As a part of our discussion of the Companions’ methodology in preserving the Sunnah of the Prophet we mentioned thus far two of its aspects; namely, prudence in narrating the Hadeeth, and verification and substantiation of the Hadeeth before accepting it. Three more aspects are presented here.
3. Study, critique, and assessment of the narrations
Of the ways the Companions used to preserve the Sunnah, properly learning and studying it, was perhaps the most important. They refer to this using terms like, "Tadarus" and "Muthakarah," both of which indicate a studying that involves more than one person as well as a mutual exchange of knowledge and ideas. The results of this "studying and discussing" were manifold. Learning the Sunnah correctly, free of mistakes was one of the goals, and so was the firm memorization of it. And since it was physically impossible for a large number of the Companions, may Allah be pleased with them, to have equal time access to the Prophet these discussions were the means through which the narrations known to only a few individuals were passed on to many others, thus expanding the circle of narrators. Books such as Jaami' Bayaan Al-‘Ilm by Ibn Abd Al-Barr and Al-Jami’ Li Akhlaq Ar-Rawi by Al-Khateeb have many authentic narrations from the Companions bearing witness to the effectiveness of these discussions in preserving the Sunnah.
Another aspect of the Companions' methodology in preserving the Sunnah was the critical assessment and evaluation of what they narrated and taught to one another. Anytime a Companion, may Allah be pleased with him, felt what he heard from another had a problem, he or she would critically analyze it and give his/her opinion about it. A major example of this effort by the Companions was demonstrated by Badruddeen Az-Zarkashi who wrote a book in which he collected more than seventy narrations in which one Companion, ‘Aa’ishah, the Mother of the Believers was reported as having corrected other Companions' narrations based on her assessment of the narrations in light of the Quran and the Hadeeth.
4. Traveling in search of the Hadeeth
Another great effort they made was traveling in search of the Hadeeth, for after the death of the Prophet the Companions moved to different places within the Muslim land, and traveling became an essential method of Hadeeth collection, authentication and preservation. Here are a few examples of the Companions’ travel for the sole purpose of confirming certain narrations:
Jabir Ibn Abdullah traveled a whole month to Ancient Syria only to verify one Hadeeth. [Al-Bukhari]
One of the Companions traveled to visit Fudhalah Ibn ‘Ubayd and told him that he came not to visit him but only to ask him about a narration that they both heard together from Prophet and he was hoping that Fudhaalah, may Allah be pleased with him, had the complete wording of that Hadeeth. [Abu Dawood]
One of the Companions left his home in Madeenah in order to meet Abu Ad-Dardaa’ in Damascus only to have Abu Ad-Dardaa’ confirm a narration which this Companion had already heard from the Prophet . [Ibn Abd Al-Barr]
The Companion Abu Ayyoob traveled all the way to Egypt to ask ‘Uqbah Ibn ‘Amr about one Hadeeth. Abu Ayyoob told ‘Uqbah that the two of them were the only living Companions who have heard that Hadeeth directly from the Prophet and he wanted to confirm the Hadeeth from ‘Uqbah . [Ahmad]
5-Memorization of the Hadeeth
Muslims – one generation after the other – did all that is humanly possible to preserve the texts of the Quran and the Sunnah as accurate as they received it from the Prophet . Beside the extra effort they exacted to develop the Methodology, the Companions benefited from a talent that came naturally to them, one that was truly befitting to the main undertaking of that methodology—the verbatim transmission of the Sunnah. This unique quality of the Companions was that they enjoyed powerful memories. It was easy for anyone of them to commit to heart any number of narrations and retain them as such for a very long time.
This quality was not specific only to the Companions but rather was a common feature of the Arab society as a whole. Many scholars—Muslims and non-Muslim alike – established the fact that the Arabs of that era were masters of language, and their society had a profoundly strong oral tradition. The known narrator of poetry, Hammaad, for example, was reported to have memorized at least one hundred long poems for each letter in the Arabic alphabet. That is more than 2800 pieces of poetry. Powerful memory was a source of pride for them and they placed more confidence in it than in writing, they believed that writings could be tampered with. Some even took this pride to extreme levels, they would not write anything down for fear that may be taken as indication of defective memory.
Obviously, the Companions who had more passion for preserving the Sunnah than poetry and literature used this powerful quality to protect and maintain the Sunnah. Imam Ad-Darimi narrated that the Companion Abu Hurayrah said: "I used to divide the night into three parts. In the first, I would perform the optional night Prayer, in the second I would sleep, and in the third I would spend committing Hadeeth to my memory.” Actually, all of the Companions considered this an honor and a blessing, for they were encouraged to do so by the saying of the Prophet : "May Allah make radiant (bestow vigor upon) anyone who heard what I said and committed it to his memory until he is able to convey it to another. Perhaps the person who hears it from him can have a better understanding of it than him.” [At-Tirmithi]
On the other hand, the Prophet also taught the Companions two aspects that brought a needed balance to the use of memorization in conveying his Hadeeth, namely the importance of writing, and the need of being moderate in all matters. This fact complemented their efforts in establishing a sound and well rounded methodology.
The phenomenon of “Memory Power” continued to be a general character of the Arab society well into the third and fourth centuries of Hijrah, the time by which all of the Sunnah was collected into books and records. But the diminishing of its prevalence in the society with time did not minimize the role memory played in the preserving of the Sunnah. “Memory Power,” or Dhabt—proficiency in narration, as it later came to be known—became an essential part of the standards used to judge authenticity. Judging the narrators memory power is central in what we know as the science of “Al-Jarh wa Ta'deel.”
6 - Writing of the Hadeeth
Earlier in this series we discussed in some detail the writing of the Sunnah in the era of the Prophet and also showed that the Companions were encouraged by him to learn writing and that many of them learned and mastered it. Thus, not only did the Companions use their gift of strong memories to start a tradition of oral transmission of the Sunnah, but also they added to that the use of their newly learned skill of writing. Many Companions had recorded these Sunnah for their personal references and to supplement their memorized Hadeeth. The existence of these personal references has been the subject of numerous treatises by old and contemporary scholars, both Muslims and non-Muslims.
There are, however, two points, which are mentioned by those who believe that the Sunnah was not recorded by the Companions and they need to be clarified. The first is the claim that some of the well-known Companions were reported to have refused to write the Sunnah and have ordered others not to write it. Such reports included Abu Bakr, ‘Umar lbn Al-Khattab, ‘Ali, Ibn Abbas and Ibn Mas’ood . And while some of these reports are authentic, none of them present the writing of the Sunnah as being forbidden to undertake, rather these Companions were afraid that this writing might generate confusion with the Quran, and no report ever indicated that they tried to prevent others from writing it. In addition, these Companions were against having a personal collection of the narrations, not against writing the Sunnah in general, later some of them, like Abu Bakr, ‘Umar and ‘Ali while being Caliphs, each ordered the writing of the Sunnah in occasions for a variety of reasons.
The second point is the claim that it was ‘Umar Ibn Abd Al-‘Azeez, who first ordered the writing of the Sunnah as a collection. Obviously, this is cited in support of the claim that no written record was made of the Sunnah until that point in time. This is not true, for the authentic records prove that many collections-mostly personal were dated back to the era of the Prophet and that of the Companions . ‘Umar's efforts however were part of the attempt to collect the Hadeeths on a global scale to facilitate its availability to all. Eventually this objective was achieved and all of the Sunnah was put together in the well-known books, which represent a tradition of care and preservation unmatched by any religion or nation. It is an undisputable fact that the Companions used their writing skills to preserve the Sunnah and convey it to their Followers.
7 - Practice
An extremely important way the Companions used to preserve the Sunnah was their efforts to bring the Sunnah into their practice and shape their life according to it. They truly understood that the emphasis Islam places on knowledge goes beyond the mere theoretical understanding and intellectual exercise. They realized that Prophet Muhammad’s teachings are not philosophical contemplations but ways and guidance that are intimately connected to the affairs of this life. They saw in the Prophet a trainer and a role model, whatever they absorbed for him they immediately put into practice. Their atmosphere was one of following the Sunnah at all levels, an environment that was produced by a widespread reverence and a constant practice of the Sunnah. This environment provided the best situation for them to teach and train those who followed them the whole religion as they learned it and practiced it thus preserving it for all the time to come. We are all indebted to them.
Efforts of the Followers to preserve the Sunnah
The Followers (Tabi'een) were the closest, of all Muslim generations, to the generation of the Companions in terms of righteousness, knowledge, Ijtihad (deduction of juristic opinion on matters which are not specified in the Quran or the Sunnah), keenness in following the guidance from the Sunnah, and seriousness in spreading the religion. This was expected for they were the Companions' students and were the first to receive the religion and knowledge from them as well as made every effort to preserve them.
In their era, Islam spread over a very large area of the known world, people from all religions, nations and races came into Islam, and the Followers had a major responsibility in preserving the religion as well as deliver it to all of these people—authentically and effectively. That turned out to be a major task for the number of the new comers into this young religion was far overwhelming to any number of scholars, teachers or callers (to Islam). What made their job even more difficult was the fact that some of those who did not want Islam to prevail, chose to fight it from within—by pretending to be Muslims while their ultimate goal was to hurt Islam.
The challenges the Followers had to deal with were new and difficult but Allah guided them to do the right thing - to follow the methodology set and provided to the Companions of the Prophet . The books of the Seerah (the Prophet's biography), Islamic history and biographies are full of their struggle and success stories. They should be consulted by all for they are an incredible source of knowledge and inspiration.
Looking at the era of the Followers, one can easily see that they followed the exact footsteps of the Companions in their methodology in preserving the Sunnah. A closer examination however reveals that the Followers efforts to preserve the Sunnah and spread the religion were further characterized by at least four points:
They followed the same methodology they learned from the Companions in loving the Sunnah, learning it, and in following and teaching it. They embraced it strongly and honestly. However, they had to add to it new rules as well as extend some of the existing ones. They were facing a situation in which efforts to distort the Sunnah were rampant, especially in some places like Kufah. Shu'bah Ibn Al-Hajjaj, may Allaah have mercy upon him, for example, used to say: “Accept knowledge only from those who are well-known to you.”
They showed an unrivaled enthusiasm and thirst for knowledge. Some of the Companions had to teach groups that numbered in the thousands. Ibn Asaker wrote in At-Tareekh Al-Kabeer (the Grand History) that Abu Ad-Dardaa’ had more than 1500 students in his circle in the Masjid (mosque) of Damascus alone. They encouraged one another as well as their children and the young among them to seek knowledge and devote all the time needed to master it. They learned the Sunnah so well that they were capable of applying it in a fashion similar to that of the Companions .
They made a distinctive effort to write down the Sunnah—both at the personal and official levels. Records of these personal and official (by order of the Caliph ‘Umar Ibn ‘Abd Al-Azeez ) writings are available today.
They made an amazing effort in spreading the Sunnah everywhere and teaching it to all. The large number of study circles was a phenomenon of the
Followers' era. Scholars were available in large numbers in all of the regions of the Muslim countries—Egypt, Kufah,
