On the transmission of Hadith and the Qur’an

Hadith are a matrix of chains of transmission, grids of reports and Isnads, often of the same Hadith (with or without variations). Not only that but we’re dealing with tractability in differences between narrations. We’re also dealing with often two people with completely separate Isnads, narrating the same thing from different countries.

The situation is not that there is just some guy called Bukhari (who wasn’t the earliest or only person to compile) who came along 300 years ago and wrote a book and everyone decided that it was second to the Qur’an. The historiographical tradition was already there and being taught in the late 7th century during the Rashiduns. Many Sahaba compiled Hadith (not only narrated it), and there is a lot of stuff that was once extant but no longer is from the period of the Sahaba such as writings from Ibn Abbas, Ali and many others. As I mentioned with Aisha, this stuff was being compiled and taught in a very focused manner. It was not just Sunnis who were doing it, but Shias and Khawarij (later Ibadhis) — all of which have different criteria but still share a lot of the same Hadith from their different sources in spite of ideological and political differences.

Hammam ibn Munabbih (one of the Salaf) compiled one of the earliest extant Hadith collections, Sahifat Hammam ibn Munabbih Abu Hanifa (one of the Salaf, and founder of the Madhhab) compiled one of the earliest extant Hadith collections, Musnad Abu Hanifa) Malik ibn Anas (who was one of the Salaf, and founders of the Madhhab) compiled one of the earliest extant Hadith collections, the Muwatta Imam Malik. Abd al-Razzaq al-San’ani compiled Musannaf of Abd al-Razzaq.

There are other ones too, and all of these are only the ones who are extant — and not the ones who are lost to time but mentioned in works of scholars from this era. But when Muhammad al-Bukhari came along and compiled his Sahih collection, he broke ground that others hadn’t done before because of the sheer volume and commitment to compiling that he had. His Sahih also shares narrations with some of the earlier Hadith collections, some through the same chains and other not.

Back in those days, Hadith transmission and analysis was a big science-like school. You go to college to study astronomy, well people went to these teachers to learn and analysize transmitted reports and sayings, and their Isnads, and both compile (via writing) and pass them down (via Isnad) This tradition started with the Sahaba (companions who were alive physically there with Muhammad), and perfected itself during the time of the Salaf. A lot of things such as credibility, good-character and reliability were all factors important for these teachers. Beyond that, transmitting for sake of refuting fabricated Hadiths was part of this science. Later on we have scholars compiling volumes collections (aka “Ibn Dude’s 900 fake Hadith”) of fabricated Hadiths solely for purposes of teaching what not to do.

The Qur’an was primarily passed down through Qira’at (which has Isnad), and secondarily through Mushaf. This is because of the oral nature of the Qur’an both as wahy (revelation) but also as the Qur’an is ‘practiced’ (given that the scripture is not treated as a passive text in Islam but is recited in Salaah and so forth) The Qur’an is unchanged since it was revealed, and the content of the Qira’at’s prove this. The Qira’at’s were memorized by Hafiz’s and passed down student to student in full (as you should know, even today hundreds of thousands of Muslims have memorized all 114 Surahs in total and even get tested on their accuracy of memory).

On it’s own, the Qira’at tradition of transmission is strong enough to prove that the Qur’an is completely unaltered and the same (in form, not dialect) everywhere. Whereas the Mushaf tradition (of which the earliest is from only a decade after Muhammad’s death) is just an extra verification.

In the same manner that the Qur’an is memorized letter by letter, vowel by vowel, word by word, so to were Hadith transmitted with the same kind of precise memorization. The exception that Hadith are small reports with chains of transmission, whereas the Qur’an is an entire unity, as a singular text (in 114 Surahs). Also nobody got what was a Hadith mixed up with what was the Qur’an, people knew what they were memorizing and reciting. Whenever you hear a recitation of the Qur’an, you’re usually hearing either Hafs or Warsh being recited, and it is precise. Along with that is that the transmission of the Qur’an is signified by a chain of Ijazah (much alike Isnad).

The Qur’an has been passed down generation after generation, century after century, and will continue to be, in a multiplex manner. The preservation of the Qur’an is not simply a bunch of guys in dark rooms with their pens on scrolls, it is so profound.

We’ve got the essential revelation from Gabriel to Muhammad, in it’s main structural form. Then there are the 7 Ahruf which were revealed directly through Gabriel to Muhammad for the ease of the memorization of the different types of Arabs from around Arabia. All 7 were parallel tradition. Everyone was memorizing one of these Ahruf. Then by the time of Uthman we got the true beginning of standardized manuscript tradition (even though earlier Sahaba had themselves created Mushafs and so forth, for easy reference). Around this time, as the Qur’an was being orally distributed very far and wide away from Arabia, the Qira’at became the standard for oral transmission. Each Qira’at differ in subtleties but all fully agree on the aforementioned main structure of every single letter and phrase of the Qur’an. As Qira’at continued to be more and more emphasized in Madrasas, so too did Mushaf tradition grow more and more prominent. By the 9th century, Islamic tradition was becoming much more of a dominantly written tradition in many ways (including with the rise of science and philosophy in that era), so Mushafs were everywhere on all Muslim continents by that point. But all through that, and all through the Abbasids and Ottoman periods the Qira’at continued to be taught teacher to student, Ijazah is very strong. You’ll never find anything as orally strong as the Ijazah.