1st Century A.H. : The Sahaba's Period Khaleelpudur00:20 0 comments

1st Century A.H. : The Sahaba's Period


There were several factors which inspired the Sahaba to preserve and propagate the Ahadith. Some important ones were :

>> There are some verses and phrases in the Quran which are a bit
difficult to understand. So Sahaba used to take the help of Ahadith to understand these verses and phrases. Besides this Sahaba used to take
the help of Ahadith to understand the legal and related matters.

Moreover, a group of Sahaba solely devoted themselves to the
understanding and explanation of the Quran. Their work led to the search
and collection of a vast body of related Ahadith.
   
>> The Sahaba loved the Holy Messenger more than their own lives.

They constantly used to watch the Holy Messenger and followed him
carefully in all matters that he said, did, liked and approved. Consequently, each and every work, utterance and action of the Holy Messenger was preserved and recorded in the hearts and minds of countless Sahaba.
   
>> Sahaba wanted to know more and more Ahadith because they used to seek guidance from Ahadith in every field of their lives. Hence, they took extra care to ascertain its authenticity. We find several instances in Islamic history when a Sahabi took long and arduous journeys to listen to even a single Hadith from its original narrator. Because of this care and devotion, Sahaba were universally regarded as the living embodiment of Ahadith.
Their acts of devotion, daily prayers and personal and social dealings thus, proved to be the most effective means for the initial preservation and propagation of Ahadith and Sunnah.

There was a group of companions, called Ashab al Suffah, who used to
live in the Messenger’s mosque in Medina and they had devoted themselves in
the learning of the Quran and the Hadith from the Holy Prophet. Consequently, they became the most reliable source of Ahadith. Abu
Hurairah, the famous narrator of Ahadith, was one among the Ashab as Suffah.

The Holy Prophet in his farewell address had declared : 'Convey to others even if it is a single verse from one. Sahaba, thus, regarded the
knowledge of Ahadith as a sacred trust, which they must convey to
others. At the same time, they were extremely cautious in narrating a
Hadith because the Holy Prophet had also declared that anyone
intentionally attributing a wrong statement to him would find his abode
in help.

While there were countless Sahaba who had each narrated hundreds of Ahadith during their lifetimes, a few of them solely devoted themselves
to the very task of this collection and propagation. The following are
reported to have preserved and narrated more than 1,000 Ahadith.

Muhaddith	Died-AH	Ahadith narrated
Abu Hurairah	59	5,374
Ayesha Siddiqah	58	2,286
Abdullah Ibn Abbas	68	1,660
Abdullah Ibn Umar	73	1,630
Jaber Ibn Abdullah	78	1,560
Anas Ibn Malik	93	1,286
Abu Saeed Khudri	74	1,170

At the same time, a group of Sahaba devoted themselves to the writing of Ahadith. The following are regarded as the famous written collections of Ahadith during the first century Hijrah.

Name of the collection	Author
Sahifah	Ali Ibn Abi Talib
Sahifah	Sa’d Ibn Abada Ansari
Sahifah	Abdullah Ibn Abi Auf
Nuskah	Samrah Ibn Jundeb
Kitab	Abi Ratae Mula Al Rasool
Kitab	Abu Hurairah
Sahifa	Jaber Ibn Abdullah Ansari
Sadiqah	Abdullah Ibn Umar Ibn Aas.