A Simple Guide to ISLAM
Hadith – Traditions
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The age of Tabeyins from 101 to nearly 200 A.H.
This is the age of the followers of the companions of the Prophet.
They devoted their entire lives to collecting traditions from
different centres of learning. With the result that a large number of
traditions were collected. Now it became possible to collect several
memories in larger volumes.
Mohd ibn Shihab Al Zuhri is the first regular compiler. He is one
of the most distinguished traditionist. Ibn Shihab Zuhri and abu
Bakr Al-Hazm were asked by Umar ibn Abdul Aziz, the Umayyad
caliph, to prepare a collection of all available traditions. Umar bin
Abul Aziz wrote to Abu Bakr Al Hazm, “whatever sayings of the
Prophet can be found, write it down, for I fear the loss of
knowledge and disappearance of learned me, and do not accept
anything but the hadith of the Holy Prophet, and people should
make knowledge public.”
The compilations made in this period do not exist today
independently. These were incorporated into the larger collections
of the later period. These collections were not exhaustive works on
Hadith. Their nature was that of an individual collection.
After their individual compilations of this period, comes the
Al
Muwatta
of Imam Malik (716-795). This was the first regular work
which contained well-arranged collection of traditions. The number
of the traditions collected by him is put at 1700. After the
standard work of
Al-Muwatta
of Imam Malik, following traditionists
compiled books on Hadith.
