AN INTRODUCTION TO HADITH : Sahih and Hasan Hadith.Part2
Due to the fact that weak Traditions have been accepted as evidence historically and in matters pertaining to the virtue of certain personalities and places, as well as in legal issues lacking rulings, they have been narrated and even recorded in compilations by hadith scholars.
In this period, “fair” or hasan hadith were also evaluated in the category of weak hadith.
On account of such issues as the criticism leveled at Traditionists for narrating weak hadith and the difficulty for those other than the hadith scholars to benefit from books of hadith, Traditionist Ishaq ibn Rahuya (d. 852 CE) referred to—in an assembly where his student Bukhari was also present—the need for a compilation containing only the rigorously authenticated (sahih) hadith.
Beginning his work upon this advice, Imam Bukhari (d. 870 CE) selected 1,563 hadiths from among the 600,000 that he had collected until that point, to produce his work Al-Jami’ as-sahih. The full title of the work is Al- Jami al-Musnad as-Sahih al-Mukhtasar min Umur Rasulullah wa Sunanihi wa Ayyamihi (The Abridged Authentic Compilation of the Affairs of the Messenger of Allah, his Sunnah and Campaigns). The term mukhtasar in the title, denoting “concise,” serves to illustrate that he did not aim to compile all authentic Traditions. As a matter of fact, after Bukhari, a great many authors produced works compiling sahih hadith; however, Bukhari’s collection has always been accepted as the most reliable with respect to both its being the first of its kind and due to his rigorous application of the sahih hadith criteria. The reliability of his narrations pertains to his work in the general sense. A particular narration in another hadith compilation may be sounder than the one in Bukhari and it is possible to find sounder narration than one cited in Bukhari.
Later scholars of hadith conducted various studies on Imam Bukhari’s work, investigating his narrators one by one, discovering differing chains of transmission for the narrations therein, and carrying out independent studies of its diverse characteristics. Imam Bukhari’s work left researchers in awe of him and has been regarded as the most reputable book of hadith.
Bukhari recorded narrations from approximately one thousand mentors, but included the narrations of only 293 of his mentors in his Sahih. The shortest chain of transmission in Bukhari’s Sahih contains three narrators. There are twenty-two such hadith in the work, with the number of narrators for each isnad throughout varying between three and six. Bukhari has documented the narrations of the most select narrators at each level or category. He has included a total 1,597 narrators, 208 of them Companions.
Bukhari’s work is divided into ninety-seven chapters (kutub, sing. kitab) and subdivided into 3,730 subchapters (abwab, sing. bab). The use of the term jami (compilation) in the title suggests that the work brings together Prophetic Traditions covering a complete range of topics. After beginning with a hadith on the matter or intention, it proceeds with a section explaining the beginning of revelation, and passes on to legal issues after expounding matters of belief and knowledge. Chapters concerning history and related topics begin with the creation of the universe and continue with sections explaining the history of previous Prophets and the military expeditions (maghazi) of Allah’s Messenger. Including an extensive treatment on the Qur’anic commentary (tafsir), the work’s subchapters have been enriched with explanatory notes taken from various works of commentary up until his day.
Bukhari has given room to his own opinions and those of other writers in only the subheadings. He has also included Qur’anic verses in some subheadings, citing these in particular in the subheadings of the last chapter, the Book of Tawhid. In his work, Imam Bukhari has also collected hadith encompassing all aspects of life such as dreams, medicine, illnesses, and good character.
Bukhari has aimed not only to compile the hadith themselves, but to also facilitate rulings to be obtained from them and to allow the hadith to serve as a guide in every facet of life.
For this reason, he has scattered the hadith under a great many subheadings, even sometimes repeating a single hadith under the relevant six or seven subheadings. While there are a total of 7,275 hadiths, this number is reduced to 2,791 upon a removal of all duplicates. By means of including a different chain of transmission (isnad, sing. sanad) or content or text (matn) at each repetition of the hadith, he avoids the possibility of their being rendered meaningless. Sometimes, for the purpose of abridgement, he has not cited the chain of narrators for the repeated hadith. Placing these hadith in the subheadings, he has been able to include a great number of hadith in his work without making it any greater in volume.
