ORIENTALIST ESSAY

The principles of hadith plays a vital role in the formation and explanation of the
Islamic shari’ah. It helps us to confirm the accuracy of the text (matn) and the chain of
narration (sanad) of the hadis, the condition of the narrator and from whom it was narrated.
Through this principles, we would be able to distinguished between the accepted hadith
(hadis maqbul) and rejected ones (hadis mardud). This principles enable us to understand the
meaning of hadis, verification of the perspicuous (muhkam) and ambiguous (mutashabihat)
as well as the abrogator (nasikh) and abrogated (mansukh) hadith. Through this science, we
would be able to identify the proper ways of dealing with certain ahadith, which appears to
have literal conflicts or textual contradiction. It also will helps us to find out the best possible
ways in dealing with time and place dimension of hadith. (Muhammad Hashim Kamali,
2005)

The words hadith means news, reports or narration. In Islamic terminology, the terms
hadith refers to report of something that our beloved Prophet Muhammad saw did, said or
consented to. The word khabar is also used to refer to these reports. Scholars have taken great
care to preserve these narrations. It is because, being rightly guided and correctly
understanding the Qur’an are dependent on the teachings of the Prophet saw (Shaykh Omar
Subedar). Based on Allah swt explains :

ُ‫علَ ْي ُك ْم َما ُح ِم ْلت ُ ْم َوإِ ْن ت ُ ِطيعُوه‬ َ ‫سو َل فَإ ِ ْن ت َ َوله ْوا فَإِنه َما‬
َ ‫علَ ْي ِه َما ُح ِم َل َو‬ ُ ‫الر‬ ‫َّللاَ َوأَ ِطيعُوا ه‬
‫قُ ْل أ َ ِطيعُوا ه‬
ُ ِ‫غ ْال ُمب‬
‫ين‬ ُ ‫سو ِل إِ هَّل ْالبَ ََل‬ ‫علَى ه‬
ُ ‫الر‬ َ ‫ت َ ْهتَد ُوا ۚ َو َما‬

“ Obey Allah, and obey the Messenger. If you turn away, (know that the Messenger) is only
responsible for the duty placed upon him, and you are responsible for the duty placed on you.
If you obey (the Messenger), you will be rightly guided. The Messenger’s duty is only to
deliver the message clearly”.

(Surah an-Nur 24 :54)

Every hadith has two parts. The first part is transmissions chains (sanad/isnad).
Transmissions chains is a list of all those who transmitted the saying of the prophet saw
beginning with the last transmitter to the one who collected it in his book and ending with the
companion who narrated it from the prophet saw ( Dr. Abu Ameenah Bilal Philips, 2007).
Besides that, it was part of the religion of Islam. Had it not been for isnad, anyone could say
whatever they want about the religion. Classification according to the beginning of the sanad
consist three component. Marfu is hadith which sanad stretches back to the prophet. Mawquf
is hadith which sanad reachs to the companion of Prophet and lastly is hadith Maqtu’, where
tabi’in (student of the companion Prophet) is the end of the sanad.

Hadith scholars initially sort hadith into two groups, based on the number of
narrators. There are mutawattir and ahad. Mutawatir means the hadith was reported by such a
large number of people that they cannot be expected to agree upon a lie, all of them together
( Dr. Suhaib Hassan, 2009). Mutawatir also has a consistent number of reporters from the
beginning to the end of its transmission chain. In terms of authencity, mutawatir reports are
considered to be as reliable as the Qur’an itself. While ahad which is narrated by people
whose number of narrator does not reach that of the mutawatir or individual transmission.
They are three types of ahad narrations. First masyhur, hadith reported by at least three
separate transmissions chains. Second ‘aziz, at least two reporters are found to narrate the
hadith in every generations and third is gharib, at some stage of isnad only one reporter is
found relating it. There are two types of gharib reports, gharib mutlaq and gharib nisbi.
Single recipient (gharib mutlaq) was reported by only one tabi’i from a particular sahabi.
Single in relation (gharib nisbi), was reduced to a single reporter anyway in its transmissions
chains apart of from its beginning (Shaykh Omar Subedar) .

Religious scholars on the hadith have divided the hadith into two sections, which is
hadith that is accepted (maqbul) and that is rejected (mardud). The hadith that is accepted is
authenticated (sahih) and worthy or good (hasan), whereas the hadith that is rejected is false
and weak in character. There were five conditions when determining the authenticity of a
hadith. These five conditions are sanad, ‘adalah (meaning that the narrator in the sanad chain
must be Muslim who is physically matured, of sound mind, not impious (fasiq) and has moral
integrity), dhabt (who safeguards and memorized the hadith well), syaz (no contradiction
between trustworthy narrator (thiqah) and another narrator much more trusted and the fifth
condition is there is no ‘illah (the hadith was free from any corruption) (Tuan Mohd Sapuan
and friends,2014). These five conditions were laid down to avoid matters such as deception
and mistakes, either on purpose or otherwise.

The second part is the text (matn). It consists of word from Prophet himself. Hadith
can falls within a certain level of classification. For example, some text in any way
contradicts the Qur’an. If so, the hadith is rejected. That does not mean it is false, perhaps the
reporter misunderstood the situation. There are one of the branch of hadith studies, which is
also known as musykil al-Hadith (the difficult in hadith) is concerned with the study of
conflict in hadith and proposes methods by which to reconcile them. If that’s situation is
happened, we have way to solve it. We can resolved by recourse to interpretation (ta’wil), the
latter is often attempted through the application of the rules of takhsis or by qualifying the
absolute (taqyid al-mutlaq). A conflict may also be resolved by attempting reconciliation (al-
jam’ wa al-tawfiq) or by providing factual information so as to distinguish the context and
application of each hadith with the purpose of retaining both and applying each in their
respective capacity.( Muhammad Hashim Kamali, 2005).

Another branch of the hadith studies in concerned with odd and unfamiliar
expressions that are encountered in hadith. When the hadith contain rare and difficult
expressions, it becomes naturally difficult to understand. The ulama’ have, in fact,
encountered unusual expression in the hadith especially after the documentation of hadith on
a large scale and it is said that the tabi’I al-tabi’un, that is, the third generation of Muslim,
were the first to speak on this subject. The elements may be due to customary usage and
differences in customs and dialects. A certain degree of ambiguity and confusion has been
caused by contact and literacy influence from non-Arab sources, especially the Persian
language and tradition after the mid-second century hijra when such influence began to affect
the language and culture of the Arabian peninsula. (Muhammad Hashim Kamali, 2005).

The abrogator and abrogated in hadith (al-Nasikh wa’l-Mansuh fi al-Hadith) also the
important subject in hadith studies. Abrogation is defined as the removal or suspension of one
Shari’a ruling by another, provided that the latter is of a subsequent origin and the two
rulings are enacted separately from one another. The occasion for naskh arises only when
there is a clear conflict between two ahadith and the one be distinguished from the other in
regard to its subject matter, time or circumstance. There are four type of abrogation in hadith.
The first of these is one that is explicitly known from the saying of Prophet himself. Second,
abrogation in hadith may also be known from the saying of a Companion rather than the text
of the hadith itself. Third, it may also be known through an historical or sequence of events.
And the lastly, it may be known through general consensus (ijma’).( Muhammad Hashim
Kamali, 2005)

It should be noted that there were recordings of the hadith in Prophet’s time. People
who reported large numbers of hadith were more likely to have written down things and also
to have been in the company of the Prophet more frequently. When the chains got longer, and
reporters further removed, the collectors and compilers used careful words to describe the
mod of transmission. The following eight methods were sama’a, ‘ard, ‘ijazah, munawalah,
kitabaah, I’laam, wasiyyah and wajada.

First, sama’a means reading by teachers to students (Dr.Mohd Shafi). This method of
transmission of hadith had four different formats. Wether it was recitation from memory by
teacher, reading from book, questions and answers or dictation. Reading from book method
could either involve the teacher reading from his own books, which was preferred or the from
his student’s book, which was either a copy or a selection from his own work ( Dr. Abu
Ameenah Bilal Philips,2012).

The second method of transmission is ‘ard mean reading by the students to the
teachers. In this method, the students would read the teacher’s book to him while other
students compared the hadith with their own books or they listened carefully.

Third is ‘ijazah, mean permit someone to transmit a hadith on the authority of the
scholar. This method referred to a teacher giving permission to a student to transmit the
teacher’s book on his authority without having read the book back to him.

Fourth is munawalah, mean to hand someone written material. This is the act of a
teacher giving a student his book or one of his verified copies with the authority to transmit it.

Fifth is kitaabah mean to write hadith for someone or the other meaning
correspondence. If a teacher wrote hadith and sent them to a student to transmit, it was
referred to as kitaabah which may be translated as learning by correspondence or distance
learning, in modern times.

Sixth is i’laam mean, announcement or inform someone that informer has the
permission to transmit certin material. However before any student who heard hadith from
the book could transmit them, he would have to obtain an original copy which bore the
certificate of the signature of the author.

Seventh is wasiyyah mean entrust someone his books at the time of death and lastly is
wajada mean discover some book or written records.
 Rujukan

Muhammad Hashim Kamali. A Textbook of Hadis Studies. 2005. The Islamic Foundation
Markfield Conference Centre: United Kingdom.

Dr. Abu Ameenah Bilal Philips. Usool Al- Hadeeth. 2007. International Islamic Publishing
House.

Shaykh Omar Subedar. Article : An Introduction To The Principles of Hadith Studies.

Bukhari Publications.

Tuan Mohd Sapuan Tuan Mohd Ismail, Rohaizan baru, Ahmad Fauzi Hassan, Ahmad Zagid
b. Salleh & Mohd Fauzi Mohd Amin. 2014. The Matn and Sanad Critisms in Evaluating the
Hadith. Canadian Center of Science and Education.

Dr. Suhaib Hassan. Introduction To The Science of Hadith Classification. 2009. Word Press.