Introduction to Islam RLG204H5

Week 5: Hadith and Sunna, Law (Sharia) and Fiqh

 Last week: Shahada There is no god but God (Tawhid) The second part of Shahada: Mohammad is the Messenger of God. Impossible to imagine Islam without the Prophet Mohammad Jesus' life (according to Christians): how God behaves among his creatures Muhammads life (according to Muslims): how one should behave in the presence of Allah
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Muhammads life: the Centrality of Sunna and Hadith

Sunna (plural: sunan): the prophets custom His words, deeds, and habitual practices Sunna: well known in pre-Islamic Arabia Applied to the prophet:
the category of exemplary words, deeds, and gestures Authoritative in the life of the umma (Muslim community)
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 Sunna is an ideal as well as a memory: Question: what do we mean by ideal and a memory?

Answer: Ideal: it is the archetype for the Muslim life Memory: it is remembered and transmitted by means of a literary form called Hadith.

Hadith
Root meaning: being new, and occurring, taking place, coming to pass Hadith: a report of something that had taken place Applied to the Prophet: it became a tradition The Sunna is preserved and communicated by means of hadiths
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 Originally: transmission of hadiths did not have a regulation Later on: scholars developed methods of sifting through and evaluating them Took over two centuries

The Relationship Between the Quran and Hadiths

The Quran: The most authoritative source for Islamic doctrine and practice Hadiths confirm, extend, elaborate, explain and supplement the revelation

How Were Hadiths Preserved?

It began with the Prophets own initiatives The Prophets companions became the first figures in transmitting Hadiths Main Figures: Abu-Hurayra, Ibn Umar, Anas Ibn Malik, the caliphs Umar and Ali, and especially Aisha (the prophets wife)
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The Means of Transmission

Three means: 1) Memorizing them 2) Recording them 3) Following/imitating the Hadith in daily life

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What does a Hadith look like?

Yahya ibn Yahya related to us: Abu Haythama reported to us, from Abi Ishaq, from al-Bara [who] said: A man was reciting Sura al-Kahf and nearby him was a horse tied with two ropes, and a cloud came over him, and as it came nearer his horse began to shy from it. He went and mentioned that to the Prophet upon whom be blessing and peaceand he replied: That was Sakina* which descended because of the Quran recitation. * (Sakina means Gods tranquility which descends on his faithful, for example when the Quran is recited)
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Important: To understand a Hadiths parts and arrangements

Two parts: 1) ISNAD: the opening citation of the persons who transmitted the hadith The Muslims developed a sophisticated science of hadith evaluation the science of man (ilm al-rijal): The collection of all available information related to every person mentioned in the Isnad
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 Question: What do you think should be the important characteristics of the transmitters?

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Answer
Scholars created a list of qualities Memory, reputation for telling the truth, piety and general intelligence Other relevant information: these individuals contacts, travels, habits and periods they lived in In order of priority: 1) Trustworthy (thiqa): Universally accepted by everyone 2) Truthful (saduq): generally acceptable, unless contradicted by a transmitter at the thiqa level Other categories: weak (daif); liar, forger, unknown
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The Second Part of the Hadith: Matn

2) Matn - the main text

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Two Main Forms of Hadiths

1) The saying of the prophet, uttered by him 2) The behavior of the Prophet witnessed by others
- A typical hadith of this kind:
X said that Y said that W said that V saw the Prophet do

- This form of the hadith: open to possible adulteration

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- Therefore: Authenticating a hadith is a complex matter - Example:

- Al-Bukhari collected some 600,000 hadiths but could only authenticate 2,602 of them

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Major Collections of Hadith:

1) Malik: the first substantial and carefully sifted collection of Hadith was made by Malik Ibn Anas
- Lived in Ummayyad - worked mostly in Median - His name is given to the school of jurisprudence that was later founded: the maliki school - Greatest work: Muwatta (beaten Path)

2) Ahmad Ibn Hanbal: - Baghdad jurist-consult - The generation after Malik - Was stubbornly an orthodoprax Muslim - Spent long periods in prison - Memorized a million hadiths! - Later develop yet another law school: Hanbali - His collection of Hadith: Musnad
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Major Collections of Hadith (continued)

3) Bukhari and Muslim: - Two of Ahmad Ibn Hanbals younger contemporaries - Muhammad Ismail al-Bukhari (d. 870) in Central Asia - Muslim Ibn- al-Hajjaj (d. 875) from the Persian city of Nishapur - Each man published a collection called Sahih meaning sound or authentic - The two collections together: known as al-Sahihan (the two sound collections) - Considered to be the best of all such collection - Bukhari: famous for his precision in authenticating the hadith - The founder of the discipline ilm-al-rijal) the science of men

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Major Collections of Hadith (continued)

4) Mishkat al-Masabih - Husayn al-Baghawi: lived in the fifth and sixth Islamic centuries - Draws largely on Bukhari and Muslim - Translated into English by James Robson - Mishkat is arranged thematically: faith, knowledge, purification, prayer, funerals, zakat and so on.
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The Sunni and Shia Collections

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The Sunni Collection:

four collections of Hadith: called the six books

The Shia collections:

those hadiths that were transmitted by Ali and other Imams Nahj al-Balagha (the way of eloquence): the sayings of Imam Ali, son-in-law of the prophet and the first imam of Shia
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The Hadith Qudsi (The Divine Saying)

A revelation from God but couched in the Prophets own words Never had an important place in Islamic legal systems But prominent in Muslim piety, especially among the more mystic Mostly spiritual (prayer, goodness and devotional piety)

Example: God says: I fulfill my servants expectations of Me, and I am with him when he remembers Me. If he remembers Me in his heart, I remember him in my heart; and if he remembers Me in public, I remember him before a public [far] better than that. And if he draws nearer to Me by a handsbreadth, I draw nearer to him by an armslength; and if he draws nearer to Me by an armslength, I draw nearer to him by a fathom; and if he comes to Me walking, I come to him running (quoted in William A. Graham, Divine Word and Prophetic Word in Early Islam (The Hague and Pars: Mouton, 1977), p. 127.

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Conclusion
The Quran unites the Muslims doctrinally and devotionally The Sunna unites Muslims in the various details of daily behavior and attitude Muslims differ in language, food, dress, local customs and national identities They are united in belief, behavior and attitude that are enshrined in the Hadith of the Prophet Sunna provides a unified field of meaning and action for all Muslims around the world
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Two General Approaches to Islamic Law

First Approach: - Islam is not just a religion, it is a whole way of life - Traditionalist view - Islamic law is: Islamic Law is that corpus of rites, rules and recommendations that are given by God so that human may order all of his or her actions and behaviors be they personal or social in accordance with the Devine will. - implication of the above definition:
there is no aspect of humans personal behavior that is not covered by some divine ordinance There is no area of humans social or political life that is untouched by the divine law

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Two General Approaches to Islamic Law

Second Approach: - There is no such thing as a practice that is inherently sacred, religious or Islamic - The role of intention - Islamic law are mostly human construct - Example: the ritual stoning of adulterous females or female genital mutilation in Africa - The problematic nature of the Tradition/Sunna - Only The Quran can claim to be divine
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Question

Which one of these two approaches would you choose and why?

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Important Definitions
- Sharia: a path or an approach to a watering place - The laws prescribed, directly or indirectly by God - The totality of the law that Allah is said to have devised so that human may order and regulate his or her life - Fiqh: jurisprudence - To understand how practical laws can be derived from the main sources of law - Two principal components in Fiqh: 1) Furu al-fiqh: the branches of understanding: a) ibadat: or acts of worship b) muamalat: transactions 2) Usul al-fiqh: the roots of understanding: the values of law
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The sources of Islamic law

1)the Quran 2)The Sunna of the Prophet 3) The Ijma (consensus) of the community or the scholars rulings. 4) Qiyas: Analogical reasoning

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The Evolution of Islamic Schools of Jurisprudence

After the Prophets death: a judicial vacuum The first four caliphs: administered justice on the basis of the Quran and the decisions of the Prophet The customary law of Median. Expansion of Islam The Umayyad periods (661-750): appointed judges (qadis) to judicial authority Mostly as devout Muslims The emergence of distinct schools of Jurisprudence (Madhhab) in different parts of the Islamic empire
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The Evolution of Islamic Schools of Jurisprudence - Continued

The differences between Sunni and Shiite Joseph Schacht:
The theory of the sources of Islamic law did not really develop until the 9th century Islamic law evolved from a variety of sources (such as earlier legal systems and ad hoc decisions made by early Arab rulers) The Sunna (as reported in the hadiths) was in practice more important since there was virtually no limit to the way in which hadiths could be interpreted It was usually easier to find a hadith to support a particular legal rule than it was a Quranic text
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The Evolution of Islamic Schools of Jurisprudence - Continued

Islamic law: far wider areas of public and private life than does a modern secular legal system
Economics, politics, matters of diet and dress, penal and civil law, warfare, and many other aspects of social and private life Main religious ideal for most Muslims: To live a life according to the law However, Islam is merely a legalistic religion

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Four Schools of Jurisprudence

Madhhabs or schools: Groupings of scholars who disagree with one another less than they disagree with the scholars of another madhhab Four schools: the Hanafi; the Maliki; the Shafii; and the Hanbali schools 1) Hanafi (Abuhanifa died 767)
1) The city of Kufa 2) A higher degree of justice flexibility than other schools 3) Application of personal judgment (ray) and juristic preference (istihsan) 4) Abu Yousef (d 798) Amd al Shaybani (d805) 5) Mainly in central Asia, Turkey, Cairo, and the nile delta in Egypt and the Indian subcontinent
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Four Schools of Jurisprudence

2) Maliki Malik ibn Anas D. 796 The practice of the people of Medina Early works: Muwatta The majority in North Africa and Upper Egypt
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Four Schools of Jurisprudence

3) Shafii School: Muhammad Ibn Idris al- shafii D. 822 The greatest early systematizer of Islamic legal theory In Malaysia, Indonesia, Southern Arabia, East Africa, and parts of Upper Egypt.
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Four Schools of Jurisprudence

4) Hanbali School: Ahmad Ibn Hanbal D. 855 Emphasis on Hadith Traditionalist Ibn Taymiyya (D. 1328):
Opposition to Taqlid (imitation) Insistence on going back to the sources, the Quran and the Sunna

Official and dominant Madhhab in the modern Saudi Arabia

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Four Schools of Jurisprudence

5) Zahiri school: Dawud Ibn Khalaf D. 884 Now extinct Influential by virtue of a consistent refusal to go beyond the plain meaning of revelation, The Quran, in applying the law.
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