Hadith and Sunnah

Islamic Religious Studies · WAEC and JAMB · SS2 and SS3

The Hadith is the second source of Islamic law after the Qur'an, and without it the details of prayer, zakat and hajj could not be known. WAEC asks about the difference between Hadith and Sunnah, how hadiths were collected and graded, the six major books, and the meaning of specific hadiths.

What you need to know

Hadith means a report of what Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said, did, or silently approved, as well as descriptions of his character and appearance. Sunnah is the practice and way of the Prophet itself, which the hadith records and transmits.
The Qur'an commands obedience to the Messenger and holds him up as the excellent example to be followed, which is the basis for treating the Sunnah as a binding source alongside the Qur'an.
The Hadith explains and completes the Qur'an. The Qur'an commands salah but the number of rak'ahs and the manner of praying come from the Sunnah, and the same is true of the rates of zakat and the detailed rites of hajj. The Prophet told his companions to pray as they saw him pray and to take their hajj rites from him.
Every hadith has two parts: the isnad or sanad, the chain of narrators through whom the report travelled, and the matn, the actual text of the report. Hadith criticism examines both.
In the Prophet's lifetime the hadith was preserved mainly by memory and practice. Some companions kept written notes, and Abdullah ibn Amr ibn al-As is known for his collection called As-Sahifah as-Sadiqah. There was caution about general writing of hadith at first so that it would not be confused with the Qur'an, and permission was later given.
Formal, official collection began under the Umayyad caliph Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz, who ordered the governors and scholars to gather the hadith for fear that knowledge would disappear with the death of the scholars. Ibn Shihab az-Zuhri is the best-known figure in that effort, and the great compilations followed in the generations after him.
Hadiths are graded for authenticity as sahih, sound in chain and text; hasan, good but slightly below sahih in the precision of a narrator; da'if, weak because of a break in the chain or a defect in a narrator; and mawdu', fabricated and not permissible to attribute to the Prophet.
The conditions for a sahih hadith are a continuous chain, narrators of upright character, narrators of accurate memory, freedom from shudhudh, that is contradiction of stronger reports, and freedom from any hidden defect. The science of examining narrators is called al-jarh wa at-ta'dil, criticism and authentication.
By the number of narrators, a hadith is mutawatir when so many narrated it at every level that collusion in a lie is impossible, and ahad when the narrators are fewer, with the sub-types mashhur, aziz and gharib.
The six principal collections, the Kutub as-Sittah, are Sahih al-Bukhari, Sahih Muslim, Sunan Abu Dawud, Jami at-Tirmidhi, Sunan an-Nasa'i and Sunan Ibn Majah. Al-Bukhari and Muslim are regarded as the two most reliable, and the Muwatta of Imam Malik is an earlier work of great standing.
Among the companions who narrated most are Abu Hurayrah, Aishah bint Abu Bakr, Abdullah ibn Umar, Anas ibn Malik and Abdullah ibn Abbas. Aishah is especially important for hadiths concerning the home, worship and family law.
The hadith that actions are judged by intentions, narrated by Umar ibn al-Khattab and placed first in Sahih al-Bukhari, establishes that the value of every deed depends on the intention behind it, so that migration or any other act is rewarded according to what the doer intended.
The hadith narrated by Anas that none of you truly believes until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself makes social concern a condition of complete faith, and the hadith that a Muslim is one from whose tongue and hand other Muslims are safe defines Islam by harmlessness to others.
Other hadiths regularly set in examinations include the hadith of Jibril, which defines islam, iman and ihsan; the statement that whoever believes in Allah and the Last Day should speak good or keep silent, honour his neighbour and honour his guest; the teaching that the strong man is the one who controls himself when angry; the report in Sahih Muslim that cleanliness is half of faith; and the report in Sunan Ibn Majah that seeking knowledge is an obligation on every Muslim.

Key terms

Hadith: A recorded report of the sayings, actions or tacit approvals of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him).
Sunnah: The established practice and way of the Prophet, which Muslims are to follow as the living model of the Qur'an.
Isnad: The chain of narrators through whom a hadith has been transmitted, examined to establish its reliability.
Matn: The actual text or content of a hadith, as distinct from its chain of transmission.
Sahih: A hadith with a continuous chain of upright and accurate narrators, free from irregularity and hidden defect.
Mutawatir: A hadith reported by so large a number of narrators at every stage that agreement upon a falsehood is impossible.
Mawdu': A fabricated report falsely attributed to the Prophet, which may not be transmitted as hadith.

Worked examples

Explain the difference between Hadith and Sunnah, and state four reasons why the Hadith is important in Islam.

Define each term precisely and show the relationship: the Sunnah is the practice, the hadith is the report of it.
Give an example that makes the distinction visible, such as the manner of prayer.
List the reasons for the importance of hadith as separate points.
Support at least one point with the Qur'anic basis for obeying the Messenger.

Answer: Hadith is the report or narration of what Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said, did or approved by his silence, together with descriptions of his character. Sunnah is the way, practice and example of the Prophet himself, the conduct that the hadith reports. The relationship is that the Sunnah is the substance and the hadith is the record; for example, the Prophet's way of performing wudu is Sunnah, while the narration from a companion describing how he performed it is a hadith. The Hadith is important for these reasons: (i) it is the second source of Shari'ah after the Qur'an, and rulings are drawn from it directly; (ii) it explains and details the Qur'an, since the Qur'an commands prayer, zakat, fasting and hajj without giving the number of rak'ahs, the rates of zakat or the full rites of hajj, all of which come from the Sunnah; (iii) the Qur'an itself commands obedience to the Messenger and describes him as a beautiful example, so following the hadith is obedience to Allah; (iv) it gives the practical model of character and manners by which the ideal Muslim life is lived, in the home, in trade, with neighbours and in governance; and (v) it preserves the history of the early community, including the circumstances in which many verses were revealed, which protects the Qur'an from being misunderstood.

Mention the six major collections of hadith and explain the grading of hadith into sahih, hasan, da'if and mawdu'.

List the six books with their compilers, and note which two are considered the most authentic.
Define each grade in turn, saying what makes a hadith fall into it.
Mention the criteria used, namely the chain, the character and memory of narrators, and freedom from defect.
Close by saying why the grading matters in practice.

Answer: The six major collections, known as the Kutub as-Sittah, are Sahih al-Bukhari compiled by Imam Muhammad ibn Isma'il al-Bukhari, Sahih Muslim compiled by Imam Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj, Sunan Abu Dawud, Jami at-Tirmidhi, Sunan an-Nasa'i and Sunan Ibn Majah. The first two are regarded by the majority of scholars as the most authentic books after the Qur'an. The grading of hadith is as follows. A sahih hadith is sound: its chain is unbroken from the last narrator back to the Prophet, every narrator is of upright character and accurate memory, and the report is free of contradiction with stronger narrations and of any hidden defect. A hasan hadith meets the same conditions except that the memory or precision of one of its narrators is slightly below the highest standard; it is still acceptable as evidence, and several hasan chains together may raise a report in strength. A da'if hadith is weak: it may have a break in the chain, an unknown narrator, or a narrator criticised for poor memory or untrustworthiness, and scholars differ on the limited purposes for which it may be cited. A mawdu' hadith is fabricated, invented and falsely attributed to the Prophet, often detectable by an exposed liar in the chain or by a text that contradicts the Qur'an, established sunnah or plain reason, and it is forbidden to narrate it as the word of the Prophet. This grading matters because Islamic law, belief and practice must rest on reports that can be trusted, and the science of al-jarh wa at-ta'dil was developed precisely to keep false attributions out of the religion.

The mistake to avoid

Candidates treat Hadith and Sunnah as perfect synonyms and so cannot answer when asked to distinguish them. They also confuse the compilers, most often swapping Imam Malik's Muwatta into the list of six, or naming Imam ash-Shafi'i as a hadith compiler when he is known as a jurist. Do not claim exact numbers of hadiths in Bukhari or Muslim unless you are certain; describe them as containing thousands of authenticated reports selected from a far larger number examined.

In the exam

Learn the six books with their compilers in order, since a mark is usually given for each correct pairing. When a question asks you to explain a particular hadith, write the meaning in your own words first, then give two or three lessons, then an application; do not simply repeat the hadith twice. Attribute hadiths carefully, saying 'reported in Sahih al-Bukhari' or 'narrated by Abu Hurayrah' only where you are sure.