Al-Jarallah, Sulaiman Muhammad (1991) the Origins of Ḥadīth: a Critical Appraisal of a Western Approach to the Subject
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Al-Jarallah, Sulaiman Muhammad (1991) The origins of Ḥadīth: a critical appraisal of a Western approach to the subject. PhD thesis http://theses.gla.ac.uk/6832/ Copyright and moral rights for this thesis are retained by the author A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the Author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the Author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given. Glasgow Theses Service http://theses.gla.ac.uk/ [email protected] The Origins of Had i th : A Critical Appraisal of a Western Approach to the Subject Sulaiman Muhammad AI-JarAllah Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies University of Glasgow thesis submitted for the ' degree of Ph. D. in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Glasgow 1412 / 1991 © SULAIMAN MUHAMMAD AL-JARALLAH 1991 ýij i ýPýjji sui I* add 1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Praise be to Allah first and last, who has enabled me to complete this thesis. I should like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to the Imam Muhammad Ibn Saud Islamic University, Riyadh, which sponsored my scholarship to the University of Glasgow. Its help and support is much appreciated. I owe special gratitude to the faculty of Us01 al- Din and the department of al-Sunnah wa-cUlümha for their initial suggestion of this scholarship and for the cooperation they have shown during all stages of my study. The help of a number of persons in this institution deserves to be mentioned: The former Dean a! -Sh a ykh Ab d al-cAziz al-Rü mi; the present Dean of the faculty, Associate Professor Dr. Fälih al- Sughayyir; the assistant Dean of Graduate Studies, Associate Professor Dr. Nasir al-cUmar; the former heads of the department of al-Sunnah wa-cUlümhä, Professor Muhammad Adib al-Sälih and Associate Professor Musfir al-Dumayni; and the present head of this department, Dr. 'Abd Allah al- Tuwayjiri. 2 I wish to thank the Secretary General of the University, associate Professor Dr. Muhammad al-Sälim, for his encouragement and assistance. I am thankful to Professor John Mattock, my supervisor, the head of the department of Arabic and Islamic Studies, for the help and assistance he has offered me during the period of my study. I wish also to thank Dr. cAbd al-Rahmän al-Matrüdi, who first introduced me to Professor Mattock; his kindness and help is much appreciated. I am grateful to my wife and children, Muhammad, Rayyä and Ahmad for their patience, and support during the past six years. Finally, and most importantly, I am greatly indebted is - which far too weak a word - to my parents for their unfailing encouragement and their most generous care and support, which have sustained me always. 3 CONTENTS Abstract 7 Table of transliteration 9 List of abbreviations 10 Introduction 12 Part one The evidence for the origins ofhadith transmission 20 1. Awä'11 reports as evidence 22 The significance of the awiPil reports 22 A discussion of the awä'il reports in Juynboll's argument 24 Awä'i1 reports unfavourable to Juynboll's argument 28 II. Juynboll's hypothesis of the growth of hadith 47 al-Khu1af ' al-räshidün and their materials in Tabagät Ibn Sacd 47 The musnads of the four Caliphs in hadith collections 57 III. The prophetic sunnah 74 juynboll's concept of the late appearance of the prophetic sunnah 74 An examination of the evidence of his chronology 77 4 The authority of the prophetic sunnah in early texts 82 The early meaning of the term al-sunnah (pl. al-sunan) 92 cUmar b. cAbd al-cAziz and the prophetic sunnah 96 IV. Early hadith activities 103 The activities of the Companions 108 The activities of the Successors 118 Juynboll's evaluation of the status of three Successors in the transmission of hadith 133 V. Talab al-dilm 147 A discussion of Juynboil's proposal of the beginning of the second century as a date for the first talab al-dtlm journeys 147 Chronology of the (alab al-diim journeys 154 The hajj journey 161 Movement between provinces 167 Part two Aspects of hadith 179 1. The qussäs and the fugahä' 180 a1-Qussäs in the first century 180 5 al-Fugahä' :A discuusssion of Juynboll's thesis that their opinions are raised to the level of 'prophetic sayings' 185 II. The isnäd 210 Juynboll's chronology of the beginning of the isnäd 210 The isnäd and its association with the fitnah 210 A scrutiny of Juynboll's theory concerning the date of the great fitna' 214 Isnäds in the early sources 246 An examination of Juynboll's examples for the hypothesis of the growing back of the isnäd 256 III. Characteristics of hadith 268 Hadith and regionalism 268 Local remarks 268 Anas b. Malik's material between two centres 270 Juynboll's theory of the 'age trick' 273 Iladith in Egypt and Khuräsän and its association with Iraq 277 IV. The authenticity of hadith :A discussion of two mutawätir badiths 288 Niyähah 289 The man kadhaba calayya hadith 304 V. Juynboll and his predecessors 329 Conclusion 352 Appendix 359 Bibliography 395 7 ABSTRACT A number of modern Western writters have discussed in more or less detail the origins of hadith. One of them is G. H. A. Juynboll, who claims that he adopts a new approach and comes up with new conclusions regarding the subject. His main theory is that the prophetic ihadiths which are to be found in later hadith collections are, mainly, a development of the products of the early authorities. The beginning of the transmission hadith him, into of , according to came existence as late as toward the end of the first century. This thesis is an examination of Juynboll's approach to the subject. It consists of two parts; the first part investigates the following five issues, which Juynboll adduces to support the above chronology: 1. A wä'il evidence; 2. The chronology of the growth of traditions; 3. The origin of the concept 'prophetic sunna'; 4. The earliest development of the hadith centres; 5. A tentative chronology of talab al-'ilm. The second part deals with various aspects of the early hadith, as Juynboll visualizes it, which are discussed in the 8 first chapter of his Muslim tradition and other associated articles. In this part a scrutiny is made of the study of two mutawätir hadiths in which juynboll attempts to prove that even tawätur gives no guarantee of the authenticity of hadith. Finally, a comparison is made of Juynboll's views on the subject with those of his predecessors. 9 TABLE OF TRANSLITERATION c 3 J k u b J 1 u t m th n e h h w kh cs y d t/h 3 dh a J r i _ j z - u cý s cs/ a sh i - s CJ° d aw t ay b z C e. gh f t3 q 10 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AbU Dawüd = Sunan. Abü Zurcah = Tärikh. al-Bukhäri = Sahib. al-Därimi = Sunan. Hilyah Abü Nucaym, Hilyat al-awliyiP... = . Ibn Abi Shaybah = Musannaf. Ibn Mäjah = Sunan. Ibn Sacd = Ibn Sacd, Kitäb al-Tabagät al-kabir. al-dIlal = Ahmad b. Hanbal, Kitäb al-dIlal wa m acrifat al-rijal. Khalifah = Khalifah b. Khayyät, Kitäb al-Tabagät. al-Macrifah = al-Fasawi, Kitäb al-macrifah wa-al-tärikh. al-Muhaddith = al-Rämahurmuzi, al-Muhadith al-fäsil... Muslim = Sahib. Musnad = Ahmad b. Hanbal, Musnad. al-Musannaf = cAbd al-Razzäq, al-Musannaf. al-Muwa((a' = Malik b. Anas, al-Muwatta'. al-Nasä'i - Sunan. Origins = Schacht, The Origins of Muhammadan jurisprudence. 11 al-Rihlah = al-Khatib al-Baghdädi, al-Rihlah fi talab al-With. Siyar = al-Dhahabi, Siyar a«läm a1-nubalä'. al-Tayälisi = Musnad. Tahdhib = Ibn Hajar, Tahdhib al-Tahdhib. al-Tirmidhi = al-Jamic al-$ahih. Tradition = Juynboll, Muslim tradition. 12 INTRODUCTION One of the latest Western writters to concern himself with the origins of the transmission of hadith is G. H. A. Juynboll. His most important work on hadith is his Muslim tradition: Studies in chronology, provenance and authorship of early hadith. In the first chapter of this book, which is entitled "A tentative chronology of the origins of Muslim tradition", he formulates his hypothesis on the origins of hadith. He believes that although some materials may come from the time of the Prophet, hadith, in general, originated in the generation of the Successors. In his summary of this chapter, he raises three questions which he thinks should be asked in connection with the early hadith and he gives his answers to them: " 1. Where did a specific hadith originate? Probably in the region where the traditionist mentioned at the Successor's level in its isnäd operated. (This answer may apply to the majority of traditions listed as 'sound' in the so- called canonical collections; in later, not canonized, collections we encounter traditions which may not be so easy to identify 13 as to region of origin since wholesale isnäd fabrication had become sophisticated enough to disguise a hadith's provenance more or less successfully. ) The chance that we are able to conclude that a certain hadith originated in the region where the Companion of its isnäd resided - if that is different from the Successor's region - is remote in view of the fact that the historicity of the link between Companion and Successor appeared the most difficult of all to establish.