Hadith refers to various traditions that describe the words, actions and habits of the great Islamic prophet Muhammad. This term has Arabic roots and means a report, record or narration.
Unlike the Koran, which is a literary work recognized by all Muslims, hadiths are not the same authoritative source for all branches of Islam. This article will answer the question of what the word hadith means, as well as talk about the types and history of the appearance.
Etymology of the word
As already mentioned above, the word "hadith" comes from the Arabic language and means a message, a story about a person. In the plural in Arabic, the term sounds like ahadit. In religious terminology, a hadith is a concept that describes statements, actions or tales of the Prophet Muhammad.
Typology
Depending on the content, hadiths can be divided into three main categories:
- The speech of the prophet.
- The action of the prophet.
- The attitude of the prophet to the actions of others.
Individual hadiths are classified by Muslim clerics and lawyers as sahih (genuine), hasan (good) or daif (weak, unreliable). Arab sources say that only Hadiths with the status of Sahih can be completely trusted.
From collections of interpretations of Islamic scholars it is known that such hadiths have an authoritative and respected transmitter. This typology is based on their accuracy and reliability. However, different groups of Muslims and Islamic scholars can classify hadiths in different ways, a lot depends on law schools.
What is a hadith?
According to Islamic tradition, the term “hadith” refers to messages about the sayings and actions of the Prophet Muhammad, as well as his tacit approval or criticism of what was said or done in his presence. However, some sources restrict the hadith to verbal messages, and the actions of the holy prophet and messages about his companions are part of the Sunnah, and not the hadith. Experts in the interpretation of the norms and rules of Islam give their definition of hadith - that it is something attributed to Muhammad, but that is not mentioned in the Qur'an.
Other related terms have a similar meaning:
- swag (news, information), which often refers to reports of Muhammad, but sometimes to traditions about his comrades and successors from the next generation;
- the term "atar" (translated from Arabic - footprints) usually refers to the traditions of his associates and successors;
- the word “sunnah” (custom) is also used in relation to the normative Islamic custom.
Concept history
To understand what a hadith is, let us turn to the history of Muslims. The legends about the life of Muhammad and the early history of Islam were transmitted orally over a hundred years after the death of the prophet in 632. Historians claim that Osman (the third caliph after Muhammad and his lifetime secretary) forced the Muslims to write down the Qur'an and hadith. Soon after, Osman's activity was interrupted by the insulted soldiers who killed him in 656. Then the Muslim community was drawn into the abyss of the civil war, called Fitna. After the fourth caliph Ali Ibn Abu Talib was killed in 661, the Omeyad dynasty established itself as the dominant one.
They became representatives of civil and spiritual authority. The Omeyad leadership was interrupted in 750 when the Abbasid dynasty took power and held it until 1258. Historians claim that the collection and analysis of hadiths continued from the very first day of the Omeyad dynasty. However, this activity was mainly an oral transmission of information about the prophet from respected Muslims to younger ones. Even if any of these early hadiths were written on paper, they did not survive. The hadiths and legends that are available today were recorded when the Abbasids took power one hundred years after the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. Today, collections of hadiths along with the Qur'an continue to be an important spiritual source from which Muslims draw divine knowledge.
The ratio of the various branches of Islam to hadiths
The various branches of Islam (Sunnis, Shiites, Ibadi) venerate different collections of hadiths, while the relatively small sect of the Koranists generally rejects the authority of any collection. Just as the Koranists are not a single community, Muslims who worship hadiths are also a heterogeneous group.
Muslims - adherents of the authority of the Hadith, in addition to the Qur'an, venerate collections of Hadith, although not necessarily the same source.
- In the Sunni direction of Islam, the canonical collections of hadiths: Sahih al-Bukhari (the most reliable and important source, which contains 7275 hadiths), Sahih Muslim (divided into 43 books, contains 7190 hadiths), Sunan al-Nasai, Sunan Abu Dawuda ”(contains 5274 hadiths),“ Jami at-Tirmizi ”(contains 3962 hadiths, divided into 50 chapters),“ Sunan Ibn Maji ”(contains more than 4000 hadiths, divided into 32 books and 1500 chapters). The Sunnis, in addition to the main ones, have other collections of hadiths, which are divided into primary and secondary.
- Among the Shiites, the following canonical collections of hadiths are venerated: al-Kafi, Man la yahduruhu-l-fakih, Tahzib al-akham and al-Istibsar.
- Mutazilite collection of hadiths - “Ibn Abu al-Hadid” (Interpretation of the Way of Oratory).
- Ibadite collection of hadiths - “Musnad ar-Rabi ibn Habib”.
The interaction of the Qur'an and Hadith
The importance of the Hadith is secondary to the Qur'an, given that the doctrine of the Islamic conflict of laws holds the Qur'an over the Hadith. Despite this, some hadiths have historically been equated with the Qur'an. Certain Islamic minorities even support traditions that contradict the Koran, thereby putting them in practice over the holy book. They argue that conflicting hadiths cancel those parts of the Qur'an that they conflict with.
Some modern Muslims believe that one holy Quran is enough to understand the norms of Islam. However, Muslims who follow traditional Islam believe that those who are guided only by the holy book deviate from a correct understanding of religion. Adherents of Islam who believe in tradition believe that it is impossible to interpret the Qur'an without the guidance of a hadith. Most Muslims claim that the Qur'an cannot be fully understood on its own and that the hadith is thus seen as a secondary source of Islam.
Hadith Foundation
The literary basis of the hadiths is the colloquial messages that were widespread in Islamic society after the death of Muhammad. Unlike the Qur'an, hadith collections were not published during the life of the prophet or immediately after his death. Hadiths were recorded and collected in large collections in the VIII and IX centuries, that is, several generations after the death of Muhammad, after the end of the era of the "legitimate" caliphate Rashidun.
Sunnah - Book of Hadith
The Sunna is a collection of all the hadiths ever recorded. In fact, this is the basis of Sharia (legal, religious, moral and other norms of Islam). The book of hadith is not a biography of Muhammad, but acts as a collection of stories about him, his actions, and sermons.
The meaning of hadith
Hadith is considered by Islamic scholars as an important tool for understanding the Qur'an and commentary (tafsir) for the interpretation of the holy book. Some important elements that are today considered an ancient part of traditional Islamic practice and norms, such as the obligatory ritual practice of the five prayers (obligatory Islamic prayers), are not actually mentioned in the Qur'an at all and originate exclusively from hadiths. It is also only in the hadith that the practice of rak'aht is given, which is a set of prayer postures and movements that are accompanied by the pronunciation of the words of prayer. All poses, movements and prayer words follow one another in a strictly defined order, deviation from which is fraught with the invalidity of prayer. All prayer formulas and words must be pronounced in Arabic.
Hadith are a necessary part of Islamic philosophy, which serves to correctly interpret the norms of Islam. Hadiths explain to Muslims the subtle details of Islamic norms and concepts in those areas of which the Qur'an is silent. The Quranic community, by contrast, has a critical view of hadith. They believe that if the holy book is silent about anything, then this means that Allah himself did not consider it necessary to say so. The Qur'anists are also convinced that the hadiths that contradict the Qur'an should be decisively rejected as a perversion of the philosophy of Islam.
Hadith Elements
Sanad and matn are essential elements of a hadith. Sanad is information that provides the path to the mat. The term “sanad” means a chain of storytellers who have heard and narrated a hadith from Muhammad, calling all previous storytellers. Math is an act or word of a prophet that is conveyed by sanadas (narrators). By the seventh century, the line of storytellers was considered correct, but later became ramified, and tracking sources was difficult.
Hadith Reliability
Another area of study of hadith is biographical analysis, which examines in detail the person transmitting the hadith. It includes analysis of the date and place of birth, family ties, teachers and students, religiosity, moral behavior, travel and relocation, as well as the date of death of the person. Based on these criteria, human reliability is evaluated. It is also determined whether a person could really convey the story of the prophet, which is based on reliable and verified sources.
An example of one of the most famous and reliable hadiths of the prophet is the following: “Allah grants as many awards to a wife who suffers the heavy character of his wife as Ayub, peace be upon him, for his tenacity in relation to love. And a wife who puts up with the heavy character of her husband will be rewarded just like Asiye, who was at Pharaoh’s wedding. ”