
There was a party of Swahabah’s called Ashaabu Saffa who lived in the prophet’s
mosque and were always with the prophet learning from him whatever he taught.
Threats and punishments; for those who refused to seek knowledge the prophet seemed
to have indicated to them punishments which could inevitably come as a result of not
learning.
He used to approach governors of different provinces and dictated to them documents
to follow in performing their duties as rulers or judges.
Through fulfilment of some practical aspect of Islam like prayers, fasting, Hijja etc.
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In family life he had different people who used to get whatever he said and translated
it to others.
Prophet used to involve himself in different activities like administration, preaching,
signing of treaties etc.
METHODS USED TO PRESERVE HADITH DURING THE PROPHET’S TIME.
During the prophet’s time as the companions collected the hadith, they used to preserve it for
future use. They were basically 3 methods;
i) Memorisation
ii) Transmission
iii) Writing of hadith.
i) MEMORISATION.
The companions of the prophet would hear his words / see him doing something and put it
to memory. As a result from this the information from the prophet would be reserved for
future use.
Those who memorised hadith at that time would take it to others and many companions
memorised hadith.
There is evidence by the time of the prophet’s death, many companions had put hadith in
their memory and they were telling it to others. Memorisation of hadith was the popular
method that was used to preserve hadith during the prophet’s time due to the following
reasons;
The Arabs were very good at memorising and they trusted their memories more
than the writing.
Many companions at that time were illiterate, therefore they could not use writing
as a method of preserving hadith.
There were no suitable writing materials and therefore companions used
memorisation.
Prophet Muhammad used to discourage them from writing hadith for fear of mixing
up the Qur’an with his words (hadith). One time the companion (Abu Hurairah)
reported that; “The prophet found us writing down Hadith and asked ‘what is this
you are writing’, we answered ‘Hadith we hear from you’. The prophet said ‘What
a book other than that of Allah’.
Companions were not interested in matters of writing hadith.
Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W) who was the source of information was still alive and
around. Therefore companions did not put much interest in writing of hadith simply
because they would always prefer to him whenever they had problems.
There were poor transport and communication network at that time, therefore
memorisation was better.
It was majorly encouraged by the prophet and he acted as an example.
However, it had some challenges as; the message would die at the death of the memorisers;
Poor and weak memories of some companions; a memoriser could easily forget etc.
ii) TRANSMISSION.
This is when the companions used to get hadith from the prophet through verbal expressions,
silent approvals, practices and recommendations and then take it to others. So transmission of
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hadith was a common method of preserving hadith during the prophet’s time. It was a practice
of the prophet that whenever people converted to Islam, he used to send teachers to teach them
Islam and these people used to take with them both the Qur’an and hadith.
The prophet encouraged transmission and as a result of this, many people participated in it for
example; at one time he told his companions; “Transmit from me even if a single word”.
On the farewell pilgrimage, the prophet when delivering his last sermon he said; “Hear this
from me, take it to those who are not here with us”
The prophet also used to praise and pray for those who used to transmit hadith and said; May
God reward those who hear my words, memorise them and take them to others”
One companion came to the prophet and asked him that who will be the successor of the
prophet, the prophet said; “Those who report my sayings and disseminate to others in the
same way”.
Evidence to show that hadith was transmitted during the prophets time is that traditions were
known to both those who were close and those who were distant to him.
iii) WRITING OF HADITH.
Writing of hadith was also one of the methods used to preserve hadith but on a small scale.
This was because of the scarcity of writing materials, discouragements from the prophet and
many reasons as we shall note below.
However there is evidence that some companions used to write down hadith during the
prophet’s time and he also used to allow some of his companions to write down hadith. For
example;
An Ansar called Amir Bin A’s complained about his poor memory and the prophet told him
that “Seek help from your right hand”.
Another companion by the names of Ibun Abas reports that; “I kept on writing hadith
throughout the night in the presence of the prophet but he never stopped me”
Even Abu – Musa reports that; “Nobody had more hadith than Ibun Abas and the reason
why he managed it, he used to write down hadith and the prophet never stopped him”.
Another companion came to the prophet and said; “I try to write with my hands along with my
heart, what do you direct me about it…..the prophet replied ‘If they are my sayings have them
written along with your heart”.
The fact that the prophet sent written messages to different leaders shows that he did not
completely object to writing.
Prophet Muhammad himself used to write letters to different leaders but since they were his
words, that’s evident enough to show that he allowed writing.
Much as companions (some) used to write hadith, he used to tell them not to confuse Quran
and hadith.
By the time of the prophet’s death, there is evidence that some hadith of the prophet had been
written on a few available materials like leaves, stones etc.
Therefore, it should be concluded that during the prophet’s time writing was one of the methods
used to preserve hadith though on small scale and the prophet used to allow it to specific
companions and used to caution them to always be careful not to confuse Quranic revelation
with hadith.
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notes.
Why there was little work done during the prophet’s
time in the development of hadith literature
The state of hadith literature by the time of prophet’s death was not the best. At that time, hadith
was simply found in people’s memories that were scattered in different places. It was also
written down on poor materials which were not well organised. Below are some of the reasons
why there was little work done towards hadith during this period.
Writing as one of the method of preserving hadith was highly discouraged by the
prophet.
There was also the fear of confusing Quran with hadith which limited the use of some
materials like writing of hadith.
Illiteracy of the companions of the prophet that limited writing of the hadith.
Lack of suitable writing materials to be used in the preservation of hadith.
Some of the companions of the prophet had poor memory and this limited memorisation
as one of the method.
The companions used to have little time to dedicate in the development of hadith
because they were involved in number of activities like battles to defend Islam.
Companions used to work and earn a living.
Transmission as one of the method had a problem of poor transport.
The presence of the prophet made his companions reluctant to use some methods since
they would always approach him in case of any problem.
Due to the presence of the prophet, hadith was still coming down therefore companions
saw no need for compiling hadith.
Memorisation which seemed to be more popular had a problem whereby some
companions had poor memory, this also affected the development of hadith.
Presence of hypocrites. Some people instead of transmitting hadith were busy
conducting other businesses.
Competition with other religions like Christianity which had been spread there.
Rewards and punishments as promised by the prophet were more theoretical than
practical.
The problem of language barrier also limited the dissemination of Hadith during the Prophet’s time. There were people who were not Arabs yet it was essential to spread the message to them.
THE SECOND STAGE (PERIOD OF THE PROPHET’S COMPANIONS 11 -100AH)
It was the period between 11 -100AH. The death of the prophet marked the end of the first
stage and the beginning of the second stage of the collection of hadith. This is referred to as
the period of the companions of the prophet.
Due to the death of the prophet, the only source of hadith was the companions (Swahabah’s)
who had learnt hadith from him. During this time leadership of Islamic state was in the hands
of the four rightly guided caliphs and those who had not seen the prophet consulted them.
During this time hadith collection became important than before.
The homes of prominent companions became the learning centres / places and people started
vising them, learning and collecting hadith.
The following companions of the prophet played an important role in teaching hadith and were
found to have preserved many teachings of the prophet for example, Abu – Huraira collected
About 5374 traditions, Abdullah bin Malik collected 1286 traditions, Abdallah bin Umar
collected 1560 traditions, Abu Dauda had collected around 2660 traditions and many others.
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notes.
During this stage, transmission of hadith became more important than before and Muslims
were moving from one place to another learning and justifying the truth of certain traditions.
Muslims also realised more importance of collecting and preserving hadith than in the first
stage because of the following reasons. (Necessity of compiling, preserving & collecting
Hadith after the prophet’s death).
The prophet who was the source of information had died and yet they needed hadith in their
daily life.
During this period, the compilation of the Qur’an was completed therefore there was no
fear of confusing the Quran and hadith because the revelation of the Qur’an ended when
the prophet was alive.
Increased need to use hadith as a source of Islamic law.
Hadith was also needed to explain and interpret the Quran.
Due to the expansion of the Islamic state, many people in the conquered places needed
hadith for guidance in their administration for example the governors.
Very many people had converted to Islam and yet these people had not seen the prophet.
There was also death of the companions of the prophet who had committed hadith into
memory either due to natural death or through battles aiming at defending Islam.
There was also need to protect hadith from forgery.
The increasing need to solve Muslim problems necessitated the collection of Hadith.
Immediately after the death of the Prophet, there arose disputes among Muslims, which
needed a coherent system of Hadith to provide solutions. For example, at the death of the
Prophet, his daughter Fatumah claimed that she was entitled to inheritance from the
Prophet. Abubakr quoted to her the Prophet’s saying negating her views, that:
“We Prophets don’t leave any estate but charity.” (Bukhari)
Again over the disputes of where the Prophet was to be buried, Abubakr quoted to the
companions a saying of the Prophet that:
“Let the prophet be buried in a place where he dies from …….”
Thus, such disputes and other similar needs in the Muslim community increased the need
to collect and compile Hadith
There were people who were attempting to forge hadith like the false prophets for example
Musailama, Sajja etc.
Many Muslims could now read and write unlike during the prophets time were illiteracy
was very common among the companions.
The writing materials were now present or in abundance.
The need to teach the new Muslim converts. These people no longer waited to be told
Muslims had realized its need for future generation so that it can make use of the prophets’
teachings as people refer to them.
Coming of people who were interested in writing hadith for example the early compilers,
Muhadithins etc.
Though the prophet discouraged the writing of hadith, he never stopped it completely, so it
became important and necessary to collect and compile traditions of the prophet since
revelation of the Quran had stopped.
Many Muslims wanted to demonstrate their love and respect they had for the prophet.
Hadith compilation was necessary in order to provide solutions to people’s daily problems.
This was because some problems would arise in absence of the people who had lived with
the Prophet or those who had memorized Hadith.
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notes.
The presence of many centres of learning of Hadith meant that compilers had a lot to collect
and many people to consult. In addition, there were abundant materials for compilers and
students of Hadith to get Hadith from.
During this time, there was some attempts to write hadith in the book form for example Ibn
Abaas tried to put hadith together, Ali Ibn Abu-Talib put hadith together and called his
simple compilation Al – Qatadayah.
THE THIRD STAGE (PERIOD OF THE FOLLOWERS OF THE COMPANIONS OF THE
PROPHET 101 – 200 AH).
This is referred to as the period of the followers of the companions of the prophet. (Tabiins).
At this time, most of the companions of the prophet had died and the only source of hadith was
from those who had learnt hadith from the prophet’s companions.
During this stage, there were a number of developments on hadith for example the search for
hadith was no longer individual work but combined effort from different people. People started
vising learning centres from those who had learnt hadith from companions.
During this stage, writing as a method of preserving hadith became more important than other
methods because almost all the limitations of writing hadith had been done away with. For
example, writing materials were more available than before, many people could now read and
write, there were no more discouragements from the prophet, the Quran had already been
compiled and many other reasons.
Thirdly, the work of collecting hadith became a concern of leaders who started putting
conditions for people to collect and write down hadith for example Umar Bin Abdul – Aziz
(Umar II) of the Umayyad caliphate wrote to the governors instructing them to write down
hadith.
Because of Umar’s instructions and encouragement, a number of people started writing and
compiling hadith for example the governor of Medina (Abubakar Hazami) organised a book
Al – Jurqan. There were some other compilations for example Ibn Jarir. The most important
compilation by this stage were two; one of Imam Malik bin Anas which he called Al-
Muwatwa’a. The second was by Imam AL – Zuhri who tried to improve on the compilation
of the second stage.
The collection of hadith during this time was of the emergency of the Sunni schools of law /
schools of thought. These schools were established by prominent Imams / leaders for example
Abu Hanifah, Imam Malik, Imam Shafie and Imam Hambal. These people were using hadith
in the development of law and they participated in collection of hadith for example Imam
Hambal collected hadith into a book called Al – Musnad Ahmed bin Hambal, Imaam Malik
compiled Al – Muwatwa’a etc.
The collection of that time were mainly compiled into books called Musnad. However, the
compilations of this time were not the best. They had some loopholes for example;
They were brief.
Compilers did not move to many places to compile hadith.
They were not selective and as a result they compiled both weak and strong hadith
without identifying them.
Some compilations also confused prophet’s words and those of companions.
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notes.
THE FOURTH STAGE O HADITH COLLECTION.
(201 – 300AH TABI – TABIINS TIME) It was between 201 – 300AH. It was the stage of Tabi – Tabiins i.e. the followers of the
followers of the companions of the prophet. This period is taken to be the golden stage of
hadith collection. During this hadith flourished under vigorous critical research. It is
referred to as the golden age of hadith literature because of the following;
The collection of hadith during this stage and the collectors of this period were
more organised than before.
This is when the six sound compilers emerged and the system of the collection
which they were using was more organised since it was done for the purposes of
compilation.
The six sound compilers came up with the most authentic books of hadith like
Bukhar (Sahih Bukhar), Muslim (Sahih Muslim), Abu Dauda (Sunan Abu Dauda),
Tirimidhi (Jami Tirimidhi), Ibn Majah (Sunnan Ibn Majah), Al Nisae (Sunnan
Nisae).
These books have been considered to be very good by scholars of hadith through
ages up to now the students of hadith are still referring to them and are found in
libraries of Islamic knowledge.
The compilations of the time were so organised that compilers identified the two
methods of arranging hadith and these were using of Musnad and Jami. Musnad is
where the hadith is arranged according to the chain of transmission and Jami means
the arrangement of hadith according to the subject matter.
These compilations were also extensive and included traditions reported by people
of many places.
The compilers of this time were very selective and during their compilations and
therefore fully compiled authentic traditions.
Some of these compilers had well searched and organised books of hadith for
example Bukhar, Muslim etc.
The collectors of that time travelled to many places and collected many traditions.
The six sound compilers laid down common conditions (canons) or rules which
were used in collection and acceptance of hadith.
They also tried to arrange the traditions basing on the subject matter which made
those books to be easily used.
They also tried to trace and clearly show the chain of narrators.
They also tried to classify hadith depending on authenticity and accuracy.
The compilation of the time opened room for students to do more research on
hadith and as a result of this, students stared a critical study of those hadith and
analysed the subject matter and chain of narrators of those traditions.
The fabricated traditions were separated from the genuine ones.
THE FIFTH STAGE O HADITH COLLECTION.
(301 – 600AH PERIOD OF THE MUHADITHINS) By this stage, the work of collecting hadith seems to have been completed because of the efforts
put in by the six sound compilers. However, there were some developments made on the
collection and compilation of hadith after the fourth stage for example;
The chain of narrators were further examined and critically analysed.
The subject matter of the traditions compiled by the 6 sound compilers was also
analysed.
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notes.
The known Muhadithins of this time were, Al – Razi, Al – Darqun, Al – Baihaque etc. these
ones were followed by others like Sharif Din who is known to have written a revised edition
according to the subject matter and in alphabetical order and gave it a little Tafsir – al – usulu.
The compilation of the six sound compilers were abridged.
There were many other hadith books written in many languages of Muslims all-over the world.
Revision questions.
1. Hadith collection was an inevitable episode. Comment.
2. How would you explain the increased effort in the work of collecting hadith after the death
of the prophet?
3. The later century of Hijrah saw an added impetus in the work of hadith collection unlike
during the prophet’s period. How do you account for this?
4. Hadith collection was a gradual process. Discuss.
5. Describe fully the efforts which were put in the exercise of hadith collection between 101
and 300 AH.
6. a) Justify the view that there was little work done on the development of hadith literature
during the prophet’s time from 610 – 632 AD.
b) Why was there need for the revival of hadith collection in the later years?
7. Describe the process which hadith went through before attaining the current form. e.t.c.
THE COMPILATION OF HADITH.
To compile means to bring together materials for a purpose either of putting it in an organised
manner.
During the Prophet’s time, Hadith were mainly preserved in memory of the Prophet’s companions although some few of the companions preserved Hadith by writing.
The compilation of Hadith started after the Prophet’s death more especially during the period of the Tabiin (the third stage of Hadith collection). During this period, Muslims realized the need to compile and revive Hadith.
Therefore, after the Prophet’s death, Hadith were collected and preserved in volumes of books. This compilation was done in 2 major stages;
i) Stage of early compilers. ii) Stage of the 6 sound compilers.
THE EARLY COMPILERS OF HADITH.
(THE EARLY COMPILERS BEFORE THE 6
CELEBRATED COMPILERS) The third stage of hadith collection gave the birth of the coming up of the early compilers of
hadith. These people, the early compilers of hadith initiated the work of compiling hadith in
books. There were very many people who collected at this time but the most prominent of the
compilers of this time (Tabiins) were Imam Malik bin Anas, Imam Al – Zuhr, Imam Sufyan
Ibn Uyaina etc.
The compilers of this time came up with books / compilations which had some weaknesses /
loopholes / shortcomings but they were assisted by the later compilers since they used them as
references. However, the compilations of that time had some loopholes / weaknesses and had
the following characteristics;
The traditions were not well arranged. They were mere collections without any sort of
arrangement of the material in proper orders.
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notes.
They compiled hadith without considering their strength and weaknesses.
Some mixed hadith with sayings of companions and some books had hadith mixed up
with the legal decisions of the four caliphs and other companions as well as their
successors.
The traditions were not extensively collected therefore many of the compiled traditions
were collected from a few places.
Their traditions were brief and covered a few topics and in each topic there were a few
traditions hence not being so exhaustive.
Compilers did not move to many places to compile hadith and as a result only compiled
traditions that were taught at the centres where they lived or worked leaving out
traditions which came from other centres.
Their books were not arranged in organised topics / chapters but traditions were
randomly organised and compiled.
They tried to show a chain of narrators but in many of their books it was not very clear.
Most authors collected hadith in many fashions and value according where he was
taught i.e. the school of thought.
There was a lot of unauthentic hadith compiled together with the authentic ones that
forced the later Muhadithins to set up canons to eliminate the forged traditions.
Most of the early books have either been lost or absorbed by the later encyclopaedic
literature of hadith and thus did not retain their separate entity for example Al – Zuhr’s
work.
Their compilations did not put strong consideration of Isnad and Matin.
However, the above characteristics had some loopholes and despite the weaknesses of the early
compilation, the compiled books were of great importance in the work of the development of
Hadith Literature, in that:
These compilations bridged the gap between those who saw the Prophet and those who
didn’t see him. This was because those who didn’t meet the Prophet but were interested
in the study of Hadith, just read the reports of the early compilers
The early compilations gave room to other compilers to come up with better books of
Hadith. In fact the early compilations acted as a stepping stone for the emergence of the
six sound compilers of Hadith.
Many of the early compilers never considered their work as being final. Therefore those
who followed them saw it necessary to compile more and better books.
Although the early compilations contained weak and forged Hadith, they consisted of
more accurate hadith that provided a sound legal ruling.
Most of what later collectors and compilers used as materials for their collections and
compilations were made available by the early collectors. .
The early collectors worked out definitions, technical terms and other aspects for the
development of the science of Hadith
The early compilations removed the negative attitudes towards the collections and
compilation of Hadith. After the early compilations, more people took interest to compile
Hadith; and it is no wonder that the six sound compilers of Hadith emerged after some
time.
There compilations served as a way for the preservation of hadith from forgery. This is
because some of these compilers tried to select forged traditions from genuine ones.
The later 6 sound compilers always referred to their compilations / books.
They also tried to show the chain of narrators to prove authenticity of such traditions.
They initiated the work of compiling hadith which was supported by other compilers
e.g. the six sound compilers.
They also taught hadith to those who had not seen the swahabas.
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notes.
Their compilations have been used in the understanding of the concept of Islam like
fasting, Hijja, prayers etc. which are not so elaborative in the Quran.
Their compilations have been taught in schools and institutions and examined. This has
helped to groom a learned society that will propel the Islamic faith in future generation.