Tirmidhi

1؎ : From this hadith, it is understood that the command not to write hadith was later abrogated; thus, this hadith is a clear proof for the permissibility of writing down the sayings of Allah’s Messenger (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam). In the same way, the following hadith and the blessed hadiths recorded in the books of hadith are, as clear as daylight, a manifest proof against the deniers of hadith that “the blessed act of writing hadith” took place during the pure life of the Seal of the Messengers, Muhammad, the Messenger of Allah (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam). According to our research, among the noble Companions (radi Allahu anhum) who wrote down the blessed sayings of the Messenger of Allah (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) were our masters: Abdullah bin Amr bin al-As, Wa’il bin Hujr, Sa’d bin Ubadah, Abdullah bin Abi Awfa, Abdullah bin Abbas, Anas bin Malik, and Rafi’ bin Khadij (radi Allahu anhum), as well as twenty other noble Companions (radi Allahu anhum ajma’in) who were such individuals that they wrote down the blessed hadiths of the Messenger of Allah (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam). The number of hadiths written by these Companions reaches into the thousands. Then, there were Companions like Abu Hurairah (radi Allahu anhu) who could not write with their own hands, but they memorized the blessed hadiths word for word, and then dictated these hadiths to their students, who wrote them down; the number of these also reaches into the thousands. According to our estimation, a large portion of all the hadiths present in the books of hadith had already been written during the era of the Companions. (For further details, refer to the first chapter of the first volume of our book “Muqaddimat al-Hadith” and Dr. Muhammad Hamidullah Khan’s «الوثائق السیاسیة فی عہد…», Abu Yahya.)