To understand any scholarly work relating to Hadith, it is essential first to grasp this fundamental point: the sole source of religion on this earth is the person of Muhammad, the Messenger of God (PBUH). The religion has reached us from him in two forms: the Qur’an and the Sunnah. Both are absolutely certain and do not stand in need of investigative validation for their establishment. Muslims have transmitted them from generation to generation through ijma (consensus) and tawatur (mass, continuous transmission). That is, in every generation Muslims received them from those before them without disagreement and conveyed them to those after them, and this chain has remained intact from the time of the Messenger to the present.
The entirety of religion is confined to these two, and all its rulings are derived from them. At times, however, difficulties arise in deduction; and even in matters left open to our ijtihad (independent reasoning), guidance is needed. For this reason, recourse is made to religious scholars. Since Muhammad (PBUH) was God’s Prophet, he was the first and greatest scholar of religion—indeed, the imam of all scholars. What distinguishes his knowledge from that of other scholars is that it was free from error, because it enjoyed the confirmation and sanction of revelation. If such knowledge is available, every Muslim would naturally wish to seek guidance from it first in understanding the Qur’an and the Sunnah.
Our good fortune is that this knowledge exists, and a substantial portion of it has reached us. The Companions acquired it from the Messenger of God (PBUH); but because transmitting it onward was a matter of great responsibility, some exercised reserve while others, with resolve, conveyed it. It included matters they heard from his tongue or observed in his practice, as well as matters done in his presence that he did not forbid. This entire body of knowledge is what is called ‘hadith’. It is the greatest source for knowing the Messenger of God (PBUH) in his biography and life-example. It does not add anything—whether belief or practice—to religion; rather, it explicates the same religion and, for the purpose of acting upon it, relates the Messenger’s exemplary practice (uswah al-hasanah) that he delivered to his followers in the form of the Qur’an and the Sunnah.
How did this reach us? History shows that the Companions first conveyed it to people in the form of Hadith reports. Those who heard these reports from them then conveyed them to others. Transmission occurred orally, and at times also in written form. For a generation or two this continued in the same way; then it became plainly evident that errors were occurring here and there in transmission, and that some people were also deliberately mixing falsehood into these reports. At this juncture, certain servants of God arose and began investigating these Hadith reports; they are called ‘muhaddithin’. They were extraordinary individuals: by scrutinizing each report and its transmitters, they identified—as far as possible—what was sound and what was unsound, separating falsehood from truth. Some among them then compiled books about which it can, to a considerable degree, be said with confidence that the Hadith reports recorded therein represent, for the most part, the Messenger’s own knowledge, expressed in the narrators’ wording. In scholarly terminology these are called akhbar-e-ahad: that is, they were transmitted by only a limited number of people and were not conveyed through ijmaʿ and tawatur in the manner of the Qur’an and the Sunnah. It is therefore generally accepted that the knowledge yielded by them does not reach the level of certainty; at most, it may be deemed zann ghalib (preponderant probability).
All the Hadith collections mentioned above have their importance; however, the works of Imam Malik, Imam al- Bukhari, and Imam Muslim occupy a foundational position and are regarded as highly reliable because they were compiled after rigorous investigation. This does not mean, however, that their compilers committed no errors; specialists in this field know that errors have occurred in their critical work as well. For this reason, scholars continually examine and re-examine Hadith collections. Thus, if they do not find a report’s transmitters trustworthy in integrity and precision, or do not deem mutual meeting between them plausible, or find in the report’s content something contrary to the Qur’an and Sunnah or to established rational and intellectual certainties, they state plainly that this cannot be the Messenger’s statement and that it has been mistakenly attributed to him. The same applies to the understanding, commentary, and interpretation of these Hadith reports: scholars continue to present and evaluate interpretive judgments in this domain as well.
This work has continued in every age. In the previous century, Allama Nasir al-Din al-Albani rendered remarkable service in this regard by re-examining many Hadith collections and attempting once again to distinguish what is sound from what is weak. The undertaking assumed by scholars in the Republic of Türkiye is, broadly, of the same nature. Their results have not yet appeared, so no assessment can be offered regarding them; yet, based on what is known of the project’s nature, nothing seems objectionable. If, keeping in view the status of Hadith explained above, it is examined according to the established principles of this discipline; or if it is newly arranged; or if an effort is made to grasp its import and to distinguish what is time-bound from what is permanent—what is there to object to in that? The door of knowledge and research cannot be closed in any era or under any circumstance. Even if errors occur in such work, there is no cause for alarm: other scholars will identify them through critique. There is no path for the advancement of knowledge except that people be allowed to work freely; it is through this that new paths open, and earlier mistakes—where they exist—are corrected. Turkish scholars’ efforts should be viewed in this spirit, and encouragement should be given to those who, for the first time in Muslim history, are undertaking this service in an institutional form. If their work meets scholarly standards, it will be a great service; and if it proves substandard, it will lose all value and be consigned to the dustbin of history. The court of knowledge is relentless; sooner or later it delivers its judgment. In such matters, one ought to await that judgment.
[2013]