I t is r e p o r t e d t h a t t h e A p o s t l e of A l l a h (SAW) had

said:
"You w i l l c e C t a i n l y f i g h t a g a i n s t t h e pagans t i l l
t h e rest o f ,you w i l l b a t t l e a g a i n s t d a j jal on t h e
banks o f J o r d a n . You w i l l be on t h e e a s t e r n s i d e and
t h e y on t h e w e s t e r n . " The r e p o r t e r o f t h e t r a d i t i o n
remarks t h a t i t is n o t known i n which p a r t of t h e
e a r t h w i l l J o r d a n l i e on t h a t day." [ R e l a t e d by
Al-Bazzar and T a b a r a n i and Ibn Maadah from t h e
t r a d i t i o n o f Nahik b i n Sarim A 1 S a k o o n i ) .

A f t e r t e l l i n g t h i s about d a j j a l t h e A p o s t l e o f
Allah (SAW) observed:
" I am t e l l i n g a l l t h i s t o you a o t h a t you may g e t
r e a l knowledge a b o u t him and u n d e r s t a n d h i s m i s c h i e f
w e l l a n d you may have a n advance a s s e s s m e n t of t h e
whole s i t u a t i o n s o t h a t you c o u l d t a k e r i g h t measures
a t t h e right t i m e and warn t h e s u c c e e d i n g g e n e r a t i o n s
who may p a s s on t.he warning t o t h e i r successors f o r
h i s m i s c h i e f w i l l b e t h e w o r s t of a l l mischisEs."
[ R e l a t e d Ibny Naeem and A 1 Hakim i n Mustadrik!
Compilation of Ahadith
During Life-Time of Prophet Mohammad(~.~.u.~.)
 Compilation of Ahadith
COMPILATION OF AHAIIITH IIIJKING LIFE - T I M E OF
PROPHET MUHAMRlAII (Y.B.U.H)
During Life-Time of Mohammad (P.B.u.H.)
Contents The Chancellor of the Islamic university Madinah
Were the Ahadith of the Prophet written in the 2nd century A.H. Monawarah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, has asked me to study
and evaluate the article"1slam" in Encyclopedia Britannica 0978)
Answer to an objection
written by a Muslim/Pakistani "orientalist". The author,'in this
Memorization of Ahaclith (Traditions) article, has tried to bring home to his readers that:-
Bihl iogritp hy 1. Hadith Literature (traditions of the Prophet) was
written in 2nd century A.H. and c h p i l e d in 3rd century A.H.
2. Hence. Hadith Literature is not reliable.
3. Hadith Literature does not contain anything important
about the life of the Prophet Mohammad (P.B.U.H.).
4. Most of Ahadith (Traditions of the Prophet) are
disputable and insignificant.
In this paper, I have rqfered to the most authentic and
indisputable Ahadith and proved that most of the Hadith
Literature was written and compiled during the life-time of the
Prophet (P.B.U.H.).
It is either sheer ignorance or dishonesty to say that
Hadith Literature was written or compiled 300 years after the
death of the Prophet (P.B.U.H.
What is Hadith? It is the description of the Sunnah in
written form.
What is Sunnah? It is the practical demonstration of the
Quran, the Message of Allah. the Almighty. It contains:-
1. Sayings of the Prophet Moharnmad (P.B.U.H.) (oral
teachings).
2. Practical life or actual deeds of the Prophet (P.B.U.H.)
3. Silent approvals of the Prophet (P.B.U.H.). (He saw
something being said or done but did not disapprove it).
 Now it can be very well judged that the Sunnah or the
practical life of the Prophet (P.B.U.H.) is the real and practical
demonstration of the Quran. The Sunnah is the real and detailed
explanation of the Message of Allah. It is the religion in
practical form. This had been recorded in the form of Hadith
Literature by the companions of the Prophet (P.B.U.H.) in
front of him. It was preserved most carefully and transferred
onward to the coming generations without any gap.
We do not find even a single day in the last 1400 years
when Hadith Literature would have suffered a break or gap. It
has always been in tact and its transfer from generation to
generation has been a continuous process.
Moreover, it has been preserved. with utmost degree of
care and honesty. It evolved into a scienk. the like of which has
never been witnessed by human history.
Humanity has not worked hard on such a big scale and
with such dedication and self abnegation as it has worked and
researched in Hadith Literature.
It is deplorabld that most of the research scholars and
orientalists in the west have tried to bring about a very dreadful
picture of Islam. The Western institutions have also been
successful in picking up a few mercenaries from ampng the
muslim society who could write about the Quran and the
S U Maccording
~ ~ to the wjshes of the Western scholars. In his
article "Mohammad ", Montgomery Watt has, inadvertantly.
confessed:-
" Few great men have been so maligned as Moharnmad.
Christian scholars of medieval Europe painted him as imposter,
a lecher and a man of blood. A curruption of his name
"Mahound" even came to signify the devil. This picture of
Moharnmad and his religion still retains some influence".
.
(Encyclopedia Britannica Ed. 1978, Vol. 12 P.609.)
Let us examine the notions in the article "Islam".
Were the Ahadith of the Prophet written in the 2nd
Century A.H.?
About recording af Ahadith, the same author comes
out saying on pages No. 921-922 of the same article:
"Thus in the early period, the character of learning
was traditional. That tradition was committed to
writing in the 2nd century A.H. and systematised and
developed in the 3rd century A . H This vast activity of
"seeking knowledge" (talab-al-ilm) resulted in the
creation of specifically Arab sciences of tradition,
history and literature".
This is one of the most irresponsible statements often
given by the orientalists. And pity is that even some of the
"orientalists" among the "Muslims" tend to believe it.
(The author is also one of such so called muslims).
It is absolutely incorrect to say "that tradition was
committed to writing in the 2nd Century".
The Holy Prophet emphasized and valued the act of
learning through writing from the very first day. Nobody
dare deny that the Prophet (p.b.u.h.) had set the prisoners
of the battle of Badr free on the condition that they would
teach the Muslims the art of reading and writing.
This is the reason that, when we study the Islamic
history carefully, we can find the main treasure of Ahadith
(properly and systematically) written down during the life
time of the Holy Prophet (p.b.u.h).
The Ahadith (traditions) written down during the life
time of the Prophet can be divided into three catagoriex-
1. The Ahadith dictated by the Holy Prophet through
his formal orders.
2. The Ahadith written in his presence with his per-
mission.
3. The Ahadith which the companions of the Prophet
heard from him and recorded them after the adjournment
of meetings.

,'Yobodv can touch the Quran if he is
not clean: no one can divorce unless he
has lawfully married; no one c m s c t a
=,lave free unless he h u lawfully got
h~m".
4 b u Mohammad asked Sula~man
From where dtd you get I[? He replied:
.'From the book of Umar b 4bdul
Az~z". (Dartm~2/84. a u t h e x i u l e d by
Ibn Hajar In Talkhis al- Hablr).
6. Kitab-us-Sadaqah:
The Holy Prophet got this book compiled for sending it
to his governors. It contained injunctions about Zakat etc.
It may be referred to the following authentic Ahadith:-
"It was narrated by AWullah bin
-
Muhammad Nufaili Ubad bin Awan - '
-
Sufyan bin Husain Zuhri Salim - - his
'father. he said :-
"The Prophet (p.b.u.h.) wrote the
Manuscr~pt on Finances
(Kitab-us-Sadaqah) but he did not tend
11 t o his governors till he died. He had
put 11 near his sword. Caliph Abu Bakr
acted o n it rill his death; then Caliph
U m a r acted according t o it till he
died. "(.4bu Daud 1568; Darimt 1629;
Ibn Habban 793 authenticated by Ibn
Hajar In Talkhis al-habir 2. 151 and in
lsabah under m a r bin H a m ) .
7. Letters and Documents:-
u Ti&stk3 & Y j 6 Ax-1
Lk &
, eU 3 : JlG d& j
Dr. Hamidullah has compiled and published 281 letters
, && written by the Prophet to different kings, leaders of. the
j F J -J h t / ~
&I ah) tribes and important personalities. The letters written to
. (A1
& Maquqas (King of Egypt), Najashi (King of Ethiopia) and
Munzir (King of Bahrain) are preserved still in original.
The Prophet used to give his writings/documents even
to the common persons as it is evident from the following
abstracts of a long authentic hadith:-
"It is reported by Abdullah that an old
man from the ~ r i b eof Bani Tamim sat
with me in.the Mosque of Basra a n d
there was a manuscrip1 In h ~ shand.
Hajjaj was the ruler In thew davs. He
\aid. "0 Abdullah d o you lhrnk this
manuscript can save me from this rulcr
and'be of some help to me?"
1 asked "what 17 thn manuscript?"
H e replied: " T h ~ sIS a manuscript
by the Holy Prophet (p.b.u.h.1 ,
wherein he wrote for us that nobody
should bc unjust with us in the mailers
of finances." .(Ahmad 11163-164
with authentic sources). (Only a n
abstract of hadith is translated).

ibrahirn Saigh reports from Nafi' that there were many

books with Ibn Umar which he used to study. These per-
tained-to the knowledge (of Ahadith). (Tarikh Kabir by
Bukhari 1/1/325).
Among these was the copy of the book of Finance kept
by Umar bin Khattab. I t was in fact the Book of Finance
compiled by the Prophet.
Laith reported from Nafi that "he had put up this
document in front of, Abdullah bin Umar many times".
( Amwal 393).
 Again there is an.abstract of a very long and authentic
Hadith. This is actually a talk of the Prophet with M r .
Fannukh, the messenger sent by the king of Roman
"0brother Tannukh! I wrote a letter
to the king of Persia. he tore it into
pieces. Allah shall year him and his
kingdom into pieces... Iwrote a Inter to
your master: he kept it. The people will
keep on fearing from him so long as
there IS goodness in life there ."
(Tunnukh says); I took an arrow and
wrote everything on the skin o f my
tword. Then he (the Prophet) gave the
document to a person sitting to his left
(to read out i n front o f him)..'
(Ahmad bin Hanbal 3/41; Ibn
Asakir's History of Damascus 1/418
authenticated by Ibn Kathir in
Al-Bidayah-wan-Nihayah 5/16).
This proves that the Prophet (p.b.u.h.) used to send
letters to important personalities and allow writing of
Ahadith around him.
One important point here is that the above event had
happened during the holy expedition of Tabuk, almost one
year before his death. This shows that the last which he
allowed and encouraged before his death was writing of
Ahadith even though he had stopped some persons at some
earlier stage writing anything except the Quran.
8. Constitution of Madinah State:-
Immediately a f t e r migrating t o M a d i n a h
Munawwarah, the Prophet had a pact with all the tribes of
Aus, Khazraj, and the Jews and laid down foundations of
the new state of Madinah in the form of a written constitu-
tion comprising 53 articles..
This was really a very important document. Ibn Ishaq
has mentioned it in his renowned work Seerat-u-Ibn Ishaq
and Abu Ubaid Qasim bin Salam wrote it in his Kitabul
Amwal. Among the later historians, Ibn Kathir has copied
the whole of this document in his renowned work Al-
Bidayah Wan-Nihayah and Ibn Sayyid-in-Nas in his
Kitabus Seerah. (See "Kitabat-i-Ahadith", by Aba Bakr '
Ghaznavi p. 10).
Category I1
Now we refer t o the Ahadith (traditions) recorded in
front of the Prophet during his sittings with his compa-
nions:-
Sahifah As-Sadiqah:-
This is a collection of the Ahadith of the Prophet writ-
ten and compiled by Abdullah bin Amr bin Aas. It is very
II
well known that the Prophet allowed him to write his
Ahadith as it is evident from the following authentic '~
"It w l r narrated by A l i bin A'asim -
-
Duwaid Amr bin Shoaib.- his father -
his grandfather Abdulkh bin Amr. he
said. "Isaid 0 Prophet o f Allah! we
hear from your Ahadith but do nor
remember them. S h w i d we not write
them! The Prophet replied:
"U'h) not? Do write them."
(Ahmad 21215 rith a u t h t i c source).
It'is narrated by A W u l k h bin Amr that
he camc 10 the Proppha and said. 0
Prophe of Allah I wish that I may
narrate Ahadith from you and Iwant t o
help from my hand-writing
alonewith my memory i f you allow
that. Thc Prophet rrplied. "If it is my
Hadith then you may g c ~ help from
your hand lwriting)alonEwith (karnine
by) hcm."
(Darimi IIIM. authenticated by
Hahim in h ~ sMrrnadra). and also by
Zahhabit.
"Abdullah bin Amr rcports: I u d to
--rite dowm cveryrhing Iheard from the
Prophet as I w-anted t o memorize and
prrxr\e i t . But the Qurashita
.
prohihited me and said "you write
down cserythmg you hear from the
Prophel and the Prophc~ is human
k n p ; he alw talks In state 01 anger and
PIC~W h3~ IC "
voppml wrlt~ngand
6
 ment~oncdthn t o the Prophet He ra~d. It may be mehoned here that Abu Hurairah narrate6
"Keep on wrttlng. I \wear by Htm Who
has my ltfe in h:s Hand. I domot talk 5374 Ahadith. We can well judge the number of Ahadith,
except the Truth and [he R~ght(even In
stale ol anger and pleasure)"
compiled by Abdullah bin Amr in Al-Sahifah-us-Sadiqah.
CAhmad ?/ 162. 4bu-Daud. lY2Dar1m1 This Sahifah was the thing regarded as the most
Authcnucated by Ibn Hajar In Fathul
Bar1 valuable asset by Abdullah as it is clear from his following
"It is reported by Yaad and
saying:-
Muhammad btn Yaztd - Muhamnud
brn lshaq bin Shoatb - hts father - hls "Nothing has made my life charming as . + a t ~ i ~ i + j I! ~ ~ ~
grandfather Abdullffi bln Amr that he much as Sahifah Sadiqah has .,/
i. : . j U !dl+ "fi
, ~ u \ c ,

-
+
j
said to the Prophet, "0 Messenger of done ...Sadiqah is the manuscript. 1
Allah! Should I write all I hear from
Z~UIbb ... ZLJI Yl 34-1 +i I,
you? He s a d . Yes". I askcd. "In stale
have written down from the Prophet
(p.b.u.h).." ..&il JuJ i#
!
of pleasure and anger also?" He (Darimi 1/105 with authentic s o u r m ) . ..,p
. >\jk 1 . o / \ &I ab) i'
replied. "Of course. as it is not
becorntng ofme t o s p a k excep the Category 111
Truth in any condinon."
Muhammad btn y w d reports the Now we shall mention some of the manuscripts and
wordmg as follows: (Abdullah asked).
"0 Messenger of Allah! I hear many
collections of Ahadith written by the companions of the
thmgs from you; should I Wnte them Prophet on their own when they were not in front of the
down?" He replied. "Yes" (Ahmed
2 2 0 7 with authent~csource). Prophet:-
1. Sahifah Abi Hurairah
Abu Rash~d H~bram repom. "I came to There is a common misucderstanding that Abu
AMullah b n Amr Inn Aas and said to him.
"Plaw n l n m to us (m01 Ahadnhl you
h a r d lrom the Prophet. He pul a mrnuwrtpl in
Hurairah did not have any written collection of Ahadith.
m y h d r " IAhrmd UI% Tsmur. Kiubul This is incorrect.
dawut wilh authmlu uwrm).
Ibn Hajar while explaining the above saying of Abu
This was the manuscript which Abdullah bin Amr Hurairah writes in Fathul Bari:
wrote with the permission of the Prcphet and named it "Abu Hurairah's saying" I do not write"may seem
'Al-Sahifah-us-Sadiqah". This remained in his family for contradictory to what Ibn Wahb has narrated through
quite many generations. His grandson Shoaib used to nar- Hasan bin Amr bin Umayyah. (Ibn Wahb) said, "A Hadith
rate Ahadith by reading them out of this very manuscript. was narrated before Abu Hurairah; he took me hand im
(Tahzib, 8/52: hand to his house and showed us books of Ahadith of the
The most important evidence for the writing work of Prophet and said, "This is all written with me".
Abdullah bin Amr is the authentic saying of Abu Hurairah: Ibn Abdul Bar says, "Hadith of Humam is most cor-
rect but we can reconcile the both by saying that he (Abu
"There is no companion of [he Propha Hurairah) did not write during the life time of Prophet but
who could rumate more Ahadith than ~d L Y! L & U
m y e l f except Abdu1l.h bm Amr. Thts ,j p dl& -+ did write later on. e

was because he used t o write while I did . -5-i Y, A<JK *k I say that more probable is that it is not necessary that
not write. , J~UI-.-s , ;V ' 1 4;u1 ? )
(Bukhari Ilm 39. Fathul Bart 1/67). : &dl
L;
6 I T i df#l,il ' r q 4.
J
the Hadith literature present with him should be in his own
handwriting and it is proved that he did not write himself.
 U >+
. .
Umar bin Khartab srylng:" "Prcservc ,i;kl-, ,&
-- I;. $1 - 1 ,&

knowlcugc by writing it down". , U,&b I+ :?+, ;

(Darami 1 /105. Aurhenricaled by
Hakim in Musradrak 1/106)
jF ~-,I 1 .a/\ : ,&-L(1

Anas bin Malik used to exhort and encourage his sons 0 . I/\ 4-

to write &wn Ahadith.

Answer to an Objection:-
Thamama bin Abdullah reports that Anas used to say Somebody may come out here with the following oft-
to his sons:-
quoted objection:-
The Prophet used to prohibit from writing down of
Ahadith, as according to an authentic hadith, narrated by
Abu Saeed Khudri, he once said:-
"Do nor wrrrc anyrhmg from me excepl Ji$~@ & & @ Y"
"We did not regard the knowledge of . " L L c L & ) > h Y U" the Quran"
that person as knowledge who did not
write".
;&I + ~
+/q7 i &I lj.)
Then how can we reconcile this with the actual writing
(Taqyid-ul-llm p. %). (+*I
of hadith literature during the life time of the Prophet?
There are many Ahadith which show that the Prophet Hafiz Ibn Hajar has written a convincing reply to this
not only allowed but also encouraged the writing of objection:-
Ahadith:- "From :he event of Abu Shah, it is evident that the
Prophet (p.b.u.h.) allowed the writing of Ahadith from him
Ibn Abbas narrates [hat the Prophet
(p.b.u.h.). when his ailment became
worse (before his dcarh). he said.
a. &4
.
Li
AS\ : Ji &G _+I _i,'
but rhis seems contradictory to the hadith of Abu Saeed
Khudri wherein the Prophet is reported to have said:
"Bring f o r me (writing) paper and I will
A
&I5 A &I : Jliw
,;
write for you a slatemcnt after which . "+I+)'
you will nor go astray ..."
(Bukhari Ilm 114) "Do nor write anything f r o m me except
1 '
JI,AI ,+ ~ 16
Y" -
[he Quran".

Ibn Hajar while explaining this hadith says, "This

hadith has an evidence showing that the writing of Ahadith
was allowed. (Fathul Bari 1/209).
"Narrated Muhammad bm S a d -
Shank - Tarrq bln Abdur Rehman
S a d bin Jubarr. who ~ d "I . u ~ e d10
hear Ahadith from ibn Umar and Ibn
abbas at night and used to wrlte 11down
at the wood of camel's back"
(Danmr 1/105 w r h aurhcntrc sources)
The reconciliation between the two is that the prohibi-
tion is only for the moment when the Quran used to be
revealed to the Prophet so that it should not be got mixed up
with the non-Quran. And the permission is t o write for all
-
other times (when the revelation was not coming). Or the
prohibition is only from writing some thing other than the
Quran on the same writing material, wherein the Quran was
being recorded and the permission was to write on any other
thing. O r the prohibition is at early stage and permission to
wire came later cancelling the prohibilion once ir was en-
swed thar the Quran will nor be rnised up with Ahadirh.
 Thus according to this version of Hadith, it was ad-
dressed in a broader sense to all the Prophet's companion in
general. Abu-Hurairah spoke only about himself but it is
quite possible that there might have been a large number of
the companions who followed in Abu-Hurairah's foot-
steps. Nevertheless Abu-Hurairah did not rely solely on
memorization of Ahadith but he committed them to writing
also as clarified before in this chapter.
Evidently, the companions paid much attention in
learning the Prophet's Ahadith by heart, taking much pride
in it. They cherished this act of memorization making
Ahadith an inseperable part of their personalities. Thus,
both memorization and writing went side by side; they did
not confine on either of the two.
The art of writing flourished at that time. It was
because the Prophet (p.b.u.h.) desired his companions to
acquire the skills of reading and writing and seek as much
knowledge as possible. Thus nothing prevented them to
have recourse to writing with a view to preserving
knowledge even after their death.
This is how, the scholars of Hadith unanimously
asserted that a narrator of Hadith should be characterized
by precision and accuracy in preserving Hadith. The
"preservation of Hadith", according to them would be ef-
fected in two ways:-
1. Commitment to memory.
2. Commitment to writing
Thus, alongwith memory, committing to writing is
considered an essential condition in determining the validity
of Isnad i.e. the chain of narrators. We have never come to
know that anyone who was engaged in compiling and
writing on Hadith literature, whether in the past or at pre-
sent exempted anybody from this condition of writing ex-
cept the Companions.
The companions of the' Prophet s(p.b.u.h.) have- been
exempted from the condition of writing becaused the)i;li~ed
with the Prophet (p.b.u.h)f heard his sayingst saw hirhldo+
ing things and observed him approving or disapproving
many things tacity. Thus they received the knowledge of
the Sunnah (Hadith) in the most direct and accurate man-
ner, and made it an inseperable part of their practical lives:
It were only they who, as narrators of Hadith, were exemp-
ted from the condition of writing;none else.
A great deal of texts provide an ample evidence testify-
ing to the fact that grammatical rules were committed to
writing, in the early period of Islam, at the hands of Abul-
Aswad Al-Dualie, who according to Ibn Habban, is one of
the most dependable followers of the companions Tabi'een
and pioneers of knowledge in Basrah.
These grammatical rules ascribed to him were regarded
as means of understanding the Quran and the Hadith.
It is not logically possible that these grammatical rules
which were properly committed to writing, could be
transferred to the coming generations in unwritten from i.e.
only through memory, hearsay or traditional ways of lear-
ning.
Then how about the traditions of' the Prophet
(p.u.b.h)? Were they committed to writing in 2nd century
A.H. ? i
4. ~ r e ; ~ h a d i Disputable
th rid Insignificiint?
. &
Another quotation, related to tht! s h e d b j e c t , by the
author qf the article "Muhammad" may also be looked in-
t0:-
"The vast collections of traditions (Hadith) or anec-
dotes about his words and deeds, are historically disputable
and besides, seldom tell us ariything significant about
Muhammad's career". Encyclopaedia Britannica ed. 1978,
V . 12, p.609).
 TO give a sweeping statement about the collections .of
traditions dubbing =$hem "historically disputable" is
nothing but ignorance. The scholars of Islam have been
spending their lives in scrutinizing Ahadith i n the light of
most scrupulous criteria. Right in the 2nd century they
started dividing Ahadith in different categories and have
been grading them according to their correctness and
credibility. The traditions which were liable to any doubt
have been graded and categorized according to the level and
gravity of doubts, and they have been preserved alongwith
the proper comments and observations.
Even those traditions which were unanimously con-
sidered by scholars of Hadith (Muhaddithin) as entirely in-
correct, once for all, were properly categorized according to
the level and gravity of their incorrectness and these have
also been preserved so that they may not be mixed up with
the correct Ahadith with the passage of time.
, Every narrator whose name is mentioned in the line
(Isnad) is mercilessly scrutinized. Every hadith be it ge-
nuine, doubtful or spurious is properly scrutinized,
dis'cussed, researched upon, reasoned out and then fixed up
in one particular category and preserved for ever. And this
process of research has been open to all for the last thirteen
centuries. , ing:-
I can claim with full responsibility that there is no sub-
ject in the histpry of mankind which has drawn attention,
hard work, sincerity of purpose and sacrifices as much as
the subject of the scrutiny of traditions has done.
The number of narrators among the companions of the
Prophet, their disciples and still their disciples exceeds
100,OC$l personalities. Each one of them has been
thoroughly grid, meticulously examined, by thousands of
research scholars (MuhaddisFn). More than 500,000
Ahadith were reportedly recorded, many of these were nar-
rated by different narrators belonging to different places.
Every hadith was scrutinized in the light of each line or dif-
ferent lines of its narrators (Isnad or Turuq) by thousands
of Muhaddisin. To give one example, we see Imam Bukhari
selecting only about 4000 Ahadith (unrepeated) out of the
vast collections. Same 1s the case of other Muhaddisin. We
find height of intelligence, carefulness, honesty and
sacrifices in the collection and compilation of hadith
literature.
Imam Bukhari says that he could complete his research
work only on thoseahadith which he included in his book
"Sahih". There are many more genuine Ahadith which
other might research upon and include in their selections.
This was done.
Still more irresponsible statement is to say that
"Ahadith seldom tell us anything significant about
Muhammad's career".
At times when a student comes across this level of
understanding and honesty on the part of the orientalists, he
really feels so much hurt and depressed that he feels like
forgetting about them and leaving them in their darkness.
The fact is that the Islamic teachings are derived from
two main sources:
The Quran and the Sunnah comprises the follow-
1. The Sayings (words) of the Prophet.
2. The Actions (deeds) of the Prophet.
3. Taqareer (Tacit Approval; that the Prophet saw
something being said or done and did not stop it).
The message of Allah was explained by the words,
deeds and taqareer of the holy Prophet.
This is why the Sunnah was completely preserved. We
know the minutest details about the life, habits, likings,
dislikings, behaviour and cortlplete character of the Pro-
phet, through Ahadith (traditions). His daily schedule of
life, his dealings with his children, friends and foes, his

prayers, his food and fasting, his journeys, wars, pacts, lec-
tures, jokes, his smiles and state of invoking Allah was all
recorded through Ahadith. How minutely they have
recorded the acts of the prophet, can be seen in Ahadith,
particularly, when we read in a hadith "the prophet smiled
a n d four of his teeth were visible". The Prophet had allow-
ed everybody, including his wives, to narrate anything they
saw him saying or doing. Nothing was to be kept secret.
Even the minute details of his private life were recorded
through Ahadith.
At this juncture, we must appreciate the plight of the
orientalists. Most of them are either Christians o r Jews.
They fail to understand their real difficulty. The fact is that
all the prophets, except Muhammad (p.b.u.h.) were meant
f o r a particular race and period. This is why that after the
e n d of that period their teachings alongwith their life-
sketches died away. The Prophet Muhammad (p.b.u.h.) is
f o r the whole humanity irrespective of time and space. Thus
t h e Sunnah, the complete details about the life Muhammad
(p. b.u. h.) were preserved with maximum possible exac-
titude. The poor orientalists, while writing on Islam,
generalize what really had happened to the life sketch of
their own prophets and ignorantly apply it to the life of
Muhammad (p.b.u.h).
I t will not be out of place to mention what Basworth
Smith, Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford has said in his
lectures in Royal Institute of Great Britain, later on
published in the form of the book "Muhammad and
Muhammadanism". I would like to abridge what he has
said in one of his lectures:-
"We know only too little about the life of Jesus Christ
i.e.2 !ittle about three last years of his life. How about his
thirty years? He revived one third of the humanity and may
revive more. But the major part of his life, the ideal life is
not known to us. We know little about his mother, his
family life, his friends, his dealing with them, his work for
his mission and its gradual development. There are many
question about him which shall always remain questions.
But in Islam everything is distinct and clear. There is
nothing hazy, unknown or secret about the life of
Muhammad. We have definite history about it. We do not
find mythology and supernatural events in the early Arab
literature. And i f at all they are there, they can be easily
separated from the historical events. No body can deceive
hinuelf or others here. Here we find broad day light which
makes everything (in the life of the Prophet) visible and this
light can reach anybody on earth". (Muhammad and
Muhammadanism in 1880 p. 14).
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