Musannaf and Musnad Flashcards
1
Q
What are Musannaf hadith collections?
A
The first organized compilations of Hadiths that had developed during the first two centuries of Islam are called Musannaf hadith collections.
2
Q
How is the collection defined?
A
- They are defined by their arrangement of content according to the topic, e.g. Zakat, Prayer, etc
3
Q
Where does the word - ‘musannaf’ come from and definition?
A
- Musannaf is from the Arabic verb sannafa meaning to arrange by chapter or something that is sectionally arranged
4
Q
What is Muwatta and who is the author?
A
- The Muwatta by Imam Malik is an example of the earliest Musannaf collection.
- He was the founder of the Maliki School of Law. His collection contains 1720 hadiths. Another compilation - al-Musannaf of Abdul Razzaq al Sanani contained 11000 hadiths.
- 6 authoritative collections of sunni hadith(Sihah al Sitta) belong to this category of hadith collections
5
Q
What did Musannaf collections serve?
A
- The musannaf collections served an important function in Law and Hadith literature.
- Later, scholars referred to Musannaf collections to know the legal opinions of the Companions and Successors and Hadith critics used them as evidence when establishing the authenticity of Hadith.
6
Q
What are Musannaf collections also used for?
A
- Musannaf collections are also used by scholars for practicing Ijma and Qiyas in legal thinking.
7
Q
What happened during the late second/early third century AH?
A
- The late second/early third century AH saw a shift towards Musnad collections which were arranged according to isnads.
- In these collections, the hadiths were arranged according to the names of the companions, and the content of hadiths is not taken into consideration.
8
Q
What was under each companion’s name?
A
- Under the name of each companion there are hadiths narrated by that companion. This way, every single hadith can be traced back to the Prophet pbuh.
9
Q
Who’s Musnad collection was the most famous?
A
- The most famous collection of this type is of Ahmad bin Hanbal’s Musnad. He was the founder of the Hanbali School of law.
- He compiled his book by examining 750,000 hadiths. He selected only 27647 hadiths out of which 10,000 hadiths are repeated as more than one companion reported them.
