It is said that during the blessed era of the Holy Prophet ﷺ, the practice of writing was not common, and the collection and compilation of Hadith took place two to two and a half centuries after the life of the Holy Prophet ﷺ, when Imam Bukhari, Imam Muslim, Imam Abu Dawood, Imam Tirmidhi, etc., began the work of collecting Hadith. Therefore, the Hadith collection is not reliable due to the delay in compilation.
First Point:
We do not accept that the practice of writing Hadith started very late. Below, we mention some honorable companions, may Allah be pleased with them, who were permanent scribes in the court of the Messenger: Hazrat Abu Bakr Siddiq, Hazrat Ali ibn Abi Talib, Hazrat Aban ibn Saeed, Hazrat Abu Ayyub Ansari, Hazrat Abu Khuzaymah ibn Aws, Hazrat Abu Sufyan, Hazrat Ubayy ibn Ka'b, Hazrat Arqam ibn Abi Arqam, Hazrat Buraydah ibn al-Hasib, Hazrat Khalid ibn al-Walid, Hazrat Khuzaymah ibn Thabit, Hazrat Zubair ibn Awwam, Hazrat Zaid ibn Thabit, Hazrat Abdullah ibn al-Arqam, and other companions, may Allah be pleased with them.
The Holy Prophet ﷺ used to have agreements, letters, or religious matters written by various tribes as needed, utilizing their services. Detailed mention of the separate duties of these companions is available in historical books and books of Hadith.
Second point:
The history of Hadith and its books confirm that there was no period in which Muslims did not write Hadith Sharif. The writing of Hadith actually began during the time of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ when he instructed some of his companions to write down Hadith. Thus, Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Amr bin Al-As says that whatever I heard from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, I used to write it all down so that I could memorize it. Then (some) Quraysh forbade me. They said: You write down everything you hear, while the Messenger of Allah ﷺ is a human being who speaks in both anger and happiness. I mentioned this to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. He pointed to his tongue with his finger and said: "Write, by the One in Whose hand is my soul! Nothing comes out of it except the truth."
Reference: (Sunan Abu Dawood: 3646)
Similarly, on the occasion of the conquest of Makkah, you ﷺ gave strict instructions to protect the sanctity of Makkah and to save the people from killing and plundering. Considering the importance of this sermon, the Yemeni companion Hazrat Abu Shah expressed his desire to write it down, upon which the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: "Write it for Abu Shah."
Reference: (Sahih Bukhari: 2434, Sahih Muslim: 1355)
Hafiz Ibn Hajar, may Allah have mercy on him, says that from the story of Abu Shah, it is proven that the Prophet ﷺ permitted writing hadiths from his side.
Reference: (Fath al-Bari: 1/209)
And Imam Bukhari narrates that Humam bin Munabbih heard Abu Hurairah, may Allah be pleased with him, saying: "Among the companions of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, there was no one who narrated more hadiths than me except Abdullah bin Amr because he used to write and I did not write."
You ﷺ wrote letters to kings and leaders of various nations to invite them to Islam. You also used to write for your commanders and governors to guide them, in which the amount of zakat, tribute, blood money, and other matters were specified.
Therefore, there is no doubt that the writing of the Prophetic Hadith began during the Prophetic era ﷺ.
Third point:
The companions of the Prophet, may Allah be pleased with them all, had very strong memories; in fact, many people in that era had excellent memories. People of that time memorized hundreds of poems, genealogies, names of tribes, etc., by heart. See the book: الحث على حفظ العلم by Al-Hafiz Ibn al-Jawzi, and the book (الحفظ –أهميته، عجائبه-) by Sheikh Abdul Qayyum al-Suhaybani.
Imam Hakim, may Allah have mercy on him, states: Among the memorizers of Hadith, one person used to memorize five hundred thousand hadiths.
Reference: Al-Madkhal ila al-Iklil (p.35).
Due to these qualities, the companions mostly did not need to write down the hadiths. Similarly, they memorized the blessed hadiths of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and the Holy Quran and faithfully conveyed them to those who came after them.
And the narrators' reliance on their memory was not due to negligence on their part, so that we should doubt the hadiths they narrated! Rather, they believed that the best way to learn hadith was to memorize it.
Khatib Baghdadi states: "Those gentlemen who disliked writing the Sunnah alongside the Quran did so because they did not want to equate anything else in status with the Book of Allah or to create distance from the Quran. Whereas the Prophet ﷺ commanded people to memorize the Ahadith because the Prophetic era was near, and not memorizing would also disrupt the ability to retain knowledge, to the extent that it would almost be lost."
Reference: (Taqyeed al-Ilm p.57)
Another reason is that the Arabs were not literate, and at that time the means of writing were very limited, so most of their reliance was on oral memorization. And as the tendency to write increased in the world and everything began to be preserved in writing, gradually the amount of memorization among people has decreased.
Fourth point:
People's observation and intellect also testify that people take great care in recording the sayings and conversations of famous and well-known personalities. So how can it be that the greatest personality in the universe, Muhammad, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and the companions, may Allah be pleased with them all, who loved him ﷺ immensely, would not make any effort to transmit to future generations everything they heard and witnessed in his ﷺ company? This is against both reason and observation.
And whoever knows the life and spiritual zeal of the companions cannot imagine such negligence. Allah Almighty has said:
قُلْ أَطِيعُوا اللَّهَ وَأَطِيعُوا الرَّسُولَ ۖ فَإِن تَوَلَّوْا فَإِنَّمَا عَلَيْهِ مَا حُمِّلَ وَعَلَيْكُم مَّا حُمِّلْتُمْ ۖ وَإِن تُطِيعُوهُ تَهْتَدُوا ۚ وَمَا عَلَى الرَّسُولِ إِلَّا الْبَلَاغُ الْمُبِينُ
Reference: (النور:54)
Translation: Say: Obey Allah and obey the Messenger; but if you turn away, then upon him is only that [duty] with which he has been charged, and upon you is that with which you have been charged. And if you obey him, you will be rightly guided. And there is not upon the Messenger except the [responsibility for] clear notification.
Fifth Point:
The delay in writing the Prophetic Sunnah was related to those books which were specially compiled in the form of Musnads of the Companions and arranged according to fiqh chapters, such as: Imam Malik's رحمه الله "Al-Muwatta" and "Sahih Bukhari," similarly "Sunan Abu Dawood" and others. However, the practice of writing hadiths without any particular arrangement was well-known and common during the time of the Companions and the Successors. For example, we find mention of Abdullah bin Amr bin Al-As's "Al-Sahifa Al-Sadiqa" and Jabir bin Abdullah's "Al-Sahifa."
The Companions, may Allah be pleased with them, who wrote hadiths at the beginning of Islam, have been mentioned in large numbers by Dr. Muhammad Ajaj Al-Khatib in his book about the books and manuscripts of all these Companions.
Reference: (See: Al-Sunnah Qabl Al-Tadwin: (pp. 343-362))
Reference:
This same arrangement continued during the era of the great Successors as well. For example, the hadiths of Humam bin Munabbih which he heard from Hazrat Abu Huraira.
This same arrangement continued during the era of the great Successors as well. For example, the hadiths of Humam bin Munabbih which he heard from Hazrat Abu Huraira.
Reference: (See: Al-Sunnah Qabl Al-Tadwin: pp. 343-362)
Reference: Thus, the writing of hadiths continued in every era and gradually expanded over time.
The Quran itself, which is the fundamental source of Islam, was not written during the blessed life of the Prophet ﷺ. Rather, it began to be compiled during the time of Hazrat Abu Bakr and Umar رضي الله عنهما. When this responsibility was entrusted to Hazrat Zaid bin Thabit رضي الله عنه, who was one of those who wrote down the revelation during the life of the Prophet ﷺ, he said that how could we do something that the Prophet ﷺ himself did not do? This is exactly what Abu Bakr رضي الله عنه said to Umar رضي الله عنه when Umar رضي الله عنه advised him to compile the Quran. However, Abu Bakr Siddiq kept persuading Zaid bin Thabit until he agreed to compile the Quran. At that time, Zaid bin Thabit said: "By Allah! If I were entrusted with moving Mount Uhud or shaking one of the mountains, it would be easier for me than compiling the Holy Quran."
The actual reason for compiling the Quran into a single Mushaf was the high number of martyrdoms among the Quran memorizers (Hafiz) during the battles of the Companions, which raised the concern that there might be fewer Companions left to teach the Quran. Therefore, this process was initiated.
When the Quran was compiled in one place after some delay, it was neither incomplete nor questionable. Since Hadiths are also revelations from Allah, their preservation was also arranged by Allah, the Lord of the Worlds, through chosen righteous servants.
The Hadith of the Prophet ﷺ is not the only thing whose compilation and arrangement began after a delay. Rather, this happened in most sciences and arts such as Tafsir, Fiqh, Arabic linguistics, etc. Despite this, the status and importance of these sciences were not diminished. The scrutiny of Hadiths has been conducted with much more care than other sciences.
How the hadith scholars arranged the writing of hadith and what methods, etiquettes, and terminologies they used in writing hadith are fully covered in a whole chapter titled: "Writing and Preserving Hadith" in the classical and modern books written on the sciences of hadith. By examining this chapter, the efforts made by the hadith scholars regarding the writing of hadith become even more clear and refined.
Sixth Point:
The Quran itself, which is the fundamental source of Islam, was not written during the blessed life of the Prophet ﷺ. Rather, it began to be compiled during the time of Hazrat Abu Bakr and Umar رضي الله عنهما. When this responsibility was entrusted to Hazrat Zaid bin Thabit رضي الله عنه, who was one of those who wrote down the revelation during the life of the Prophet ﷺ, he said that how could we do something that the Prophet ﷺ himself did not do? This is exactly what Abu Bakr رضي الله عنه said to Umar رضي الله عنه when Umar رضي الله عنه advised him to compile the Quran. However, Abu Bakr Siddiq kept persuading Zaid bin Thabit until he agreed to compile the Quran. At that time, Zaid bin Thabit said: "By Allah! If I were entrusted with moving Mount Uhud or shaking one of the mountains, it would be easier for me than compiling the Holy Quran."
The actual reason for compiling the Quran into a single Mushaf was the high number of martyrdoms among the Quran memorizers (Hafiz) during the battles of the Companions, which raised the concern that there might be fewer Companions left to teach the Quran. Therefore, this process was initiated.
When the Quran was compiled in one place after some delay, it was neither incomplete nor questionable. Since Hadiths are also revelations from Allah, their preservation was also arranged by Allah, the Lord of the Worlds, through chosen righteous servants.
Seventh point:
The Hadith of the Prophet ﷺ is not the only thing whose compilation and arrangement began after a delay. Rather, this happened in most sciences and arts such as Tafsir, Fiqh, Arabic linguistics, etc. Despite this, the status and importance of these sciences were not diminished. The scrutiny of Hadiths has been conducted with much more care than other sciences.
Final point:
How the hadith scholars arranged the writing of hadith and what methods, etiquettes, and terminologies they used in writing hadith are fully covered in a whole chapter titled: "Writing and Preserving Hadith" in the classical and modern books written on the sciences of hadith. By examining this chapter, the efforts made by the hadith scholars regarding the writing of hadith become even more clear and refined.
