REL 137g 1st Edition Lecture 5 Current LectureRa’y vs. HadithPrincipled reason vs. principled reliance on inherited instincts, practices, teachings, etc What would our leader want us to do in his absence vs. what was done in the pastNot mutually exclusiveThey exist side by side in early IslamHadith used more oftenCan learn more about what the Prophet meant, by studying what he didGenerations of followers Prophet, followed by Companions, followed by SuccessorsSuccessors wanted to make these inherited ideals more explicitBy tracing them back to the prophetBeginning of the Hadith movement Point of conflict Foreigners come into Arabia and eventually Arabians become the minority Different from Arabs who come from other bordering countriesBrings about differences of opinions, opposing presuppositions, psychological histories Successors and problems they encountered Malik150 years after the death of MuhammedPower of memory, passed down, helps keep teachings relevant even after so longBut there are still flawsWriting vs. memory Many found writing unreliable because there were no vowels, possible errors But memory itself is not reliable over time; writing can exist as a back up A collective memory, along with a written account, could create a more accuracyVerbatim vs. gistVerbatim is both impractical and impossible But what you recall will depend and be influenced by your own backgroundThe gist of something is subjective The problem of forgery To discourage certain things the Prophet did not specifically touch onThe Prophet was not absolutely authoritativeSunna/HadithMuslim law is a combination of the Koran and the Prophet’s teachingsHow people interpret those teachings differentlyScience of Hadith criticism Begins with Malik Isnad – the source Reliability of the source Specific dates and places and the reliability of the people who relaythat infoCorroborate the source SoundnessSound, Good, WeakCompleteness Complete, “sent” (word of mouth), stopped (stop with the companions)Six BooksBukhari – died in 256Muslim - 261Abu Da’vd - 275Tirmidhi - 279Ibn Majah - 273Nasa’I -
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