Chapter
XXII - Transmission of Hadîth
In Prophet's Lifetime
he transmission of the practices and sayings of the Prophet
from one person to another became necesÂsary during the Prophet's
lifetime. In fact, the Prophet himself used to give instructions with regard to
the transmission of what he taught. Thus, when a deputation of a certain tribe
came to wait upon him in the early days of Medina, the Prophet concluded his
instructions to them with the words "Remember
this and report it to those whom you have left behind " (1) Similar were
his instruction in other cases "Go back to
your people and teach them these things.”()
There is another report according to
which, on the occasion of a
pilgrimage, the Prophet, after enjoining on the Muslims the duty of holding
sacred each other’s life, property, and honour, added: "He
who is present here should carry this message to him who is absent". ()
Again there is ample historical evidence that whenever a people embraced Islam,
the Prophet used to send to them one or more of his missionaries, who not only
taught them the Koran but also explained to them how the injunctions of the
Holy Book were to be carried out in practice. It is also in record that people
came to the Prophet and demanded teachers who could teach them the Koran and
the Sunna, saying. "Send us men to teach us the Koran and Sunna.” The companions of the Prophet knew full well that the
injunctions and practices were to be followed, should no express
direction be met with in the Koran. It is related that when Mu’az ibn Jabal on
being appointed governor of Yamen by the Prophet, was asked how he would
judge cases, his reply was, “By the Book of God' again he was asked "What he would do if he did
not find a direction in the Book of God” he replied, “By the Sunna of the Prophet of God. The Sunna was, therefore., recognised in the life time of the Prophet
as affording guidance in religious. matters
The popular idea
in the West that the need for Sunna was felt and the
force of law given, to hadîth, after the death of
the Prophet, is opposed by the facts. ()
Why Hadîth Was Not Generally Written
t is, however, a
fact that the saying of the Prophet were not generally written, and memory was
the chief means of their preservation.
The Prophet
sometimes objected to the writing down of hadîth. But this
disapproval clearly shows nothing else but fear lest hadîth be mixed up with
the Holy Koran. There was nothing essentially wrong in writing down hadith, nor
did the Prophet ever forbid its being done. Nor was memory an unreliable means
for the preservation of hadîth, for the Holy Koran
itself was safely preserved in the memory of the disciples of the Prophet in
addition to committing it to writing. In fact, had the Koran been simply
preserved in writing, it could not have been handed down intact to future
generations. The aid of memory was invoked to make the purity of the text of
the Koran doubly sure.
The Arab had to wonderfully retentive memory and
he had to store up his knowledge of countless things in his memory. Indeed,
before Islam, writing was but rarely resorted to, and memory was chiefly relied
upon in all important matters. Hundreds and even thousands of verses could be
recited from memory by one man, and the reciters would also remember the names
of the poets trough whom these verses had been transmitted to them. It is
recorded of a later renowned transmitter, Asma’i by name, that he learned twelve thousand verses by heart
before he reached majority. Another transmitter was reported to have recited
verses from a hundred poets in a single sitting. Sha’bi, a famous transmitter,
proved that he could continue reciting verses which he knew by heart for a
month; and these verses were the basis of the Arabic vocabulary and even of
Arabic grammar.()
