The Uniqueness and Importance of Isnad
All praises are exclusively to Allah Ta’ālá who has indeed blessed and favoured us, the followers of the best Prophet with numerous bounties and may His choicest peace and salutations be upon our beloved Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ. Allah Ta’ālá says in Sūrah al-Ḥijr, ayat: 9 “It is We who have sent down the Reminder (Quran) and indeed We will preserve it.” And in Sūrah al-Najm, ayat: 3-4 “And he does not speak from whim, it is nothing but revelation revealed taught to him by one immensely strong, possessing power and splendour.” In a Ḥadīth reported by Abū Dāwūd, al-Tirmidhī and other Ḥadīth masters from al-Miqdām ibn Ma’dī Karib that the Messenger of Allahrsaid: “Behold, I have been granted the Book (Quran) and something similar to it….” The above verses and this Ḥadīth have been interpreted to mean that the Quran and the Sunnah are both from Allah even though the Quran has extra merit and speciality over the Sunnah. However, by virtue of this we deduce that Allah has guaranteed to protect and preserve both.
The last Grand Shaykh of the Ottoman Empire, Shaykh Muṣṭafá Ṣabrī (d. 1954) said: “The fact that the Prophet Muḥammad is the last and final prophet makes it incumbent and essential that he be an embodiment of all virtue and good character. Furthermore, these virtues and good characteristics need to be preserved for humanity because there is no prophet after him to add or change anything. Thus, our Prophet must certainly excel over everyone that preceded him and thus his statements and actions need to be preserved and protected for his Ummah, who includes everyone from the time he received prophet-hood until the Day of Qiyāmah. We will find that the Quran does not delve into great detail on Prophet Muhammad’s biography when compared to the extent other scriptures discuss their prophets. This is found in the Sunnah and thus all the more reason for the Sunnah to be preserved in the manner the Quran has been. Indeed, this preservation of the Quran and the Sunnah is something Islam and Muslims can be boast about in front of other religions. Even though there have been people who have added forged and fabricated narrations to the broader spectrum of Ḥadīth, it was the ‘ulama of Ḥadīth who carefully sifted through these and differentiated between the authentic and the forgeries. There is no person from all the critics who have promoted negativity and scepticism around the Sunnah under the pretext of the presence of forged narrations regardless whether they are orientalist scholars or their Muslim followers who after in-depth study and review finds a forged Hadith except that he will realize that his finding is exactly the same as that of the Muslim scholars of former centuries.”
He continues to use Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī as an example when he states that the book has about 2602 Ḥadīth excluding the repetitions that were carefully selected by Imam al-Bukhārī from 100 000 authentic narrations that he memorized. This means that there are about 2000 narrators who were carefully selected from about 30 000 reliable narrators. So after omitting the sanad (chain of transmission) the book could easily be condensed into one average sized volume.
Have you heard about any book in this world of this size reported aurally by 2000 reliable persons who are known by the scholars? Their names and attributes are known and documented and every sentence they narrate may be verified and proven that they have indeed heard it from someone who in turn heard from someone else and in this way with a continuous chain to the Prophet. So we can safely say that every line in the book has witnesses who can confirm their narration of the statement. This is the system of isnād that none but the Muslims have and is certainly a speciality of this Ummah. It is a unique and salient feature for this Ummah and no other nation has been bestowed with it.
The following quotations from illustrious scholars of this Ummah will shed even more light on the importance of the sanad:
Al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī (RA) in his book ‘Sharaf Aṣḥāb al-Ḥadīth’ (The honour of the people of Ḥadīth) narrates from Muḥammed ibn Ḥātim ibn Muẓafar (RA) that he said:
‘Indeed Allah has blessed, honoured and privileged this Ummah with Isnād and no earlier nor later Ummah has ever had this blessing, rather the books they have in their hands are a mixture of sayings. They do not possess any differentiation between what was revealed to their Prophets in the Torah and the Bible and what was stated and taken from those who were not trustworthy. However, this Ummah selects only the narrations from those who were steadfast and well known in their times for their honesty and trustworthiness, who took from those who has similar qualities to them up to the end of the narration. Then these reports are researched with the utmost diligence to identify which narrator has the strongest memory and is the best in recording narrations, and which narrator spent more time in the company with those they narrated from their contemporaries. Then the text itself is analyzed from over twenty angles allowing for each alphabet compared with the other. Is this not then, from one of the greatest blessings that Allah has bestowed upon this Ummah?
Imam al-Shāfi’ī (RA) said, ‘The example of the one who seeks knowledge (without Isnād) is like that of the one whom carries wood in the night wherein which there is a snake that bites him without him realising.’
Imam ‘Abdullah ibn al-Mubārak (RA) said, “Isnād is from the Dīn, if it were not for the Isnād, anyone could have said anything.”
Imam Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal (RA) said, “Seeking the high Isnād is a Sunnah of our Salaf (predecessors)”
Imam Sufyān al-Thawrī (RA) would say, ‘Isnād is the weapon of a Mu’min (believer) so if he does not have a weapon with what will he fight with? And he would say, ‘Increase yourselves in Hadith for it is a weapon.’
Imam al-Zuhrī (RA) said, ‘Is the roof raised without the use of a ladder? (The asānīd are the stairs through which we reach the classical texts)
Ibn ‘Arabī (RA) once said, ‘Allah has indeed blessed this Ummah with Isnād which he never gave to anyone. So be careful and do not adopt the ways of the Jews and Christians by reporting without Isnād thus confiscating this bounty of Allah upon you.
Mullā ‘Alī al-Qārī said: “The Isnād is a speciality of this Ummah and among the emphasized Sunnah’s if not Fard Kifāyah.”
The Musnid of his time, Shaykh ‘Abdul Ḥayy al-Kettānī (RA) (d. 1962) said, ‘The higher the Isnād of a narrator, the closer they are to Allah’s Messenger (salulhu alayhi wasalam).
Ibn Raḥmūn (RA) said, ‘Seeking Ijāzah in the past and present was amongst the Sunnah of the Ulamā of Ḥadīth in order to preserve the tradition of Isnād and in turn the Shariah. However, it has been forgotten in these times and Ijāzah and Sanad have been neglected because scholars thought that knowledge was only in teaching and being outstanding.
Imam Abū Naṣr Aḥmed ibn Naṣr al-Faqīh (RA) once said, ‘There is nothing harder upon the people of ilḥād (deviance) nor more despised by them than hearing Ḥadīth and its narration with Isnād.
People came to visit Imam Yaḥyá ibn Ma’īn while he was suffering in his last illness before his death and asked him what do you desire? He answered, “An empty house, and a high Isnād”
It suffices the honour of a mu’min that their name is forever connected to the names of the greatest scholars of this Ummah. And it suffices the honour and blessing of a mu’min that their name be connected to that of the one whom is the most honourable and blessed of this Ummah, our Master Muḥammad (salulhu alayhi wasalam). Is it not strange therefore, that today we find Muslims that reject the narration with Ijāzah and Isnād which continues to be a light for this Ummah!?
The great Hanafi jurist, Shaykh Abū al-Yusr ‘Abidīn (d. 1981) used to write in his ijāzah:
و إذا أجزت مع القصور فاني أرجو التشبه بالذين أجازوا
السالكين إلى الحقيقة منهجا سبقوا إلى غرف الجنان ففازوا
“And if I grant ijāzah despite my inadequacy than I
Hope to imitate those who have granted ijāzah”
“Those who traverse the path to the reality
They preceded us to abodes in Jannah and they succeeded”
References:
- Al-Isnād min al-Dīn by Shaykh ‘Abdul Fattāḥ Abū Ghuddah
- Shaykh Moḥammed Daniel of the Cordoba Academy for Classical Islamic Sciences
- Ibn ‘Abidīn by Shaykh ‘Abdul Laṭīf Farfūr