TRADITIONS OR AHADITH

Hadith means Prophetic tradition or narrative relating to deeds and utterances of the Prophet (S). Sunnah includes every thing relating to the Prophet (S). It includes hadith, his behavior and character. If some activity was being performed in front of the Prophet (S) and he did not object to it, is also considered as his Sunnah.

Collection of hadith had started during the life time of the Prophet (S). Imam Ali (A) was the first to do this. According to the Shiah authorities of hadith the, term Sunnah includes the narratives relating to the speech, biographical details and deeds of the Prophet (S) and the Imams (A). As the Prophet (P) said “ Awwaluna Mohammad, Ausatuna Mohammad, Akhiruna Mohammad and Kulluna Mohammad”

Hadith-e-Qudsi is defined as the Divine communication whose revelation is not the part of the Noble Qur’an.

Among the Muslim recorders of hadith were: Abu Hurayra, Abd Allah ibn Umar, Prophet (S)’s wife Aisha, Abd Allah ibn al-Abbas, Jabir ibn Abd Allah al-Ansari, and Abu Said al Khudri

In the next period of collection of hadith, the texts which were collected by the early Shia scholars were called “Usul”. Most of them were narrated by Imam Mohammad al-Baqir and Imam Jafar al-Sadiq (A).

Subsequently, the later Shia scholars of hadith compiled four great collections from the aforementioned source of “Usul” which became the most important source of hadith.

The following are the four books:

            Al-Kafi compiled by Shaikh Yaqoob Kulayni containing 16,099 ahadith

            Man la yahduru al-Faqih compiled by Shaikh Suduq containing 9,044 ahadith

            Al-Tahdhib compiled by Shaikh al-Tusi containing 13,590 ahadith

            Al-Istibsar complied by Shaikh al-Tusi containing 5,511 ahadith

After a lapse of time great scholars of hadith appeared in the Shiah world during the Safavid rule in Iran. Among them were Mullah Mohsin al-Kashani who wrote Kitab al Jaani al-Wafi, Shaikh Muhammad Amili who compiled Wasail al-Shiah, and Allama Muhammad Baqir Majlisi who compiled the famous Bihar al-Anwar.

There was enmity between Umayyad and Hashemite. Abu Sufiyan belonged to the Umayyad clan and accepted Islam at the time of the great Victory of Makkah to save his life. Abu Sufiyan’s wife was Hinda, who brutally chewed the liver of Hazrat Hamza at the Battle of Uhad. Abu Sufiyan’s son was Muawiya. Yazid was the son of Muawiya, who was responsible for the tragedy of Karbala and subsequent humiliation of Ahlul Bayt on the streets of Sham or Syria. When the grand daughters of the Prophet (S) were made to stand in his court wherein he said “There was no revelation, no angels descended. Bani Hashim played this game to gain power”

During the Banu Umaiyya’s period of persecution, they lavishly plundered the wealth of Muslim umma to consolidate their power, eliminate opposition and defame Prophet’s Ahlul Bayt. They hired writers to fabricate hadith against Ahlul Bayt and favoring those who were not friendly towards Ahlul Bayt (A). Consequently, an enormous number of fraudulent ahadith were fabricated. After the end of Bani Umaiyya’s oppressive rule,  efforts were made to scrutinize the ahadith. Numerous fabricated ahadith were deleted and remaining ahadith were collected in books called Sahih or right. Even in these “Sahih” books, there are still many ahadith which are illogical and unacceptable.

In Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim, two of the sahih books called “Saha Sitta” or Six Correct books, there are ahadith that portray Allah as human being having face, hands and legs!

Imam Ali (A) speaks about Allah in Nahjul Balagha as “All praise be to Allah, whose praise cannot be described by those who speak, whose Blessings cannot be enumerated by those who count, those who try to cannot give Him His true rights, the height of intellect cannot reach Him, the depths of perception cannot comprehend Him; for His description no limit has been laid down, no eulogy exists, no time counted and no duration fixed.

Who ever has described Allah, has linked Him (with some thing); whoever links Him (with some thing) has seen Him as two; who ever has seen Him as two has apportioned Him (into parts); who ever apportions Him is ignorant of Him; who ever is ignorant of Him has pointed at Him; who ever points at Him has limited Him (to a place); who ever limits Him has numbered Him.”

People asked our Imams as to how to authenticate any hadith, the Imam (A) gave the yard-stick and said that compare any hadith with Noble Qur’an; if it differs with Holy Qur’an reject it.

There is a science of establishing truth of ahadith called “Ilm ul Rijaal” in which the chain of narrators are scrutinized in detail. All Shiah collected ahadith are linked to any

Holy Imams and this “Golden Chain” last link is Prophet(S).