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Hadith[b] is the Arabic word for 'things' like a 'report' or an 'account [of an event]'[3][4][5]: 471 and refers to the Islamic oral anecdotes containing the purported words, actions, and the silent approvals of the Islamic prophet Muhammad or his immediate circle (companions in Sunni Islam,[6][7] ahl al-Bayt in Shiite Islam).[8]
Each hadith is associated with a chain of narrators (isnad)—a lineage of people who reportedly heard and repeated the hadith from which the source of the hadith can be traced.[9] The authentication of hadith became a significant discipline, focusing on the isnad (chain of narrators) and matn (main text of the report).[10][11][12][13][14] This process aimed to address contradictions and questionable statements within certain narrations.[15] Beginning one or two centuries after Muhammad's death, Islamic scholars, known as muhaddiths, compiled hadith into distinct collections that survive in the historical works of writers from the second and third centuries of the Muslim era (c. 700−1000 CE).
For many Muslim sects, hadith was a reliable source for religious and moral guidance known as sunnah, which ranks second to that of the Quran in authority,[16] widely respected in mainstream Islamic thought, so that the majority of Sharia rules derived from hadith rather than the Quran.[17][Note 1] However in the early Islamic society and the use of hadith as it is understood today (documentation, isnads, etc.) came gradually. Sunnah originally meant a tradition that did not contain the definition of good and bad.[19][20][21][22][23] Later, "good traditions" began to be referred to as sunnah and the concept of "Muhammad's sunnah" was established.[19] Muhammad's sunnah gave way to the "hadiths of Muhammad"[3] which were being transmitted orally, then recorded in the corpuses that continued to be collected, classified and purified according to various criteria in the following centuries. Scholars have categorized hadith based on their reliability, sorting them into classifications such as sahih ('authentic'), hasan ('good'), and da'if ('weak').[24] This classification is subjective to the person doing this study[25] and differences in classification have led to variations in practices among the different Islamic schools and branches.[26] The study of hadith is a central discipline in Islam, known as the hadith sciences, and is also examined in the contemporary historiographical field of hadith studies.
A minority of Muslims criticise the hadith and reject them, such as Quranists, who assert that Islamic guidance should rely solely on the Quran. They argue that many hadith are fabrications (pseudepigrapha) from the 8th and 9th centuries, falsely attributed to Muhammad.[27][28] Historically, some sects of the Kharijites also rejected the hadiths, while Mu'tazilites rejected the hadiths as the basis for Islamic law, while at the same time accepting the Sunnah and Ijma.[29][30] Western scholars participating in the field of hadith studies are generally skeptical of the value of hadith for understanding the true historical Muhammad, even those considered sahih by Muslim scholars. Reasons for skepticism include the late compilation of hadith (often centuries after Muhammad’s death), difficulties in verifying chains of transmission, the prevalence of hadith fabrication, and doubts about the traditional methods of hadith authentication. This skepticism extends even to hadith classified as sahih by Muslim scholars, as such narrations may still reflect later historical or theological concerns rather than the authentic teachings of Muhammad.[9][31]
- ^ "hadith". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
- ^ "Hadith". Dictionary.com Unabridged (Online). n.d. Retrieved 13 August 2011.
- ^ a b c Brown 2009, p. 3.
- ^ "Hans Wehr English&Arabic Dictionary". Retrieved 13 February 2025.
- ^ Mohammad Taqi al-Modarresi (26 March 2016). The Laws of Islam (PDF). Enlight Press. ISBN 978-0994240989. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 August 2019. Retrieved 22 December 2017.
- ^ Motzki, Harald (2004). Encyclopedia of Islam and Muslim World.1. Thmpson Gale. p. 285.
- ^ Al-Bukhari, Imam (2003). Moral Teachings of Islam: Prophetic Traditions from Al-Adab Al-mufrad By Muḥammad ibn Ismāʻīl Bukhārī. Rowman Altamira. ISBN 9780759104174.
- ^ al-Fadli, Abd al-Hadi (2011). Introduction to Hadith (2nd ed.). London: ICAS Press. p. vii. ISBN 9781904063476.[permanent dead link]
- ^ a b Brown, Daniel W. (2 January 2020), Brown, Daniel W. (ed.), "Western Hadith Studies", The Wiley Blackwell Concise Companion to the Hadith (1 ed.), Wiley, pp. 39–56, doi:10.1002/9781118638477.ch2, ISBN 978-1-118-63851-4, retrieved 26 June 2024
- ^ "Surah Al-Jumu'a, Word by word translation of verse number 2-3 (Tafsir included) | الجمعة - Quran O". qurano.com. Retrieved 31 January 2021.
- ^ Brown 2009, p. 4.
- ^ Brown 2009, p. 6-7.
- ^ Islahi, Amin Ahsan (1989) [transl. 2009]. Mabadi Tadabbur-i-Hadith (translated as: "Fundamentals of Hadith Interpretation") (in Urdu). Lahore: Al-Mawrid. Retrieved 2 June 2011.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
H-EoIwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Lewis, Bernard (1993). Islam and the West. Oxford University Press. p. 44. ISBN 9780198023937. Retrieved 28 March 2018.
hadith.
- ^ "Hadith". Encyclopaedia Britannica. Retrieved 31 July 2020.
- ^ Forte, David F. (1978). "Islamic Law; the impact of Joseph Schacht" (PDF). Loyola of Los Angeles International and Comparative Law Review. 1: 2. Retrieved 19 April 2018.
- ^ J.A.C. Brown, Misquoting Muhammad, 2014: p.18
- ^ a b Juynboll, G. H. A. (1997). "Sunna". In Bearman, P.; Bianquis, Th.; Bosworth, C. E.; van Donzel, E.; Heinrichs, W. P. (eds.). Encyclopaedia of Islam. Vol. 9 (2nd ed.). Brill. pp. 878–879.
- ^ "Sunnah". Archived from the original on 5 December 2010. Retrieved 14 May 2024.
- ^ Wehr, Hans. "A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic" (PDF). Hans Wehr Searchable PDF. p. 369. Archived (PDF) from the original on 20 June 2018. Retrieved 15 June 2020.
- ^ "Sunnah". Oxford Islamic Studies Online. Archived from the original on 16 June 2013. Retrieved 15 June 2020.
- ^ Schacht, Joseph (1959) [1950]. The Origins of Muhammadan Jurisprudence. Oxford University Press. p. 58.
- ^ The Future of Muslim Civilisation by Ziauddin Sardar, 1979, page 26.
- ^ These collections contain the hadiths that are generally considered most likely to be accurate. Furthermore, works compiled after the dissemination of the canonical collections have challenged the reliability of some of the hadiths in those collections.https://www.britannica.com/topic/Quran/Origin-and-compilation
- ^ J.A.C. Brown, Misquoting Muhammad, 2014: p.8
- ^ Aisha Y. Musa, The Qur’anists, Florida International University, accessed 22 May 2013.
- ^ Neal Robinson (2013), Islam: A Concise Introduction, Routledge, ISBN 978-0878402243, Chapter 7, pp. 85-89
- ^ Sindima, Harvey J. (2 November 2017). Major Issues in Islam: The Challenges within and Without. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-0-7618-7017-3.
- ^ Deen, Sayyed M. (2007). Science Under Islam: Rise, Decline and Revival. Lulu.com. ISBN 9781847999429.
- ^ Little 2024, p. 163.
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