ISLAM: Can you answer this question about the sunnah?
"Sunnah" is the word used to refer to all the Eadith's, right? And many Muslims consider this as an extension of the Quran, a complementary part, right? But my question, since I've heard that the Eadith's have been written down and coalesced a few decennial after the Prophet Mohammed's death, how do we know they are still reliable? How do we know their original message hasn't been completely distorted by the people after years and years of being told from mouth to ear for so long? How do scholars actually determine weather a Eadith is "sahib" or not?
That's the thing I have with Islam. How are they reliable! as a history student I need to understand the provenance of a source, not just follow it blindly. Muslims usually leave it to scholars who are 'supposed to know everything'.
The original Message is not Distorted.. because ..The Hadiths have been preserved by Scholars of Islam The Famous Scholars and their Hadiths which are widely used are
Sahih Bukhari, Muslim, Sunan Abu Dawood, Tirmidhi, Ibn Maja, Tabarani, Hakim,,
These are verified by renowed scholar of today by SHEIKH AL ALBANY.. who have separated the Hadiths which are weak and of Sound(STRONG) narration.. if you have read his books he .. has mentioned which is sound and which is weak.. Peace
Sheikh Ahmad Kutty, a senior lecturer and Islamic scholar at the Islamic Institute of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, states:
The fundamental Islamic sources such as the Qur'an and the core traditions of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) have been fully preserved intact. This can be demonstrated easily by referring to the sound historical methodologies in verifying the sources.
There is a basic distinction between Islam and other religions in this regard: Islam is singularly unique among the world religions in the fact that in order to preserve the sources of their religion, the Muslims invented a scientific methodology based on precise rules for gathering data and verifying them.
As it has been said, " Isnad or documentation is part of Islamic religion, and if it had not been for isn't , everybody would have said whatever he wanted."
So, there is no comparison between the sources of Islam and those of other religions in this respect, as you will never find anything comparable to the many sciences Muslims invented for this noble task of preserving the sources of Islam. By virtue of such sciences, you can scrutinize and verify every report in the sources.
Thanks to these efforts, the Qur'an as well as the core tradition on which the Islamic faith and practices are based, have been fully protected.
In this context, it should be added that the process of recording Hadith started as early as the time of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). Actually, many Companions recorded Eadith's, and, `Abdullah bin `Amr, for example, was permitted and even encouraged by the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) to write down Hadith. In addition, some 50 Companions and many Successors are said to have possessed manuscripts (sahifah, Arabic plural suhuf), which was used as a term to designate compendia of Hadith that emerged during the century before the formation of the classical collections. For more elaboration, you can read about the stages of recording Hadith.
http://www.kalamullah.com/Books/CoC-_Master_Reference.pdf
Do also download and read more books regarding the science of hadith (and ilm ul isnaad - chain of narrations)
http://www.kalamullah.com/hadith.html
please read more from:
http://www.missionislam.com/knowledge/Authenticity.htm
Also:
The Authenticity of Hadith
http://www.islamawareness.net/Hadith/authenticity1.html
In the Name of Allah, The Most Beneficent, The Most Merciful.
Verily We: It is We Who have sent down the Dhikr (i.e. the Qur'?n) and surely, We will guard it (from corruption). (Qur'an 15:9)
The promise made by Allah (SWT) in Qur'an 15:9 is obviously fulfilled in the undisputed purity of the Qur'anic text throughout the fourteen centuries since its revelation. However, what is often forgotten by many Muslims is that the divine promise also includes, by necessity, the Sunnah of the Prophet (saws), because the Sunnah is the practical example of the implementation of the Qur'anic guidance, the wisdom taught to the Prophet (saws) along with the scripture, and neither the Qur'an nor the Sunnah can be understood correctly without the other.Allah (SWT) preserved the Sunnah by enabling the companions and those after them to memorize, write down and pass on the statements of the Prophet (saws), and the descriptions of his way, as well as to continue the blessings of practicing the Sunnah.Later, as the purity of the knowledge of the Sunnah became threatened, Allah (SWT) caused the Muslim Ummah to produce individuals with exceptional memory skills and analytical expertise, who travelled tirelessly to collect thousands of narrations and distinguish the true words of prophetic wisdom from those corrupted by weak memories, from forgeries by unscrupulous liars, and from the statements of the large number of Ulama (scholars), the companions and those who followed their way. All of this was achieved through precise attention to the words narrated, and detailed familiarity with the biographies of the thousands of reporters of hadith.The methodology of the expert scholars of hadith in assessing the narrations and sorting out the genuine from the mistaken and fabricated, for ms the subject matter of the science of hadith. In this article a brief discussion is given of the terminology and classifications of hadith.
Matn (text), isnad (chain of reporters), and taraf (the part, or the beginning sentence, of the text which refers to the sayings, actions or characteristics of the Prophet (saws), or his concurrence with others action). The authenticity of the hadith depends on the reliability of its reporters, and the linkage among them.
Classifications of Hadith
# According to the reference to a particular authority
A number of classifications of hadith have been made. Five of these classifications are briefly described subsequently.
* Qudsi - Divine; a revelation from Allah (SWT); relayed with the words of the Prophet (saws).
* Marfu - elevated; a narration from the Prophet (saws), e.g. I heard the Prophet (saws) saying ...
* Mauquf- stopped: a narration from a companion only, e.g., we were commanded to ...
* Maqtu' - severed: a narration from a successor.
# According to the links of Isnad - interrupted or uninterrupted
* Musnad - supported: a hadith which is reported by a traditionalist, based on what he learned from his teacher at a time of life suitable for learning; similarly - in turn - for each teacher until the isnad reaches a well known companion, who in turn, reports from the Prophet (saws).
* Mutassil - continuous: a hadith with an uninterrupted isnad which goes back only to a companion or successor.
* Mursal - hurried: if the link between the successor and the Prophet (saws) is missing, e.g. when a successor says "The Prophet said...".
* Munqati - broken: is a hadith whose link anywhere before the successor (i.e., closer to the traditionalist recording the hadith) is missing.
* Mu'adal - perplexing: is a hadith whose reporter omits two or more consecutive reporters in the isnad.
* Mu'allaq - hanging: is a hadith whose reporter omits the whole isnad and quotes the Prophet (saws) directly (i.e., the link is missing at the beginning).
# According to the number of reporters involved in each stage of Isnad
Five categories of hadith can be identified:
* Mutawatir - Consecutive: is a hadith which is reported by such a large number of people that they cannot be expected to agree upon a lie, all of them together.
* Ahad - isolated: is a hadith which is narrated by people whose number does not reach that of the mutawatir.
It is further classified into:
* Mash'hur - famous: hadith reported by more than two reporters.
* Aziz - rare, strong: at any stage in the isnad, only two reporters are found to narrate the hadith.
* Gharib - strange: At some stage of the Isnad, only one reporter is found relating it.
# According to the nature of the text and isnad
* Munkar - denounced: is a hadith which is reported by a weak narrator, and whose narration goes against another authentic hadith.
* Mudraj - interpolated: an addition by a reporter to the text of the hadith being narrated.
According to tradition, Muhammad would take a rota with his wives, sleeping with each in their turn. One night, during Hafsa's turn, she asked to visit her father, and Muhammad granted her request. While she was gone, Muhammad took Mary the Coptic slave-girl and slept with her in Hafsa's bed ( east, Hafsa is not there, someone else must satisfy him in Hafsa's bed). Hafsa returned, was enraged, and confronted Muhammad. He promised (on oath) not to touch Mary again if she would keep this a secret, and then promised that her father Umar would be his successor after Abu Bakr (according to AL-Sira AL- Halabiyya, vol.2).
Hafsah, however, told Aisha of the incident, and for a full month Muhammad had no dealings with any of his wives, living with Mary alone. Aisha berated Muhammad for his deceit, whereupon Muhammad was finally given the vision recorded in Sura 66:1:
"O prophet, why forbiddest thou what God has made lawful to thee, seeking the good pleasure of thy wives...?"
Based on this aya it seems that Allah is in the business of not only getting Muhammad out of his sexual chaos, but that Allah justifies unfaithfulness and deceit as well.
We clearly see that Allah was always very quick to defend Muhammad's desires and this is exactly what Aisha said:
I used to backbite those (females) who offered themselves for the Messenger of Allah. So I asked: Does a woman offer herself? Then the Almighty Allah revealed: you (Muhammad) may put off whom you please of them, you may take to you whom you wish, and if you desire any whom you have separated, no blame attaches to you . It seems to me that your Lord hastens to satisfy your desire."
In other words, Allah is threatening these women that if they don't submit to Muhammad's desires, he will simply divorce them and get better ones. So Hafsa must not be angry that Muhammad slept with a slave girl, on her own bed , and on her turn day so Muhammad asks her to keep it secret and promises her father future postition and when she told Aisha Allah decided to threaten them.
One-day Muhammad goes to his wife?s house Hafsa the daughter of Omar and finds her maid Mariyah attractive. He sends Hafsa to Omar?s house, telling her that he wanted to see her. When Hafsa leaves, Muhammad takes Mariyah to bed and has intercourse with her. Meanwhile Hafsa, who finds out that her father was not expecting her, returns home much sooner than expected, and to her chagrin finds her illustrious husband in bed with her maid. She becomes hysteric and forgetting the station of the prophet she shouts and causes a scandal. The prophet pleads with her to calm down and promises not to sleep with Mariah anymore and begs her also not to divulge this secret to anyone else.
However, Hafsa would not control herself and relays everything to Ayisha who also turns against the prophet and jointly with his other wives cause him much anguish. So the prophet decides to punish all of them and not sleep with any one of his wives for one month. Depriving one?s wives sexually is the second grade of punishment recommended in the Quran. The first level is admonishing, the second level is depriving them of sex and the third level of punishment is beating them. Q. 4: 34.
Of course when a man decides to punish a wife with sexual deprivation he can satisfy himself with his other wives. But Muhammad?s anger had made him make the oath not to sleep with any of them for one month. That of course would have been too much of hardship for the beloved messenger of God, therefore God in his mercy came to the aid of his prophet and revealed the Surah Tahrim (Banning). In this Surah Allah rebukes Muhammad for being hard on himself and for depriving himself from what he really likes and has been made lawful for him, in order to please his wives
because just as Allah SWT gave his protection to the Qumran,he also gave it to the Eadith's
in the Qumran it says you MUST pray,but it doesn't say anywhere HOW TO
in the Eadith's it shows you HOW TO pray
so if there were no Eadith's it would pretty hard
ISLAM: Can you answer this question about the sunnah?
