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Hadiths As Historical Sources for a Biography of the Prophet

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Hadiths As Historical Sources for a Biography of the Prophet HADITHS AS HISTORICAL SOURCES FOR A BIOGRAPHY OF THE PROPHET Akira GOTO* I The term hadith is used today in both a narrow and broad sense. In the narrow sense of the term, hadiths are traditions that have been incorpo- rated into Islamic law. It is well known that al-Shafi'i (d. 820) ranked such hadiths in the highest position of legal authority next to the Qur'an to guide his followers. As far as they have been admitted as the basis of law, hadith should be considered as valid and true (sahih) traditions, but by the middle of the ninth century, hadith had multiplied into the hundreds of thousands of items. Most of them were considered quite spurious, "weak" or "infirm" so it is said, forcing legal scholars to develop a methodology for selecting just which ones were valid for Islamic law. As a result, several collections of "valid" hadiths were compiled, giving rise to the narrow, legal meaning of the term referring to the traditions that were selected for these authorized collections. Hadith in the broader sense therefore indicates the whole body of nar- ratives and commentary on Muhammad that have been handed down through Islamic history. These traditions provide information about the Prophet, the people who lived during his generation, and the society of the time. The present paper will deal with hadiths in this latter sense as sources for study- ing the life of Muhammad and his times. Originally oral in nature, these hadiths have been collected without regard to validity in such work as al- sira al-nabawiya by Ibn Ishaq. Since the eleventh century in which the science of Islamic law became a key part of Islamic learning, the value of valid hadith has been greatly enhanced. Even Ibn Taymiya (d. 1328), a thinker who tried to understand Islam by strictly going back to its starting point, undoubtedly recognized *professor, the University of Tokyo 82 ORIENT HADITHS AS HISTORICAL SOURCES FOR A BIOGRAPHY OF THE PROPHET hadiths recorded in al-sahihayn by al-Bukhari (d. 870) and Muslim (d. 875) as true valid. On the other hand, western scholars of Islam have expressed doubts from the standpoint of the modern science of history about valid hadiths judged to be traditionally correct and some of them have criticized these hadiths as inaccurate ones concerning the words and deeds of the Prophet. Predating such doubts, however, were muslim intellectuals who themselves did not agree with how valid hadiths were selected. According to al-fihrist (The Bibliography) by Ibn al-Nadim (d. 990), the works of Ibn Ishaq (d. 767), the biographer of Muhammad (sahib al-sira), were not rated very highly. Ibn al-Nadim asserted that it was impossible for Ibn Ishaq to get information directly from Fatima bint al-Mundhir, one of his important "informants." Moreover, Ibn al-Nadim indicates that the poems cited in Ibn Ishaq's works were written only for his works, that they include many genealogical errors, and that there are many mistakes due to over-reliance on information from Christians and Jews. Ibn al-Nadim's criticism of Ibn Ishaq was in common with people like al-Bukhari, who sought for valid traditions. Al-Bukhari would not admit a hadith to be valid merely because the name of Ibn Ishaq was written in its isnad. Most of the hadiths that passed through the hands of Ibn Ishaq were estimated to be "weak" (da'if), or at most good (hasan). Therefore, the authorized six collections of valid hadith contain few hadiths gathered by Ibn Ishaq and recorded in his al-sira al-nabawiya. In this way Ibn Ishaq was ignored by the editors of the authorized collections of the ninth century and criticized severely by Ibn al-Nadim, a bibliographer of the tenth century. Was Ibn Ishaq therefore forgotten by Islamic society in the tenth century? The answer is no. Five collections of valid traditions were compiled in the latter part of the ninth century, and al-Nasa'i compiled the sixth at the beginning of the tenth century. It was at this time that a great scholar, al-Tabari (d. 923) became known to the world. In his al-fihrist, Ibn al-Nadim introduced al- Tabari in the sixth chapter concerning legal scholars and called him, with admiration, "a wise man," "a leader of the age," and "a legal scholar of the age." He was appreciated highly as an authority on hadith even during his lifetime (cf. Ibn Hajar) and also during the second half of the tenth century. Today, however, al-Tabari is not generally known as a legal scholar, but rather as the author of voluminous works, called tafsir (cf. al- Vol. XXX-XXXI 1995 83 Tabari: Tafsir) and ta'rikh, which covered history from the time of Adam to the beginning of the tenth century (cf. al-Tabari: Ta'rikh). It is also true that he cited many hadiths recorded in Ibn Ishaq's al-sira al-nabawiya, showing that this renowned legal scholar of the tenth century did not reject Ibn Ishaq. There were other people besides al-Tabari who held Ibn Ishaq's works in high estimation. Both Ibn Qutayba (d. 889) and al-Baladhuri (d. 892), intellectuals in the days when the six collections were compiled, are often found quoting Ibn Ishaq. In a period of one or two generations prior to them, Ibn Ishaq was an important source of information for al-Waqidi (d. 822) and his follower Ibn Sa'd (d. 845), while Ibn Hisham (d. 833) revised Ibn Ishaq's al-sira al-nabawiya, omitting unnecessary information and criti- cizing the quoted poetry. In sum, there were two different currents among muslim scholars in the ninth century concerning the works of Ibn Ishaq, who was active in the middle of the previous century. One was the group of people who sought for valid hadiths and did not hold Ibn Ishaq in very high estimation. The other group consisted of those who used Ibn Ishaq's works as sources for the books they wrote. Therefore, is it accurate to say that intellectuals like al-Tabari, who quoted "weak" hadiths from Ibn Ishaq, totally believed in him? The answer may be no. At present, we can not find a complete version of Ibn Ishaq's al-sira al-nabawiya. Many copies of the book must have existed for some time, but now, all of them have become scattered or lost. We only have about two-thirds of his works, through the al-sira al-nabawiya fortunately revised by Ibn Hisham and quoted passages by al-Tabari and others. However, Ibn Hisham himself seemed not to intend to hand down Ibn Ishaq's al-sira al-nabawiya to posterity, but was intent on diminishing the bad effects caused by the spread of the original versions. He eliminated doubtful, un- believable and useless parts from the original and made notes on the quoted poetry. Ibn Hisham seems not to have much appreciated the scholarship of Ibn Ishaq. It is clear that al-Tabari did not stress accuracy when writing his tafsir and ta'rikh. In his tafsir, when explaining verses from the qur'an, he would include various contradictory hadiths. In other words, it is impossible 84 ORIENT HADITHS AS HISTORICAL SOURCES FOR A BIOGRAPHY OF THE PROPHET to pursue what may be the correct explanation of each verse of the qur'an using al-Tabari's tafsir. On the contrary, one may find various interpreta- tions of the qur'an through his work. His ta'rikh also contains various hadiths describing various historical events, that are contradictory in regard to such basic data as dates and the names of places and people. Hadiths cited from Ibn Ishaq, in most cases, were recorded as possible contradictory examples. In fact, al-Tabari quoted hadiths from Ibn Ishaq's works, not because he judged them to be correct, but because he wanted his readers to estimate the value of each hadith for themselves. Both tafsir and ta'rikh by al-Tabari were voluminous works, but they did not contain all of the hundreds of thousands hadiths which seemed to be current at that time. Al-Tabari selected hadith carefully, though he does not indicate his criteria for his selection. He probably chose them relying upon his own experiential intuition. Al-Tabari's view about hadiths seemed to be the same as Ibn Ishaq's. Ibn Ishaq often introduced a few contradic- tory hadiths about a certain historical event, concluding that only God knew which one was correct. He also did not apparently consider all of the hadiths in his al-sira al-nabawiya to be correct. However, he did not discuss how to select hadiths from among his extensive collection either. He must have used what could be called his "synthetic judgement." The present writer is in no position to evaluate the results of efforts made by various people to put restrictions on the number and the contents of hadiths in their eagerness to find legally valid hadith, but it may well be that we will come across very few valid hadiths interesting enough to include in a body of historical materials for the biographical study of Muhammad and an investigation of the society in which he lived. On the other hand, it is useful for us to know about the existence of such people as Ibn Ishaq and al-Tabari, who gathered hadiths extensively without regard to their ac- curacy when compiling books, even though they were selective according to their own discretion. Many of those various and interesting hadiths will be the subject of this paper.
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