COMPILATION OF HADITH

1. Introduction
2. Stages of compilation. 1st period during the time of Holy Prophet and his companions.
2nd period during the time of successors of the companions.
rd
3 period during the time of successors of the successors of the companions.
1. Introduction:
(i)The companions were fond of collecting Ahadith as Sunnah/Hadith is the Second Source of
Islamic Law and comprises of words, actions, and silent approvals of the Holy Prophet.
His companions eagerly remembered his Ahadith. They were careful in compiling the Hadith as
it was the second source of Islamic law the H. Quran says oh you believe Allah and obey the
Messenger this can be seen in the following words of Quran “he does not speak anything by his own
will but what is revealed upon him by Allah”.

2. 1st period during the time of Holy Prophet and his companions.
The compilation of Hadith was made through 3 different means one memorization, two writing them
down 3rd by practicing them.
At first the H. Prophet did not allow his companions to write his traditions as he feared that they
might mix Ahadith with the Quran. However, when he became confident that they cold differentiate
b/w the two, allowed them to write (compile) the Hadith.
(ii) Abdullah Bin Amar who used to write down all the sayings of Prophet was asked not to write
everything, that he can say anything out of happiness or anger. When the Holy Prophet became
aware of this he said, “by God life nothing come out of my mouth except the truth there for you
should write it down without hesitation”. This encouraged the companions to compile the Hadith.
The Holy Prophet also said in his last Sermon, “Those who are present convey my message to
those who are absent”. Thus, this was a clear indication that Ahadith were to be compiled for the
next generation.
Prominent Muslims who memorized Ahadith included:
H. Ayesha: She was the wife of the H. Prophet and daughter of H. Abu Bakr the first Caliph. She
not only narrated 2210 Hadith but was also a critic to badly remembered Ahadith. She died in 58AH.
H. Abu Hurairah: He become a Muslim late in the life of the H. Prophet. Since he used to spent
long hours in the company of the Holy Prophet, therefore memorized a lot of his sayings and actions
and hence narrated more than 5300 hadith. He died in 59AH.
H. Abdullah bin Umar: He- was son of H. Umar (RA), the second caliph and an emigrant from
Makkah who narrated more than 2500 hadith. He died in 74 A.H.
Many companions compiled books on hadith like Saheefa-e-Sadiqa, Saheefa-e-Amir and Diary of
Ali.
2. 2nd period during the time of successors of the companions.
The successor of companions also played a prominent part in the compilation. They readily
learned Ahadith from the companions of the H. Prophet and either memorized them or wrote them
down. They travelled long distances to collect Ahadith from different companions like H. Basheer
made compilation of these narrated by H. Abu Huraira and H. Nafay made a compilation of Hadith
narrated by Hazrat Ayesha. H. Oban made a compilation of Hadith narrated by H. Anas. Students of
H. Abbas compared Hadith narrated by H. Abbas. During the reign of Umayyad caliph, Umar bin
Abdul Aziz, they were many important scholars who did research work on Ahadith e.g. lmam Zuhri
of Madinah.
The best-known early collections of Hadith were the Muwatta by Imam Malik, a legal text
containing about 2000 traditions, and the Musnad of Imam Ahmed Ibn Hanbal which comprised of
about 30 thousand traditions. It is called Musnad as it is arranged into chapters according to the
names of the first transmitters rather than the theme of the sayings.
 3. 3rd period during the time of successors of the successors of the companions.
Then, more than 200 years after the death of the Holy Prophet, came the climax of compilation of
Hadith under Imam Bukhari and his contemporaries. They travelled great lengths to discover men
who remembered Hadith thus showing their dedication to his scared task. However, they faced
difficulty in checking the authenticity of Hadith as at that time a huge number of texts were in
circulation. The solution they chose was to test the authenticity. of Hadith by their rules of Isnad (the
line of the narrators) and Matn (the actual text of the hadith).
While checking Isnad they made sure that the chain was complete and the members of Isnad could
have passed reports to each other and that the transmitters were of good character. They compared
the Matn with the Quran and other (accepted) Hadith. This was to ensure it agreed with the main
Islamic teachings.
1. Sahih by Imam Bukhari;
With the help of these rules, they compiled only the authentic Ahadith in their collections e.g. Imam
Bukhari gathered nearly 600,000 texts, but after application of these rules, he included only 7397
Hadith in his book out of which nearly 4000 are repeated. This shows how careful they were in
compiling the correct Hadith of the Holy Prophet. That is why their collections are called
Sahah-as-Sitta or The Six Authentic which are:

2. Sahih by Imam Muslim; 3. Sunan by Abu Daud; 4. Sunan by lbn Majah;