Islam FAQ

• Q87: What is Sunnah ?
• Q88: How can you be certain about things happened about one and half thousand years ago ?
• Q89: One can say that this or that reliable teacher taught this or that who tell me that prophet Muhammad said so and so, and simply make it up.
• Q90: The 4 scholars you had mentioned, they just claimed to verify the resources while they had just fake it up, is'nt this possible ?
• Q91: Don't you see it, those two authors have more power than usual people. They decide what is valid and what is not.
• Q92: What if real Islam is in the thousands of Hadiths they had dropped ?
• Q93: Give me an example about their approach, how ?
• Q94: This proves that they are wrong, how you prove that you are right ?
• Q95: What are the major books of Hadith ?
• Q96: How can you tell that the companions are reliable ?
• Q97: This is not fair! Why do they get such place ?
• Q98: How are companions are ordered ?

Collecting Sunnah resources and its validity

• Q87: What is Sunnah ?
  A: Sunnah is the collection of prophet (PBUH) deeds, sayings and even acceptance تقرير (when a thing happen before his eyes and he did not comment). Each resource is called Hadith (literary means a saying). A Hadith could be certainly authentic or certain inauthentic (forged) or something in between (validity of a Hadith is a gradual scale), as measured by scholars. There are 65 term related to validity of a Hadith mentioned in مقدمة ابن الصلاح, and there are 34 verse in the poem of Albaiqunia البيقونية that discuss the terminology of this field.
• Q88: How can you be certain about things happened about one and half thousand years ago ?
  A: We have discussed Quran, let's now we talk about Sunnah. Thousands of prophet Companions migrated to several far conquered cities, and taught many people (like us). We have narrated such resources by so many people from so many different places and backgrounds in so many parallel narration chains, those people are known individually to be reliable as they have clear records they had never been convicted for any bad deed or saying (even if such bad deed is so small that there is no punishment for it). One can't claim that all those reliable people who can't even manage to meet have conspired together about narrating a fake story.
• Q89: One can say that this or that reliable teacher taught this or that who tell me that prophet Muhammad said so and so, and simply make it up.
  A: Muslim scholars had verified the validity of so many resources and reject much more quantity of resources based on well known scientific procedures could be done by any one. They maintain lists of each teacher and his students and which students he had certified and how well, they cross compare every resource with more trusted resources, ...etc. The narration chain of a valid resource should be continuous and ends to prophet Muhammad, narrated by reliable and preserving people, so many parallel chains for the same resource of people who couldn't reasonably meet and conspired on a lie, make it more reliable. Muslim scholars had written so many books that describe this procedure and others collect resources in so many books ...etc.
• Q90: The 4 scholars you had mentioned, they just claimed to verify the resources while they had just fake it up, is'nt this possible ?
  A: No this is not possible, as they are not those who collected the resources, they are those who set a systematic scientific way to understand resources. The resources of Sunnah are collected by so many scholars. Some Muslim scholars had collected all resources (authentic or inauthentic) with their corresponding narration chains ..etc. about a specific issue, to cross compare them, leaving validity judgment to the reader as they have sufficient tools. Others had compiled books containing certainly authentic resources exclusively like the most valid two books respectively(after Quran, of course); Saheh Al-Bukhari, by Imam Al-Bukhari (194-256AH / 810-869AD Bukhara-Uzbekistan) which took 16 years to be completed and have been revised three times by its author. And Saheh Muslim by Imam Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj (206-261AH / 821-875AD Neyshabur-Khorasan-Persia) he took about 15 years to compile his book, he had collected more than 300,000 Hadiths and pick the most authentic 3,033 Hadiths (which mean that more than 98.99% of them are not qualified enough to be considered authentic according to his firm rules! BTW: Bukhari rules are much more firm)

  If one (like me) claims that Islam is so and so and prophet Muhammad said so and so, and you found that in any of the two books then it's certainly valid. If another one claims that prophet Muhammad said so and so, and you could not found it in those two books then it remains a claim that needs to be proved.

• Q91: Don't you see it, those two authors have more power than usual people. They decide what is valid and what is not.
  A: They made that decision for themselves, they did not force anyone to take it, the Islamic Nation over generations (Ummah) have accepted their work based on neutral proofs and evidences, We don't say they are unarguable, in deed, those two books were heavily studied ("stress-tested") and passed all tests. Please note that:

  • First, they don't claim that it's valid because they are the authors, they were regular people who dedicated their life for Sunnah, they provided us with all resources and proofs..etc. anyone can verify the validity himself. So rephrasing your sentence, it becomes "I can't judge the validity and I don't want to learn how and I don't want other people to tell me" this is called ignorance.
  • Second, I did not say that they are the only valid resources, there many other Sunnah resourses.
  • Third, I did not say that all of their books contains exclusively valid resources, for example The Imam Al-Bukhari have another book, one of the most rich history books, which may contain less valid resources as he had used different approach.

  When Bukhari came to Iraq, ten Iraqi scholar wanted to test him before the public, they get a 100 sound authentic Hadiths (10 for each) and intermixed their corresponding narrations chains, "Narrated by so and so that his teacher told him that prophet Muhammad said so and so" and Bukhari replied "I don't know it", some students (who know that this narrator is reliable and that was his teacher and he was certified and that the Hadith is also sound) thought that Bukhari don't know any thing about Hadith, Bukhri asked "did you finish ?" then he continued "well, when you say so and so which I don't know, it should be so and so" the scholar were amazed not only because he put them back in correspondence, but also because he was able to remember the corrupted versions! Bukhari and Muslim traveled all around the Islamic world, verifying those two books. Bukhari, for example, traveled for months to meet a man who claimed to have a single narrated resource, when he met him he noticed that he pointed his fist to his fleeing horse pretending that he has something to feed it, his hand was empty, so Bukhari left him without asking him as he lied to that animal. Muslim (the other author) did a similar thing, he started his book by addressing the issue of whether he is allowed to judge the validity of narrations and judging people reliability without violating their civil rights in Islam, for example, he mentioned that unreliable does not mean they are bad, they could be non-preserving and forget a lot, also he named a man who narrates that a teacher taught him so and so, then Muslim traveled to meet the mentioned teacher and he have never seen him on his entire life.
• Q92: What if real Islam is in the thousands of Hadiths they had dropped ?
  A: They did not burn them or made Inquisitions nor central control councils, they just did not include them in their book, other Hadiths could be found on other books. Imam Al-Nawawi النووي had written several volumes discussing every thing in Saheh Al-Bukhari (and so did many others) and for every Hadith he listed several related other Hadiths that were dropped from Saheh AlBukhari and cross compare them.
• Q93: Give me an example about their approach, how ?
  A: This is called scientific skepticism, one should not believe all what he hear, Muslim had an entire chapter about this in his book, this is a small portion of that chapter {... فقال رحمه الله كان غير ثقة لقد سألني عن حديث لعكرمة ثم قال سمعت عكرمة} meaning {[Ayyoub said about Abu Ommiah] he was not reliable as he had asked me the Hadiths narrated by Ikrimah later he said "I heard Ikrimah [personally]"} here is another portion {وقال محمد سمعت أبا إسحاق إبراهيم بن عيسى الطالقاني قال قلت لعبدالله بن المبارك يا أبا عبد الرحمن الحديث الذي جاء إن من البر بعد البر أن تصلي لأبويك مع صلاتك وتصوم لهما مع صومك قال فقال عبد الله يا أبا إسحاق عمن هذا ؟ قال قلت له هذا من حديث شهاب بن خراش فقال ثقة عمن ؟ قال قلت عن الحجاج بن دينار قال ثقة عمن ؟ قال قلت قال رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم قال يا أبا إسحاق إن بين الحجاج بن دينار وبين النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم مفاوز تنقطع فيها أعناق المطي ولكن ليس في الصدقة اختلاف} meaning {Abu Is-haq Ibrahim ibn Isaa At-Taliqi said "I said to Abdullah ibn Almubark ''O Aba Abdullrahman tell me about the Hadith that says [it's more and more righteousness to pray for your parents after your prayer and to fast for them after yourself]'' " he said "who told you so" he replied "Shehab ibn kharrash" he said "reliable, narrated by whom" he replied "AlHajaj ibn Dinar" he said "reliable, narrated by whom" he said "The prophet Muhammad PBUH said" he said "O Aba Is-haq, between AlHajaj ibn Dinar and prophet Muhammad PBUH great lands that tears strong camels apart [analogy means that AlHajaj ibn Dinar could not possibly met the prophet because of time and location] but there is no dispute about giving away charity [if a man wants to do his parents a favor let him give away charity instead]"} here is another portion {... أبا جعفر الهاشمي المدني كان يضع أحاديث الناس كلام حق وليست من أحاديث النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم وكان يرويها عن النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم} means { Abu Jafar al-Hashimi Al-Madani was narrating righteous wisdom from people and claiming that it was from prophet Muhammad} which mean that even if the text body is good (and match our understanding), we should NOT consider it authentic based on that, but based on real evidences independent on the content, yet the content body should be cross compared with more reliable resources. This is the Sunni approach, the major scholars of Sunni Mazhab/Doctrine (like Imam Malik) taught us to smash their own teachings into the wall if we found that they contradict an authentic Hadith of the prophet (that's why you should not say "Sunni Sect" or "Sunni Doctrine" because we don't follow the way of those scholars, we follow the way of prophet Muhammad). Notice this portion {حدثنا سفيان قال كان الناس يحملون عن جابر قبل أن يظهر ما أظهر فلما أظهر ما أظهر اتهمه الناس في حديثه وتركه بعض الناس فقيل له وما أظهر ؟ قال الإيمان بالرجعة} meaning {Sufian said "people used to narrate Hadiths from Jabir before he had uncovered what he used to hide, then people accused his narrations and some left him" some said "what is that he had uncovered?" he said "his belief in Rajaa [ie. the return of Ali from death to tell his living descenders with whom to go]"} which is an odd belief that contradict clear verses of Quran. My point is that people used to narrate from this man despite that he is from an odd sect [Al-Rawafid, the rejectors] till they found a contradiction with more reliable resources.
• Q94: This proves that they are wrong, how you prove that you are right ?
  A: Just take the first Hadith in Saheh Al-Bukhari "إنما الأعمال بالنيات ..." meaning "deeds are by intentions ..." (which means that sincere intention is a precondition for good deeds) this Hadith is narrated by Omar ibn Alkhattab (the prophet's companion, the second best companion ever) narrated from him by three direct followers then narrated directly by more than 200 reliable major scholars all over the Islamic world (Bukhari and Muslim and others travel and met them, Bukhari named two of them here, Muslim named a third one, Bukhari named many others in 6 different places in later chapters of his book) This sound Hadith is considered authentic because it was narrated by reliable people directly one after another in so many continuous chains that lead directly to prophet Muhammad and it's consistent (see V6:162 in Quran), yet this Hadith is not at the highest validity level, yet it is not Mutawatir متواتر, as the three followers are not parallel, one narrated from the second and the second told the third. An example of Mutawatir is the Hadith "من كذب علي متعمدا فليتبوأ مقعده من النار" which means "who lies on me [who forges a Hadith] then he sets himself a place in hellfire" which is narrated in parallel by more than 60 different companions of the prophet (including the best ten ever) then by exponential number of their direct followers then directly by exponential number of reliable scholars.
• Q95: What are the major books of Hadith ?
  A: The classical 6 books of Hadith are in order

  1. Saheh Bukhari صحيح البخاري
  2. Saheh Muslim صحيح مسلم
  3. Sunan Abu Dawood سنن أبو داود
  4. Sunan Al-termithi سنن الترمذي
  5. Sunan Al-Nisa'i سنن النسائي
  6. Sunan ibn Majah سنن ابن ماجة

  and we have the Muta'a (of Imam Malik, one of the 4 scholars) and Musnad of Imam Ahmad (one of the 4 scholars, the name means "authentication proof is included", it's up to reader to decide, scholars who reviewed it consider it completely profound authentic except only 4 Hadiths). Al-Albani (a recent scholar who died in the 1990s) have evaluated the validity of almost every Hadith in most books and compiled a series called Saheha having authentic Hadiths and another series called Da'ifa having many inauthentic or weak Hadiths (and why).
• Q96: How can you tell that the companions are reliable ?
  A: as we have mentioned there many several clear verses in Quran and several Mutawatir Hadiths about companions (both migrants who believed before establishing Islamic state in Medina and supporters who host the migrants after Hijra), like this verse from Quran { وَالسَّابِقُونَ الْأَوَّلُونَ مِنَ الْمُهَاجِرِينَ وَالْأَنْصَارِ وَالَّذِينَ اتَّبَعُوهُمْ بِإِحْسَانٍ رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُمْ وَرَضُوا عَنْهُ وَأَعَدَّ لَهُمْ جَنَّاتٍ تَجْرِي تَحْتَهَا الْأَنْهَارُ خَالِدِينَ فِيهَا أَبَداً ذَلِكَ الْفَوْزُ الْعَظِيمُ } meaning { As for the first outstrippers among the migrants and supporters and those who followed them in doing good, Allah is pleased with them and they are pleased with Him. He has prepared for them gardens underneath which rivers flow, where they shall live for ever. That is the greatest winning. } (V9:100) the first the better, { وَالَّذِينَ جَاءُوا مِنْ بَعْدِهِمْ يَقُولُونَ رَبَّنَا اغْفِرْ لَنَا وَلِإِخْوَانِنَا الَّذِينَ سَبَقُونَا بِالْإِيمَانِ وَلَا تَجْعَلْ فِي قُلُوبِنَا غِلّاً لِلَّذِينَ آَمَنُوا رَبَّنَا إِنَّكَ رَءُوفٌ رَحِيمٌ } meaning { Those who came after them say: 'Forgive us our Lord, and forgive our brothers who were believers before us. Do not put in our hearts any spite towards those who believe. Lord, You are the Gentle, the Most Merciful. ' } (V59:10) and this verse { لَقَدْ رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنِ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ إِذْ يُبَايِعُونَكَ تَحْتَ الشَّجَرَةِ فَعَلِمَ مَا فِي قُلُوبِهِمْ فَأَنْزَلَ السَّكِينَةَ عَلَيْهِمْ وَأَثَابَهُمْ فَتْحاً قَرِيباً } meaning { Allah was pleased with the believers when they swore allegiance to you under the tree and He knew what was in their hearts. Therefore, He sent down tranquility upon them and rewarded them with a victory close by } (V48:18) and those companion mentioned in this verse were much more than 1,200 companions! and there are many sound Hadiths in Sunnah that mention them by name, there are entire chapters about the favors of some companions in Saheh Bukhari and Saheh Muslim كتاب فضائل الصحابة that reaches the level of Mutawatir. If one gives a way the weight of mount Ohod in gold for charity he won't reach the favor of a handful of charity [of food] given by one of the companions! as mentioned in Hadith.
• Q97: This is not fair! Why do they get such place ?
  A: Nowadays, there are more than 1.5 Billion Muslims in the world, doing all kinds of good deeds, they won't be doing if the companions had not sacrificed to deliver Islam to them. Anyway notice this Hadith: {Prophet Muhammad PBUH said "every one had his place already decreed in Paradise or hellfire" companions said "O prophet of Allah, should we rely on that (having our place in Paradise already decreed) ?" the Prophet replied "go ahead do [good deeds] as one is guided" then he recited "فأما من أعطى واتقى. وصدق بالحسنى فسنيسره لليسرى وأما من بخل واستغنى وكذب بالحسنى. فسنيسره للعسرى" meaning "For him that gives [charity] and fears (Allah) and believes in the finest, We shall surely ease him to the Path of Easing; but for him that is a miser, and sufficed, and he belied the finest We shall surely ease for him the Path of Hardship (the Fire)." (V92:5-10)} (a sound Hadith number 4461 in Bukhari) so be sure that they were guided and they did the finest deeds that qualify them to that rank of Paradise.
• Q98: How are companions are ordered ?
  A: Abu Bakr, Omar, Othman then Ali (the 4 Califs in order, as they have been chosen by the entire nation) then the remaining 4 companions of Shora (consultants who were chosen as candidates to be Califs, they have preferred Othman or Ali on themselves); Al-Zubair, Abdulrahman ibn Auf, Said, and Talha, then the remaining of the ten, then the migrants among those who participate in Badr Battle then the rest of the 300 companion of Bard (who stood firmly before thousands of Pagans in that battle) then the rest of the 1,525 who were under the tree before the peace agreement of Hudiabiah (see V48:18 we mentioned above) ..etc. Could you please stop asking childish questions!