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_-_The_Recording_of_Hadeeth_001.jpg) Before discussing this topic, it should be noted that, in
order for something to be preserved, it is not a necessary condition that it be
recorded or written down. That is, simply because something was not written
down, it does not mean that it was not accurately and correctly preserved. Furthermore,
the writing of something down itself is not sufficient for the preservation of
something. It is possible that something is recorded incorrectly. Both of
these points were duly noted by the scholars of hadeeth. They did not require hadeeth
to be written down for them to be accepted although they did recognize the
importance of such a physical recording and many times, depending on the
personality involved, preferred the written record over the verbal record. These
scholars also realized that the mere recording of something is not sufficient.
It must also be ascertained that it was recorded properly. Hence, scholars of hadeeth
would accept or prefer written reports of scholars over memorized reports only
if it was known that those scholars were proficient and correct in their
writing.
It has been one of the favorite practices of many of the
Orientalists to constantly state the “fact” that hadeeth were not recorded at
first but were, instead, passed on only orally for the first two centuries
after the Hijrah (Arabic calendar). Therefore, hadeeth are not much more than
folklore and legend that was passed on orally and in a haphazard fashion for
many years. Unfortunately, this is a misconception that has become quite
widespread amongst many who have sufficed with a mere shallow research of the
subject. In reality, this false claim and incorrect view has, by the grace of
God, been refuted by numerous Muslim scholars in various doctoral dissertations
in the Muslim world as well as at Western Universities, such as the
dissertations of Muhammad Mustafa Azami (1967), published as Studies in
Early Hadeeth, and Imitiyaz Ahmad’s The Significance of Sunna and
Hadeeth and their Early Documentation from Edinburgh in 1974.
The recording of the hadeeth of the Prophet, may the
mercy and blessings of God be upon him, began during the time of the
Prophet himself. Al-Baghdaadi records a number of hadeeth that show that the
Prophet explicitly allowed the recording of his hadeeth. Here are some
examples:
1. Al-Daarimi and Abu Dawood in their Sunans
(books) recorded that Abdullah ibn Amr ibn al-As stated that they used to
record everything they heard from the Prophet. They were warned against doing
so as, it was argued, the Prophet was a human being who may be angry at times
and pleased at others. Abdullah stopped writing his hadeeth until they could
ask the Prophet about this issue. The Messenger of God told him:
“Write [my hadeeth], by the
One in whose hand is my soul, nothing comes out [the Prophet’s mouth] except the
truth.”
That is, whether he was angry or pleased what he spoke
was always the truth.
2. Al-Bukhari, in his Sahih (book),
recorded that Abu Hurairah said, “One can find none of the Companions of the
Messenger of God relating more hadeeth than I, except Abdullah ibn Amr because
he used to record the hadeeth while I did not do so.”
3. Al-Bukhari recorded that a person from Yemen came to the Prophet on the day of the Conquest of Mecca and asked him if he could get
the Prophet’s speech recorded, and the Prophet approved and told someone:
“Write it for the father of so and so.”
4. Anas narrated the statement, “Secure
knowledge by writing it.” This hadeeth has been related by a number of
authorities but mostly with weak chains. There is a dispute concerning whether
or not it is actually a statement of the Prophet or of some Companion. However,
according to al-Albani, the hadeeth, as recorded by al-Haakim and others, is
authentic.
There is no question, therefore, that the recording of hadeeth
began during the lifetime of the Messenger of God himself. This practice of
writing hadeeth continued after the death of the Messenger of God. Al-Azami,
in his work Studies in Early Hadeeth Literature, has listed and
discussed some fifty Companions of the Prophet who had recorded hadeeth.
Note the following:
Abdullah B. Abbas (3 B.H.-68 A.H.)… He was so eager
for knowledge that he would ask as many as 30 Companions about a single
incident… It seems he wrote what he heard and sometimes even employed his
slaves for this purpose… The following derived hadeeth from him in written
form: Ali b. Abdullah ibn Abbas, Amr b. Dinar, Al-Hakam b. Miqsam, Ibn Abu Mulaikah,
Ikrimah… Kuraib, Mujahid, Najdah… Said b. Jubair.
Abdullah B. Umar B. al-Khattab (10 B.H.-74 A.H.). He
transmitted a large number of ahadeeth, and was so strict in relating
them that he did not allow the order of a word to be changed even though it
would not have altered the meaning… He had books. One Kitab [book]
which belonged to Umar, and was in his possession, was read to him by Nafi
several times… The following derived hadeeth from him in written form: Jamil b.
Zaid al-Tai… Nafi client of ibn Umar, Said b. Jubair, Abd al-Aziz b. Marwan,
Abd al-Malik b. Marwan, Ubaidullah b. Umar, Umar b. Ubaidullah …
Al-Azami also compiled a list, discussing each
personality individually, of forty-nine people of “the first century successors”
who recorded hadeeth. Al-Azami
goes on to list eighty-seven of “the scholars covering the late first and early
second centuries” who recorded hadeeth. Then he
lists “from the early second century scholars” 251 people who collected and
recorded hadeeth. Thus
al-Azami has produced a list of 437 scholars who had recorded hadeeth and all
of them lived and died before the year 250 A. H. Many of them are from before
the time of Umar ibn Abdul Azeez, who has been wrongly credited with having
been the first person to ask for the collection of hadeeth. The story of Umar
ibn Abdul Azeez has actually been misunderstood and it does not mean that no
one collected hadeeth before him.
To quote al-Azami, “Recent research has proved that
almost all of the hadeeth of the Prophet was [sic] written down in the
life of the companions, which stretched to the end of the first century.”
This last statement is partially based on al-Azami’s own research in which he
has mentioned many Companions and Followers who possessed written hadeeth. Elsewhere,
he himself writes,
I have established in my doctoral thesis Studies in
Early Hadeeth Literature that even in the first century of the Hijra many
hundreds of booklets of hadeeth were in circulation. If we add another hundred
years, it would be difficult to enumerate the quantity of booklets and books
which were in circulation. Even by the most conservative estimate they were
many thousands.
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