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Hadith Compilation & Placement Project

Existence of Hadith: God's religion, as revealed to the last of His prophets, has been transmitted to us through what is considered to be the most authentic and unchallengeable mode of transmission of information over time. Both the bases of this religion – i.e., the Qur'an as well as the Sunnah – have been transmitted over generations through the consensus of the companions of the Prophet (pbuh) and through the verbal or practical perpetuation of the Muslims in each generation starting from the companions of the Prophet (pbuh). However, alongside these two primary sources of the transmission of the basic corpus of Islam, due to the Prophet's stature, narratives relating the various aspects of his life, incidents, teachings and sayings started coming in circulation and people starting narrating them with reverence and sanctity.

Scope of Hadith: Because of the very nature of these narratives, their scope was not limited directly to the religious teachings of the Prophet (pbuh), but covered all aspects of his life and person that, in the perception of the observer and the narrator, were considered to be of interest to other Muslims. Thus, these narratives include information varying greatly from the physical characteristics of the Prophet and his personal tastes to answers to questions seeking clarifications on any Qur'anic verses and the Prophet's rulings regarding various issues and disputes.

Position & Significance of Hadith: Being reports ascribed to the last Prophet of God these narratives were considered to be of immense importance and were sometimes even used as the deciding arguments in settling academic and practical disputes among Muslims. In other words, these statements ascribed to the Prophet were looked upon as the actual statements of the Prophet (pbuh) and were given phenomenal sanctity and reverence by the common man. Thus, as time went by, these narratives started taking the status of one of the primary sources of the basic corpus of Islam, alongside the Qur'an and the Sunnah. People who had more narratives to report were looked upon with great respect and honor.

Work Previously Done in the Field of Hadith: It was in the wake of such circumstances that people started investigating the authenticity and the reliability of these narratives that were in circulation. As a result of their overwhelming efforts to determine the authenticity of these reports, the great science of information regarding people reporting these narratives – known as `ilm asmaa al-rijaal – was developed by the Muslims of which no match can be found in the history of any other known religious creed.

In their efforts to distinguish the authentic from the unauthentic and the reliable from the unreliable, these experts judged each narrative on the following criteria:

  1. the honesty, reliability (from the perspective of memory) and understanding of each narrator;
  2. the continuity and lack of any break in the chain of narrators reporting these narratives; and
  3. the acceptability of the subject matter reported in these narratives.

Subsequently, many scholars embarked upon the task of forming compilations of narratives that, according to their understanding and research, met their criteria of reliability and authenticity. Compilations like Muwatta Imam Malik, Musannaf Ibn Abi Shaybah, Musannaf Abd al-Razzaq, Sahih Bukhariy, Sahih Muslim, Sahih Ibn Hibban, Sahih Ibn Khuzaymah, Sunan Abi Dawood, Sunan Ibn Maajah, Sunan Al-Tirmidhi Musnad Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Musnad Abi Ya`laa etc. all speak of the great efforts made by these noble scholars, in preserving what they understood to be more reliable from among the innumerable narratives in circulation during their respective times.

No words can justify the greatness of the task performed and the phenomenal efforts made by these great scholars of Hadith. Muslims for all times to come shall remain indebted to them for the work that they have done. Without their efforts, we may never have been able to distinguish the generally reliable from the unreliable information that would have remained in circulation about the life and times of the last Prophet of God.

Some Aspects of Further Development: Nevertheless, as all human efforts would require, there remains a need from various aspects to continue in contributing to the evolution of the science of Hadith and, thereby, to the work done by these great scholars. A study of the work already done by the scholars of Hadith reveals that:

  1. Each scholar has included only those texts of the narratives, which were accessible to him and which according to his personal research, were considered reliable and authentic. This has resulted in:
  • a large number of textual repetitions of narratives;
  • as more comprehensive and more organized information became available about the narrators of Hadith, a susceptibility of many such narratives which were initially considered acceptably authentic and reliable by their respective compilers; and
  • a general lack of comprehensiveness regarding the background, context and even the text of the narrative, if taken independent of other similar narratives. It is obvious that when the same saying or incident is reported by more than one narrators, variations in the reports of the various narrators could easily have complemented each other in forming a more comprehensive understanding regarding that narrative.
  1. These compilations make no distinction between those that entail an explanation, extension or application of any principle, teaching or directive given in the Qur'an or the Sunnah and those that describe a personal taste, inclination, preference or attribute of the Prophet (pbuh). As a result, all these narratives are perceived, by the common reader, as a part of the Divine religion, whereas, if seen in the light of the Qur'an, many of these narratives may be related specifically to the person or the position of the Prophet (pbuh).

Introduction to the Hadith Project: It is in the aforementioned background that we had made an outline of our work on Hadith.

Primary Targets of the Hadith Project: The primary target of the Hadith Project is to further the work already done by the great scholars and compilers of Hadith. This would include;

  1. To form a comprehensive database of all narrations reported in all the major compilations, in such a way that all the related texts of a particular narration are made easily accessible to anyone who desires to conduct a research on any one or more of these narratives;
  2. To arrive at the most comprehensive and most suitable text of each of the incidents and sayings, through analysis and integration of all the various reported texts of each of the narratives;
  3. To provide comprehensive information regarding the textual variations, if any, in the reporting of each of the narratives;
  4. To provide brief explanations, wherever necessary, for the correct comprehension of each of the narratives as well as for understanding the foundation of any directive entailed in it either in the Qur'an, the Sunnah or in man's inherent nature;
  5. To form a compilation of the completed work in such a way that each narrative is given an appropriate position in the overall corpus of Islam or Islamic history. In this connection, all the accepted narratives are expected to be placed in any of the sub-divisions of one of the following heads:
  • `Ilm al-Nabiy – which shall include all narratives relating to the prophetic knowledge;
  • Fiqh al-Nabiy – which shall include all narratives entailing an extension, application or implementation of any of the directives of the Shari`ah, as given in the Qur'an or the Sunnah; and
  • Seerah al-Nabiy – which shall include all narratives relating to the person of the prophet and his personal tastes, preferences and lifestyle.
  1. To arrange for the translation of this compilation in different languages (especially, English, Urdu and Arabic).

Work Plan: The work shall be done on the following lines:

  1. All the related narrations of a particular incident and/or saying shall be collected from all the major books of compilations (see: annexure 1 for a list of books that are initially selected for the purpose. More books may be added to the list later);
  2. The collected narratives shall be analyzed and sub-grouped into groups of similar narratives;
  3. From the collected and grouped data, the most comprehensive narration of each incident or saying in the most suitable words shall be selected or formed;
  4. All parts of the comprehensive text shall be fully referenced and all variations in the various reported texts of the narrative shall be recorded;
  5. Brief explanatory notes shall be added to each narrative, wherever necessary, to explain any difficult part of the content of the narrative as well as to point out the foundation of that narrative in the Qur'an, the Sunnah, common sense or human nature;
  6. Finally, arrange for the translation of the work done in various languages (especially English, Urdu and Arabic).

Progress of Work & Targets: During the last two years, besides the initial training of the staff, the collection of narratives covering over 200 topics and almost 24,000 reports has been completed. The selection and/or formation of the comprehensive text has been completed for almost 35 narratives, covering almost 1300 reports.

If the provision of the existing resources can be continued, the initial targets (for at least one to two years) for the future will be as under:

  1. Takhreej of Ahadith covering, on the average, 1,000 ahadith per month;
  2. Analysis, grouping and sub-grouping of these Takhreej, covering, on the average, 1,000 ahadith per month; and
  3. Formation of Comprehensive text and final presentation (including notes on textual variations and brief explanatory notes) of three narratives per month, on the average;

NOTE: With the availability of more resources, the speed of the work done in the first two phases can be increased.

Revised targets shall be set, significantly increasing the number of final presentations per month, as soon as the work on the first two phases ('a' and 'b' above) of the project is completed.

Furthermore, after the completion of the first two phases a software based on the completed work shall be prepared which can provide invaluable input for any subsequent work done in the field of Hadith.

The End Products: The completed work is proposed to be presented in the following forms:

  1. An Arabic language database for the assistance of any future work that is sought to be done on the text of a Hadith or on any topic covered by Hadith. This database shall be made available in two separate forms:
  1. A topically arranged compilation of all those narratives that are found to be acceptable, including the comprehensive and the most suitable text of each narrative, its translation, brief explanatory notes and comprehensive notes on all the textual variations in its reporting, if any;
  2. A reproduction of b), excluding the notes on textual variations on each narrative (which is likely to significantly reduce the size of the compilation);
  3. A compilation of all the narratives that were not found to be acceptable, including the reasons thereof;
  4. Small topical booklets and articles based on the Hadith work to address the misconceptions on these topics.

Initial Scope of the Project

  • Mu'atta of Imam Malik (1,823)

  • Sahih of Bukhariy (7,124)

  • Sahih of Muslim (5,362)

  • Sunan of Al-Tirmidhi (3,956)

  • Sunan of Abu Dawood (5,274)

  • Sunan of Al-Nasaaiy (5,754)

  • Sunan of Ibn Maajah (4,341)

  • Musnad of Ahmad ibn Hanbal (27,288)

  • Sunan of Al-Daarmiy (3,503)

  • Sunan of Al-Bayhaqiy (21,601)

  • Sahih of Ibn Khuzaymah (3,079)

  • Sahih of Ibn Hibaan (7,491)

  • Musannaf of Ibn Abi Shaybah (37,943)

  • Musannaf of Abd al-Razzaq (21,033)

  • Musannaf of Al-Humaydiy (1,300)

  • Musnad of Abu Ya`laa (7,555)

  • Sunan al-Kubraa of Al-Nassaiy (11,770)

Total narratives to be covered in the first phase of the Project: 176,197 (almost 176,000) narratives

  
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