An Introduction to Hadith, History and Sources

As the second main source of the true religion of Islam, hadith has a history full of ups and downs as far as the manner of its transmittal and the periods of its compilation and publication are concerned. Those who are acquainted with Islamic history have all acknowledged that from the time of transmittal up to now, hadith has been associated with many desirable as well as undesirable events, and its compilation and publication in some periods have had both faithful advocates and stern adversaries. For this reason, learning the “history of hadith” – though a piece of knowledge outside the different branches of the science of hadith– is essential for all those who want to benefit from the Sunnah and the corpus of hadith especially in view of the fact that the beginning of hadith compilation and its mechanism have not been the same for the proponents of the various Islamic schools of thought, each of them having a different opinion whose outcome may adversely affect the credibility and status of the existing traditions (ahadith). The present book, which has been written as a textbook in the tertiary level of Islamic studies, endeavors to present the general subjects relevant to hadith and its history as well as to acquaint the students of this field with the Sunni hadith collections and the Four Books (Kutub al-Arba‘ah) of the Shi‘ah in a simple and easy-to-understand approach.