| Pakiplus+ Introduction on Hadees/Hadith: |
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Collections of sayings and acts of Muhammad (s.a.w) and the first Muslims. These collections are used as an addition to the Holy Koran for understanding Islam.
When the revelations that Muhammad (s.a.w)received ended with his death in 632, many Muslims felt that there were questions that would be enlightened, or even answered, if one had more information on what was right conduct in different situations.
But the real collections of what today is known as hadiths, or Sunna — another word for hadith, became a systematic science not before about 2 centuries after the death of Muhammad. Until then, there were stories on Muhammad's (s.a.w)and his followers' lives called sira. To which extent these were used in guidance for the Muslims is somewhat difficult to ascertain, but the collecting and systemising of these stories two centuries later, would not have been possible if there hadn't been any system on how to understand the siras for the everyday life of the Muslims.
When the early Muslim scholars collected of the siras, they used two methods. The first method involved weighing the authenticity by seing who had transmitted the stories, and how far back in time it was possible to trace the transmitters, and if these transmitters were reported to be honest people and so on. The other method was to compare stories, and the better a group of stories fitted one another, the more reliable they were considered to be.
The resulting work are 6 collections, or hadiths.
Of these the one made by the scholar Bukhari is considered to be the most scientifically correct. Al-Muslim's hadith is considered to be almost as good as Bukhari's. The other 4 have also high value, but most people reading the hadiths seldom extend beyond Bukhari and Al-Muslim.
The value and quality of the hadiths must be valued as high, when seen with modern scientific standards as reference. The technique used by these historians, resembles to a large extent what is used today, except that they had no reference historical works to depend upon.
While irregularities can be traced, little can be ascribed to lack of scientific honesty.
The implementation of the hadiths are more problematic than most Muslims will admit to. While the notion that the Koran is complete and all-inclusive is strong among Muslims, the hadiths are still frequently used, and one could hardly image the development of Muslim theology and science of law, Sharia without them.
The development of Muslim lifestyles and thology has probably been built upon the hadiths as by the Holy Koran. But still the hadiths do not have the same weight and symbolic value as the Holy Koran to most Muslims.
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