The collection of hadith is very important in determining Muslim’s way of life.

As it comes from the prophet, the role of hadith is to help Muslims to better their
understanding on the content of Quran because it serves as explanation for Muslims on
certain issues. With regard to that matter, preservation of hadith is crucial due to it
conveys statements or actions of prophet Muhamad ( ‫)صلى ال عليه وسلم‬, his tacit approval
of something or his saying or action done in his presence.
It should be noted that, the act of collecting hadith started after the death of
prophet Muhamad ( ‫)صلى ال عليه وسلم‬. The recording of hadith is done when Uthman, who
was prophet Muhamad’s former secretary urged Muslim to write the Quran in a fixed
form and later to record the hadith of the prophet. The compilation of hadith during that
time, was presumably oral transmission from early Muslims to later collectors, or from
teachers to students. It is also known as Sima’, teacher reads to his students for the
purpose of comprehension, understanding and documentation or memorization. On the
other hand, there was also reading done by students to their teacher as a matter to confirm
their memory (‘Ard). Other way of documenting ahadith is through Ijazah, that is
permitting someone to transmit a hadith on the authority of the scholar without reading.
Also, by the mean of Munawalah, handover of written material to someone for the reason
of transmitting it to other generation. It is also done by writing the hadith (kitabah).
Besides, through I’lam, someone is informed that the informer has permission to transmit
certain material. Other terms are also known as Wasiyyah, entrusting someone with his
book and Wijadah, find some hadith written by someone.
It is crucial to preserve the sunnah of the prophet Muhamad( ‫ )صلى ال عليه وسلم‬as
he is the last prophet and there will be no more prophet after him. Therefore, the Quran
and prophet’s sunnah serve the only guidance for Muslims. During the time of the
prophet, the matter of writing and compiling his sunnah is not taken so seriously as if the
companion (who were those who live in the time of prophet) had any doubt or
skepticism, they can directly referred to the prophet. During that time, they put their
efforts in compiling the Quran. However, there were great efforts done by the companion
to learn the sunnah. It is shown when the companion used to sit together with the prophet
to hear his hadith and to learn from him as much as possible. Noticeably, the companions
would take turn to hear the hadith of the prophet. Even if there were those who were
absent during the meeting with the prophet, they used learn from those who were present.
There is an event that has led to the writing of hadith during prophet’s time. It is
when prophet delivered his sermon, a man among the Ansar came to prophet and asked a
copy of his sermon due to some problems with his memorization. Other than that,
‘Aishah, the wife of the prophet, she saw what others did not see and heard what others
did not hear, thus, enabled her to preserve and convey the important aspect of the sunnah
to others.
Thus, it is clear that another form of preserving hadith is through writing. To
illustrate, there were a good number of companions who recorded the hadith of the
Prophet. Among them is Abdullah ibn Amr who used to write down everything that he
heard from the prophet for the purpose of preserving or memorizing. The prophet himself
told him that “Write, for by the one whose hand is my soul, nothing comes forth it except
for the truth”. During this time, there were personal documentations of ahadith coming
from approximately fifty companions. And, each of them differed in the number of
ahadith they transmitted. There was also a hadith by the prophet warning the companions
against lying upon him. As a result, after the demise of prophet Muhamad (‫صلى ال عليه‬
‫)وسلم‬, the companions took great caution in narrating hadiths. Many things were taken
into consideration including the condition of transmitters. To add, it is to exercise great
caution to verify every aspect of the sunnah so that it is free from errors. Also, during this
time, there were some companions who travelled to other cities to meet other companions
for the purpose of seeking and confirming ahadith that they had heard from the prophet.
Up to this point, we are done with preservation of hadith done by the companions.
Later, in the generation of tabi’in(successors), the development of hadith increased.
However, the issues of narrators making errors in narrating hadith started in this
generation. With it emerged the science of hadith that is crucial in deciding about the
reliability of the hadith. This period saw increasing numbers of scholars started to travel
to seek ahadith. In fact, this practice started with the companions themselves. The reason
behind Tabi’in travel to different lands was to enable them to hear and gather more
hadiths because the companions had spread it earlier in order to teach the religion of
Islam to people of different lands. Also, people of this era realized the need to compile
ahadith as they fear the death of scholars would somehow lead to the extinction of the
prophet’s teachings.
The practice of writing books of hadith took place during the second century of
Hijrah. However, it is explained earlier that the writing of hadith began during the time of
companion, that is during the first century of Hijrah. But, it should be noted that, the
books were of the small size and the writings were more like personal notebooks.
Furthermore, during that time, the purpose of those writings was to serve as records of
something that the companion intended to memorize and later, preserve it. By the time of
successors, hadiths are compiled together with the sayings and fatawa of the companions
and successors organized them into chapters namely; Al-Musannaf by Abd al-Razzaq,
which is a very large and comprehensive book devoted to gathering hadiths from the
prophet as well as the narration from the companions and tabi’in. It is also concerned
mostly with elements of fiqh. Later, Al-Muwatta by Imam Malik, a book which is similar
to al Musannaf. Other than that is called Musnad, which is the compilation of ahadith
according to the companion who transmitted it.
Then, it is continued with the third century of Hijrah. There was extraordinary
effort done in seeking and compiling ahadith. This period also saw the tabi’ tabi’in
graded the ahadith. More importantly, there were three major forms of compilation done
during this period. Firstly, Musnad- a compilation of ahadith and they are arranged
according to the companions who transmitted it without organizing them into chapters.
Secondly, Al-Jami’- a compilation of ahadith covering fiqh, history, manners, aqidah and
etc. Lastly, Al-Sunnan – a compilation of ahadith that are organized according to fiqhi
chapters.
Lastly, most ahadith were found to be collected and compiled within the fourth to
sixth century of Hijrah. The ahadith are further compiled in a more systematic way. For
example, hadith is organized according to the compiler in alphabetical order (Mu’jan),
Compilation of authentic hadith only (Sahih), addition of hadith that conforms to the
condition set by al Bukhari and Muslim but not included in their compilation
(Mustadrak), hadiths are organized according to fiqhi chapters (Sunan), compilation
based on its explanation (Sharh), and then compilation of ahadith with the compiler’s
own chain of transmission (Mustakhraj).