Harald Motzki's View on Ḥadīth Authenticity (Analysis Study Of
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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION A. Research Background The attempt to keep h}adi>th to be always true is fundamental thing because its position is very significant as second foundation of Muslim life. Ḥadi>th as its role in Islam is to be supportive and commentary of al-Qur’a>n, or be independent guidance in producing principles. 1 Therefore, h}adi>th is something cannot be separated in Muslim’s way of life. Muslim scholars always carefully deliver h}adi>th from the Prophet Muh}ammad as in his utterance from al-Mughi>ra: 2 إ ِ ٍ ٍ ِ ِ ْ ِ ِ. ن َﻛﺬﺑًﺎ َ ﻋﻠَ ﻲ ﻟَْﻴ َﺲ َﻛ َﻜﺬب َ ﻋﻠَﻰ أَ َﺣﺪ َ ﻣ ْﻦ َﻛﺬ َب َ ﻋﻠَ ﻲ ُﻣَﺘـَﻌﻤًﺪا َﻓـْﻠﻴَﺘََﺒـﻮأ َﻣْﻘَﻌَﺪﻩ ُ ﻣ َﻦ اﻟﻨﺎر “The lie about me is not like lying about others, whoever did lying about me intentionally; let him prepare a place in the hellfire!” This is warning for Muslim not to lie in informing h}adi>th from the Prophet. This was the Prophet mean for his followers to keep h}adi>th genuinely. When fitna era 3 had been occurred, Muslim scholars gave more attention and carefully selected h}adi>th from their informants by speaking to them: “mention all your transmitters! ” as well as their enthusiasm to travel in order to collect h}adi>th as much as possible they can when al-Zuhri began to codify h}adi>th in Umayyad era. 4 In that era, the chain of transmitters was really considered as crucial part to justify the reliability of h}adi>th. 1 M. ‘Ajja>j al-Kha>t}ib, Us}u>l al-H{adi>th ‘Ulu>muhu> wa Mus}t}ala>h}uhu> (Beirut: Da>r al-Fikr, 2009), p. 34 2 See S}ah}i>h} al-Bukha>ri on Chapter Ma> Yukrohu min al-Niya>h}a ‘ala> al-Mayyit no. 1229 3 It happened after the murder of Uthma>n bin ‘Affa>n until the murder of al-H{usein bin ‘Ali which was followed by raising of sects in politic background, see Ali Mustafa Yakub, Kritik Hadis (Jakarta: Pustaka Firdaus, 2004) , pp. 82-83 4 Ahmad Umar hasyim, al-Sunna al-Nabawiyya fi Muwa>jaha>t al-Tah}addi> (Beirut: Mansyurat al-Maktabat al-Ashriyyat, 1980), p.19 1 2 Observation around the authenticity of h}adi>th through certain critic Method is never end activity which is conducted not only by Muslim scholars but also external researchers (non-Muslim). 5 Long time ago, Muslim Scholars conducted critic of h}adi>th which is systematically written down in ‘ulu >m al- h}adi>th . According to them, a h}adi>th will be able to be judged as an authentic h}adi>th if the five requirements of authenticity are completed, they are: chain of transmitters must be interconnected, ‘ ada>la al-ruwa>t, d}abt} al-ruwa>t , there is no sha>dh, and ‘illa .6 Since first century until thirteenth Islamic century, the requirements of authenticity were practically used by Muslim scholars, especially by h}adi>th experts on selecting and criticizing h}adi>th.7 Almost all of the works written about ‘ulu>m al-h}adi>th is influenced by three main scholars; al-Sha>fi‘i, al-Kha>t}ib, and Ibn al-S{ala>h}. They are founding fathers of the branches of ‘ulu>m al-h}adi>th through their works which inspired paradigm of ‘ulu>m al-h}adi>th later. 8 Al-Sha>fi‘i as the elder founder doesn’t have a work that talks about ‘ulu>m al-h}adi>th independently, but his thought can be found among his works, such as al-Risa>la and al-Umm , collaborating with us}u>l, fiqh and ḥadi>th.9 Nowadays, trend of h}adi>th analysis is a method that is determined to refer and verify a h}adi>th to the canonical of h}adi>th collection in order to know authenticity of the h}adi>th, knowingly called as takhri>j al-h}adi>th .10 Study of h}adi>th surrounding Middle East and Indonesia conducted this method. 11 In this 5 Wahyudin Darmalaksana, Hadis di Mata Orientalis (Bandung: Benang Merah Press, 2004), p. 8 6 Combination of both d}abt} and ‘ada>la can be called as thiqa . The first, second and third are to sanad requirement, while fourth and fifth are to matn. 7 Ali Mustafa Yakub, Belajar Islam di Timur Tengah (Jakarta: Ministry of Religion Affairs, n.d.), p. 164 8 Ibid., p. 167 9 Mah}mu>d al-T{ah}h}a>n, Taisi>r Must}alah} al-H{adi>th (Beirut: Dar al-Fikr, n.d.), p. 10 10 Sa’d ‘Abd Alla>h Al H{umaid, T{uruq Takhri>j al-H{adi>th (Riyadh: Da>r ‘Ulu>m al-Sunna li> al-Nashr, 2000), p. 7 11 Kamarudin Amin, n.d., Diskursus Hadis di Jerman. Retrieved on February 10 th , 2013 from http://islamlib.com/id/artikel/diskursus-hadis-di-jerman 3 type of method, someone can search location of a h}adi>th through some ways based on the book of h}adi>th that is used. In takhri>j al-h}adi>th , according to ‘Abd al-Mahdi, h}adi>th can be found its location by knowing first letter of that h}adi>th, a word in content of h}adi>th, first transmitter (companion of the Prophet), the theme, or kind of h}adi>th. 12 So, firstly, someone has to know kinds of the books of h}adi>th, how is the arrangement method that is used by each author of the books of h}adi>th, and the canonical h}adi>th collection. H{adi>th studies in the West were very different fundamentally from study of h}adi>th around Muslim scholars in Middle East and Indonesia. While the Muslim Scholars emphasize their study in takhri>j al-h}adi>th , Western scholars concerning in Islamic Studies, especially in h}adi>th, discuss dating method and how to reconstruct the history of events which is supposed to be happened in early Islam. 13 Although their views show that they are in different perception from Muslim scholars, their study will be useful in academic perspective, because they point out the weaknesses of Islamic studies. So, enthusiasm in Islamic studies will revive, especially in improving the discourses to be better. Study about sources and historicity of h}adi>th in early Islam call Western scholars into question about what and how far the reliability of narrative texts of h}adi>th from the Prophet and early Islamic generations historically is. In the beginning phase of Western studies, they show that h}adi>th literatures and traditions from the Prophet and early Islamic generations were reliable. But since 14 second half of nineteenth century, skepticism raised. 12 ‘Abd al-Mahdi, T{uruq Takhri>j H{adi>th Rasu>l Alla>h (n.p.: Da>r al-I’tis}a>m, n.d.), p. 24 13 Kamarudin Amin, loc. cit. 14 Kamarudin Amin, n.d., Problematika Ulumul Hadis, Sebuah Upaya Pencarian Metodologi Alternatif. Retrieved on February 10 th , 2013 from www.ditpertais.net%2Fannualconference%2Fancon06%2Fmakalah%2FMakalah%2520Komarud din..doc&ei=eLsYUYSMHIGErQeqv4HIAg&usg=AFQjCNHFw89AtqbXKtj3Fgmm0yp5k- P24A&bvm=bv.42080656,d.bmk 4 It is because the codification of h}adi>th has been done long time later from its transmissions. It will make consequence of the rise of skepticism around early Islamic literary, especially literary of h}adi>th. 15 They think that the setting of socio-culture nowadays is extremely different from ideal condition in the Prophet era. Therefore, they need a ways in proving the authenticity of h}adi>th. One other thing is by analyzing and investigating the development of h}adi>th literary as main point to know the process of h}adi>th transmission by writing since the Prophet era. In the objective standard, the works of Western sholars can’t be underestimated. Through scientific method applied in arrangements of dictionary and encyclopedia, they have taken a big part in enrichment of Islamic literary through some works in all kinds of subject fields, especially in h}adi>th. 16 H{adi>th studies in the West were begun by Aloys Sprenger (d. 1893) that showed his skepticism about h}adi>th. Sprenger’s view was followed by William Muir until the great scholar, Ignaz Goldziher (1850-1921), come through his masterpiece, Muhammedanische Studien (published in 1890), which became main inspiration for the scholars later, such as Leone Caetani, Henry Lammens, John Wansbrough, Patrcia Crone and Michael Cook. The work of Goldziher seemed doesn’t revise significantly among Western scholars. 17 About h}adi>th, Goldziher refuses criteria and qualifications of authentic h}adi>th. So, he is always in doubt (skeptic) about authenticity of h}adi>th until the raising of Joseph Schacht through his masterpiece, The Origins of Muhammadan Jurisprudence , in 1950. 18 Schacht is considered as one of great skeptical Western scholars that constructs his thought carefully and detailed in h}adi>th research during ten years. His view justifies that there is no authentic h}adi>th as in his statement, “ we shall not meet any legal tradition from the Prophet which can be considered 15 M.M. Azami, Hadis Nabawi dan Sejarah Kodifikasinya , trans. Ali Mustafa Yakub (Jakarta: Pustaka Firdaus, 1994), pp. 1-2 16 Wahyudin Darmalaksana, op. cit. , pp. 9-10 17 M.M.