Classification of Hadith: Difference between revisions

'''Classification of Hadith''' consists of sorting religious narrations based on some criteria such as the topics, the references, narrators and so on that simplifies our access to [[Hadiths]].

Traditionally, religious scholars were pursuing classification and sorting of Hadiths for the sake of more accessibility. At first, in the time of [[Ahl al-Bayt (a)]], the companions wrote what they heard from them without any special order and because of that, it was difficult to refer to these sporadic Hadiths in the next centuries. To solve this problem, some religious scholars tried to propose some classification of Hadiths. Some scholars assorted Hadiths based on the Imam who stated it; another group classified them based on Hadith transmitter, and again, others tried to sort them based on the first letter of Hadiths' sentences.

[[File:Al-kaf-2.jpg|200px|thumbnail|right|English translation of [[al-Kafi]] published by Islamic Texts Institute in [[1434]]/2012]]

During the second century (early 8th to early 9th centuries), a general movement of Hadith classification was simultaneously formed among different hadith collectors and some works appeared under the names such as al-Sunan, al-Jami', al-Muwatta' and al-Musannaf.

The next three books out of the so-called "[[Four books]]", which were limited to jurisprudential subjects, were actually a reformation of the classification of ''al-Kafi''. But then, we see the book ''[[Da'a'im al-Islam]]'' by [[Qadi Nu'man Maghribi]] which was completely different from the Four books and follows a distinct method of classification. It is worthy to note that this new classification was later used in some jurisprudential books –not Hadith ones- specially ''al-Kafi'' by [[Abu Salah Halabi]].

[[File:Bihar-al-anwar.jpg|250px|thumbnail|right|[[Bihar al-Anwar]] by [[Allama Majlisi]]]]

In the recent centuries, one of the most impressive Hadith books is the unparalleled book ''[[Bihar al-Anwar]]'' by [['Allama Majlisi]] which is known as a comprehensive Hadith book which is written in consistence with modern rationality. According to Majlisi, this book follows an unprecedented order. The author paid attention to the previous style, however, he added some new branches of Hadith such as "Kitab al-Sama' wa al-'Alam" (the book of sky and universe) which were neglected by previous Hadith scholars. Moreover, unlike al-Kulayni, al-Majlisi did not separate the history of the lives of infallibles from theological discussions of prophethood and [[Imamate]]; and he considers both theoretical and historical aspects in discussing on prophethood. Likewise, in the theological topics, he proposed some independent sections for the topics relevant to [[resurrection]] and justice.

Besides the common understanding of the subject order, there is a special order of Hadith based on the numbers mentioned in them which is possible just in numerical Hadiths (Ahadith al-'Adadiyya). Some of these books are as follow: ''Kitab al-Ashkal'' and ''al-Qara'in'' in the collection of ''[[al-Mahasin]]'' by Barqi, ''[[al-Khisal]]'' by [[Ibn Babawayh]] and ''al-Mawa'iz al-'Adadiyya'' by [[Ayatollah Mishkini]].

During the third century/9th-10th centuries, along with the improvement of Hadith classification, some opponent movements appeared; in the [[Sunni]] school of thought, some of the recent scholars of Ashab al-Hadith (companions of Hadith) and on top of them Ahmad Hanbal opposed any subject classification of Hadith and as a result he inclined to writing Musnad instead of al-Jami' books. Likewise, in the Shi'a school of thought, it seems that, in the half of third century/9th-10th centuries, there were two contradictory movements, especially apparent in [[Qom]]; The first group tended to classify Hadith based on the subjects, and their first figure was Dawud b. Kura ([[300]]/913) who classified some of the previous important books based on the subject order such as ''al-Mashikha'' written by Hasan b. Mahbub and ''[[al-Nawadir]]'' written by [[Ahmad b. Muhammad b. 'Isa]]. And the second group whose figures are Ahmad b. 'Isa and 'Abd allah b. Ja'far Himyari. Ahmad b. Muhammad b.'Isa himself wrote the book ''al-Nawadir'' without any subject classification.

Cataloging of Hadiths started with the book ''al-Mu'jam al-Mufahras -Li l-Alfaz al-Hadith al-Nabawi'' written by A.Y. Winsink which is published by Brill in Leiden (Netherlands) in 1936-1969. Some Shi'a and Sunni scholars have tried to provide such cataloging books ever since. Moreover, as an example of subject index for Hadiths, see the book ''Miftah Kunuz al-Sunna'' which has been originally written by A.Y. Winsink and is translated to Arabic by 'Abd al-Baqi; later on, we see several works and similar books in this regard from both Sunni and Shi'a schools of thought.

During third century/9th-10th centuries up to fifth century/11th century, the biggest Hadith collections had been written and the most important figures of the next century tried to interpret and commentate on these collections instead of writing unwritten Hadiths.