them proves beyond any shadow of doubt that the preservation of the Hadith
was not an after-thought; conceived long alter the death of the Holy. Prophet
(may peace be upon him) It started right during his lifetime and was continued
immediately after him with full earnestness and religious fervour, because it
bad to serve eternally as the fountain-head of right guidance.
Sprenger. who claims to have been the first to submit the sources of the life
of Muhammad to a critical scrutiny, says
It is generally believed that the traditions were preserved during the
first century of the Hijrah solely by memory. European scholars, under the
erroneous impression that haddathana (he informed us) is the term by
which the traditions are usually introduced, are of the opinion that none of
the traditions contained in the collection of al-Bukhari had been written
down before him .... This appears to be an error. Ibn 'Amr and other
companions of Muhammad [may peace be upon him] committed his sayings to
writing and their example was followed by many of the Tabi'un.1
Side by side with the collection of Ahadith was initiated their critical
scrutiny so that the genuine traditions maybe sifted from the concocted ones.
"The fact that there are numberless spurious ahadith did not in the least
escape the attention of the muhaddithun, as European critics naively seem
to suppose. On the contrary, the critical science of hadith was initiated by the
necessity of discerning between authentic and spurious, and the very Imams
Bukhari and Muslim, not to mention the-lesser Traditionists, are direct products
of this critical attitude. The existence, therefore, of false ahadith
does not prove anything against the system of hadith as a wholeno more
than a fanciful tale from the Arabian Nights could be regarded as an
argument against the authenticity of any historical report of the corresponding
period."2
The traditionists and the jurists have formulated sound principles in the
light of which the genuineness of the Hadith can be fully established. These
principles relate to both parts of the Hadith : Isnad (chain of
transmission) and Matn (text). The trustworthiness of those through whom
the Hadith is transmitted, i.e. Isnad can be reliably judged with the
help of Asma' al-Rijal, a science which critically scrutinises the lives
of the narrators of the Ahadith. Those who understood this work showed perfect
impartiality and honesty, thoroughness and minuteness and objectivity in
recording the details of their life. Similarly, laws were also framed to test
the genuineness of the text. The reliability of a narrator may be taken as an
external evidence, and criticism of the text may be treated as an internal
evidence for establishing the authenticity of a hadith. A hadith which admirably
stands this thorough search and scrutiny and is proved to be authentic is a part
and parcel of Divine injunctions and is binding on a Believer.
These Ahadith have been compiled in different books, amongst which Sahih
Bukhari, Sahih Muslim, Sunan of Abu-Diwnd, Tirmidhi, Ibn Majah, al Nasa'i, Muwatta
of Imam Malik, Musnad of Imam Ahmad b. Hanbal, Musnad of Abu Dawud
al-Tayalisi are important. The first six of these compilations are known as Sihah
Sittah, the six Sahihs, i.e.
