A Simple Guide to ISLAM
Hadith – Traditions
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Compilations at the Time of the
Companions of the Prophet.
After the death of the Prophet, interest in Hadith literature
increased greatly on two accounts. Firstly the companions who
knew Hadith at first hand were gradually passing away. Their
number continued to diminish day by day. Therefore, people
became more keen to preserve the precious Hadith literature that
had been preserved in their memories. Secondly, the number of
converts was growing and they showed great eagerness to learn as
much traditions as possible.
This was the age of the rightly guided caliphs. In this age the
companions had settled in almost all the countries conquered by
the Muslims. People flocked to them to hear traditions from them.
Thus a number of centres of the learning of traditions came into
existence around these companions. When the disciples had
learned all the traditions from one companion, he would go to the
next companion and so on, collecting as many traditions as
possible. The zeal of these disciples was so great that they
undertook long journeys to collect traditions from different
companions.
In their period there are not many regular compilations. This is the
period of collecting traditions. The work of compilation took place
on a large scale during the age of
Tabeyin
, the disciples of the
disciples.
