Voices of Islam (30 page)

In the Sunni tradition, which currently represents more than 80 percent of the Muslim world, six Hadith collections achieved a preeminent status. A sev- enth collection, the
Muwatta’
of Imam Malik, is usually added to this group. The
Muwatta’
is an account of the Sunna in Medina, the city of the Prophet, and is considered an important source of early Muslim practice. Of the 1,720 traditions in this collection, only 822 are attributed to the Prophet himself. The rest are from his Companions and their students. Malik attempted to discern the normative practice of the entire community of the Prophet. He understood that the Sunna could include practices performed by the Proph- et’s companions in his presence and of which he did not disapprove.

Of the six major collections of Hadith, the two most important are the
Sahih
of Bukhari (d. 870
CE
) and the
Sahih
of Muslim (d. 875
CE
). These two leaders of Hadith study employed such rigor that most Sunni scholars believe their collections to be sound in their entirety, with a miniscule prob- ability of error in some of the solitary hadith narratives. Bukhari was known to have memorized over 600,000 different chains of transmission, which involved tens of thousands of hadith accounts. The more chains of transmis- sion a hadith has, the more sound it is, and the more times the text is repli- cated, especially with exact wording, the more reliable the hadith.

The other four compilations include many traditions not found in the col- lections of Bukhari and Muslim. Tirmidhi (d. 883
CE
), Ibn Maja (d. 886
CE
), Abu Dawud (d. 888
CE
), and Nasa’i (d. 915
CE
) all amassed important collec- tions, though they have a lesser stature than those of Bukhari and Muslim, since their compilations include weak (
da‘if
) hadith, while the two
Sahih
col- lections do not.

While these seven collections are the most important in Sunni Islam, many other collections augment the scholars’ knowledge of the hadith and ulti- mately of the Sunna. For example, Muhammad ibu ‘Abdallah al-Hakim’s (d. 1014
CE
) collection is extremely important, as he attempted to identify hadith accounts that are not in Bukhari and Muslim but nonetheless are authentic, using the same rigorous criteria of authentication that Bukhari and Muslim used. Ahmad ibn Hanbal’s
Musnad
is another such collection, comprising over 30,000 hadith, many of which can be found in other collec- tions. Many other Hadith collections exist, most with chapters that cover a broad range of topics. These topics include creed, laws and rulings (
sunan,
including rulings on ritual purity, prayer, marriage, inheritance, and so on),
raqa’iq
(matters that deal with piety and giving up worldly possessions for

134 Voices of Tradition

Table 10.1: The Hadith Collections

nobler pursuits), manners (of eating, drinking, traveling, studying, and so on), Qur’anic exegesis, historical and biographical information, seditions, and signs of the end of time.
12

Of all of the hadith collections, none has achieved the prestige of
Sahih al- Bukhari.
Muslims throughout the world revere this collection as the most important book of religious teachings after the Qur’an, primarily because of the scrupulous rigor of the criteria that Bukhari used to authenticate hadith. His personal piety also contributed to the prestige of this work. In his early childhood, Bukhari was blind for a period; when his sight returned, his mother informed him that the trial he had experienced was due to the will of God and that his sight was restored because God intended for him to serve the Sunna of the Prophet.

Soon after, Bukhari set out to master the hadith of his homeland in Central Asia and spent over four decades traveling throughout the Muslim lands collecting hadith. On many occasions, his prodigious memory was tested by other Hadith scholars who wanted to verify that he was indeed a genius of his reputation. On one occasion in Baghdad, 10 Hadith scholars inten- tionally introduced some slight alterations in the chains of transmission of hundred traditions in order to test the young man. In a mosque, in the presence of the public, these scholars recited the traditions along with their corresponding chains, which they had changed. Then they began to ask Bukhari questions about them. He confessed his ignorance of the traditions recited and explained that he knew them through other chains. To the astonishment of all who were present, Bukhari then proceeded to recite all hundred chains with their corresponding texts correctly.
13

The noted Orientalist, H. A. R. Gibb, said about Bukhari’s work:

Viewed as a whole, the
Sahih
is a work of immense interest and scrupulous schol- arship. Variants are carefully noted, doubtful or diffi points in the
sanads
(chains of narration) and texts are glossed. On any careful student, the book

The
Sunna
: The Way of the Prophet Muhammad
135

produces a remarkable impression of honesty combined with piety. It may be true, as has been suggested, that the popular appreciation of Bukhari’s collection was due largely to the fact that he brought together the traditions already accepted in religious circles as a result of the long preceding process of critical examination, but this does not exclude the element of personal worthiness which set, as it were, the seal of authentication upon them.
14

Without a doubt, the collection and authentication of the Hadith litera- ture is one of the most fascinating and sophisticated works of premodern scholarship. While the authenticity of hadith accounts has been under severe attack for more than a century, its defenders continue to fight back from both within the tradition and without.

THE SUNNA AND JURISPRUDENCE

Among the first community of Companions who lived and studied directly with the Prophet, a small group emerged that was recognized as more learned than the others. People referred to these Companions concerning legal matters that had no precedent during the lifetime of the Prophet. The jurists among the Companions issued
fatwas,
nonbinding legal opinions. A
fatwa
is nonbinding because another scholar may come to a different conclu- sion about a subject, as there is often more than one possible interpretation of the source texts.

The source texts for a fatwa are fi the Qur’an, since it is the highest authority, and then the Sunna. If an issue is not clearly addressed in the Qur’an or the Sunna, the jurist then looks to see if there is any consensus among the scholars concerning the matter. If no clear proof is found in any of these three sources, the jurist exerts all of his intellectual and spiritual efforts to arrive at a sound position that is consistent with the aims and ends of the Sacred Law, through analogy or one of several other legal considera- tions. These considerations include analogical reasoning based on already existing texts, equity, public good, permissibility, precedents from previous Muslim scholars, and other legal considerations. This process is based on the following hadith, which is categorized as well known (
mashhur
):

Before sending Mu‘adh [ibn Jabal] to Yemen to act as a judge, the Prophet asked him on what basis he would judge. Mu‘adh replied, ‘‘I will judge by the Book of God.’’

The Prophet then asked, ‘‘And if you do not find the answer in the Book of God?’’

Mu‘adh replied, ‘‘Then I will judge in accordance with the Sunna of the Messenger of God.’’

The Prophet then asked, ‘‘And if you do not find it in the Sunna of the Messenger of God?’’

136
Voices of Tradition

Mu‘adh replied, ‘‘Then I will exert my efforts to the utmost in order to arrive at a sound opinion, and I will spare no effort.’’
15

Much of current Islamic Sacred Law is based on
ijtihad,
the exertion of intellectual effort by scholars who attempt to discern the most likely ruling of God in circumstances that are not covered by definitive texts. The jurists use sound hadith as a means to derive legal rulings about various aspects of daily life as well as of events that raise legal issues.

DISCERNING THE SUNNA FROM THE HADITH

There were many independent jurists in the formative period of the Mus- lim legal tradition, and they differed, sometimes radically, regarding what constituted the Sunna. However, as time passed, seven discernable legal schools formed, which are still a source of guidance for most Muslims today: the Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi‘i, Hanbali, Ja‘fari, Ibadi, and Zaydi. Each of these schools developed a juristic methodology that enabled it to analyze the vast Hadith literature and to discern the Sunna or the normative practice of the Messenger of God.

Because of different interpretations of texts, these schools developed vari- ous methodologies for determining legislation. The Qur’an and the Hadith contain some legal rulings. These rulings form the basis of a large body of legal precedent, from which jurists attempt to ascertain new legal rulings on the basis of common axioms and principles. The outcome of this process, which is the technical definition of the term
ijtihad,
will vary on the basis of theoretical approaches employed.

In rare cases, such as that of Malik ibn Anas, the Hadith scholars were also jurists. Such scholars not only developed legal opinions but also transmitted their own collections of hadith. Malik considered the Sunna to encompass more than the practice of the Prophet, as revealed through his authentic say- ings and the sound narrations of his deeds and approvals. Thus, he included in his
Muwatta’
the normative practice of the people of Medina during the lifetime of the Prophet.

Shafi‘i believed that the Sunna could be derived from solitary (
ahad
) trans- missions of hadith. In other words, if a single Companion of the Prophet related a hadith and the chain of transmission was sound, that hadith could be used to derive a sound ruling, even if no other Companion corroborated the hadith with independent narrations. Abu Hanifa (d. 767
CE
) and Malik disagreed with Shafi‘i about this. According to Malik, determining legislation by means of solitary narrations would lead to confusion in discerning the Sunna.

An example of different approaches to determining the Sunna can be seen in the case of fasting on Friday, the day of the communal
jumu‘a
prayer. Sha- fi accepted a solitary hadith transmitted with a sound chain back to the

The
Sunna
: The Way of the Prophet Muhammad
137

Prophet, in which the Prophet prohibited fasting on Fridays except in Rama- dan. However, Malik set aside this hadith, preferring the practice of the stu- dents of the Prophet’s Companions, who were known to fast on Fridays. He reasoned that Medina was the Prophet’s city and the place where he spent the last 10 years of his life. Therefore, any practice that was widespread among the scholars of Medina could only have been with the approval of the Prophet’s Companions and hence with the approval of the Prophet himself.

While Abu Hanifa agreed with Malik regarding the problem of solitary hadith, he relied on the Qur’an rather than on the precedent of the people of Medina as his primary source. In the absence of a clear ruling from the Qur’an, he referred to the Sunna, but he had rigorous caveats about which hadith he used to determine the Sunna. As supplements to rulings from the Qur’an, he accepted only multiply supported (
mutawatir
) and well-known (
mashhur
) hadith accounts with several narrators in each generation. In addi- tion, he accepted those hadith accounts only if their rulings were actually put into practice by scholars. In the case of solitary hadith, Abu Hanifa would accept only those that a Companion of the Prophet related to a group of other Companions, and so long as no one in the group disagreed with the narration. Abu Hanifa also rejected hadith accounts whose logic he deemed to be contradicting Qur’anic principles.

The fourth Sunni Imam, Ahmad ibn Hanbal, followed a methodology similar to that of Shafi i. However, like Abu Hanifa and Malik, he accepted traditions that were related by a trustworthy follower of the Prophet’s Com- panions without being traced back to the Prophet himself, while Shafi rejected such traditions.

THE SHI‘A AND THE SUNNA

The Shi‘a community comprises approximately 15 percent of the Muslim world, with the majority of its adherents in Iran and large numbers in Iraq, Lebanon, Kuwait, Bahrain, Afghanistan, India, Yemen, and eastern Saudi Arabia. Like the Sunnis, Shi‘as have different schools of thought in their tradition. Most Shi‘as belong to the school known as the
Imami
and adhere to the Twelve Imams. Following the Prophet is central to their tradition, but Shi‘as give great consideration to the Prophet’s direct descendants through his daughter Fatima and cousin ‘Ali and ascribe to them a special place of authority within the tradition. The Shi‘as also believe in Hadith but usually refer to them as
akhbar
(‘‘news’’ or ‘‘reports’’). Moreover, they believe that the rulings of the Twelve Imams are as important in matters of faith and law as the Prophet’s are. To the Shi‘a, the Twelve Imams are consid- ered infallible in religious matters; their authority is akin to that of the Pope in modern Catholicism.