Muslims were, early on, aware of the significance of the Sunnah and its authority. They, one generation after the other, were keen to preserve the Sunnah because they saw that as a part of the preserving of the last revelations man is ever to receive. Their efforts were unabated, and the remarkable job they did is unparalleled in the experience of any other religion or civilization.
At the time of the Prophet :
One of the main reasons behind this is the fact that the Prophet clearly taught the Companions, may Allah be pleased with them, the importance of his Sunnah, its place in Islam and their role in saving it, teaching and conveying it to others around them and to those who would come after them. In so doing, he followed an effective methodology, which will be briefly outlined below:
1 He emphasized the importance of seeking knowledge and teaching it to others. He said: "Seeking knowledge is obligatory upon every Muslim (male and female)." [Ibn Maajah] Also, he said: "Whosoever pursues a path to seek knowledge therein, Allah will thereby make easy for him a path to Paradise. No people gather together in one of the houses of Allah (mosques), reciting the Book of Allah and studying it among themselves, without tranquility descending upon them, mercy enveloping them and angles surrounding them, and Allah making mention of them to those (angels) who are with Him." [Muslim]
2 He always had a center for teaching. Most of the time, it was the mosque.
3 He was soft in his dealings and always facilitated things and made them easy for others. He was merciful and humble and made himself readily available.
4 He never pushed people into anything. Instead, he gradually taught them and led them to change. He always motivated them to follow his example and be their best.
5 He would not continuously teach or work with them, but he would give them enough breaks to avoid overstressing or boring them.
6 He spoke plainly and clearly and he talked to people at their level of understanding and intellectual ability. Whenever appropriate, he spoke to people in their own dialect for the Arabs had different dialects.
7 He used the method of repetition. He would repeat whatever he wanted to stress for three times to insure that all heard him properly and clearly understood what he was saying.
8 When questioned, he would give more than what is expected as an answer and use the occasion to further clarify things for all, and teach about other things.
9 Whenever the Prophet had to choose between two ways, he chose the easier way, which had facility and mercy if there was nothing forbidden in that, and he kept away from the difficult and harsh ways.
10. He attached special attention to teaching the women and provided them special times for questions. He encouraged them to ask and learn.
11. He used to do his best in everything, and he perfected whatever he did, thus setting an example for others.
The era of the Companions and their Followers
Their role in the preservation of Islam was one of utmost importance to its continuation, but they were highly prepared for it by the best teacher and trainer, the Prophet . Thus the studying of this era, especially with respect to the history and authority of the Sunnah, is necessary to all Students of Knowledge.
Methodology of the Companions in Preserving the Sunnah
Before discussing the Companions' ways of learning, practicing, preserving and conveying of the Sunnah, it is worthwhile to shed some light on the main points one needs to understand about the Companions, may Allah be pleased with them, and their methodology:
1 The Companions, may Allah be pleased with them, were fully aware of the responsibility they shoulder after the death of the Prophet .
2 The Companions, may Allah be pleased with them, are all trustworthy. They, may Allah be pleased with them, never doubted one another in the matters of this religion and the narration of Hadeeth.
3 The Companions, may Allah be pleased with them, have developed a methodology for scrutinizing Hadeeths and narrators, and by doing that have established the rules of ascertaining narrations for those who came after them.
4 The ability of different Companions, may Allah be pleased with them, to understand the Sunnah, memorize it and convey it varied from one Companion to another.
5 The Companions, may Allah be pleased with them, left Makkah and Madeenah to many places around the Muslim world, at the time, for the purpose of delivering the message and teaching Islam to those who accepted it thus spreading the Sunnah throughout the land.
It is interesting to note that about 750 Companions, may Allah be pleased with them, narrated Hadeeths, seven of whom narrated a high number of Hadeeths, and about twenty narrated an average number, the rest narrated a small number.
The seven who narrated a large number of Hadeeths are: Abu Hurayrah who narrated 5374 Hadeeths, 'Abdullaah Ibn ‘Umar narrated 2630, Anas Ibn Maalik narrated 2286, 'Aa'ishah narrated 2210 Hadeeths, 'Abdullaah Ibn 'Abbaas narrated 1660, Jaabir Ibn 'Abdullaah narrated 1540, and Abu Sa'eed AI-Khudri narrated 1100 Hadeeths, may Allah be pleased with them. They understood their role and were aware of the significance of their ability in narrating the Hadeeths and did their best to deliver them diligently and accurately. Muslims of all times are indebted to them, may Allah be pleased with them.
Most scholars group the main aspects of the methodology of the Companions in preserving the Sunnah into the following seven categories: prudence in narrating the hadeeths, verification and substantiation of the hadeeths before accepting them, critique, discussions and assessment of the narration, traveling for search and confirmation of the hadeeths, memorization, practice and writing of the hadeeths. Some scholars refer to these aspects as ‘rulings’, ‘methods’ or ‘ways’ instead of methodology.
1- Prudence in narrating the Hadeeth:
Because of the fact that the Sunnah is a revelation and a sacred Source for this religion, the Companions were very careful when narrating what the Prophet, sallallaahu alayhi sallam, said or did. This vigilance was illustrated in:
Avoiding narration unless they had to. ‘Abdur-Rahman Ibn Abi Layla said: “I have met with 120 Companions from the Ansar (supporters of the Prophet ), none of whom would narrate a hadeeth or answer a question of fatwa unless he absolutely had no choice but to do it. One would have to go and ask another instead of him, so much so you would keep going from one to the other until you get back to the first one you asked.” They understood that they were conveying the message brought to them by the Prophet and that people see it as such, thus everyone wanted the other to do that because they may know it better. This, however, should not be construed to mean they avoided spreading the message or teaching Islam to others. This prudence indicates they were fully aware of their role and its significance. They would rather let others, who may be more knowledgeable, do the job, but once they had to do, they did it in the best way possible.
Limiting or discouraging the narration. This attitude was adopted for the purpose of protecting the Sunnah because it minimizes the possibility of mistakes or forgetfulness that may otherwise cause people to doubt the Sunnah or mistrust the narrators. This trend was strongly encouraged by Caliphs Abu Bakr and ‘Umar Ibn Al-Khattab and was accepted and practiced by the Companions . This attitude is founded on the famous hadeeth narrated by many Companions : “It is sufficient —for one to tumble into lying - to narrate or repeat everything he/she hears.” [Al-Bukhari and others]
Encouraging narration from knowledgeable Companions . To strike a necessary balance between being cautious and insuring the transmission of the religion and the spreading of its teachings, the Companions, may Allah be pleased with them, who had a great deal of knowledge—like those recommended by the Prophet —never hesitated to narrate, write or teach the Sunnah. There are hundreds of narrations that encourage such practice so long as it is done in the right manner.
Opting for verbatim narration. Guided with instruction in the Hadeeth, “May Allah bless the person who hears a statement from me and conveys it as he/she heard it,” the Companions did all that was humanly possible to keep their narration verbatim of what they actually heard from the Prophet . There are many reported incidents, which testify to this fact. Having such natural mastery of the Arabic – that was common among them—and the fact that they saw and heard the Prophet say, do and explain to them his teachings repeatedly, as well as their understanding of the need for verbatim transmission of narrations, all combined to make it easy for them not to cause changes as they narrate any Hadeeth.
2- Verification of the Hadeeth before accepting it
This is an important tool that the Companions established to safeguard the Sunnah against any foreign material interference and accidental or deliberate mistakes. This was a common practice amongst all of the Companions when receiving or narrating the Sunnah. Imam Ath-Thahabi mentioned this practice, in one of his great books, addressing the issue of Hadeeth Memorizers. He said that it was one of the ways used by of the four Caliphs to protect the Hadeeth. For example, Abu Bakr was asked to rule in the case of a grandmother who came asking for her right in inheritance, he said that he knew of no amount due to her neither in the Book of Allah (i.e., Quran) nor the Sunnah of the Prophet . But when Al-Mugheerah told that he has witnessed the Prophet give one-sixth of the total amount of the inheritance, he asked him if he had witness to substantiate this claim. And when Muhammad Ibn Maslamah witnessed to the truth of that figure, Abu Bakr accepted it and gave the grandmother exactly that.
In the case of ‘Umar Ibn Al-Khattab Ath-Thahabi mentioned many incidents that testify to the fact that he always ascertained the narration when it was necessary to do so. He narrated that Malik Ibn Aws heard ‘Umar say to ‘Abdur-Rahman Ibn ‘Awf, Talhah Ibn Az-Zubayr and Sa’d Ibn Abi Waqqas : “I ask by Allah, Who maintains the Heaven and Earth! Did you hear the Prophet say: ‘I am not to be inherited, whatever I leave is to be given in charity'? They said: `Yes, Allah is our witness.” [Ahmad]
After narrating the above incidents among others, Imam Ath-Thahabi repeatedly asserted that the verifications were not meant to doubt the truthfulness of any of the Companions rather they were necessary to establish a standard of care and respect for what the Prophet, sallallaahu alayhi wa sallam, said or did. They did that for themselves and to institute a tradition to be followed and honored by all who come after them.
In summary, it is essential to note the following about this method:
- The purpose was to protect the Sunnah, not to doubt one another. All of the Companions are trustworthy as clearly stated in the Quran, and doubting their trustworthiness can certainly damage one's faith.
- The purpose, also, was to establish a method and set an example to be followed by the rest of the Muslim nation. The truth, however, remains that Companions used to accept narration conveyed by any one of them. Their request of witnesses or that the narrator gives an oath that he is saying the truth was to establish the methodology, so that people would not take narrating a Hadeeth lightly. This fact may further be supported when considering that:
- Sometimes they required a witness while at others they had the narrator give oath or reminded him of how serious it is to lie against the Prophet . This variation indicates that the purpose was actually to establish awareness of the significance of narrating the Hadeeth rather than set up a requirement of having more than one narrator as a condition for its authenticity.
- There are a very large number of narrations, which indicate that in many cases the Companions had actually accepted Hadeeth from one narrator without seeking any substantiation or verification.
