Tradition

Question 1

What is the hadith? when is it used?

Answer 1

The sayings of Muhammad. It is used if the Qur’an has contradictory passages, or does not cover an item. It forms the basis of Sharia law

Question 2

what did el fadl say about the hadith?

Answer 2

“Without a study of Hadith a Muslim’s knowledge of his faith remains incomplete.”

Question 3

what is the problem with the hadith?

Answer 3

there is no one single authorised version, so they can contradict

Question 4

What is isnad?

Answer 4

a guarantor method used to determine the reliability of a hadith - only a Hadith with a genuine ISNAD, a guarantor which goes back to one of the companions of the Prophet could be accepted as correct.

Question 5

Why do some muslims distrust the hadith?

Answer 5

Because it is not the word of god, so could have been distorted, eg Rashad Khalifa

Question 6

What are the advantages of the hadith?

Answer 6

• Muhammad is a perfect moral exemplar and so his lessons and sayings should be taken seriously
• As the isnad method guarantees reliability of the hadiths, they are regarded as authoritative as the Qur’an and sometimes even more so.

Question 7

Why are the hadith sometimes more authoritative than the Qur’an?

Answer 7

over time things can change e.g punishments and punishments must reflect the developed state of the law in Islam e.g The Qur’an specified 100 lashes for extra marital sex but well known Hadith tell Muslims that Muhammad was known to occasionally order stonings for such an act. According to Al-Shafi’i (762-820) this heavier punishment reflected the developed state of the law.

Question 8

What are the disadvantages of the hadith? 6

Answer 8

• sometimes people tell lies about muhammad - a man was executed for telling 4000 lies about him
• even 150 years after his death there was little agreement about how to distinguish false from true sayings
• story tellers wove anecdotes into their material about Muhammad
• some contradict each other or the quran
• the guarantor method is unreliable. Oral tradition can affect the reliability of the sayings of Muhammad over a long period of time, even across two or three generations.
• some thought it was wrong to write hadiths down because books confused beliefs

Question 9

What did one of Abu Hanifa’s most devoted disciples warn people to do?

Answer 9

“stay away from unusual hadiths…A hadith that goes against the Qur’an is not from the Messenger of God even if (reliable) narrators relate it!”

Question 10

what is the sira?

Answer 10

the biographies of muhammad. Sira comes from the verb sara which means to travel

Question 11

what does the sira consist of?

Answer 11

○ Stories of military expeditions by Muhammad and his companions
○ Political treatise
○ Military enlistments
○ Letters to foreign rulers
○ Speeches and sermons made by Muhammad e.g speech at farewell pilgrimage
○ Verses of poetry commemorating certain events and battles
○ Prophetic miracles

Question 12

Why does Wim Raven say no coherent account of the life of Muhammad can be formed from the literature of the sira?

Answer 12

• hardly any sira work compiled in first century of islam
• discrepancies
• later sources claim to know more about the life of Muhammad than earlier sources

Question 13

Who did Shi’a muslims believe Muhammad had designated as leader? and why?

Answer 13

Ali, his cousin/son in law. Because on his final pilgrimage to mecca he declared “whoever has me as his patron has Ali as his patron”

Question 14

Why was Abu Bakr chosen as caliph?

Answer 14

The tribes of Mecca and Medina disliked Ali’s tribe, the Hashim - Abu bakr was from a far more liked tribe

Question 15

Who was appointed after Abu Bakr, and what was he like?

Answer 15

Umar. he was a determined leader and Islam grew and was successful under his leadership

Question 16

Who was caliph after umar? why was this decision unpopular?

Answer 16

Uthman. His tribe had previously opposed muhammad. However he had been very close with muhammad.

Question 17

What unpopular decisions did Uthman make?

Answer 17

he was nepotistic, he took away privileges of the Qurra tribe, and he tried to make the pensions of all Muhammad’s wives the same, which angered Aisha who felt she was favoured. This upset the Qurra tribe who turned to Ali, believing he should have been Caliph after Muhammad died

Question 18

How did uthman die?

Answer 18

he was killed by some of his own soldiers, who had found out that he had ordered their deaths

Question 19

Who became caliph after uthman?

Answer 19

Ali. He was accepted by some, but not others such as Aisha

Question 20

How did Ali die?

Answer 20

Ali was murdered, after the Battle of the Camel, where Aisha went to war against Ali. Uthman’s cousin Mu’awaiya and Aisha forced Ali to step down, while Mu’awaiya became Caliph. Puritanical Muslims called the Kharajites killed Ali, as they were angry that Uthman’s killers were never punished.

Question 21

How did the Qurra tribe respond to Ali’s death?

Answer 21

• The Qurra tribe turned to Husayn, Ali’s son, inviting him to be the next Caliph, but Mu’awaiya’s son Yazid killed him.
  
  • The Qurra tribe who supported the descendants of Ali formed the Shi’a group, who grew strong in Iran and eventually overthrew the Umayyads at the battle of Zab. The Shi’a caliphate then ruled.

Question 22

Why are orthodox shia muslims known as the twelver shias?

Answer 22

because they believe that after muhammad died there were 12 imams

Question 23

What are the attributes of the 12 imams?

Answer 23

Semi divine; had supernatural knowledge; sinless; infallible; had miraculous births

Question 24

What must one be to be an imam?

Answer 24

a descendant of muhammad, and be designated by the previous imam

Question 25

Who is the 12th imam

Answer 25

The hidden imam, Muhammad al Madhi, was believed to have never died, and instead went into hiding. He is the Messiah, and will come again to bring about the world’s end.

Question 26

What supernatural powers was ali believed to possess?

Answer 26

he could control the weather; communicate with the dead, life mighty stones, and had supernatural knowledge

Question 27

What did Muhammad recite in the ahl al-bayt story?

Answer 27

“Verily Allah intends to keep off from you every kind of uncleanness O’ People of the House (Ahlul- Bayt), and purify you with a perfect purification”.

Question 28

Who makes up the ahl al bayt?

Answer 28

the 12 imams, muhammad and his daughter fatima

Question 29

order from most reliable to least - daif, sahih, hasan

Answer 29

Sahih - most, then hasan, then daif - least

Question 30

Why was abu bakr chosen as caliph?

Answer 30

he was very pious, was one of the first to convert to Islam and was Muhammad’s dearest friend. He brought unity and military triumph.

Question 31

How does Lammens support Abu Bakr as caliph?

Answer 31

said Arabs did not like hereditary leadership. Abu Bakr was the most obvious and right choice.

Question 32

Why does Aslan believe that the arguments against Ali being caliph were not good ones?

Answer 32

Ali was young but not ‘untried’. He was recognised for spiritual maturity and military prowess. He was often left in charge of the community (Ummah) when Muhammad was absent. Some tribes in medina, and Muhammad’s clan the Banu Hashim wanted him as leader.

Question 33

What did Madelung say supporting choosing Ali as caliph?

Answer 33

Hereditary succession was common amongst the aristocratic Quraysh as they believed that noble qualities were passed via the bloodline. The Bible also supports hereditary succession and the Qur’an highlights this e.g. Abraham passes succession to Isaac.

Question 34

What did abu bakr do once appointed as caliph?

Answer 34

he stood before the community and asked for their support and blessing

Question 35

what is said in the hadiths that supports the ijma?

Answer 35

“My Ummah (community of Muslims) will never agree upon an error.”

Question 36

How did al ghazali feel about the ijma?

Answer 36

he agreed with Al-shafi’i that the ijma was the whole world of Muslims but felt that the finer details of religious practices and laws should be left to the religiously learned.

Question 37

Sunni muslims disagree over who the ijma really is. What are the three different opinions on this?

Answer 37

○ Some believe it is the salaf, the first three generations of muslims after muhammad.
○ Some believe it is all Muslims across the world
○ Some that it refers only to Muslim scholars who are learned

Question 38

How was sharia law developed?

Answer 38

was developed by the Ulama (leading Muslim scholars) and it was initially based on the Qur’an. However, this proved to be inadequate because it is not a book of laws and often did not cover legal issues. The Ulama then turned to the Sunna (example of Muhammad) in the form of the Hadiths.

Question 39

what did the ulama do if a hadith proved inadequate?

Answer 39

turned to the Ijma, which they believed was the unanimous consenseus of legal scholars.

Question 40

what is the ulama?

Answer 40

leading muslim scholars

Question 41

What is the salaf?

Answer 41

the first three generations of muslims after muhammad

Question 42

What did Muhammad say about the salaf?

Answer 42

“The people of my own generation are the best, then those who come after them, and then those of the next generation”

Question 43

Who was tamiyya?

Answer 43

a leading Muslim in the 9th century who made decisions based on salaf e.g. when considering the new drug hashish, he said that it was very like alcohol and users merited 80 lashes (which happened in the era of the salaf).He hated the fact that Sufi Muslims ignored the salaf and humiliated one who had been taking hashish by cutting his robe, his finger nails and shaving his long hair.

Question 44

what is the qudsi hadith?

Answer 44

specjal hadith directly narrated by muhammad inspired through allah but not his direct word

Question 45

why did some jurists believe the customs of medina were more important than the hadith?

Answer 45

in medina hounds were clean animals. but Muhammad taught that dishes licked by dogs 7 times must be washed

Question 46

what do shi’a muslims add to the shahada?

Answer 46

“i bear witness that ali is the friend of god”