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The Hadith and the Sunnah - Coggle Diagram
The Hadith and the Sunnah
The Sunnah - Muhammad's example
the Sunnah is the secondary authority for Muslims
the Sunnah are the model practices, customs and traditions of Muhammad
Muhammad is the perfect role model for Muslims
'You have had a good example in God's Messenger'
- [surah 33:21]
the Sunnah is found in the Hadiths (sayings of Muhammad) and the Sirah (biographies of Muhammad)
Why is the Sunnah important for Muslims?
the Qur'an is the primary authority
although the Qur'an touches every aspect of life, it does not explicitly lay down laws
except in some 80 verses dealing with marriage , divorce and inheritance
during the first 200 years after Muhammad's death, Islam spread through a great many cultures
many Hadiths were created in order to deal with all the social and legal issues that arose
the challenge for Muslim scholars was to establish which Hadiths were genuine and which were fabrications
The two types of Hadiths
Hadith Prophetic
sayings of Muhammad
Hadith Qudsi/Sacred
Allah's words quoted by Muhammad which are obviously not included in the Qur'an
Hadiths are divided into two parts
Isnad
The Isnad is the chain of transmitters that guarantee the authenticity of the Hadith
scholars checked the isnad to make sure that the Hadith was authentic
the scholars asked questions like
'Were the transmitters reliable?'
,
'Did they have a reputation for telling the truth?'
,
'Did they live at the same time as Muhammad?'
Matn
Matn refers to the main body of the Hadith
'With Allah the most hateful of all things made lawful is divorce'
'Be generous, kind and noble to your children and make their habits and manners good and beautiful'
'The search for knowledge is a duty for every Muslim'
Problems with Hadiths
in the years after Muhammad's death, the Hadiths numbered hundreds then thousands
there was no agreed version - some Hadiths contradicted others
Bukhari, a Muslim scholar, recognised this problem and made a list of 600,000 Hadiths
he then rejected all those which did not have an isnad which dated back to Muhammad
he rejected others because they contradicted the principles of the Qur'an
his final collection numbered 2,762
Three categories of Hadiths
Sahih (sound)
these have a reliable chain (isnad) and a text (matn) that does not contradict the Qur'an
Hasan (adequate)
the isnad is incomplete or comes from an unreliable authority
Da'if (weak)
the text or authority causes serious doubts.
these Hadiths can not be used in discussions on points on law, but might be useful for general meditation