Series Navigation
[ Part One: Important Warning ] [ Part Two: Asking The First Questions ] [ Part Three: First Examined Hadiths ] [ Part Four: The Question of Generations, Another Hint ]
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Addendum – Can Jesus, the Mahdi and the dajjal surpass or even match The Avengers?
Manipulation of Prophecy The Future and YOU
[Part 1: Past Ummahs and Our Delusions – Part 2:Contrasting Present and Past – Part 3:The Trap and Background Music – Part 4:Miracles in the Seemingly un-Miraculous – Part 5:Conclusion, Crux and Solution]
Peace unto those who seek it, and thank you for returning. Before we go deep into this series, there is one critical matter that we wish to discuss. Do not allow yourself, out of laziness or any other excuse, to skip this short yet critical statement.
Read this carefully and reflect on this mutawatir authentic narration, do not skim it, read it slowly:
من كذب علي متعمدا فليتبوأ مقعده من النار
“Whoever lies against me deliberately, let him take his seat in the Fire”
Next, consider the fact that there are two types of lies, lies of overt commission, and lies by omission. Both are falsehoods.
In this series we will examine many hadiths that exist in several documented collections. Various Muhaditheen, scholars of hadith, throughout the ages have graded them differently. We warn you, in the strongest possible terms, to not make the mistake of dismissing them out of hand, declaring them false, or forged.
Keep this in mind as you read, falsely accusing Muslim narrators of actually fabricating hadiths may place you in a very difficult situation, before Allah. It will also blind you to the intricacies of the dajjal’s handiwork, and leave you without adequate defense, or the means to even recognize his deceptions.
This warning is our excuse before Allah, to be very, very, careful if you are even remotely tempted to lie by omission on the Blessed Prophet saaws, by declaring that something attributed to him is false. Do not take this lightly, disregarding this warning or making light of it could have very negative consequences on Qiyama, the day of Judgment. We wash our hands clean of your case, having warned you.
This religion and its texts are not a matter of games, personal caprice and whims. Even deeply felt inclinations about what you believe to be real and true are not permission to invalidate the text of a hadith simply because it makes you feel uncomfortable.
There exists a modern tendency to either weaken or declare false and forged hadiths that, somehow, do not fit one’s preconceived notions; whether one’s own ideas and preoccupations, what one wishes were true and mentally projects upon the world, or what one has heard from others, be they scholars or Joseph Fulan the cab driver.
Think to yourself, and ask your very soul, are you willing to, on Qiyama, admit before the throne of Allah that you intentionally lied upon the Blessed Prophet SAAWS, because something that – objectively – he did speak, was misunderstood by you simply because you lacked the context, thus you declared his words false out of an arrogance where, at least, a more honest reply would be to simply admit “I do not know, It’s possible it’s true.” – this is the proper question to ask yourself.
Usually, experts on hadith agree that fabricating narrations and attributing them to the messenger of Allah is the intent of that warning by The Prophet SAAWS. However, that interpretation misses wholly half the intent of The Messenger SAAWS. The missing half is that, not only is it a crime to fabricate false narrations, but it is just as criminal to deny transmitted narrations from The Messenger SAAWS by a chain of practicing Muslims.
The deception practiced in this art is to attack the reliability of good practicing Muslim narrators and thus belie a statement by the Messenger Of Allah SAAWS. But this is just subterfuge to achieve a lie against The Prophet SAAWS by more contorted means that may evade the unsuspecting mind. We hope that it now becomes patently clear that it is as sinful a practice as the more common lie by commission.
If you claim to love our Blessed Prophet SAAWS and his Companions and the Progeny of his House, then how could you falsify this love by taking the risk of casting off pearls of knowledge and wisdom that may be from his blessed lips simply because somehow they do not fit, into your notions, or worldviews.
Is it true that many narrations, sincerely declared false by scholars with good names and reputations, have isnads, attributions, that other scholars have verified to varying grades? Of course this is true, and this is our point. Being a scholar is no immunity from error, we do not worship the people of knowledge, we respect them as due by the command of Allah, exalted and glorified be he, and his Blessed Prophet. We do not slavishly follow every word of every person where their words may lead one to perdition.
Witness, then, the danger of throwing out hadiths and saying they have no root. In history, know that many things have been actually lost, a fact well known to those with knowledge, entire major hadith collections have become extinct due to time’s vagaries and the ravishes of history: invasions, war, the campaigns against scholars, and the burning of major libraries. In recent years fragments of collections long believed lost have emerged in Yemen. It is possible, nay likely, that there are to this day families preserving as their family’s heritage treasuries of books, that the Ummah has not, and perhaps will not, see. So the fact that you haven’t heard of a hadith means nothing.
Succintly, would any scholar of hadith swear upon his faith that hadiths classified as authetic are beyond the shadow of doubt? And, would any expert on hadith swear upon his faith that a weak hadith is beyond redemption?
The honest answer is: No.
This is the gist of this post. And it is a serious challenge to the tradition of textual analysis and authentication.
So how do we redeem our corpus of hadiths and our very selves from this wrecking ball of an argument against what i shall call mechanical textualism?
The answer is both simple and common-sensical: when we normal mortals hear conversation and later on retell it, it is the meanings that we seek to remember and transmit and not the exact text of the conversation. Therein lies all the wisdom at the foundation of what was originally the science of hadith before it became a futile competition in verbosity and mental mnemonic capacity.
And it was men like Bukhari that turned the science of hadith on its head: from a practical art of preserving the injunctions of the Prophet SAAW, i.e. the meanings and intent of his blessed speech, to an elaborate intricate and ultimately counterproductive science which treats narrators as digital recorders.
We leave you with this, until next time.
[ Part One: Important Warning ] [ Part Two: Asking The First Questions ] [ Part Three: First Examined Hadiths ] [ Part Four: The Question of Generations, Another Hint ]
Aswrb
The last paragraph was unnecessary and the criticism of Imam Al Bukhari and other such Muhadditheen is unfair. It is because of this methodology of the Muhadditheen that we have been able to record the magnificient corpus of hadith literature, distinguish it from myths, stories and legends and verify the truth, falsehood and distortions within it; thereby preserving our correct dogma and ritual practices from future corruption. It is the people of a later generation, not of the ‘Khayrul Quroon’, that misunderstood this process i.e. they forgot that the whole point of the preservation was not of the words, the letters or vowels but of the essence, the message that Rasul (saaw) was trying to convey. It is also important to note that although the Hadith Scholars were the scribes of the expressed Sunnah, the role of interpreting, synthesising and succinctly deriving the meanings from the ‘whole’ corpus, whether it be Daeef, Hasan, or Sahih was carried out by the Fuqahaa. Each of us strives towards our own talents and indeed “man was created weak”. Therefore, may Allah reward both groups for their immense efforts, forgive them of their shortcomings and we are grateful to Allah for endowing us with the ‘baseerah of the mu’min’, thereby allowing us to gain “yufaqqih fid deen” in the matters of utmost importance in our age. Ameen.
al Salaam alaikum brother Muzzammil
Thank you for returning and your advice.
Inshallah we hope to go into more details shortly. We do not criticize the early ‘aimmah of the Muhaditheen, but it is clear that many later Muslims have mistook certain things and in doing so put in danger the entire broad expanse of the Sunnah.
An example, Ahmad Bin Hanbal, Raheemullah alaihi, one of the greatest Muhaditheen of the generation before Muslim, Bukhari, Abud Dawud, etc – raheem’ullah alaihim – fully accepted “daif” hadith in matters of Fitan wa Malahim. This wisdom has been forgotten
If Allah grants us life and time enough, and if events do not spin out before we are able to finish, we hope to show how our analysis, and our warnings, really do harmonize with the understanding of the early Sunni Ulama, and in particular Imam Malik and Imam Abu Hanifa, raheem’ullah alaihim
Hanafis are aware of how Imam Abu Hanifa’s methodologies of grading hadith and ascertaining the Sunnah were misunderstood and abused by many, yet he is one of the lights of the Ahl Sunnah wa jamaa. And Imam Malik’s methodologies and reliance on ‘amal even in examining ‘Sahih” ahadith” likewise is misunderstood by many later in the Ummah.
We believe that misunderstanding the nuances in the early ‘Alims’ methods has created a situation in which VITAL HADITHS are ignored or dismissed.
In this field, Fitan and Malahim, this goes against the very understanding of the Sunnah and permissible use of the reports by the early Ulama. Our warning is directed at this. Ignoring the daif in the Fitan literature can be suicidal to the Ummah.
Inshallah we hope to post more soon.