Editing Hadith (section)

{{Short description|Collections of sayings and teachings of Muhammad}}
{{Other uses}}
{{Distinguish|Hadit}}
{{Hadith}}{{Muhammad}}{{Use American English|date=May 2024}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2020}}
'''Hadith'''{{efn|{{IPAc-en|ˈ|h|æ|d|ɪ|θ}}<ref name=":1">{{OED|hadith}}</ref> or {{IPAc-en|h|ɑː|ˈ|d|iː|θ}};<ref>{{dictionary.com|Hadith|access-date=2011-08-13}}</ref> {{langx|ar|حديث|translit=ḥadīṯ}}, {{IPA|ar|ħadiːθ}}; {{abbr|pl.|plural}} '''{{transliteration|ar|aḥādīth}}''', {{lang|ar|أحاديث}}, {{transliteration|ar|DIN|''ʾaḥādīṯ''}},{{sfn|Brown|2009|p=3}}{{efn|The plural form of hadith in Arabic is {{transliteration|ar|aḥādīth}}, {{lang|ar|أحاديث}}, {{transliteration|ar|DIN|''{{'}}aḥādīth''}}  but ''hadith'' will be used instead in this article.}} {{IPA|ar|ʔaħaːdiːθ}}, {{lit|talk|discourse}}}} is the Arabic word for a 'report' or an 'account [of an event]'{{sfn|Brown|2009|p=3}}<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/HansWehrEnglishArabicDctionarySearchableFormat|title=Hans Wehr English&Arabic Dictionary|accessdate=13 February 2025}}</ref><ref name="Modarresi">{{cite book|author=Mohammad Taqi al-Modarresi|author-link=Mohammad Taqi al-Modarresi|title=The Laws of Islam|date=26 March 2016|publisher=Enlight Press|isbn=978-0994240989|url=http://almodarresi.com/en/books/pdf/TheLawsofIslam.pdf|access-date=22 December 2017|ref=Modarresi|language=en|archive-date=2 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190802163247/http://almodarresi.com/en/books/pdf/TheLawsofIslam.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref>{{rp|471}} and refers to the Islamic [[oral tradition]] of [[anecdote]]s containing the purported words, actions, and the silent approvals of the Islamic prophet [[Muhammad]] or his immediate circle ([[sahaba|companions]] in Sunni Islam,<ref name="EIMW-2004-285">{{cite book |last1=Motzki |first1=Harald |title=Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World |volume=1 |date=2004 |publisher=Thomson Gale |page=285 |url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofis0001unse/page/284/mode/2up}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Al-Bukhari |first=Imam |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q9E4egv4lKEC |title=Moral Teachings of Islam: Prophetic Traditions from Al-Adab Al-mufrad By Muḥammad ibn Ismāʻīl Bukhārī |publisher=Rowman Altamira |year=2003 |isbn=9780759104174}}</ref> [[Ahl al-Bayt]] in Shiite Islam).<ref name="Intro-hadith-vii">{{cite book |last1=al-Fadli |first1=Abd al-Hadi |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E-muq9pi0zUC&q=shia+hadith |title=Introduction to Hadith |date=2011 |publisher=ICAS Press |isbn=9781904063476 |edition=2nd |location=London |page=vii }}{{Dead link|date=April 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

Each hadith is associated with a [[Isnad|chain of narrators]] ({{Transliteration|ar|isnad}})—a lineage of people who reportedly heard and repeated the hadith from which the source of the hadith can be traced.<ref name=":0" /> The authentication of hadith became a significant discipline, focusing on the ''isnad'' (chain of narrators) and ''[[matn]]'' (main text of the report).<ref>{{Cite web |last= |first= |date= |title=Surah Al-Jumu'a, Word by word translation of verse number 2-3 (Tafsir included) {{!}} الجمعة - Quran O |url=https://qurano.com/en/62-al-jumu-a/ |access-date=2021-01-31 |website=qurano.com |language=en}}</ref>{{sfn|Brown|2009|p=4}}{{sfn|Brown|2009|p=6-7}}<ref>{{cite book |last=Islahi |first=Amin Ahsan |author-link=Amin Ahsan Islahi |url=http://www.monthly-renaissance.com/DownloadContainer.aspx?id=71 |title=Mabadi Tadabbur-i-Hadith (translated as: "Fundamentals of Hadith Interpretation") |publisher=Al-Mawrid |year=1989 |location=Lahore |language=ur |access-date=2 June 2011 |orig-year=transl. 2009}}</ref><ref name="H-EoI" /> This process aimed to address contradictions and questionable statements within certain narrations.<ref name="IatW-Lewis-44">{{cite book|last1=Lewis|first1=Bernard|title=Islam and the West|date=1993|publisher=Oxford University Press|page=[https://archive.org/details/islamwest00lewi_0/page/44 44]|url=https://archive.org/details/islamwest00lewi_0|url-access=registration|quote=hadith.|access-date=28 March 2018|isbn=9780198023937}}</ref> Beginning one or two centuries after Muhammad's death, Islamic scholars, known as [[muhaddiths]], compiled hadith into distinct collections that survive in the historical works of writers from the second and third centuries of the [[Islamic calendar|Muslim era]] ({{Circa}} 700−1000 CE).

For many [[madhab|Muslim sects]], hadith was a reliable source for religious and moral guidance known as [[sunnah]], which ranks second to that of the [[Quran]] in authority,<ref name="EB">{{cite web |title=Hadith |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Hadith |website=Encyclopaedia Britannica |access-date=31 July 2020}}</ref> widely respected in mainstream [[Islamic thought]], so that the majority of [[ahkam|Sharia rules]] derived from hadith rather than the Quran.<ref name="Forte-1978-2">{{cite journal|last1=Forte|first1=David F.|title=Islamic Law; the impact of Joseph Schacht|journal=Loyola of Los Angeles International and Comparative Law Review |date=1978|volume=1|page=2 |url=http://www.soerenkern.com/pdfs/islam/IslamicLawTheImpactofJosephSchacht.pdf |access-date=19 April 2018}}</ref>{{#tag:ref|"The full systems of Islamic theology and law are not derived primarily from the Quran. Muhammad's sunna was a second but far more detailed living scripture, and later Muslim scholars would thus often refer to Muhammad as 'The Possessor of Two Revelations'".<ref name="JACBMM2014:18">[[#JACBMM2014|J.A.C. Brown, ''Misquoting Muhammad'', 2014]]: p.18</ref>|group=Note}} However in the early Islamic society and the use of hadith as it is understood today (documentation, isnads, etc.) came gradually. [[Sunnah]] originally meant a tradition that did not contain the definition of good and bad.<ref name="Juynboll">{{Cite encyclopedia |last=Juynboll |first=G. H. A. |date=1997 |title=Sunna |encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia of Islam |edition=2nd |publisher=Brill |editor1-first=P. |editor1-last=Bearman |editor2-first=Th. |editor2-last=Bianquis |editor3-first=C. E. |editor3-last=Bosworth |editor4-first=E. |editor4-last=van Donzel |editor5-first=W. P. |editor5-last=Heinrichs |volume=9 |pages=878–879}}</ref><ref name="auto">{{Cite web| url=http://www.usc.edu/schools/college/crcc/engagement/resources/texts/muslim/reference/glossary/term.SUNNAH.html | title=Sunnah | access-date=14 May 2024 | archive-date=5 December 2010 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101205042656/http://www.usc.edu/schools/college/crcc/engagement/resources/texts/muslim/reference/glossary/term.SUNNAH.html | url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="auto1">{{cite web |last1=Wehr |first1=Hans |title=A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic |url=https://giftsofknowledge.files.wordpress.com/2016/01/hans-wehr-searchable-pdf.pdf |website=Hans Wehr Searchable PDF |access-date=15 June 2020 |page=369 |archive-date=20 June 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180620203718/https://giftsofknowledge.files.wordpress.com/2016/01/hans-wehr-searchable-pdf.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="OISO">{{cite web |title=Sunnah |url= http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/article/opr/t243/e332 |archive-url= https://archive.today/20130616030931/http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/article/opr/t243/e332 |url-status= dead |archive-date= 16 June 2013 |website=Oxford Islamic Studies Online |access-date=15 June 2020}}</ref><ref name="Oxford University Press">{{cite book |title=The Origins of Muhammadan Jurisprudence |last1=Schacht |first1=Joseph |publisher=Oxford University Press |date=1959 |orig-year=1950 |page=58}}</ref>  Later, "good traditions" began to be referred to as sunnah and the concept of "Muhammad's sunnah" was established.<ref name="Juynboll" /> Muhammad's sunnah gave way to the "hadiths of Muhammad"{{sfn|Brown|2009|p=3}} which were being [[Oral tradition|transmitted orally]], then recorded in the corpuses that continued to be [[Hadith studies|collected, classified and purified according to various criteria]] in the following centuries. Scholars have [[Categories of Hadith|categorized hadith]] based on their reliability, sorting them into classifications such as ''[[sahih]]'' ('authentic'), ''[[Hasan (hadith)|hasan]]'' ('good'), and ''da'if'' ('weak').<ref>The Future of Muslim Civilisation by Ziauddin Sardar, 1979, page 26.</ref> This classification is subjective to the person doing this study<ref>These collections contain the hadiths that are generally considered most likely to be accurate. Furthermore, works compiled after the dissemination of the canonical collections have challenged the reliability of some of the hadiths in those collections.https://www.britannica.com/topic/Quran/Origin-and-compilation</ref> and differences in classification have led to variations in practices among the different [[Islamic schools and branches]].<ref name="JACBMM2014:8">[[#JACBMM2014|J.A.C. Brown, ''Misquoting Muhammad'', 2014]]: p.8</ref> The study of hadith is a central discipline in Islam, known as the [[hadith sciences]], and is also examined in the contemporary historiographical field of [[hadith studies]].

After being compiled in the 10th and 11th centuries, the Hadith were originally imposed in the 14th century by socio-political and spiritual authorities.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IdhMDwAAQBAJ&dq=hadithist&pg=PA72 | title=The Retabulism | isbn=978-2-322-10408-6 | last1=Boutammina | first1=Nas E. | date=19 February 2018 | publisher=BoD - Books on Demand }}</ref> A minority of Muslims [[Criticism of hadith|criticise the hadith]] and reject them, including [[Quranists]], who 
assert that Islamic guidance should rely solely on the Quran. They argue that many hadith are fabrications ([[pseudepigrapha]]) from the 8th and 9th centuries, falsely attributed to Muhammad.<ref name="Aisha Y. Musa 2013">Aisha Y. Musa, The Qur’anists, Florida International University, accessed 22 May 2013.</ref><ref name="Neal Robinson 2013 pp. 85-89">Neal Robinson (2013), Islam: A Concise Introduction, Routledge, {{ISBN|978-0878402243}}, Chapter 7, pp. 85-89</ref> Historically, some sects of the [[Kharijites]] also rejected the hadiths, while [[Mu'tazilites]] rejected the hadiths as the basis for Islamic law, while at the same time accepting the Sunnah and [[Ijma]].<ref name="Rowman & Littlefield">{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j8c_DwAAQBAJ&dq=khawarij+rejected+the+hadith&pg=PA75 | title=Major Issues in Islam: The Challenges within and Without | isbn=978-0-7618-7017-3 | last1=Sindima | first1=Harvey J. | date=2 November 2017 | publisher=Rowman & Littlefield }}</ref><ref name="Lulu.com">{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=G-M3IRh22moC&dq=some+mutazilites+rejected+hadiths&pg=PA63 | title=Science Under Islam: Rise, Decline and Revival | isbn=9781847999429 | last1=Deen | first1=Sayyed M. | year=2007 | publisher=Lulu.com }}</ref> Western scholars participating in the field of hadith studies are generally skeptical of the value of hadith for understanding the true [[historical Muhammad]], even those considered {{transliteration|ar|[[sahih]]}} by Muslim scholars. Reasons for skepticism include the late compilation of hadith (often centuries after Muhammad’s death), difficulties in verifying chains of transmission, the prevalence of hadith fabrication, and doubts about the traditional methods of hadith authentication. This skepticism extends even to hadith classified as ''sahih'' by Muslim scholars, as such narrations may still reflect later historical or theological concerns rather than the authentic teachings of Muhammad.<ref name=":0">{{Citation |last=Brown |first=Daniel W. |title=Western Hadith Studies |date=2020-01-02 |work=The Wiley Blackwell Concise Companion to the Hadith |pages=39–56 |editor-last=Brown |editor-first=Daniel W. |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9781118638477.ch2 |access-date=2024-06-26 |edition=1 |publisher=Wiley |language=en |doi=10.1002/9781118638477.ch2 |isbn=978-1-118-63851-4|url-access=subscription }}</ref>{{Sfn|Little|2024|p=163}}