Encyclopedia of Islam

Further reading: George Packer, Assassin’s Gate: Amer-

ica in Iraq (New York: Farrar, Strauss & Giroux, 

2005); James Piscatori, ed., Islamic Fundamentalisms 

and the Gulf Crisis (Chicago: The Fundamentalism Proj-

ect, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1991); 

Anthony Shadid, Night Draws Near: Iraq’s People in the 

Shadow of America’s War (New York: Henry Holt, 2005); 

Micah L. Sifry and Christopher Cerf, eds., The Iraq War 

Reader: History, Documents, Opinions (New York: Simon 

& Schuster, 2003).

Gulf Wars

  

277  J

---

278

AF

J:

hadd

  See 

crime

 

and

 

punishment

.

hadith

 

(Arabic: speech, report, narrative)

A hadith is a short report, story, or tradition about 

what  m

Uhammad

 (d. 632), the historical founder 

of the Islamic religion, said or did and about what 

he did not say or do. The word hadith is also used 

with reference to the body of such reports, known 

as  the hadith. There were literally thousands of 

hadith circulating in the Muslim community in 

oral and written form in Islam’s first century. These 

were eventually collected into books during the 

ninth and 10th centuries. These reports are part of 

a very large corpus of such accounts that govern 

Islamic law, religious practice, belief, and everyday 

life. Most Muslims believe that the hadith should 

complement the q

Uran

. As such, it embodies one 

kind of revealed truth that defines the 

sUnna

, or 

the authentic code of action approved by Muham-

mad as the foremost prophet of Islam. Throughout 

Islamic history, each of the major Islamic tradi-

tions—s

Unnism

, s

hiism

, and s

UFism

—has looked to 

the hadith for guidance and inspiration.

In its classic form, a hadith is composed of two 

parts, a chain of transmitters (the isnad) and the 

main text (matn) of the report. A hadith from the 

chapter on beverages in the collection of Muslim 

ibn al-Hajjaj states:

Abd Allah ibn Muadh al-Anbari told us that 

he was told by Shuba on the authority of 

Abu Ishaq on the authority of al-Bara who 

said that Abu Bakr the Truthful said, “When 

we went from Mecca to Medina with the 

Prophet, we passed by a shepherd. God’s 

Messenger had become thirsty, so I milked 

[an animal] and brought some milk to him. 

He drank it until his thirst was quenched.”

The list of transmitters here goes back in time 

from Muslims in the ninth century to Muham-

mad in the seventh century. a

bU

  b

akr

, a close 

companion of Muhammad and the first 

caliph

 (r. 

632–634), was the witness. The sunna, or reli-

gious norm, is contained in the main text, which 

upholds the permissibility of drinking milk fresh 

from an animal, no doubt a widespread practice 

in Arabia at the time. Hadith can also express 

prohibitions. In the same chapter on beverages, 

Muslim includes a hadith transmitted by a

isha

,

Muhammad’s wife, which prohibits intoxicating 

drinks. According to this hadith, Muhammad 

said, “Every beverage that intoxicates is forbidden 

H

---

[

haram

].” It thus complements and expands upon 

the Quran’s ban against drinking wine. In addition 

to matters of belief and practice, the hadith also 

contain historical information and Quran com-

mentary (

tafsir

).

A very special kind of hadith is the hadith 

qudsi (holy hadith). This is one that contains a 

saying attributed to God by Muhammad but not 

found in the Quran. Although it is a divine say-

ing, it is not regarded with the same authority as a 

verse from the Quran, and modern scholars think 

that many holy hadith originated late in the eighth 

century, long after Muhammad’s time. This kind of 

hadith usually narrates a teaching about God, the 

virtues of piety, and the end of the world. In one of 

the most popular holy hadith discussed by Sufis, 

God says, “I was a hidden treasure that wished 

to be known, so I created the universe so that I 

might be known.” In another, found in several 

Sunni collections, God says, “Spend [in charity], 

O son of Adam, and I shall spend on you.” This 

one promises blessings for the generous.

The earliest of the major Sunni collections 

was the Musnad of i

bn

  h

anbal

 (d. 855). It was 

organized according the names of the c

ompanions

oF

 

the

  p

rophet

, who were originally credited 

in the isnad with having transmitted the hadith. 

He started with reports attributed to the first 

four caliphs (Abu Bakr, U

mar

, U

thman

, and 

a

li

) and concluded with hadith transmitted by 

women, most notably Aisha and other wives of 

the Prophet. The renowned traditionist of Bagh-

dad reportedly gathered a total of about 700,000 

hadith, narrated by more than 900 companions, 

of which he selected 30,000 for his Musnad. Ibn 

Hanbal’s staunch defense of the hadith at a time 

when others wanted to base religion and law on 

human reason and personal opinion made him 

the leader of the ahl al-hadith (Hadith partisans) 

movement in Abbasid Iraq during the ninth cen-

tury, which contributed significantly to the forma-

tion of the Islamic legal tradition.

The six most authoritative and canonical 

hadith collections recognized by Sunnis are those 

of al-Bukhari (d. 870), Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj (d. 

874), Abu Daud (d. 888), al-Tirmidhi (d. 892), 

Ibn Maja (d. 892), and al-Nasai (d. 915). Of 

these, the first two are considered to be the most 

correct and are thus called “the two correct ones” 

(al-sahihan). All six are arranged by subject, like 

the Jewish Talmud (the oral t

orah

 of m

oses

). 

Muslim’s collection, for example, is organized 

into “books” on the following topics: matters of 

Faith

, ritual purity, 

prayer

, 

almsgiving

, 

Fasting

, 

hajj

, commercial transactions and oaths, crimi-

nal punishments, 

Jihad

, government, sacrifice, 

drinks, dress, greeting and visitation, and miscel-

lany, including accounts about the 

aFterliFe

 and 

Quran commentary. Muslim is reported to have 

gathered some 300,000 hadith in his lifetime, of 

which only an estimated 3,000 were included in 

his collection.

The Shia developed their own authoritative 

hadith collections by the 10th century. These 

collections were based on statements attributed 

to the imams, starting with a

li

 

ibn

  a

bi

  t

alib

 (d. 

661), and they generally upheld Shii doctrines 

about them. They did not include hadith trans-

mitted by the first three caliphs and many of the 

companions because the Shia authorities con-

sidered these individuals corrupt usurpers who 

prevented members of Muhammad’s household 

from assuming leadership of the Islamic 

umma

.

Among the leading Shii collections are those of al-

Kulayni (d. 939), Ibn Babuya al-Qummi (d. 991), 

and Muhammad al-Tusi (d. 1067). Perhaps the 

most comprehensive later Shii hadith collection 

is Muhammad Baqir al-Majlisi’s Bihar al-anwar

(Oceans of Lights), completed around 1674. The 

modern printed edition of this book consists of 

more than 110 volumes.

Sufis also valued the hadith, especially those 

that endorsed their spiritual disciplines and teach-

ings. They were not averse to using narratives 

of questionable authenticity, but they also knew 

how to win the approval of literal-minded 

Ulama

by citing hadith from the canonical collections. 

Thus, in his book of Sufi biographies, called The