The two most authentic books of Hadith

Saheeh Al-Bukhari: Of all the works of Hadith, Saheeh Al-Bukhari and Saheeh Muslim are regarded as the most authentic and authoritative books, after Al-Qur’an. Indeed the very word “Saheeh” means “authentic”.

Saheeh Al-Bukhari was compiled by Imaam (leader) of Hadith, Mohammad Ibn Ismaa’eel Al-Bukhari, born 194H in Bukhara, central Asia. He travelled at an early age seeking knowledge to Hijaaz (Makkah and Madinah), Ancient Syria, Iraq, Egypt, etc. He devoted more than 16 years of his life to the actual compilation of this work. He learnt from more than 1,000 scholars.

It is said that Imaam Al-Bukhari  collected over 300,000 Hadiths and he himself memorised 200,000 of which some were unreliable. He wrote many books especially on the bibliography of Hadith narrators and other books on various issues of Fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence). However, his book ‘Saheeh Al-Bukhari’, stands out for being the most authentic book of Hadith. It was also the first book to contain only authentic Hadiths, while previous books contained authentic and non-authentic Hadiths, as well as sayings of the companions  and others. Imaam Al-Bukhari  died in his hometown, Bukhara in the territory of Khurasaan (West Turkistan), in the year 256H.

He grouped the traditions of the Prophet sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam under various headings dealing with specific points of Islamic jurisprudence. In his time, the schools of law had been generally established and his objective was to catalogue the traditions he regarded as authentic in relation to their respective topics of jurisprudence.

Before he recorded each Hadith, he would perform ablution and offer a two-Rak’ah prayer and supplicate to Allah. Many religious scholars of Islam tried to find fault in the great remarkable collection, but without success. It is for this reason, they unanimously agreed that the most authentic book after the Book of Allah is Saheeh Al-Bukhari.

Some facts about Saheeh Al-Bukhari:

1. It contains 7,275 Hadiths, which he chose from the large number of Hadiths that he  had collected.

2. The number of complete unrepeated Hadiths is 2,230.

3. All the Hadiths mentioned are authentic.

4. The conditions for accepting a Hadith were very stringent. Such as:

a) The chain of narrators must be linked, i.e. every narrator must have met his predecessor, (the man of whom he heard the Hadith from, up to the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam.)

b) For it to be enclosed in the Saheeh, the narrators must be of the highest caliber regarding their piety, manners, memory, integrity, etc.

5. The book is not a mere book of narrations; it is essentially a course of study on Hadith, its derivatives, inductions and research.

6. Each one of its 97 chapters is headed by a relevant verse from the Quran that complements the meaning of the Hadiths quoted.

7. Finally, much more could be said about this monumental work, however, it is enough to say that many people have reached fame and achieved the highest qualifications by studying the book, researching it and commenting on it.

Saheeh Muslim:

Saheeh Muslim is the second most authentic book of Hadith after Saheeh Al-Bukhari, compiled by Imaam Muslim ibn Al-Hajaaj Al-Nisapuri . Born in 202H and died in 261 H. He travelled widely to gather his collection of Hadith to Iraq Hijaaz, Ancient Syria, and Egypt. He learnt from many scholars, most of which were Al-Bukhari’s teachers. He also learnt from the Imaam Al-Bukhari himself  and became his most loyal student. Like Imaam Al-Bukhari, Allah have mercy upon him, he, Allah have mercy upon him, wrote many books on the sciences of Hadith.

He, Allah have mercy upon him, sought not so much to complement the issues at stake in the fiqh, the lslamic jurisprudence, but rather to produce a collection of sound traditions, an authentic record, on which future studies of Hadith could be based.

Some facts about Saheeh Muslim:

1. The book contains 4,000 non-repeated Hadiths and 12,000 repeated ones.

2. Many narrations are mentioned in Saheeh Al-Bukhari, but with different chain of narrators.

3. In every chapter more than one Hadith with the same meaning but with different chains and text are listed. The first Hadith in each chapter is the strongest, followed by weaker narrations in order to strengthen weaker narrations.

4. Excellent classification.

5. The book is forwarded by a detailed introduction about the basis of the sciences of Hadith.

Saheeh Al-Bukhari is preferred over Saheeh Muslim based on the authenticity of the Hadiths. Imaam Al-Bukhari was stricter in selecting Hadiths (chains) than Imaam Muslim . Besides considering all the conditions of a Saheeh Hadith, Imaam Al-Bukhari  stipulated a further condition that a narrator should meet the person from whom he is narrating the Hadith.

Imaam Muslim  however, did not stipulate the evidence of meeting the narrator from whom he is narrating, but according to him, it is sufficient to accept the Hadith of a narrator if he lives in the same period and there was the possibility of meeting the narrator from whom he is reporting the Hadith. So, the condition of Imaam Muslim was less strict than the condition of Imaam Al-Bukhari. 

While Bukhari’s compilation is considered the more reliable of the two, Muslim’s arrangement of his material has been recognised as superior, and rightly so. While Al-Bukhari  made the traditions in his collection testify to his own schedule of various points of law, Muslim  left them to speak for themselves.

Article source: http://www.islamweb.net/emainpage/

The effects of using weak Hadith

Applying weak Hadith in excellent deeds

Very often when you point to the weakness of a Hadith you hear being cited, someone will immediately say: “But this Hadith is talking about (the reward of) excellent deeds, and it is all right to refer to unauthentic Hadith when talking about excellent deeds.”

It has become a norm amongst the majority of a good number of scholars and students of Islamic learning that it is all right to use weak Hadith when it refers to the reward of excellent deeds. They consider it a fully accepted rule that should not be argued. They also would quote the words of great scholars to support their point.

Before going into detail to refute the arguments of these people, let me point out that they have, in general, misunderstood the sayings of the great scholars of Islam they quote, relative to weak Hadith and how it should be used.

This serious misunderstanding has led to the great epidemic of freely using weak narrations; which certainly may involve lying against the Messenger of Allah .

Refutation of the claim:

First, we should mention that the rule cited earlier (that weak Hadith can be used in excellent deeds) is not accepted by all the scholars of Hadith. For instance, Abu Bakr Ibn ‘Arabi said: “The weak Hadith should be absolutely avoided and not dealt with.”

Second, we should know that the scholars of Hadith who permitted the use of weak Hadith have set very strict rules applying to their use. Al-Haafith Ibn Hajar Al-‘Asqalaani  said: “There are three conditions that must be fulfilled in order to use the weak Hadith:

a. It is well accepted that the weakness should only be slight. This will help to exclude Hadith reported by liars or accused reporters (of lying) who are known to commit big mistakes.

b. The weak Hadith should be used under already well-established principles and should not bring in ideas of its own.

c. When a weak Hadith is used (after it fulfils the above two conditions), it should not be believed to be said by the Messenger of Allah ; to do so we would be crediting him with that which he did not say.”

For the above conditions to be satisfied, people planning to use the weak Hadith should have the ability to:       

1. Distinguish between the weak and the authentic Hadith in order to fulfil condition (c) above, otherwise they may fall into lying about the Messenger .

2. Distinguish between the slightly weak Hadith and those which are very weak or fabricated, in order to fulfil condition (a) above.

What should be very clear to Muslims is that the ability to make the above two distinctions is not possessed except by a very small category of the scholars of Hadith (who can be counted on the fingers).

In particular with reference to item (2) above, only a few of the scholars of Hadith in all of the history of Islam have dealt with it.

Someone might justifiably ask: “Why are we so strict in this matter (of using weak Hadith), when some scholars of Hadith have permitted it?”

The answer to this question was given by a great scholar of Hadith, Mohammad Naassir Ad-Deen Al-Albaani who said:

“The earlier scholars used to mention the Hadith with their full Isnaad (chain of Narrators), so that any other scholar reading their treatise could know from the chain of Narrators the degree of authenticity of the Hadith.”

We pray that this small introduction to the subject of weak Hadith and using it as proof has helped in clarifying how dangerous this is.

Article source: http://www.islamweb.net/emainpage/