Tradition - Hadith and Sunnah

Question 1

What are the Hadiths?

Answer 1

Sayings of Prophet Muhammad

Question 2

What is the Sunna?

Answer 2

The example of the prophet Muhammad

Question 3

Give an example of when Muslims used the Hadiths and Sunnah?

Answer 3

Regarding Prayer, Salah, the Qur’an tells you when to pray and the direction to face, but it does not tell you what to do, here, Muslims turn to the Sunnah and Hadiths.

Question 4

What is an issue with the Hadiths?

Answer 4

There is no one authorised version of the Hadith so there are differences and contradictions between the hadith.

Question 5

What did Al-Bukhari do?

Answer 5

Made a collection of 600,000 hadith in the ninth century, which he then scrutinised. He reduced the number of hadith sayings down to 7000.

Question 6

How did Bukhari check the reliability of a hadith?

Answer 6

The ISNAD method, a guarantor which goes back to one of the companions of the Prophet could be accepted as correct. Prior to a saying one might expect to read “X said that Y said that W said that V heard the prophet say…” or “X said that Y said that W said that V saw the prophet do…”

Question 7

How many of the traditions go back to Aisha?

Answer 7

One sixth

Question 8

Who accepts Al-Bukhari’s hadith?

Answer 8

Most Muslims accept these sayings of Bukhari as genuine, including Sunni Muslims

Question 9

Why do some Muslims distrust the Hadith, and name someone who distrusts them?

Answer 9

Because they are not the Word of God - Rashad Khalifa.

Question 10

What does El-Fadl say about the Hadith?

Answer 10

Claims the Hadith are essential for understanding the Qur’an.

Question 11

Which Hadith do Shi’a accept?

Answer 11

Hadith of Ali

Question 12

Why do Qur’anists not accept the Hadith?

Answer 12

Unreliable, should be read within the context of time and not used today e.g. the place of women then is not the case now.

Question 13

What is the Arabic term Sira used for?

Answer 13

Used for the collection of biographies of Prophet Muhammad. Comes from the verb Sara - journey, so journey through life.

Question 14

Who fathered the main collection of Sira?

Answer 14

Ibn-Hisham.

Question 15

What do the main Sira contain?

Answer 15

Political treatise, stories of military expeditions, letters to foreign rulers, speeches and sermons, miracles and poetry of battles.

Question 16

How are the authenticity of the Siras checked

Answer 16

ISNAD method.

Question 17

What does Wim Raven say about the Sira?

Answer 17

Points out that no coherent account of the life of Muhammad can be formed from the literature of the Sira

Question 18

What issues does Wim Raven point out about the Sira?

Answer 18

Hardly an sira work was complied during the first century of Islam. There are discrepancies in the material found in the works of the Sira. Later sources claim to know more about the life of Muhammad than earlier sources. Discrepancies compared to non Muslim sources.

Question 19

How does Fred Donner respond to Wim Raven?

Answer 19

60-70 AH, the earliest writings about the origins of Islam emerged. Donner also claims there is agreement between the general features of the traditional origins stories.

Question 20

Why do some people consider Ibn Hashim unreliable?

Answer 20

Some think of him in the negative sense of a Mudallis. This is when the reporter has concealed the identity of his teacher and instead claims to narrate directly from his teacher’s teacher.

Question 21

Who are the Sahaba?

Answer 21

The people closest to Muhammad, the companions. After his death, they often related stories and sayings from the Prophet.

Question 22

What are Sahih hadiths?

Answer 22

Ones that have been verified by scholars as being said by Muhammad and accurately repeated by word of mouth from person to person to the point at which they were written down.

Question 23

What are Hasan Hadith?

Answer 23

Good hadith which are generally reliable except for a minor question mark here and there.

Question 24

What are Hadith qudsi?

Answer 24

Hadith narrated by Muhammad which are said to be directly inspired by Allah at the time. they are said to be Muhammad’s words on Allah’s direct inspiration, but no the words of god which form the Qur’an.

Question 25

How does the Qur’an give authority to the Hadith?

Answer 25

The Qur’an observed that the behaviour of the Prophet Muhammad was exemplary and therefore lessons and sayings from his life recorded in the hadith should be taken seriously and respected.

Question 26

What makes the Hadith stronger than the Qur’an?

Answer 26

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 stoning for such an act. According to Al-Shafi’i, this heavier punishment reflected the developed state of the law.

Question 27

What is the issue with the guarantor method?

Answer 27

It 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 of the narrators are unknown and others are not.

Question 28

What did one scholar say about people lying in a Hadith, and give another example of this?

Answer 28

One scholar was heard to lament that his colleagues were “never so ready to lie in matters of hadith.” and a Kufan was executed in 772 after confessing to telling 4,000 lies about the Prophet Muhammad.

Question 29

What did one of Abu Hanifa’s most devoted disciples say?

Answer 29

He warned people to “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 30

What did some people think was wrong about writing down any hadiths?

Answer 30

Books confused beliefs. Human literature seemed unwise. Abu Bakr had even reported that it was unwise to write down the Qur’an.