Approaching Sunna and Hadith1 in a Digital Age

Aisha Y. Musa

Florida International University

According to the works of Muslim scholars from the earliest times to the present,

the preservation, dissemination, and utilization of Hadith, as the repository of the

Prophetic Sunna, have been questions of keen importance to Muslims since before the

death of the Prophet Muhammad.2 In the early period, Muslims faced questions related to

authenticity, authority, and content of the Hadith, as well as questions about appropriate

means of preserving and disseminating the Hadith. While the corpus of Hadith has been

fixed for more than a millennium and the technologies used to preserve and disseminate

the material in that corpus have changed throughout that time, a number of the questions

and issues faced today are often the same as those faced in the past. This paper will look

at some of those questions and examine how advances in information technology

influence approaches to and uses of Sunna and Hadith.

Computers, the internet, and advances in digital technology have granted access

to information and ideas that is unprecedented. Unprecedented access to Hadith

literature in a variety of languages is available in the form of software and on a number of

websites. The revolution began with the production of software that put volumes of

Hadith at the fingertips of those researchers with sufficient interest and resources to

purchase the software. It has continued with advances that then placed that information

onto the Internet, where it is now available to anyone interested in accessing it.

1
I have chosen to forego the use of transliteration diacritics in this article. They add confusion for readers
who do not know Arabic, and readers of Arabic will already be familiar with the terminology.
2
Al-Khatib al-Baghdadi, Taqyid al-‘Ilm; Ibn Qutayba, Ta’wil Mukhtalif al-Hadith; Muhammad ibn Idris
al-Shafi’I, Kitab Jima’ al-‘Ilm

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ENGLSIH LANGUAGE RESOURCES

Compendium of Muslim Texts

http://www.usc.edu/schools/college/crcc/engagement/resources/texts/muslim/hadith/

One of the first, most comprehensive and most popular English language online

hadith databases is the Compendium of Muslim Texts. A Google search of the word

“hadith” displays the site as the second result out of more than 8.6 million. Searching the

word “hadeeth” returns this collection as the first result out of more than 1.1 million.

This site was originally designed and produced by the Muslim Students’ Association of

the University of Southern California (USC). It is now affiliated with USC’s Center for

Muslim-Jewish Engagement, which is housed and administered at USC’s Center for

Religion & Civic Culture.3 In spite of the change of official affiliation, the site design

and content remain the same. It contains translations of the complete Sahihs of al-Bukhari

and Muslims, a partial translation of the Sunan of Abu Dawud, a translation of the

Muwatta of Malik, as well as a collection of forty Hadith Qudsi. In the case of the major

collections, the names of the translators are indicated and some introductory information

is included. This is not the case with the forty Hadith Qudsi. Both the major collections

and the forty Hadith Qudsi can be browsed with relative ease. However, only the major

collections are searchable.

The Compendium is also available on the MSA website at

<http://www.msawest.net/islam/ > to which the CMJE contains a link in the “Religious

Texts” section under the “Resources” tab. The MSA site differs from the CMJE site in

3
“About the Center.” USC website. Available at
<http://www.usc.edu/schools/college/crcc/engagement/about/.>. Accessed 07/16/2009.

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that the former also contains information on the fundamentals of Islam; and under the

“Sunnah” tab, one finds introductory materials on the Muslim Sciences of Hadith and an

essay comparing modern Western historical methodology with traditional Muslim Hadith

methodology. The introductory information appears to presume only general knowledge

of Islam and is presented clearly and should prove very useful for researchers interested

in the history and development classical Sunni approaches to Sunna and Hadith. By

contrast the CMJE site contains no such background information on either Islam in

general, or Sunna and Hadith in particular.

Browsing The Collections

Browsing the collections is accomplished by clicking on the collection title and

then on the title of the desired “book”. Each of the collections is referenced slightly

differently. In the Sahih of al-Bukhari, Hadith are references by volume, book, and

number, as illustrated below. Hadith in the Sahih of Muslim are referenced only by book

and number. The Hadith in both these collections are numbered sequentially in ascending

order; however, those in Muslim are numbered in a three (in the case of a “book”) or four

(in the case of a Hadith) digit format where zeros serve as places holders, while in al-

Bukhari, this is not the case.

Sahih al-Bukhari

There are 93 “Books” in this collection, each bearing the translation of the subject

title used by al-Bukhari (figure 1). For example, “Book One” is entitled “Revelation,”

corresponding to “Bad’ ul-Wahy,” the chapter with which al-Bukhari begins the Sahih.

The hadiths are then displayed in ascending order, referenced according to volume, book,

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and number (Figure 2).

Figure 1

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Figure 2

Hadiths in “Books” One through Twelve of the translation of the Sahih of al-

Bukhari are referenced as “Volume One, Book #, Number #,” beginning with “Book 1,

Number 1” (Figure 2) and ending with “Book 12, Number 832” (Figure 3).

Figure 3

The numbering of individual Hadiths in each “volume” is reset to the number “1”

in the first “book” of each “volume.” For example, “Book” 27 (Minor Pilgrimage

(Umra)) is the beginning of “volume” 3, so the first Hadith is referenced as “Volume 3,

Book 27, Hadith 1” (Figure 4).

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Figure 4

Sahih Muslim

The collection of Muslim is also displayed as numbered “books,” of which there

are 43. However, as already mentioned, there is no reference to “volumes” in this

collection. The Hadith are numbered sequentially in ascending order, and each “book”

begins with the next sequentially numbered Hadith. For example, that last Hadith in

“Book 001” is “Number 0431,” and the first Hadith in “Book 002” is “Number 0432.” In

addition to the Hadith themselves, some books in this translation also contain an Epilogue

or Introduction offering the translator’s commentary.

Sunan Abu Dawud

The translation of Sunan Abu Dawud is only partial. According to the

Introduction provided on the website, about half of the collection is missing, although

there is no explanation of what parts of the collection are missing or why. As in the case

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of the two Sahihs, the “books” are identified numerically. There are forty-one books,

beginning with “Purification (Kitab Al-Taharah)” and ending with “General Behavior

(Kitab Al-Adab).” As in the Sahih of Muslim, the Hadith are referenced by book and

number; however, on the Hadith are numbered using a format where zeros are used as

place holders. While the Hadith are arranged in ascending numerical ordered, there are

gaps between Hadith numbers both within books and between books. For example in

between books, “Book 1” ends with Hadith number 0389 and “Book 2” begins with

Hadith number 0393; “Book 5” ends with Hadith number 1360 and “Book 6” begins with

Hadith number 1370. There are similar gaps within books as well. For example, in

“Book 5,” Hadith number 1347 is followed by number 1358, which is in turn followed by

1360. In “Book 21” Hadith number 3290 is followed by 3297. These are just a few

randomly selected examples of the gaps in this collection. Determining any pattern and

significance to the gaps would require a detailed scrutiny of the collection comparing the

digital collection with the hardcopy translation and comparing those to the original

Arabic text. Such a project is beyond the scope of the present discussion.

Malik’s Muwatta

Browsing the Muwatta is accomplished in the same way as browsing the other

collections; however, once again there is variation in the way reference numbering is

formatted. In the initial display, the “books” are bulleted rather than being number, but

the Hadiths themselves are referenced by “book’ and “number.” Each “book” is

subdivided into sections, and each Hadith number contains three digits, separated by

points (Figure 5). The first number indicates the book, the second the section, and the

third the Hadith. Hadiths are numbered sequentially from one section to the next (i.e.

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section one of book one ends with Hadith number 12 and section two begins with Hadith

number 13). Both section and Hadith numbers begin anew at 1 in each “book.”

Figure 5

Searching The Collections

Links to the search feature appear immediately after the links to the major

collections on the Sunnah and Hadith page and just above the “book” titles in each

collection. The search page contains instructions on the types of queries the search

engine supports, and check boxes for each of the major collections (Figure 6).

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Figure 6

The researcher chooses the collection or collections to be searched and enters the search

term(s) according to the instructions. The search results are then displayed according to

collection and reference number (Figure 7). Clicking on the reference number will

display the Hadith. Once a Hadith has been viewed, if the research returns to the query

results, the number for the viewed Hadith appears in purple. All unviewed Hadith

numbers appear in blue.

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Figure 7

These same digital collections are available from a variety of different sites, with

either browsing or search capabilities or both. Most are Muslim sites that, like the MSA

West site also contain basic information on Islam and the role and history of the Hadith.

However, the USC site remains perhaps the most readily accessed.

Al-islam.com

Al-islam.com is a site provided by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of

Islamic Affairs, Endowments, Da‘wah and Guidance. The content of the site is derived

from database software created by Harf Information Technology, which began producing

Islamic software as a branch of Sakhr Software in the late 1980s and early 1990s. It has

since become an independent company and remains a global leader in Islamic software.

The website has versions in Arabic, English, French, Malay, Indonesian, German,

and Turkish; however, not all features are available in all languages. The full range of

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advanced search options is available only in Arabic. In fact, typing in the URL www.al-

islam.com takes one to the Arabic homepage, from which the reader can choose which

language to use from a circle in the upper left menu (Figure 8).

Figure 8

The English language browsing and search capabilities here are quite a bit

different than they are at the USC and MSA websites. There is no way to browse specific

collections in English. (although this capability is available in Arabic, as discussed

below). Browsing Hadith in a language other than Arabic is accomplished by clicking on

one of the subject listed in the “Topical classifications” menu (Figure 9).

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Figure 9

The link entitled “Hadith” on the ride side of the screen leads to an error message screen.

However, clicking on one of the topical classifications displays available subcategories.

Clicking on a subcategory then displays the number of relevant “hits” in the Quran and

the Hadith (Figure 10). Clicking on the linked number moves to a list of Hadith matns

from which to choose (Figure 11)..

12
Figure 10

Figure 11

Clicking on the link entitled “Hadith Encyclopedia” above a particular matn displays the

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Hadith itself. The Hadith are referenced by number, but not by collection. (Figure 12).

Figure 12

Clicking the “Display” link on the left side menu in the page on which the Hadith is

displayed brings up the first Hadith in the Encyclopedia about the grievousness of

attributing lies to the Prophet. Clicking on the “Classification” link just below “Display”

brings a list of Hadith topics (Figure 13). Clicking on a topic displays subcategories,

which in turn display Hadith.

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Figure 13

Clicking on a category topic displays the first Hadith in the category, while clicking on

the plus sign to the left of the topic displays the subcategories, which indicate the specific

topic of a given Hadith.. Clicking on the subcategory displays the Hadith itself.

Searching this site in English is more straightforward than browsing. First, the

user chooses to search in Hadith, using the dropdown box directly above the search box,

Both on the left side of page. The user then types the desired search term into the search

box and clicks on the arrow. Results are displayed for all of the Hadith containing the

term searched. Each is list under linked title describing the topic of the Hadith (Figure

14). Clicking on the title displays the Hadith.

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Figure 14

The French, German, Indonesian, and Turkish versions of al-islam.com function

in the same way as the English version. Navigating through the Hadith collection,

whether by browsing or searching is not as straightforward as navigating The

Compendium of Muslim Texts. This is probably why the latter appears to be the most

popular and most accessed non-Arabic Hadith resource on the Internet. It is not only

much easier to access the Hadith content, it also provides clear reference to the specific

original collections in which any given Hadith is to be found. In the case of al-

islam.com, the site itself must be referenced as there is no indication in which original

collection a given Hadith is found. Referencing the original collection is important for

establishing the weight and authority of specific Hadith, for both Muslim and non-

Muslim authors.

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THE CHALLENGE OF ACCESS

On the Internet, a large number of Hadith are readily accessible to anyone who

wishes to find them. This offers both benefits and challenges, depending upon how the

information is utilized. On the one hand, those conducting serious research into Islamic

history, practices, and doctrine can access crucial materials; on the other hand, pseudo-

scholars and pundits seeking to vilify Islam can do so through careful misuse of the same

information. From the earliest centuries, Muslims have recognized the existence of

problematic content in prophetic reports, which were used to make the religion an object

of ridicule.4 This, in part, drove much of early Hadith scholarship. Although, many such

problematic reports did not make it into the major collections used today, there is still

grist for the mill of those who would disparage Islam by appealing to “authentic” Islamic

sources. Authors such as Robert Spencer5 and websites such as, the Center for the Study

of Political Islam make liberal use of these collections to find Hadith supporting their

claims that Islam does not respect human life, or foster moral and ethical values, arguing

that:

Our work stands on its own. The only person that matters in discussing

Islam is not the "expert" but Mohammed. Every paragraph of our books is

referenced to what Mohammed did and said (his Sunna). Every paragraph

can be verified by the use the reference numbers. Our books are fact-based

knowledge, not opinion. Mohammed is our expert. We quote him in every

4
Ibn Qutayba, Ta’wil Mukhtalif al-Hadith (Beirut: Dar al-Kitab al-‘Arabi, ND) 9-10.
5
Robert Spencer, Islam Unveiled: Disturbing Questions about the World’s Fastest Growing Faith (San
Francisco: Encounter Books, 2002); The Truth About Muhammad: Founder of the World's Most Intolerant
Religion (Washington DC: Regnery Press, 2007).

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 paragraph.6

Bypassing centuries of both Muslim and non-Muslim scholarship, these authors carefully

select specific texts and portions of texts--without any reference to context, history, or

methodology--and interpret them in ways that differ dramatically from the

understandings and interpretations of the vast majority of Muslim scholars spanning more

than a millennium.

Knowledgeable scholars tend to ignore such works because they recognize that

the serious flaws in logic and methodology on which the authors rely in reaching their

conclusions. However, given the popularity of these works and the influence they have

on the general public’s understanding of Islam, those who have the skill and knowledge

need to look for ways to address these types of works just as scholars of the past

addressed similar problems in their time. The answer is not to limit access, or engage in

polemics or apologetics, but to use reason logic and evidence from the broad corpus of

Islamic texts to point out the flaws and fallacies on which various specious interpretations

are founded.

The same technologies that allow for the selective misuse of Hadith also provide

the means for scholars to craft knowledgeable responses to the problematic arguments of

polemicists.

ARABIC LANGUAGE RESOURCES

While good use may be made of those websites that include information in

English on Islam and the history and development of Hadith methodology , the fact

remains that to do in-depth scholarly work in any branch of Islamic Studies requires

6
“About CSPI.” Center for the Study of Political Islam. Website available at
<http://www.cspipublishing.com/About_Us.htm. >. Accessed 07/19/2009.

18
delving into primary sources in Arabic. In the past, this required access to specialized

library collections available only at top universities. Advances in technology have now

made it possible to access many important texts from anywhere with internet access to

anyone with a computer that can recognize and display Arabic characters (i.e. anyone

running Windows 2000 and beyond).

ARABIC LANGUAGES RESOURCES

The quality and accessibility of Arabic language resources for the study of Hadith

has increased dramatically over the past decade or so. This paper will now explore those

sites which are most comprehensive and do not charge for access. These are www.al-

islam.com and www.islamport.com..

Al-islam.com

In contrast to the non-Arabic resources at www.al-islam.com, the Arabic language

resources allow for much more precise and detailed browsing and searching. Here too,

the material is based on Harf Information Technology’s Islamic software.

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