KHUTAB IX: 8. ABŪ HURAYRAH (2)



8. ABŪ HURAYRAH (2)
          Abū Hurayrah’s company with the Prophet lasted about three years. He came to Madinah when the Prophet was at Khaybar campaign at the 7th year of Hijrah. It was in the month of Ṣafar, and he passed away in Rabī‘ al-Awwal, 11th year of Hijrah, so that they spent over four years. But Abū Hurayrah said that he had accompanied the Prophet for over three years. He did not count the time when the Prophet was away from Madinah when he did not accompany him, but was left behind in Madinah.
          It is said that there are 5,374 ḥadīths narrated by Abū Hurayrah in the books of ḥadīths in these three years of accompanying the Prophet. These three years equal to over 1,050 days. If Abū Hurayrah narrated averagely five ḥadīths a day, the total would be over 5,255 ḥadīths. A ḥadīth technically, is not only what the Prophet said, but also what he did, what he approved, either a statement, an act done in front of him, or heard by him. It also includes a statement concerning the behaviour and character of the Prophet, such as how the Prophet went out to pray, etc. In this case, it would not be difficult for Abū Hurayrah to narrate the approximate five ḥadīths a day.
          It is not an exaggeration that Abū Hurayrah narrated over 5,000 
 ḥadīths if we consider the following case:
a.    A ḥadīth could be sound (ṣaḥīḥ), weak (ḍa‘īf), and even invented, fabricated (mawḍū‘), for example, a ḥadīth claimed to have been narrated by Abū Hurayrah, but he did not narrate it. We still call it a ḥadīth, an invented one, to record it in history, so that we know that it is not genuine.
b.    A ḥadīth consists of matn (text) and sanad (chains of transmitters), in order to know who said so from whom, whether the persons are reliable, have strong memory, or unreliable, liars, etc. One matn could have more than one sanad, but the matn remains the same. If there are ten sanads, scholars of ḥadīths  do not count it one ḥadīth based on its matn, but ten ḥadīths based on its sanad, some of them could be sound or weak based on the quality of its transmitters.
c.     Some of the ḥadīths narrated by Abū Hurayrah were not directly from the Prophet, but he took them from the ṣaḥābah who were earlier than him, as he started to accompany the Prophet only on the 7th year of the Hijrah. Before that he took the ḥadīths from them.
d.     Abū Hurayrah was with the Prophet in Madinah in four years because he did not count the time when the Prophet was outside Madinah. It does not mean that he did not see the Prophet in one year. He might have narrated some ḥadīths in that period.
             Shaykh Muhammad Rashīd Riḍā says that there are many factors leading to narrating many ḥadīths by Abū Hurayrah, as follows:
1.    He intended to preserve the sayings of the Prophet and his actual condition, so that people would get benefit from them. Therefore, he kept accompanying him and asked him question, whereas some companions did not venture to ask him, except in case of necessity. Ubayy ibn Ka‘b said that Abū Hurayrah was courageous in asking the Prophet questions which other than him would not ask him. One example was reported by Bukhārī, as follows:
قُلْتُ يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ مَنْ أَسْعَدُ النَّاسِ بِشَفَاعَتِكَ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ فَقَالَ لَقَدْ ظَنَنْتُ
يَا أَبَا هُرَيْرَةَ أَنْ لَا يَسْأَلَنِي عَنْ هَذَا الْحَدِيثِ أَحَدٌ أَوَّلُ مِنْكَ لِمَا رَأَيْتُ مِنْ
حِرْصِكَ عَلَى الْحَدِيثِ أَسْعَدُ النَّاسِ بِشَفَاعَتِي يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ مَنْ قَالَ لَا
إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ خَالِصًا مِنْ قِبَلِ نَفْسِهِ (رواه البخاري و أحمد)
I (Abū Hurayrah) said: “O Messenger of Allah, who will be the luckiest people with your intercession in the Resurrection Day?”
He said: “I thought O Abū Hurayrah that nobody would ask me about this matter before you because I see your eagerness
about it; the luckiest people with my intercession in the
Resurrection Day is the one who say sincerely
from himself, that there is no god but Allah.”
(Reported by al-Bukhārī and Aḥmad)
2.         Abū Hurayrah was constantly with the Prophet’s company, following him even when he visited his wives and companions, even in the middle of the street, in order to get religious learning from it. Therefore, this short period of accompanying the Prophet is equal to many years the ṣaḥābah spent in accompanying the Prophet. Many of them did not see him except in the time of prayer, or meeting with him, or visiting him for important matters. ‘Abdullah ibn ‘Umar said that Abū Hurayrah was better than him and knew more about what happened. He also said to him: “You have accompanied the Messenger of Allah the most, and you know the most about his ḥadīths. Ṭalḥah ibn ‘Ubaydillah said, ‘There is no doubt that Abū Hurayrah heard what we do not hear.”
3.    Abū Hurayrah had strong memory which was the characteristic of many people living in the desert in the time of Bedouin life where they relied on their memory. They said that if people relied on their writing their memory would become weak, and they were proud of their strong memory. Imām al-Shāfi‘ī and al-Bukārī both admitted that Abū Hurayrah was the reporter of ḥadīths who memorized the most in his time. ‘Umar also admitted it and told Abū Hurayrah: “You are the one who accompanied the Messenger of Allah the most, and who preserved his ḥadīth the most.”
4.    The good news from the Prophet that he would have strong memory. Abū Hurayrah complained to the Prophet for his short memory, that he heard many narrations from him, but he forgot them. The Prophet told him to spread his garment. He did, and the Prophet moved his hands as if filling them with something, then emptied them in Abū Hurayrah’s garment, and said: “Take and wrap this sheet over your body."  He did it, and after that he never forgot anything he heard from the Prophet (Reported by Bukhari). He said that nobody memorized the sayings of the Prophet more than himself except ‘Abd Allāh ibn ‘Amr, because he was literate and was allowed by the Prophet to write what he heard from him.
5.           The Prophet’s prayer for Abū Hurayrah. A man came to Zayd ibn Thābit asking about something. He said, ”You must go to Abū Hurayrah, for while I, he and So-and-so were in the mosque doing our du ‘a’ (supplication), the Prophet came, sat down and said, ‘Go back to where you are.’ So, I and my companion made our du’a, and the Prophet said, ‘āmīn’. Then Abū Hurayrah made his du’a and said: ‘O Allah, I ask You like what they have asked You, and I ask You knowledge which would not be forgotten,’ and the Prophet said, ‘āmīn!’ So, we said, ‘We ask Allah knowledge which would not be forgotten,’ and the Prophet said, ‘The Dawsī man (meaning Abū Hurayrah) has overtaken you.’” (Reported by al-Ḥākim).  Abū Hurayrah occupied himself in narrating ḥadīths intentionally, because he memorized them in order to spread them, whereas the majority of the ṣaḥābah mentioned the ḥadīths out of necessity only dealing with a legal judgment, fatwa or in giving evidence. A person who occupies himself with something would remember it the most, whether with an occasion or without it, as his objective was teaching itself.
6.     Abū Hurayrah narrated what he heard and what was narrated by others among the ṣaḥābah, and eager to know the narration of earlier ṣaḥābah, such as Abū Bakr, ‘Umar, Ubayy ibn Ka‘b, Usāmah ibn Zayd and ‘Ā’ishah. He mentioned them by name, but sometimes, he did not mention them.
Contemporary scholars say that the main sources of the allegations against Abū Hurayrah are the Shī‘īs and the students of Orientalists. For the former, many examples are found in the work of the Lebanese Shī‘ī ‘Abd al-Ḥusayn Sharaf al-Dīn al-Amālī entitled Abū Hurayrah. These examples were refuted by Dr. Muhammad Ajjāj al-Khaṭīb (Professor at the University of Damascus, Colleges of Sharī‘ah and Education) in his work أَبُوهُرَيْرَة رَاوِيَةُ اْلإسْلَام (“Abū Hurayrah the Transmitter of Islam”) (Cairo, 1962), his Master’s thesis entitled السُّنَّةُ قَبْلَ التَّدْوِيْن (“The Sunnah before Its Compilation”) (Cairo, 1963) and his Ph.D. dissertation” entitled نَشْأَةُ عُلُوْمِ اْلحَدِيْثِ وَمُصْطَلَحُهُ  (“The Rise of the Science of Ḥadīth and its Technical Term) (Cairo, 1966). With regard to the latter, most of the arguments of the Orientalists were summarized by the Egyptian Maḥmūd Abū Rayyah in his work أَضْوَاءٌ عَلَى السُّنَّةِ المُحَمَّدِيَّة (Enlightenment on the Muhammadan Sunnah) (Cairo, 1958) where he attempted to show that the whole Sunnah, namely ḥadīths attributed to the Prophet were nothing but fabrication and lies, and therefore, Abū Hurayrah’s genuineness was questionable. He was known later as one of the exponents and champions of the Inkār al-Sunnah (Rejection of Sunnah), followed by the self-claimed prophet Dr. Rashad Khalifa, and presently, Dr. Ahmad Sobhi Mansour the founder of Ahl al-Qur’ān (the Qur’ānist), now living in the USA.
        Abū Rayyah’s arguments were challenged by many scholars, such as Dr. Muṣṭafā al-Sibā‘ī, the founder of Muslim Brotherhood in Syria, in his thesis entitled السُنَّةُ وَ مَكَانَتُهاَ فِى التَّشْرِيْعِ الإسْلاَمِي (the Sunnah and Its Position in the Islamic Legislation) (Cairo, 1961), Shaykh ‘Abd al-Razzāq Ḥamzah, the Head of Dār al-Ḥadīth in Makkah, and the Imām of Masjid al-Ḥarām, in his book entitled  ظُلُمَاتُ أَبِيْ رَيَّة أَمَامَ السًّنّةِ النَّبَوِيَة   (the Darkness of Abū Rayyah before the Prophetic Sunnah) (Cairo, n.d.), and Shaykh ‘Abd al-Raḥmān ibn Yaḥyā, the librarian of Masjid al- al-Ḥarām, his book is entitled الْأَنْوَارُ الْكَاشِفَة لِمَا فِي كِتَابِ أَضْوَاءٌ عَلَى السُّنَّةِ مِنَ الزَّلَلِ وَ التَّضْلِيْل وَ المُجَازَفَة (القاهرة, 1378 هـ). Comprehensive works defending most of the objections against Abū Hurayrah are those of an Iraqi scholar, ‘Abd al-Mun‘im Ṣāliḥ al-‘Alī al-‘Izzī, entitled دِفَاعٌ عَنْ أَبِيْ هُرَيْرَة (“(In) Defence of Abū Hurayrah”) and ‘Abd al-Qādir ibn Ḥabīb al-Sindī with the same title.
        The allegation that ‘Umar beat Abū Hurayrah with a shield for relating too many ḥadīths and accused him of lying is not found in the Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, but by the Shī‘ī Mu‘tazilī Ibn Abī ’l-Ḥadīd in his commentary of Nahj al-Balāghah quoting another Shī ‘ī Mu‘tazilī Abū Ja‘far al-Iskāfī without sanad (chains of transmitters), and therefore cannot be verified.  ‘Umar never beat Abū Hurayrah.
        Bishr al-Marīsī’s claim that ‘Umar said that Abū Hurayrah was the greatest liar among the narrators of ḥadīths was responded by al-Dārimī in his book, رَدُّ الإمَام الدَّارمِي عُثْمَان بْنِ سَعِيْد عَلَى بِشْرِ الْمَرِيْسِي الْعَنِيْد  in which he said that it would be unlikely that ‘Umar accused him of being a big liar, but at the same time he appointed him in charge of important posts. Moreover, ‘Umar’s grand-sons, among whom were Sālim ibn ‘Abd Allāh, and Ḥafṣ ibn ‘Āṣim related ḥadīths from Abū Hurayrah from the Prophet. If Abū Hurayrah were a liar, ‘Umar would have warned his grand-sons from taking ḥadīths from him.
Although ‘Ā’ishah corrected Abū Hurayrah‘s mistakes in the ḥadīths, she did not accuse him of being a liar. For example, he said that a person who was still in the state of janābah (major ritual impurity) till morning in Ramaḍān was not allowed to fast, based on a ḥadīth he heard from Faḍl ibn ‘Abbās and not the Prophet. This was also the view of some tābi‘ī such as ‘Ā’ishah’s nephew ‘Urwah ibn al-Zubayr. This was also the view of Țāwūs, ‘Aṭā’, Sālim ibn ‘Abd Allāh ibn ‘Umar, al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī, and Ibrāhīm al-Nakhā‘ī. ‘Ā’ishah said that it was allowed to fast for people who were in a state of full ritual impurity. Imām al-Zarkashī said the legal judgment of the ḥadīth had been abrogated, but Abū Hurayrah did not know it.
 These are some examples of allegations against Abū Hurayrah and had been replied by our Muslim scholars.
(CIVIC, 3 September, 2015) 
المراجع:
المكتبة الشاملة
الشيخ عطية محمد سالم. شرح الأربعين النووية: المكتبة الإلكترونية
http://islamqa.info/ar/126377
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Hurairah
http://www.islamicweb.com/beliefs/cults/defend_abuhurayrah.htm
 http://sunnahonline.com/library/history-of-islam/306-abu-hurayrah
www.nabulsi.com/blue/ar/art.php?art=2566
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunni_view_of_Abu_Huraira
http://islamicencyclopedia.org/public/index/topicDetail/id/58
http://articles.islamweb.net/media/index.php%3Fpage%3Darticle%26lang%3
 https://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/محمد_عجاج_الخطيب
http://waqfeya.com/book.php?bid=8718

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

KHUTAB XI: 18. THE MEANINGS OF LAHW (لَهْو) IN THE QUR’ĀN

18. THE MEANINGS OF LAHW ( لَهْو ) IN THE QUR’ĀN   The term lahw has many meanings, such as: amusement, entertainment, diversion, distraction, pastime, pleasure, sport, fun, and play. Ibn al-Jawzī (d. 597/1201) mentions six meanings of this term in the Qur’ān in his Nuzhatu ’l-A‘yun , as well as al-Dāmaghānī (d. 478/1085-6) in his Qāmūs al-Qur’ān , as follows: 1.      الإسْتِهْزَاء (mockery, ridicule, derision, scorn), such as: وَذَرِالَّذِينَ اتَّخَذُوا دِينَهُمْ لَعِبًا وَلَهْوًا وَغَرَّتْهُمُ الْحَيَاةُ الدُّنْيَا (الأنعام:70 ( And leave alone those who take their religion as play   and amusement [namely, as mockery], and whom the   life of this world has deceived (Q. 6:70). The term “their religion” here means “Islam.” According to al-Qurṭubī, the expression “take their religion as play and amusement” means, “They mocked those who follow Islam, mocked its followers, and went into it as a play and mockering the truth. Muhamm...
Read more

KHUTAB XI: 25. COMMENTARY OF Q. 41:30-35 (2)

25. COMMENTARY OF Q. 41:30-35 (2)           The third view is that of al-Ḥasan and Qays ibn Abī Ḥāzim. They say that the above verse was revealed upon every believer who calls people to Allah. There are many interpretations of “doing righteous deed” in the above verse: it is praying two rak‘ahs between ādhān and iqāmah according to Abū Umāmah; it is praying and fasting, according to ‘Ikrimah; and it is performing the religious duties according to al-Kalbī. This last interpretation is the best one according to al-Qurṭubī, adding with “avoiding prohibited things and doing many recommended things.” وَلَا تَسْتَوِي الْحَسَنَةُ وَلَا السَّيِّئَةُ ادْفَعْ بِالَّتِي هِيَ أَحْسَنُ فَإِذَا الَّذِي بَيْنَكَ وَبَيْنَهُ عَدَاوَةٌ كَأَنَّهُ وَلِيٌّ حَمِيمٌ . The good deed and the evil deed cannot be equal. Repel (the evil) with one which is better (i.e. Allah orders the faithful believers to be patient at the time of anger, and to ...
Read more

KHUTAB XI: 23. COMMENTARY OF SŪRAT AL-MĀ‘ŪN (Q. 107)

23. COMMENTARY OF SŪRAT AL-MĀ‘ŪN (Q. 107)           This sūrat al-Mā‘ūn (Qur’ān, chapter 107) was a Makkan one, revealed in in Makkah, before the Prophet’s migration to Madinah. It consists of seven verses. The commentary of this chapter is as follows: أَرَأَيْتَ الَّذِي يُكَذِّبُ بِالدِّينِ . فَذَلِكَ الَّذِي يَدُعُّ الْيَتِيمَ . وَلَا يَحُضُّ عَلَى طَعَامِ الْمِسْكِينِ.    فَوَيْلٌ لِلْمُصَلِّينَ. الَّذِينَ هُمْ عَنْ صَلَاتِهِمْ سَاهُونَ . الَّذِينَ هُمْ يُرَاءُونَ. وَيَمْنَعُونَ الْمَاعُونَ (الْمَاعُونَ:1-7 ( Have you seen him who denies the Recompense? That is he who repulses the orphan (harshly), And urges not on the feeding of the needy, So, woe to those performers of Ṣalāt (prayers) (hypocrites), Those who delay their Ṣalāt, Those who do good deeds only to be seen (of men), And withhold al-Mā‘ūn (small kindness like salt, sugar, water) (Q. 107:1-7) ( The Noble Qur’ān : Ministry of Islamic Affairs, ...
Read more