HISTORY AND IMPORTANCE OF AHADITH

COMPILATION OF AHADITH DURING THE LIFETIME OF PROPHET

SAW AND HIS COMPANIONS:
Compilation during the life of Prophet saw:
The Prophet SAW who was the leader of the companions, laid great stress
in teachings regarding the islamic injunctions i.e Quran and hadith. During
his lifetime, the Messenger of Allah would teach in the following 3 ways:

 Al-Qaul (Verbal Teachings)

 Al-Fi’l (Practical Demonstration)
 Al-Taqrir (Silent Approvals)
1. Al-Qaul (Verbal Teachings):
It involved the Prophet saw repeating important things thrice and
then listening to what the companions learned from him. Hazrat
Aisha RA relates that Prophet SAW did not speak rapidly, but
enunciated each syllable distinctly so that what he spoke was
imprinted in the minds of those who sat beside him. His verbal
teachings also included all the letters, instructions, treaties and other
official documents that he dictated.
2. Al-Fi’l (Practical Demonstration)
The second method was teaching by practice which means that he
would practically perform an act.
3. Al-Taqrir (Silent Approvals)
This may be explained by an act done by someone else in the
presence of the Prophet SAW and he either approved it or censured
it.
The Holy Quran elaborates upon major issues but often deals with
subjects briefly, thus leaving the details to be explained by the
ahadith of Prophet saw. Since Islam covers the whole of human
activity, many issues had to be explained by Prophet saw either by
action or by word, therefore, the need for ahadith and its
transmission from one person to another became necessary even
during the life of Prophet saw.
In fact, the Prophet saw himself would give instructions about the
transmission of what he taught: “Preach what you hear me say. Also
let those who see and hear me, take upon themselves to
communicate my words to others and preach their children, relatives
and friends” there is another report according to which, on the
occasion of the farewell pilgrimage, the Prophet saw said: “He who is
present here should carry this message to him who is absent”
The companions, therefore, considered it their duty to preach the
ahadith to those who had not seen or listened to him. A party of
students called Ashab-e-suffah lived in the mosque itself and were
especially entrusted with the teaching of the religion to tribes outside
Madinah. From this group, the most famous was Abu Hurairah, who
would remain in the custody of Prophet SAW at all times and store up
in his memory everything that the Prophet SAW said or did.
 It is related by Abu huraira that once, one of the companions told the
Prophet SAW of his inability to remember what he heard from him.
His reply was that he should seek help of his right hand i.e write it
down. When Abdullah bin Amr, who was keenly devoted to learning,
heard this, he began to write down whatever he heard from the
Apostle of Allah.
Hazrat Ali used to write down ahadith mainly concerned with the
orders and instructions issued from time to time by the Prophet SAW.
The wives of Prophet saw too participated in this activity. Amongst
them were Hazrat Aisha, Hazrat Umm-e-Habiba, Hazrat Umm-e-
Salamah, Hazrat Maimunah and Hazrat Hafsa.
Abdullah bin Umar and Abdullah bin Abbass are 2 other companions
who were especially engaged in preserving and transmitting the
ahadith. The compilation of Abdullah bin Umar was known as Sadiqa.
Hazrat Umar who resided about 3 miles from madinah, had made
arrangements with a neighbour from Madinah so that each remained
in the company of Prophet SAW on alternate days, in order to report
to the other what happened in his absence.

Method of preservation of sunnah/hadith by the companions:

The companions preserved the sunnah of the Prophet saw through 4
methods:
 Memorization
 Discussion
 Practice
 Writing
Memorization:
The companions were eager to follow the way of Prophet saw. They
would devote a considerable amount of time for committing his
ahadith to their memories. It was an old custom of the arabs that in
order to strengthen their memories, they would memorise hundreds
of verses of their poetry. The memory of companions was of such
high caliber that they remembered each and every word of the
Prophet SAW as they heard it. It is reported that Marwan, the
governor of madina tried to test the memory of Abu Hurairah, hence,
he invited him to his palace and asked him to narrate some ahadith.
Meanwhile, he ordered his scribe to sit behind the curtain and note
down the ahadith which were being narrated by Abu Hurairah. After a
year passed, Marwan again invited Abu Hurairah and requested him
to repeat what he had narrated last year. Again he ordered his scribe
to sit behind the curtain and do the comparison. When the scribe
compared the present words with the previous ahadith, he found that
Abu Hurairah hadn’t even changed a single word.
Discussion:
The prophet saw told his companions to convey his teaching in the
farewell pilgrimage, furthermore, he told people that teaching each
other and sharing knowledge for any period of time in the night is
better than spending the entire night in worship. Therefore, the
companions would hold meetings and discuss the Prophet’s sayings
and acts.
Practice:
Whenever the Prophet SAW would do something, his companions
would follow him. They were passionate about emulating his actions
that they would even try to imitate his personal (non-biding) habits.
Writing:
After hearing the ahadith of the Prophet saw, many companions
would write them down so that they could follow the teachings more
easily and the text could be preserved for the future ages too.
Compilation during the life of companions:
After the death of Prophet SAW, interest in hadith literature
increased greatly on 2 accounts. Firstly, the companions who knew
the ahadith at first hand were gradually passing away. Their number
continued to diminish day by day. Therefore people became keener
to preserve the precious hadith literature that had been stored in
their memories. Secondly, the number of reverts was increasing
rapidly and they showed great eagerness to learn the ahadith of
Prophet saw. The senior companions became institutions of teaching
the traditions of the Prophet saw. Abu hurairah narrated 5374
ahadith, Abdullah bin Umar narrated 2630 ahadith, Anas bin Malik
narrated 2286 ahadith while Hazrat Ayesha narrated 2210 ahadith.
The companions were heard eagerly as they spoke about the sayings
and actions of the Prophet saw. This was the age of the Rightly
Guided Caliphs. In this era, the companions had settled in almost all
the countries conquered by the muslims.
Thus, the ahadith were being circulated beyond the borders of
Arabia. People flocked to the companions to hear the traditions of the
Prophet SAW from them, thus, a number of centers for the learning
of hadith came into existence, with these companions as the
teachers. When a person had learned all the traditions he could come
from one companion, he would go to the next companion and so on,
collecting as many traditions as possible. The zeal of these learners
was so great that they undertook long journeys to collect ahadith
from different companions. It was reported that Jabir bin Abdullah
travelled from Makkah to Syria to hear just one hadith.
In this period, although the ahadith were being constantly memorised
and repeatedly reported by the companions, the recording of these
narrations was not encouraged, lest the companions confused the
hadith with the Quranic text.
Abu Hurairah who transmitted the largest number of ahadith, did not
write them down, himself. However, he chose 138 ahadith dealing
with Akhlaaq (Ethics and Morality) from the vast number of traditions
he had memorised and dictated them to his student, Hammam ibn
Munabbiah. There were not many regular compilations. This was
rather a period of just collections of the traditions.