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The Hadith
The Hadith, in
Islam, is second in authority only to the Qur'an. The Hadith is a record
of the prophet Mohammed's life, actions, and deeds. A saying in the
Hadith is called a sunnah. These sunnah were
transmitted by word of mouth down through the centuries having been
memorized first by Muhammad's companions and then later by subsequent
Muslims. Therefore, the Hadith is the written record of the oral
traditions passed down from the Muslim to Muslim of what Mohammed was
supposed to have said and done.
The Qur'an is considered to be the absolute and
infallible word of Allah. The Hadith, however, though the words of
the inspired prophet Muhammad, are not necessarily infallible. The
oldest collection to date dates from the 9th century.
The Hadith fall into two categories, "Hadith qudsi
(sacred Hadith) in which God Himself is speaking in, as it were, a
complementary revelation through the Prophet, and hadith sharif (noble
Hadith), the Prophet's own acts and utterances."1
The most famous and universally accepted
among the six collections of Hadith are those of Sahih Al-Bukhari (d. 870)
-- which are used in the Interesting Quotes from the Hadith section -- and
Abu al-Hajjaj (d. 875), which is usually called "Muslim."
The Hadith of Budhari can be found online
and are the ones quoted on CARM.
The Hadith are important because they elucidate
many areas not covered by or were not very clear in the Qur'an. The
Hadith is appealed to in legal decisions and consulted in debate among
many Muslims.
There is debate among western scholars as to the
historicity and accuracy of the Hadith. Some believe additions were
made to it to serve political and theological purposes of various Muslim
leaders. Many Muslims will disagree and some even claim all the
Hadith are inspired and accurate. This is quite
debatable.
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1. Glasse, Cyril, The Concise Encyclopedia of Islam, Harper
& Row, Publishers, Inc. San Francisco, 1989, page 141.
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