Leone Caetani

Hadith

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• published: 02 Aug 2014
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Hadith (Arabic: حديث‎, /ˈhædɪθ/ or /hɑːˈdiːθ/) in religious use is often translated as 'tradition', meaning a report of the teachings, deeds and sayings of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. The hadith literature was compiled from oral reports that were present in society around the time of their compilation, well after the death of Muhammad. Bukhari's collection is considered by many traditional religious scholars as the most 'reliable' and was compiled two centuries after the death of the Prophet. Hadiths reports claim to originate from important characters of the earliest years of Islam such as the companions of Muhammad or Shia Imams/Religious leaders. These hadith narrations have formed the controversial basis of the Shariah models of "Islamic law", despite the alleged contradictions they contain with regards to the Quran itself, such as regarding the punishment for Zina (extramarital sex and premarital sex) in the hadith (stoning to death) contradicts the Quran, rates of Zakat, definition of Ribba etc. The Hadith has also had a profound influence on molding the commentaries (tafsir) on the Quran. The earliest commentary of the Quran by Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari is mostly sourced from the hadith, in-line with Tabari's Athari creed which considered rational inquiry in matters of religion to be forbidden. As the application of deductive reasoning in deriving laws directly from the Quran was sidelined, the arbitrary authority of the hadith was used to replace the Quran in forming the basis of 'Shariah' Law. Much of early Islamic history available today is also based on the hadith. Each hadith is composed of two parts, a chain of authorities reporting the hadith (isnad), and the text itself (matn). Hadiths are regarded by traditional Islamic schools of jurisprudence as important tools for understanding the Quran and in matters of jurisprudence. Hadith were evaluated and gathered into large collections during the 8th and 9th centuries. These works are referred to in matters of Islamic law and history to this day. This video is targeted to blind users. Attribution: Article text available under CC-BY-SA Creative Commons image source in video