The fact is that at the time of the Holy Prophet ﷺ, the Holy Qur’an was being revealed and it was committed to writing. At that time, we have evidence that certain Sahaba wanted to write the traditions of the Prophet ﷺ as well, but they were prohibited and discouraged by others, very strongly. Perhaps by the Prophet ﷺ himself, but I’m not very sure of this aspect, but they were definitely discouraged during the lifetime of the Prophet ﷺ because it may create confusion between tradition and the Holy Qur’an.
And that reason was strong enough by itself to permit such conduct. If they remembered the traditions well, it’s okay, but if they had committed to writing and a confusion could have ensued, with which it was difficult, I mean, which could have caused, you know, removed the clear-cut boundaries between the tradition and the Holy Qur’an, that would have been very dangerous for the whole of Islam. So they abstained from doing this, mainly because of this. During the first four Khilafat, I think this is the tradition which developed as such, and we have again references to such issues where people were stopped from committing the traditions in writing because of this main reason, that Holy Qur’an may be confused later on with tradition.
But we also have evidence of certain senior prominent companions of the Holy Prophet ﷺ who kept private notes on traditions, but there were a few exceptions. Now this is one reason in particular, but once the tradition had been set, it kept on for a century or two, until there was no fear at all left that any confusion could be drawn, could ensue from this situation. The second reason, which is also very important, is this, that the Arabs, by their social and cultural habits, were wont to remembering and memorising things by heart, so much so that most of the Arab literature was not committed to writing at all.
Most of the Arab literature was only committed to memory, and they were so proud of their memory that some of them exhibited that memory out of pride, and they claimed that they remember 100,000 verses of various old poets of the Arabs. And they did, in fact. So the Holy Qur’an is a smaller book as compared to 100,000 verses of England. And this was a common practice with the Arabs. Also there were people who remembered the family trees of others, not only of one person, but of almost an entire tribe, that he was son of so and so and so and so, it went on and on, and a full book would be written if you collected all the family trees, memorised by one single person. So it was the Arab memory which came to their help in preserving tradition.
So they thought there was no need. I mean, apart from the fact that they were discouraged because of the sanctity of the Holy Qur’an, they thought there was in fact no need, we remember and we’ll tell our generations and they will tell their generations, until it will go on and on. But in the second century, in the end of the first century in fact, Hazrat Malik started collecting the traditions. And the main reason which compelled him was that apparently some traditions began to contradict others. And then for the first time it was felt that by the passage of time, maybe some members of the family do not remember things exactly as they were said, and the difference between various traditions may crop up with ultimate confusion in the tradition itself. Not a contradiction against the Holy Qur’an, but a traditional confusion within the bounds of tradition.
So this was the reason which compelled him and later on some others. But also other factors had intervened in the meantime. New factors appeared, which again demanded the committing of tradition to writing as soon as possible. Those factors erupted from the various doctrinal differences which became so pronounced and heated that a very distinct hostility was created between various sects of Islam, because sects began to come into being. The result was, and it all in fact started at the fourth Khilafat and later on, the fact was that certain people followed Hazrat Ali to a certain extent, and others who followed Muawiyah were deadly opposed to them, and the vice versa. And the new converts from various countries of Islam who were non-Arabs, and who had also come from various faiths, they were not well-educated and well-taught in the traditions of Islam, so there were some mischief-mongers among them, some who would intentionally tell lies just to support their cause and faith. So such elements, they played havoc with the institution of tradition.
Similarly, some people from among the Jews joined Islam intentionally to create chaos and confusion in Islamic doctrines and theology. So they started speaking in the name of Hazrat Muhammad Mustafa ﷺ and concocting new traditions. For instance, of the first group, the Shias would, I mean not all of course, those who were wrong-minded among them, they would themselves make a tradition and attribute it to Hazrat Muhammad Mustafa ﷺ. And those of the Muawiyah groups who were opposed to them, they encounter, would concoct a tradition there and then. With the result that the traditions produced by both the camps were as deadly put against each other as the camps were.
So many scholars and a God-fearing fraction of the society, they realized the need of not only committing traditions to writing, but also to investigate the whole thread which carried that tradition, connected it back to Hazrat Muhammad Mustafa ﷺ. So among them, as you know, Hazrat Imam Bukhari is the foremost who spent all his life, devoted all his life to this cause and for certain traditions he made such investigations as it took him many years to ultimately reach the source. And he preserved each source and still some of the traditions are apparently contradictory to others and one cannot say positively 100% that all the traditions preserved by Hazrat Imam Bukhari are 100% correct. But that we know that of all the books of traditions, this stands first in the list of authenticity. So Hazrat Imam Bukhari relates this incident and it is preserved in our literature that once he started following a tradition back to the origin, somebody said, now the system was, that should be understood, a tradition was in circulation.
Now because no set system had been organized, so anybody would say that Hazrat Rasul-e-Karim ﷺ said this and that. And he was not answerable to others for producing all the links between him and Hazrat Muhammad Mustafa ﷺ. It was a talk that he said. So when a traditionist heard of this, he met that person who had told, the person who had told the traditionist. He went to him and said, so and so has told me that you have attributed this tradition to Hazrat Rasul-e-Karim ﷺ, so please tell me who told you. So he would say, someone else told me, until the threat would leave the town and go out to some other region. And that traditionist would have to follow the threat up to that town. And then it was led to another town and another. And sometimes after making a white circle it came back to the same town.
This is the labor which was in fact put in by almost every traditionist and particularly by Hazrat Imam Bukhari. And sometimes after a lot of time spent and labor lost and money expended on this research, Hazrat Imam Bukhari reached the dead end ultimately to find that what he had been pursuing was totally a concocted thing. The incident which I referred to was this, that once after many years he ultimately discovered the living source of a tradition. And he was told that a Sufi, who was just mentioned, a type of Sufi earlier, a Sufi who was a very pious and holy man of that town, he is the original source. And he has disconnected himself from the worldly activities and pursuits and is living a sort of life of a recluse in an underground building, I mean some sort of, you know, like you have basements.
So during those days for the purpose of keeping a place cool or sometimes for the purpose of disconnecting oneself from the outer life, people went underground and lived in sort of basements. So he was also one of those. Hazrat Imam Bukhari reached him and he was sitting in a large basement which was full of papers and things. And it was like a very extensive library and he was sitting there and writing things. So Hazrat Imam Bukhari asked him, O saint, please tell me, I have heard this tradition attributed to you, that you attributed further to Allah, from whom did you hear? He said, from none. He said, what do you mean by from none? He said, well, I made this tradition myself. And you are surprised at this one?
All this which is written in this room has been concocted by me as tradition. And I think there is nothing wrong, what I say, tell people is good. And when they hear from me, they will not accept it. They will not act accordingly. But when they hear from Hazrat Muhammad Mustafa Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, obviously, they will have to follow him. So in good cause, I am doing all this.
So there were such distorted people who were perhaps not dishonest, but their minds were deranged. And they did it and added a lot of confusion to the tradition. But anyway, it was high time that they started being committed to writing and with the grace of Allah, Allah produced many pious and intelligent researchers who sifted right from wrong and left a very good record of traditions to us.
