Fiqh of the Hadeeth
By
Dr. Muhammad
Deeya ar-Rahman al-Azamee
By
Abbas Abu Yahya
Fiqhul- Hadeeth: After knowing
the authenticity of a hadeeth or its weakness, then it becomes obligatory to
busy yourself with its understanding since that is the fruit of this knowledge. Indeed a foundation without a building upon
it is like a house which is demolished as Khateeb said in the
introduction to his book ‘Muaalim’.
Al-Haakim said:
‘As for the Fuqaha
(scholars of Sharia’) of Islaam, the
people of Qiyaas (analogy), opinions, derivation, debate and reflection are
well-known
in every age and are people of every country. However
we will mention here, in this place by Allaah’s permission, the Fiqh of hadeeth according
to its people as evidence so that the people who work in and study this science thoroughly
(Muhadditheen) are not ignorant of the Fiqh of hadeeth as it is a portion
from the categories of this knowledge.’[1]
Then he lists
the names of these Muhadditheen al-Fuqaha with a brief mention of
their Fiqh, so from them are:
Muhammad bin
Sheehab az-Zuhri, Yahya bin Sa’eed al-Ansaari, AbdurRahman bin ‘Amr al-Awzaee,
Sufyaan bin Uyaina
al-Hilaalee, Abdullaah bin al-Mubarak, Yahya bin Sa’eed al-Qataan, AbdurRahman
bin Mahdi, Yahya bin Yahya at-Tameemee.
Regarding Ahmad
bin Hanbal, ash-Shaafi’ee
said:
‘I left Baghdad
and I never left behind anyone who had more understanding of the Deen, was more
abstinent from the Duniya, more pious or more knowledgeable than Ahmad bin
Hanbal.’
(The list continues with:) ‘Alee bin
Abdullaah bin Jafar al-Madeeni, Yahya bin Ma’een, Ishaaq bin Ibraheem
al-Hanthaali, Muhammad bin Yahya ath-Thuaali, Muhammad bin Isma’eel al-Bukhari,
Abu Zur’ah Ubaydillaah bin AbdulKareem, Abu Hatim Muhammad bin Idrees
al-Hanthaali, Ibraheem ibn Ishaaq al-Hanthaali, Muslim bin al-Hajjaj
al-Qushaayri, Abu Abdullaah Muhammad bin Ibraheem al-Abdi, ‘Uthmaan bin Sa’eed
al-Darmi, Abu Abdullaah bin Muhammad bin Nasr al-Marwazi, Abu AbduRahman bin
Shu’aib an-Nisaaee, Abu Bakr Muhammad bin Ishaaq bin Khuzaymah, Abu Daawood,
Muhammad bin AbdulWahhab al-Abdi, Abu Bakr aj-Jaarudi, Ibraheem bin Abee
Taalib, Abu ‘Isa at-Tirmidhi, Musa bin Haroon al-Bazaar, al-Hasan bin ‘Alee
al-Ma’mari, ‘Alee bin al-Hussain bin al-Junaid, Muhammad bin Muslim bin Warah,
Muhammad bin ‘Aqeel al-Balkhi and other than them.
From the Fuqaha
of Ahl-ul-Hadeeth is Abu Bakr an-Neesaabooree of whom Shaykh ul-Islaam Ibn
Taymeeyah – may Allaah have mercy on him – said:
‘Abu Bakr
an-Neesaabooree was an Imaam in Fiqh and hadeeth, he was concerned
with the Ahadeeth of Fiqh and with the variant wordings of the
Ahadeeth. He was close to the way and knowledge of Ahl-ul-Hadeeth
such
that he was not biased towards the sayings of any of the Fuqaha, just as the
famous Imaams of Hadeeth were not.’[2]
Then he
continues:
‘As for Bukhari
and Abu Daawood, then they are two Imaams in Fiqh from the people of Ijtihaad. As for Muslim, Tirmidhee, Nisaaee, Ibn Maja,
Abu Ya’ala, al-Bazaar and those similar to them then they were upon
the madh-hab of Ahl-ul-Hadeeth. They
were not blind-followers of any single individual from amongst the scholars, nor were they absolutely from
the Imaams of Ijtihaad, but rather they were not inclined to take the
sayings of the Imaams of hadeeth such as Shaafi’ee, Ahmad, Ishaaq, Abu Ubayd and
their likes.’
He continues:
‘As for
al-Bayhaqi then he was on the Madh-hab of ash-Shaafi’ee, supporting it
with its general statements. Daraqutnee
also inclined towards the Madh-hab of Shaafi’ee and the Imaams of the
chains of narrations (asaaneed) and hadeeth, but he was not like
al-Bayhaqi in blindly following Shaafi’ee.
So, even though al-Bayhaqi carried out Ijtihaad in many
issues, the
Ijtihaad of Daraqutnee was stronger than his as he was more
knowledgeable and had a stronger comprehension than him (i.e. al-Bayhaqi).’[3]
He continues:
‘From them there
were those who specialised with some of the scholars just as Abu Daawood
specialised with Ahmad bin Hanbal so they are more inclined to the Madh-hab of Ahl-ul-Hijaaz – such as Maalik
and his likes– than the Madh-hab of Ahl-ul-Iraq - the
likes of Abu Hanifah and Thawree.’ The
end of Shaykh ul-Islaam’s saying.
‘Knowledge of the Fiqh of hadeeth cannot
be achieved except if the different paths of the hadeeth are gathered just as
Imaam Ahmad said: ‘If the different paths (narrations) are not gathered, the
hadeeth cannot be understood. The
hadeeth are explained, some by others.’[4]
Yahya bin Ma’een
said: ‘If a hadeeth was not written with 30 different chains, we would not have
understood it.’[5]
Imaam Shaafi’ee
authored a booklet in ‘Ihktilaaf of hadeeth’, then Ibn Qutaybah followed him in
that as did
Abu Yahya Zakareeyah bin Yahya as-Saajee, Tahawee, Tabaree, Ibn Abdul Barr and
Ibn al-Jawzi. All of this shows the
importance of Fiqh ul-Hadeeth to the Muhadditheen, researchers
and those
who extrapolate rulings. This is what
al-Khateeb indicated in his book ‘al-Kafaya’:
‘If it were not for the
concern of As-haabul-Hadeeth (the companions of hadeeth) with the
precision of the Sunnan,
gathering them, extracting them from their sources and researching the
different paths, the Sharia’ would have become void and its rulings
would have been cancelled out because the rulings were extrapolated from
preserved Athaar (narrations) and they took benefit from the transmitted Sunnan.’
* Taken from
‘Mu’jam Mustalah al-Hadeeth wa laataif al-Assaneed’ p. 296-300
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