Voices of Islam (31 page)

138
Voices of Tradition

While the Shi‘as accept Hadith as a primary source of legislation after the Qur’an, they reject several of the Sunni sources among the Prophet’s Com- panions because of their political positions vis-a`-vis the early dispute over ‘Ali’s authority after the death of the Prophet. While both groups classify hadith almost identically and deem multiple transmission narratives to be authoritative and binding, the Sunnis tend not to accept the methodology of authentication that the Shi‘as employ.

For the Shi‘as, the Hadith constitutes the Sunna of the Prophet and the Twelve Imams. The Shi‘as have four early collections that are considered canonical and akin to the six collections of the Sunnis. Many of the traditions found in the Shi‘a collections are similar or identical in meaning to those found in the Sunni sources, and many of the Sunni Hadith scholars narrate hadith on the authority of early Shi‘a scholars, with certain qualifi

Shi‘a transmitters can even be found in the chains of the illustrious Sunni Hadith scholar Bukhari.
16

WOMEN AND THE SUNNA

One intriguing aspect of the sciences involving the collection and authen- tication of Prophetic sayings is the important role that women played in its development and transmission. In no other Islamic disciplines have there been so many notable and illustrious female scholars. Among the Prophet’s Companions, only four related over 2,000 traditions; one of them was the Prophet’s wife ‘A’isha, who holds a preeminent position not only as a great transmitter of hadith but also in her knowledge of their application. Only one other early Hadith scholar bears such a distinction.
17
Perhaps because of ‘A’isha’s prestigious position among the transmitters, other women were encouraged to pursue knowledge in this area. A student of Hadith will often encounter the names of Hafsa, Umm Habiba, Umm Salama, Maymuna, and ‘A’isha; all of these women transmitted hadith directly from the Prophet.

Women represent 12 percent of the Prophet’s Companions who are noted for relating more than 20 hadith accounts. Among the second generation of scholars, women also held prominent places. For example, ‘Abida al- Madaniyya (d. early eighth century
CE
) was a slave from Medina who excelled in memorizing traditions from the great Hadith scholars of Medina. The eminent Spanish Hadith scholar Habib Dahhun freed ‘Abida and then mar- ried her. She returned with him to Spain, and it is reported that she related over 10,000 traditions on the authority of her teachers in Medina.
18

The most notable scholar of
Sahih al-Bukhari
in the eleventh century
CE
was Karima al-Marwaziyya (d. 1070
CE
) from Merv in modern Turkmenistan, whose name recurs in the most authoritative chains of the
Sahih.
The Hadith scholar Abu Dharr of Herat (d. 1042
CE
) held her in such high esteem that he counseled his students to study Bukhari with her and no one else.

The
Sunna
: The Way of the Prophet Muhammad
139

The greatest of the later Hadith scholars, Ibn Hajar al-‘Askalani (d. 1449
CE
), wrote a work of biographical notices titled
al-Durar al-kamina
(The Hidden Pearls), in which he listed over 170 prominent female Hadith schol- ars. Ibn Hajar studied directly with some of them and acknowledged others as the best Hadith scholars of their age. Noteworthy among the women Hadith scholars mentioned by Ibn Hajar was Umm Hani Maryam of Cairo (d. 1466
CE
), who mastered several Islamic sciences, including theology, law, history, and grammar. During her life, she traveled extensively to study Hadith with the masters of her age. She was a celebrated lecturer in the Islamic colleges of Cairo. The Egyptian biographer Sakhawi (d. 1497
CE
) says about her:

She taught hadith for a long time, and many eminent scholars heard them from her; personally, everything I have learned from her teachers, I learned through her. However, I believe that she knew much more than I was able to learn. Her grandfather presumably taught her the rest of the Six Books and taught her Nashawiri’s [d. 1388
CE
] version of
Sahih al-Bukhari
. She was a good woman who used to weep profusely when the names of God and the Prophet were mentioned; she was consistent in her fasting and night prayers and fi in her religion
...
. She performed the pilgrimage thirteen times, often staying for months to study and teach in Mecca and Medina.
19

The great Hadith scholar Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti (d. 1505
CE
) states that although there have been countless forgers of hadith among men, no woman in the history of the science was ever known to have been a forger of hadith. Unfortunately, the number of female scholars of Hadith declined radically after the fi century
CE
. Following Sakhawi’s biographical collection, women are almost entirely absent from literature enumerating the scholars of the centuries that followed. Perhaps, the last noteworthy female Hadith scholar in Sunni Islam was Fatima al-Fudayliyya (d. 1831), who acquired an excellent reputation in the early nineteenth century. She taught in Mecca, where many eminent Hadith scholars were known to attend her lectures.
20
Today, one of the most active scholastic communities in the Arab world that is teaching and preserving the great canonical collections of Hadith literature is the Qubaysiyyat of Syria. This organization is made up entirely from the ranks of Syrian women and their female students from around the world.

THE SUFIS AND THE SUNNA

Sufism is the spiritual tradition within Islam, and almost all of the legal and theological schools of both the Sunni and the Shi‘a traditions incorporate aspects of Sufi in their teachings. For the Sufis, the Sunna represents more than simply the actions of the Prophet and his normative practices.

140
Voices of Tradition

While Sufi traditionally were staunch adherents of the outward manifesta- tion of the Sunna, they placed greater emphasis on the spiritual states of the Prophet and his practice of being mindful of God. In Bukhari’s collection, ‘A’isha relates that the Prophet mentioned God in all of his states. Sufis take this tradition very seriously and attempt to fill their days with remembrance of God, even while doing such mundane tasks as sweeping a room or work- ing at a computer. Ahmad ibn ‘Ajiba (d. 1809
CE
), the noted North African Sufi and scholar of the early nineteenth century, writes:

The scholar has inherited [the Prophet’s] sayings, may Allah bless him and give him peace, with the condition that he should be sincere and truthful
...
. The worshipper has inherited [the Prophet’s] actions
.. .
. The Sufi has inherited everything [from the Prophet]. In the beginning [the Sufi] takes what is neces- sary for him from the outward knowledge [of the Prophet]. He plunges to its depth and then moves to action in the most perfect states. He has also inherited the behavior that the Prophet (may Allah bless him and give him peace) used to apply to his inward self: doing without, scrupulousness, fear and hope, patience, forbearance, generosity, courage, contentment, humility, reliance upon Allah, love, gnosis, and so on.
21

While most Sufis are traditional Muslims in that they adhere to the norma- tive practice of the dominant community of believers, their focus is less on the formalism of exoteric religion than it is on the purpose of that formalism, which is to attain direct knowledge of God. Thus, Sufis consider the spiritual retreats of the Prophet as Sunna. The Night Journey, in which the Prophet is described as having had direct experience of his Lord, is also Sunna for the Sufis. In addition, the Sunna of invocation at night is very important in the Sufi tradition.

Many Hadith scholars were Sufis. In fact, the doctrines of early Sufis, such as Junayd (d. 910
CE
), were probably diffused throughout the Muslim world by way of Hadith scholars who were sought after for their knowledge of tra- ditions and who passed on their Sufism along with Hadith. Abu Sa‘id ibn al- ‘A’rabi (d. 952
CE
), the famous Hadith scholar and disciple of Junayd, studied with Abu Dawud, the author of one the canonical Six Books. Later, scholars in Islamic Spain taught the
Sunan
of Abu Dawud using Ibn al-‘A’rabi’s nar- ration. Abu Muhammad Ja‘far al-Khuldi (d. 958
CE
) is another such example. A distinguished Hadith scholar in his early career, he later became a well- known Sufi who applied the rigors of his Hadith training to the teachings of the Sufi Abu Nu‘aym al-Isfahani (d. 1038
CE
) was also a great Hadith scholar and Sufi his renowned work
Hilyat al-awliya’
(The Adornment of the Saints) is a major sourcebook for early Sufi traditions.
22
Finally, Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (d. 1111
CE
), perhaps the most prominent jurist, theolo- gian, and Sufi in Sunni Islam, placed great emphasis on strictly adhering to the Sunna of the Prophet as a way of achieving spiritual illumination. In his

The
Sunna
: The Way of the Prophet Muhammad
141

religious classic
Bidayat al-hidaya
(The Beginning of Guidance), he states: ‘‘The commands of God Most High prescribe obligatory works and super- erogatory works. The obligatory work is the capital on which the trading activities are based and through which a man comes to safety. The super- erogatory [Sunna] work is the profi which gives a man a higher degree of success.’’
23
In this work, Ghazali exhorts those setting out on a spiritual path to adhere strictly to the Sunna of the Prophet in order to illuminate their hearts and draw closer to God.

CHALLENGES TO THE SUNNA

While historically the Sunna of the Prophet and the traditions it is based on were not challenged as an epistemological premise in Islam, there have been several recent attempts to challenge the validity of the Hadith. Initially, these attempts came from Orientalist scholars who called into question the entire tradition of Hadith and its methodology for authenticating accounts. Some of these Western scholars went so far as to allege that most hadith accounts were in fact inauthentic and represented an attempt by scholars in the second, third, and fourth centuries of Islam to legitimize legal opinions and cultural attitudes by attributing them to the Prophet Muhammad. According to this view, this process led to the fabrication of chains of narration. One of the most influential exponents of this tradition of Western Hadith criticism was the late nineteenth-century scholar Ignaz Goldziher, a Hungarian specialist in Jewish law who applied his criticisms of the Jewish legal tradition to Islam.

Goldziher’s main allegations against the Hadith tradition were as follows: Because hadith accounts were based mainly on oral traditions, they were apt to be remembered incorrectly or misunderstood. The fact that later Hadith collections had larger numbers of accounts than earlier compilations meant that the authenticity of accounts in the later collections was suspect. The sys- tem of verifying traditions by means of their chains of transmission was a later development in the field of Hadith study and could not prove the authentic- ity of a particular hadith account. Many hadith accounts were contradictory and followed inconsistent logic.
24

The early twentieth-century scholar Joseph Schacht agreed with Gold- ziher’s main criticisms about Hadith and further alleged that most written traditions came into existence only after Shafi‘i’s time. He asserted that the Prophet Muhammad was not primarily interested in legislation and that legislative hadith emerged during the Umayyad dynasty (661–750
CE
), when the need arose to legitimize state policies. According to Schacht, the Sunna did not originally refer to the Prophet’s practices but rather to the practice of the Muslim community as a whole and only received its eventual meaning because of the influence of Shafi‘i.
25

142
Voices of Tradition

These views continue to have a great deal of influence in the field of Islamic Studies, despite sound challenges to Goldziher’s and Schacht’s contentions. Schacht’s thesis was refuted by the Muslim scholar Muhammad Azami in the book,
On Schacht’s Origins of Muhammadan Jurisprudence.
26
A Euro- pean Muslim scholar, Yasin Dutton, has written an intriguing work titled
The Origins of Islamic Law: The Qur’an, the Muwatta’ and Madinan ‘Amal.
In this work, Dutton argues that the concept of the Sunna, as understood by the Maliki jurists of Medina, refutes the opinions of those who doubt the authenticity of Hadith. Dutton believes that the accuracy of most hadith accounts transmitted by the Maliki school is undeniable and that the Maliki school’s reliance on communally applied actions taught and practiced by its scholars, rather than on written texts of largely solitary narrations, is central to its strength. For Dutton, the Sunna is a transmitted practice rooted in action. The majority of solitary hadith do not support this view because their teachings have not been confi in actual practice. Malik himself did not rely on solitary hadith accounts, and his
Muwatta’
contains less than 2,000 hadith accounts out of tens of thousands of accounts that were at his disposal. Malik discarded many accounts because they were not practiced by the schol- ars of his time in Medina. Dutton’s research demonstrates that Orientalist criticism of the Sunna based on the supposed weakness of Hadith literature is largely irrelevant to the Maliki position, which clearly distinguishes between Hadith and Sunna.
27

Other challenges to the Sunna have arisen from within the Muslim commu- nity itself. The Egyptian engineer Rashad Khalifah rejected the Hadith tradi- tion in its entirety and demanded that Muslims return solely to the Qur’an. Even more recently, Dr. Muhammad Shahrur, a Syrian engineer, published a critique of the Sunna as understood by classical scholars for over a thousand years. In this work, he claims that the Sunna was the Prophet’s personal attempt to apply the Qur’an to his time and his environment. Thus, the meaning of the Sunna should differ according to the time and place in which it is applied. According to Shahrur, Muslims should not follow the practices of the Prophet literally but should instead implement the meth- odology he used to arrive at his practices. This, says Shahrur, is the Prophet’s