The Conceptual Framework of Authority in hadith Literature
by Dr. Asma Hilali
By Conceptual framework of authority in hadith literature I mean the contribution of hadith-sciences in establishing hadith authority.
My aim in this presentation is to describe how those who conceive theory participate to the authority of hadith. First of all, I will define what the conceptual framework is in hadith literature. Then I will analyze the different levels of authority in hadith. Finally, I will show the gap between theoretical texts and transmission of hadith.
Theory of authenticity
Theoretical texts appeared in hadith literature at the beginning of the XIth century. (More than three centuries after the beginning of the transmission of hadith). hadith-sciences deal with authenticity of transmitted texts. These sciences are elaborated as a complex structure.There are for example the science of transmitters, the science of conceptualization and so on...
Each science proposes a different method to arise (and not to resolve) the problem of authenticity. The science of transmitters develops a method for the identification of transmitters. Their good and bad qualities are mentioned with the aim to specify their capacity to transmit genuine hadith-s. But, the most important task in this framework is to answer the following question: What is the text named hadith? We will see that the answer to this question is the first step in the process of authority in hadith literature.
I will give two examples of definitions: The first definition belongs to the author of the first theoretical text in hadith literature (Al-Râmahurmuzî, Xth):
«We have not to consider as source of judgment, the hadith of a transmitter who transmits traditions about the prophet without saying: «I heard…» or «so-and-so transmitted to us…» or «so-and-so declared to us…» or «…informed us…» or any word that implies the authenticity of the transmission.»
Authenticity depends on the words used by transmitters when they mention their sources and the context of transmission. But the important element in this definition is that only authentic hadith is considered as source of judgment. The expression "source of judgment" is ambiguous; it does not refer automatically to hadith as source of law but to hadith as powerful argument. Authority of hadith is not only legal authority.
The second definition belongs to an author of the XIth, al-Khatîb al-Baghdâdî:
«The authentic hadith is the hadith transmitted from the prophet with an uninterrupted chain of transmission and its transmitters are well known. The same hadith can be transmitted to me by a well known and reliable man from another that I don’t know but that my source knows. All the transmitters of this hadith must be known until the Prophet. This hadith is necessary and authentic. We have to accept it from its transmitter if he is sincere and conscious of what he transmits. These are the apparent aspects of the transmission which constitute the basis of the judgment of hadith. The hidden aspects of transmission are unknown and can include the confusion of the transmitter, his lie, his oversight, or his decision to introduce [in the chain of transmission] one or more names [of false transmitters] between his source and himself, or other similar deeds implying that the context of the transmission was different than what he said. We must have knowledge of this hadith starting from the apparent aspects of its transmission. We can not accept it starting from its apparent weakness…»
I would like to stress two important elements in this definition:
1- The prophetic origin of the text is the first element in the definition. Authentic hadith must be attributed to the Prophet and the chain of transmission is the proof of its prophetic origin. (I have to mention that hadith does not denote always prophetic sayings but also words of the companions of the Prophet). This definition implies the restriction of the corpus of hadith.
2- The obligation to know the authentic text and to consider it as prophetic sayings, as a powerful argument.
I would like to stress the expression "hidden aspect of transmission", unknown by scholars. The authors of hadith-sciences have not the project to reconstruct what happen during the transmission of hadith, but their task is to justify the authority of existing texts. Their aim is not authenticity of hadith but authority of hadith. Authenticity is the argument of the authority.
Levels of Authority
However, authenticity is a gradual notion in the science of hadith. This graduation implies that authority of hadith is also a gradual development. There are many types of hadith. All they are potentially authentic. At the same time, authentic hadith does not exist; it denotes only a theoretical possibility at each level of hadith.
An Andalusian judge and hadith-scholar of the XIth, Ibn ’Abd al-barr al-Qurtubî expresses the gradual structure of authenticity:
«I would like to record hadith in the following three ways: first of all, I will put down in writing hadith that I consider as a guideline, then secondly, hadith of an unknown transmitter that I record without considering it as a guideline and without rejecting it, and third, hadith of a reliable transmitter that I prefer to know but that I don’t consider [as a guideline].»
I have two important comments:
- The critical issue of classification is writing down hadith-s. The constitution of a corpus termed hadith is the first level of authority in hadith sciences.
- The very aim of writing down hadith is to use hadith as argument. This is the meaning of saying "I consider it as a guideline".
There are two levels of authority in theoretical texts:
- Hadith-scholars put the confines of the corpus. The corpus of hadith expresses the authority of those who define what is named hadith.
- Hadith-scholars rely authenticity and obligation; to know hadith and to consider it as a source of judgment: hadith establish, exert authority of powerful precept.
In theory of authenticity, hadith express authority and is in the same time the tool of authority.
The limits of the theory
One of the articles we recommended for this study day, the paper by G. H. A. Juynboll, "Muslim’s introduction to his sahih. Translated and annotated with an excursus on the chronology of fitna and bid’a" in J. S. A. I. 5 (1984), pp. 263-311. This article shows one of the first hadith scholars at work. The hadith scholar explains in the introduction of his compilation that scholars need a corpus of hadith because texts of hadith are spread in Muslim society beyond the control of hadith scholars. Progressively the compilation of Muslim will be considered by scholars of hadith as a source of authentic texts. However, this compilation will not be accepted easily by Andalusian scholars before the 11th century because they used to transmit other corpus of texts.
There are three historic facts showing the gap between theory of authenticity and transmission of hadith:
- The consensus of hadith scholars about the authenticity of some compilations was established two or more centuries after the elaboration of these compilations and their transmission in Muslim society.
- There are two different historical processes of hadith authority: the Oriental one and the Occidental/Andalusian one. The first compilations of hadith met with great resistance in al-Andalus of the IXth century. Others corpus were used in al-Andalus in that time as source of legal thought.
- My final remark to highlight another kind of hadith authority. Apocryphal hadith-s are considered by scholars as inauthentic, as forged texts. But the history of these texts shows that these marginal texts have another kind of authority. The marginal hadith texts were spread in Muslim society. What scholars called "apocryphal" hadith were used to justify a large number of social and ritual practices.
The conceptual framework of authority in hadith literature can explain a part of the process of hadith authority. I tried to demonstrate two levels of authority:
- To define hadith as prophetic and authentic sayings and to define the confines of the corpus and the exclusion of others types of texts: To define hadith is to exert authority and to confer authority to this text.
- What is at stake in the conceptual framework is hadith knowledge: the obligation to know authentic hadith is the second level of hadith authority. The implication of knowledge is usage of hadith. Hadith-Scholars did not deal with legal or theological usages of hadith, they just offered a theoretical frame to an existing authority. The authority of hadith is not the result but the motive of the conceptual framework.
To understand other aspects of hadith authority we have to observe how hadith is used by different disciplines, we have to examine different structures of hadith texts, and different types of argumentation included in hadith. The theory of hadith is a very important entry point to this literature but must be complemented by a literary analysis of the text and a historical study of its transmission and usages. I would like to finish with pointing out that hadith authority denotes men’s authority, authority of those who use hadith as a powerful argument.