The vast majority of Muslims regard the Hadith (“traditions”) as being of immense authority.
Technically speaking, an hadith is a saying of Muhammad transmitted outside the Qur’an through a chain of known intermediaries. Muslims discriminate between two kinds of hadith:
1. The Sacred Sentence (hadith qudsi)
This is direct revelation in which Allah speaks in the first person through the mouth of Muhammad.
2. The Prophetic Sentence (hadith nabawi)
This is indirect revelation in which Muhammad speaks as himself.The hadith is composed of six main canonical traditions (though there are many more hadith besides these):
1. Al-Bukhari
2. Muslim
3. An-Nasa’I
4. Abu Dawood
5. At-Tirmizi
6. Majah.
Of these the most venerated collections are those by Muslim (died 875) and especially Al-Bukhari (810-870). These men are esteemed because of the effort they expended in trying to discriminate between true and false transmitters of Muhammad’s alleged sayings and deeds. One tale claims that Bukhari himself examined 600,000 hadiths, 200,000 of which he actually memorized before committing a mere 2,700 of them, which he regarded as unimpeachable, to paper.
An hadith consists of two parts:
1. Isnad: the chain of names of people who have narrated the hadith through the generations
2. Matn, or the actual text and substance of the report.
Sometimes an hadith will close with a moral.
Here is an example of an hadith nabawi:
Al-Bukhari, Volume 1, Book 2, Number 44:
Narrated Talha bin ‘Ubaidullah:
A man from Najd with unkempt hair came to Allah’s Apostle and we heard his loud voice but could not understand what he was saying, till he came near and then we came to know that he was asking about Islam. Allah’s Apostle said, “You have to offer prayers perfectly five times in a day and night (24 hours).” The man asked, “Is there any more (praying)?” Allah’s Apostle replied, “No, but if you want to offer the Nawafil (optional) prayers (you can).” Allah’s Apostle further said to him: “You have to observe fasts during the month of Ramadan.” The man asked, “Is there any more fasting?” Allah’s Apostle replied, “No, but if you want to observe the Nawafil fasts (you can.)” Then Allah’s Apostle further said to him, “You have to pay the Zakat (obligatory charity).” The man asked, “Is there any thing other than the Zakat for me to pay?” Allah’s Apostle replied, “No, unless you want to give alms of your own.” And then that man retreated saying, “By Allah! I will neither do less nor more than this.” Allah’s Apostle said, “If what he said is true, then he will be successful (i.e. he will be granted Paradise).”
There we have it. The person who faithfully observes the five daily prayers, fasting and obligatory alms-giving will reach Paradise. We might contrast this with Jesus’ teaching that the righteousness of his disciples must exceed that of those who seek to scrupulously observe the law (Matthew 5:20). Indeed, Jesus said:
For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 5:20)
Posted June 29, 2008
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