PATIENT
The Hadith literature
SUBJECT
Sayings, actions and approvals of the Prophet Muhammad
ROLE
Second source of Islamic law, after the Quran
METHOD
Isnad (chain) and matn (text)
CHIEF COMPLAINT
How do we know what the Prophet said and did, and how do we separate reliable reports from forged ones?
HISTORY OF PRESENT ILLNESS
A hadith is a recorded report of something the Prophet Muhammad said, did, or approved of. The Quran commands prayer but does not describe how to pray; it commands fasting but does not detail the rules. The hadith fill in the practical details and preserve the Prophet's example, the Sunnah. Within decades of his death reports were being fabricated, by political factions, storytellers, traders and sects, and that drove the development of hadith criticism, which checks every link in the chain of narrators. Sunni Islam has six canonical collections; Shia Islam has its own, based on the Prophet and the twelve Imams.
REVIEW OF SYSTEMS
ISNAD AND MATN
Every hadith has two parts: the chain of narrators who passed it down, and the text itself. Both are evaluated by scholars.
THE COLLECTIONS
Bukhari and Muslim (the Two Authentics), the four Sunan, Malik's Al-Muwatta (the oldest surviving collection, around 795 CE) and Musnad Ahmad. Shia Islam has the Four Books, including Al-Kafi.
FORGERY
Reports invented for politics, storytelling, trade and sectarian aims. The science of rijal criticism checked each transmitter: were they trustworthy, with a good memory, and did they actually meet the person they cited?
LAW
Actions are classed as obligatory, recommended, permitted, disliked or forbidden. The four Sunni legal schools (Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i, Hanbali) weigh hadith differently.
THE INNER LIFE
Hadith Qudsi and the hadith about the heart are the foundation of Sufi practice. The Hidden Treasure hadith is loved in Sufism but considered weak or fabricated by most hadith scholars.
PHYSICAL EXAM — STYLE & STRUCTURE
- —Hadith literally means 'speech' or 'report'. Sunnah is the broader term for the Prophet's example.
- —Bukhari spent sixteen years compiling his collection and reportedly examined 600,000 hadiths. His collection is second in authority only to the Quran in Sunni Islam.
- —Hadith Qudsi are reports where the Prophet conveys words from God that are not part of the Quran.
- —An anthology, the Forty Nawawi Hadith, has been the classic introduction in Islamic education for centuries.
- —Contested ground: Quranists reject hadith as unreliable, women were major transmitters (about 2,210 hadith are attributed to Aisha), and Prophetic medicine is debated as binding practice or cultural history.
ASSESSMENT & PLAN
Start with the Hadith of Gabriel (Hadith Jibril) and the Forty Nawawi, then the hadith on character, then pick one of the collections. Learn to ask, of any hadith, who passed it on and how reliable they were. It is a non-denominational reference guide, and the Sunni, Shia and reformist approaches differ on much of this.