Adapted from Shaykh Amin’s Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī Lessons
Sayeed Siddiqui
Wahy is an ocean of knowledge. The primary source of wahy is the Quran, but non-recited wahy in the form of the Prophetic sunnah is the unfolding of Divine Guidance into the human context. Reading thousands of hadith in eleven books over the span of two years in dawrat al-hadith, students in the Advanced Program at Darul Qasim are immersed in this ocean. The previous five years of study consisted of mastering the Islamic trivium—the instrumental sciences of language, logic, and rhetoric—and establishing competency in the core Islamic sciences of aqidah, fiqh, Quran, and hadith. Now, with all this preparation behind them, they delve into the ocean of the hadith corpus with the goal of developing the mafhum islami: a coherent Islamic worldview on all aspects of life, from the micro-level of daily life to the macro-level of cosmology and social organization.
Each hadith must be progressively engaged in all its aspects. We can use Bloom’s taxonomy of levels of cognition to understand this process. The hadith is first read, giving knowledge; its thrust must then be comprehended. It is applied to our context, and analyzed from every conceivable angle. Lastly, it is synthesized into a coherent Islamic worldview and evaluated by placing the civilizational values therein in dialogue with opposing values and modern society, and defending it from criticism. All this detailed study is necessary because the nur of the hadith is not merely in its words, but in its role as comprehensive guidance for human beings.
Comprehension begins with linguistic mastery. The student must know the precise meaning of each word, and understand the syntax. There are two kinds of words which deserve special attention. One is uncommon vocabulary, for which we use Arabic dictionaries and gharib literature to identify the meaning. The other is terminology used in the Quran and Sunnah for various meanings, or for meanings which originate with revelation. For these terms, one must undertake a systematic study of all their occurrences in revelation, and isolate the intended meaning in the context at hand. For this purpose al-Raghib al-Isfahani’s Mufradat, a classical concordance and dictionary of Quranic terminology, is indispensable.
Then, one must understand the intent of the Prophet ﷺ in his statement or action. The historical context (as studied in sirah) or the context of the particular incident (as found in other narrations, or given by other witnesses) may assist. However, at this stage, we are concerned solely with the original intent: the understanding of the Companions will have value due to their direct experience, but we are not so concerned with the views of later scholars. We must also understand the intent of the author in the way he presents the hadith and the context he provides. Sometimes, as Imam Muslim does, by bringing it before or after other hadiths, he is making a claim about its strength or pointing out a difference in textual transmission. As Imams Abu Dawud and Tirmidhi do, they may be presenting opinions of jurists in contradistinction to each other and providing the evidence of each. Finally, as Imam Bukhari is most well-known for, he may be extracting a subtle point of theology or jurisprudence. To understand this, we must often examine the author’s intellectual milieu during the time at which he lived.
Next comes the stage of analysis. First, we analyze the chain of transmission, primarily in terms of its authenticity. If there are any weak narrators or discontinuities in transmission, then the chain is inauthentic. However, we must also look at all alternative chains of transmission for the same hadith, as well as other hadiths which corroborate or oppose the one at hand, and even other kinds of historical and rational evidence. In this way, determining the authenticity is a nuanced process which relies on historical and intertextual factors. The chains can also give us information other than authenticity. For example, they may tell a narrative of how a certain practice was accepted in certain regions and not others, or indicate that the transmission was by meaning and not verbatim.
Then, we analyze the hadith for the issues that it raises. It may have bearing on questions of theology, jurisprudence, tafsir, or history, even if indirectly. We use principles of interpretation (usul al-fiqh) to extract practical conclusions. The scholars of hadith have written libraries of books analyzing every imaginable issue, and sometimes even volumes on one hadith. Often, scholars of other disciplines will also analyze the hadith in works of other genres, if it is relevant.
Then, the hadith must be situated in relation to all other texts which have a bearing on the same issue, whether Quran or hadith, and synthesized with them. Wahy is coherent and consistent: lā yaʾtīhi al-bāṭilu min bayni yadayhi wa-lā min khalfih. There may be ostensible contradictions, but the job of the mujtahid is to resolve the tension by showing how the texts fit into an organized constellation. He must thus be a theorist, as well as have a comprehensive knowledge of the entire corpus.
Each mujtahid takes a different methodological approach to this reconciliation. Imam Shafi’i tries to accommodate all of the texts as much as possible by showing how one may apply to a more specific scenario, or else give preference through strength of isnad. Imam Malik gives preference to the practice of Medina’s scholars. Imam Ahmad tries to act upon all the hadith as much as possible, which is why we often see opposite opinions attributed to him. As for Imam Abu Hanifa, he gives special importance to the literal import of the Quran and the understanding of the senior Companions, and theorizes that the law is rationally harmonious and intelligible since it springs from Allah’s Wisdom. If a hadith seems to go against these sources, then his primary defense is abrogation. This requires deep knowledge of the timeline and context of hadith, analogous to the asbab al-nuzul of the Quran. For him, the Sunnah is established by the later hadith and practice, not the earlier.
The hadith must then be applied to our current context. The aforementioned discussions pertaining to legality are the basis for ascertaining what is sinful and what is not, but the mufti must also consider cultural context, benefit and harm, and social consequences of a ruling. But the scope of hadiths is broader than mere legality. Wahy offers ethical, spiritual, and social guidance which is geared to the objectives of human beings realizing their subservience to Allah, and forming human civilization and society in such a way that facilitates this for every person. The beauty of this personal and civilizational guidance is that it can be applied to all levels of human organization and development, and across all cultures and times. In every context it will manifest differently, based on the human endeavor to creatively represent Islamic values in disparate situations. This representation inevitably leads to the need for defense, when it encounters competing value systems. These values must be defended not only from adherents of other religions, but also materialists, postmodernists, and even Muslims who have imbibed aspects of those ideologies or espouse innovative beliefs. In addition, sincere Muslims, even if they reject these ideas, may nurse doubts due to their prevalence. This defense must encompass proving the truth of Islam from first principles as the kalam tradition sets out to do, but it does not end there. The civilizational values and philosophical system of Islam must be shown to be superior to any other system, both rationally and rhetorically. This was the approach of Mawlana Qasim Nanautvi, the founder of the Deoband seminary. Just as material jihad is the endeavor to make Allah’s system supreme in the physical world, intellectual jihad is the endeavor to make it supreme in the minds and hearts of people. This work is, in the words of the Prophetﷺ , “continuously ongoing until the Last Day”. Thus, the effort of representing Islamic values as found in the noble hadith corpus, and re-presenting them, is the task of every scholar in whatever time or place he lives.
