The Encyclopedia of World Religions

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prophet who was an eyewitness. Finally, the chain of transmission had to be able to withstand the strictest scrutiny. Scholars of Hadith studied each individual mentioned in the chain of transmission to determine whether that person was reliable. They also studied the process of transmission from one person to the next. For example, if A and B were both reliable witnesses, but A had never left Spain and B was never farther west than Egypt, the report was clearly false. In the late ninth and early 10th centuries C . E ., scholars of S UNNI I SLAM made six authoritative col lections of Hadith. Their collections represent con siderable effort: Scholars traveled widely to gather as many Hadith as possible. The collections also represent considerable sifting. For example, al Bukhari, who made the most important collection, is said to have examined hundreds of thousands of Hadith from all over the Islamic world. His fin ished collection contains a little over 7,000. S HI ’ ITE I SLAM has its own collections of Hadith. They were made 400 to 500 years after the prophet lived, and derive especially from the prophet’s cousin Ali and his supporters. Each Hadith has two parts: the chain of trans mission and the report itself. Many Hadith deal with Muhammad’s pronouncements on central Islamic practices. For example, a large number tell in detail how to observe the five pillars of Islam: profession of faith, formal daily prayer ( SALAT ), almsgiving, FASTING during the month of R AMADAN , and PILGRIMAGE to M ECCA . Others deal with mat ters that seem less important, for example, what kind of dates one can sell, how not to react when someone breaks wind, and the relative merits of

Hadith The Arabic word for “story” or “news”; in I SLAM , reliable reports about the prophet M UHAM MAD . All Muslims profess, “There is no god but G OD [ see A LLAH ], and M UHAMMAD is God’s messen ger.” The second part of this statement means first of all that Muhammad received God’s revelation in the Q UR ’ AN . It also means that, as God’s mes senger, Muhammad exemplifies the ideal response to God’s revelation. As a result, his life takes on religious significance. Hadith are for the most part records of what the prophet Muhammad said, did, and allowed. They are second in importance only to the Qur’an. Together with the Qur’an, Hadith are the tradi tional sources from which Muslims determine what is religiously true and proper. They define what Muslims call sunnah, “tradition.” Many reports about Muhammad circulated in the decades after his death. Because the prophet’s example was valuable, some Muslims invented Hadith to support their views or practices. They may not have done so with the deliberate intention of deceiving others. They may have honestly felt that they were reporting what the prophet had said or done. In time, the number of Hadith prolifer ated. It became necessary to distinguish authentic from inauthentic reports. To do this, ancient scholars examined the way in which a Hadith had been handed down. To be acceptable, a Hadith had to originate from a repu table person who was in a position to have reli able knowledge about what the Hadith claimed. It also had to have a known chain of transmission: For example, A learned from B, who learned from C, who learned from D, the companion of the

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