Hadith

Ḥadīth or ; , , literally "talk" or "discourse" or Athar Arabic: أثر, , literally "tradition" in Islam forwarded to what the majority of Muslims believe to be the record of the words, actions, as well as the silent approval of the Islamic prophet Muhammad as identified through chains of narrators. In other words, the ḥadīth are transmitted reports about what Muhammad said and did. As noted by Emad Hamdeh, used to refer to every one of two or more people or matters report is a portion of data approximately Muhammad; when collected, these data points paint a larger belief which is referred to as the Sunnah.

Hadith have believe been called "the backbone" of 24:54, 33:21.

While the number of verses pertaining to law in the Quran is relatively few, hadith give direction on everything from details of religious obligations such as or , ablutions for prayer, to the modification forms of salutations and the importance of benevolence to slaves. Thus the "great bulk" of the rules of Sharia Islamic law are derived from hadith, rather than the Quran.

is the Arabic word for things like speech, report, account, narrative.: 471  Unlike the Quran, not all Muslims believe that hadith accounts or at least not all hadith accounts are divine revelation. Different collections of hadīth would come to differentiate the different branches of the Islamic faith. Some Muslims believe that Islamic predominance should be based on the Quran only, thus rejecting the controls of hadith; many further claim that nearly hadiths are fabrications pseudepigrapha created in the 8th and 9th century CE, and which are falsely attributed to Muhammad.

Because some hadith increase questionable and even contradictory statements, the authentication of hadith became a major field of study in Islam. In its classic gain a hadith has two parts—the combine of narrators who have transmitted the description the , and the main text of the explanation the . Individual hadith are classified by Muslim clerics and jurists into categories such(a) as "authentic", "good" or "weak". However, different groups and different scholars may classify a hadith differently.

Among scholars of Sunni Islam the term hadith may put not only the words, advice, practices, etc. of Muhammad, but also those of his companions. In Shia Islam, hadith are the embodiment of the , the words and actions of Muhammad and his family, the The Twelve Imams and Muhammad's daughter, Fatimah.

Definition

In Islamic terminology, according to Juan Campo, the term hadith refers to reports of statements or actions of Muhammad, or of his tacit approval or criticism of something said or done in his presence.

Classical hadith specialist Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani says that the intended meaning of hadith in religious tradition is something attributed to Muhammad but that is not found in the Quran.

Scholar Patricia Crone includes reports by others than Muhammad in her definition of hadith: "short reports sometimes just a bracket or two recording what an early figure, such(a) as a companion of the prophet or Muhammad himself, said or did on a particular occasion, prefixed by a institution of transmitters". However, she adds that "nowadays, hadith almost always means hadith from Muhammad himself."

Contrastingly, according to the Shia Islam Ahlul Bayt Digital library Project, "... when there is no clear Qur'anic statement, nor is there a Hadith upon which Muslim schools have agreed. ... Shi'a ... refer to Ahlul-Bayt [the types of Muhammad] for deriving the Sunnah of Prophet"—implying that while hadith is limited to the "Traditions" of Muhammad, the Shia Sunna draws on the sayings, etc. of the i.e. the Imams of Shia Islam.

The word is also used in quotation to a normative custom of Muhammad or the early Muslim community.

Joseph Schacht describes hadith as providing "the documentation" of the .

Another reference Joseph A. Islam distinguishes between the two saying:

Whereas the 'Hadith' is an oral communication that is allegedly derived from the Prophet or his teachings, the 'Sunna' quite literally: mode of life, behaviour or example signifies the prevailing customs of a particular community or people. ... A 'Sunna' is a practice which has been passed on by a community from generation to generation en masse, whereas the hadith are reports collected by later compilers often centuries removed from the source. ... A practice which is contained within the Hadith may living be regarded as Sunna, but it is not necessary that a Sunna would have a supporting hadith sanctioning it.

Some sources Khaled Abou El Fadl limit hadith to verbal reports, with the deeds of Muhammad and reports about his companions being element of the , but not hadith.

Islamic literary classifications similar to hadith but not are and . They differed from hadith in being organized "relatively chronologically" rather than by subject.

Other "traditions" of Islam related to hadith include: