Analysis of the tradition from Sahih Muslim

HADITH OF ABU AL-HAYYAJ

Now it is the time to closely examine the hadith which the Wahhabi scholars narrate. Here we produce a tradition from Sahih Muslim:

             

Narrated to us Yahya bin Yahya, Abu Bakr bin Abi Shayba and Zuhayr bin Harb (on the authority of) Waki’ who narrates from Sufyan who narrates from Habib bin Abi Thabit who narrates from Abu Wa’il who narrates from Abu al-Hayyaj that ‘Ali told him: “I assign you for a task which the Holy Prophet (s) assigned me for the same. Do not leave any picture but that which you erase nor any high grave but that you level it.” [1]

The Wahhabis have utilized this tradition as a pretext without paying attention to the authenticity and logic of the tradition.

Our Views about this Tradition

Whenever we wish to derive an Islamic ruling from a hadith, it should possess two conditions:

1. The authenticity of tradition should be correct; that is to say, the narrators of tradition should be such people that one could rely on their sayings.

2. The instruction of tradition should be clear upon the purpose.

That is to say the words and the sentences of the tradition should clearly prove our purpose such that if we give the same tradition to a person well versed in language and aware of its specifications, he would be able to derive the same meaning as we derive.

Unfortunately, this tradition is worthy of criticism from both these points especially the second, where one can find no relation with its purpose.

From the viewpoint of authenticity (isnad), the traditionalists (those expert in the science of hadith) do not accept the reliability of the persons narrating this tradition because we see that its narrators are people like (1) Waki’ (2) Sufyan al-Thawri (3) Habib bin Abi Thabit and (4) Abu Wa’il al-‘Asadi. 

A traditionalist such as Hafiz Ibn Hajar al-’Asqalani has criticised them in his book Tahdhib al-tahdhib to such an extent that it throws doubt and uncertainty on the authenticity of the aforementioned tradition and other traditions narrated by them.

1. For example he narrates from Ahmad bin Hanbal about Waki’ that:

“He has committed mistakes in 500 traditions.” [2]                                                                                                             

He also narrates from Muhammad ibn Nasr al-Marwazi about Waki’ that:

        

                                                                                  

 “He used to narrate the tradition according to its meaning (rather than narrating the precise text) while his mother-tongue was not Arabic”. [3]

2. About Sufyan al-Thawri, he narrates from Ibn al-Mubarak that:  

                                                                                                                                          

                                                         

“Sufyan was narrating a tradition when I suddenly arrived and noticed that he was deceiving in tradition. When he saw me, he felt ashamed.” [4]

Deception in any tradition in whatever meaning it may be interpreted shows that there had been no equity, truthfulness and realism in such a man that he has presented the untrue things to be true.

In the translation of Yahya al-Qattan, he narrates from him that Sufyan tried to present to me an unreliable person to be reliable but eventually he was unsuccessful. [5]

3. About Habib ibn Abi Thabit, he narrates from Ibn Hibban that:

                                                                                                                                            

“He was deceiving in tradition.”

He also narrates from al-Qattan that:

                                                                                                            

                                                                                                                                              

“His traditions cannot be followed because they are not firm.”[6]

4. About Abi Wa’il he says:

“He is from the nawasib and from the deviators from (the path) of ‘Ali (‘a) [7]

It is worthy of attention that in the entire sihah sitta only one tradition is narrated from Abu al-Hayyaj and that is the same which we have discussed already. It shows that a person, whose share from the Prophetic knowledge was only one tradition, was not a man of tradition at all. Therefore, it becomes difficult to rely on him. When the reference of tradition possesses such shortcomings, then no jurisprudent (faqih) can pass a verdict (fatwa) based on such a weak reference.

The ‘instruction’ of tradition is no less important than its reference as the following words in this tradition testify:

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

Now we will discuss the meaning of these two words i.e.

(a).  and

(b).

(a). The word in dictionary means high and elevated and it has been said that

      is a high place overlooking the other place.”   [8]

The author of al-Qamus who is having greater validity in the arrangement of meaning of words says:

                                                                                         

 with vowel of () is named as something ‘high’ and ‘the hump of a camel’.

Therefore the word () in absolute term is called as ‘height’ and in particular that height which is in the shape of a hump of a camel. By referring to the past, we have to see the objective pertains to which kind of height.

(b).The word  in dictionary means ‘to restore equilibrium’, ‘to make equal’ and ‘to set right the crooked’.

                                                 

                         

. He made it straight; Arab says - I wanted to set right the crooked which was not smoothened. It also comes in the meaning of ‘a faultless product’.

The Holy Qur’an says:

                                                                                                                                       

“Who creates, then makes complete”. (A’la: 2)

After knowing the meanings of phrases and words, we have to see what this tradition means!

Two possibilities exist in this tradition. We have to select one of the two by paying attention to the individual meanings and other logical possibilities, the first one of it is:

1. One possibility is that Prophet (s) ordered Abul-Haiyyaj to destroy the elevated graves and level them to the ground.

This possibility which the Wahhabis rely upon is rejected due to the following reasons:

Firstly, the word  does not mean ‘to destroy’ or ‘to demolish’ and if it meant so then they should have said:

                                                                                                      

Level them to the ground while we do not find such words in the tradition.

Secondly, if it is meant what they say then why the scholars of Islam have not given such a verdict (fatwa)? It is because leveling of grave to the ground is against the Islamic Sunnah which says that a grave should be slightly higher than the ground level and all the jurisprudents (fuqaha) of Islam have given verdict (fatwa) over this matter that a grave should be higher than the level of ground by one span.

In the book al-Fiqh ‘ala al-madhahib al-‘arba’a, as per the verdicts (fatawa) of the four well-known Imams (Hanifa, Malek, Shafe’i and Hanbal), we read as such:

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

“It is recommended (mustahab) that the soil of grave be higher than the ground by one span.” [9]

By paying attention to this matter we are bound to interpret the tradition in some other way to which we shall now refer.

2. Second possibility is that he was ordered to make the top of the grave uniform, even or flat and not like the graves which are made in the shape of the hind of a fish or the hump of a camel.

Therefore, the tradition is a witness to this fact that the top of a grave should be even and flat and not in the shape of the hind of a fish or a hump which is common among some of the Ahl al-Sunnah. All the four well-known Imams of Ahl al-Sunnah, except al-Shafi’i, have given fatwa that the grave is recommended to be so. Thus this tradition conforms to the Shi’a scholars who say that a grave apart from being above the ground should be even and flat. [10]

Incidentally, Muslim, the author of Sahih has himself brought this tradition and another tradition which we shall soon discuss under the title     

                                                                                                                

and similarly al-Tirmidhi and al-Nasa’i have brought this tradition in their Sunan under the aforementioned title. This title gives the meaning that the surface of grave should be even and flat and if it meant that the graves should be made level to the ground then it was necessary to change the title and name it as  

Incidentally, in Arabic language if  is ascribed to any thing (like grave) it means that the thing itself should be flat and even and not that it should be made equal with any thing (like ground).

Here we produce another tradition which Muslim has narrated in his Sahih and this tradition too contains the same contents which we have approved.

                                             

The narrator says: We were with Fudala bin ‘Ubayd in Rome when one of our companions died. Fudala ordered that his grave be made uniform and said that he had heard the Holy Prophet (s) giving instructions for the leveling of graves. [11]

The key to understanding this tradition lies in acquiring the meaning of the word  which posseses three possible meanings. By paying attention to the legal presumptions one of them should be selected. Here are the three possibilities:

1. One meaning is ‘to destroy the structure over the graves!’ This possibility is false because the graves which were in Medina were not possessing structure or dome.

2. Another meaning is ‘to level the surface of the grave to the ground’. This is against the Sunnah (practice) of the Prophet (s) which is conclusive that the grave should be above the ground by one span.

3. Lastly it could mean ‘to surface the grave and make even the uneven portions and hence bring it out from the shape of hind of a fish or hump of a camel’. This meaning is exact and precise and needs no reason for proving this interpretation.

Now let us see how the famous commentator of Sahih Muslim, al-Nawawi, interprets the tradition. He says:

                                               

“It is Sunnah (tradition) that the grave should not possess excessive height above the ground and should not have a shape of a hump of a camel. However it should be one span above the ground and should be even.” [12]

This sentence shows that the commentator of Sahih Muslim has derived the same meaning as we have derived from the word . That is to say, Imam al-Nawawi recommended and advised that the surface of the graves should not possess the shape of the hind of a fish and they should be made uniform, flat and even, not that they should be levelled with the ground or that the grave and the structure on it should be destroyed.

It is not only we who have interpreted the tradition as such but al-Hafiz al-Qastallani too in his book Irshad al-sari fi sharh Sahih al-Bukhari has interpreted the tradition as we have. He says:

“It is the sunnah that a grave should be surfaced and we should never abandon this Sunnah just because surfacing of the grave is the motto of the rawafid. When we say that the Sunnah is surfacing of grave (having no difference with the tradition of Abu al-Hayyaj) it is because

                                                         

The objective is not to make the grave on par with the ground but the objective is to make the surface of the grave flat and even although being above the ground level. [13]

Moreover, if the objective of recommendation was to destroy the structures and domes over the graves then why didn't ‘Ali (‘a) himself destroy the domes over the graves of the Prophets existing during his own time!? Besides, he was the ruler over the Islamic lands and places like Palestine, Syria, Egypt, Iraq, Iran and Yemen, which were full of such structures over the graves of the Prophets and were within his sight.

Forgoing all that we have said even if we assume that Imam (‘a) ordered Abu al-Hayyaj to level all the elevated graves on par with the ground, still the tradition never bears testimony over the necessity of destroying the structures over the graves since Imam (‘a) has said:

                                                                                                                                      

i.e. ‘destroy the graves’, but has not said:

                           

‘There is no building and no dome (dome of grave) unless I made them separate’.

Moreover our discussion is not about grave itself but about construction and structures over the graves where people occupy themselves under the shade of these structures and recite the Qur’an, invocation and prayers. Which part of this sentence bears testimony for the destruction of the structures surrounding the graves which in fact facilitates the visitors to worship and recite Qur’an and protects them from extreme heat or cold!

Two more possibilities in tradition

In the end we are bound to present two more possibilities in the tradition:

(1) It is possible that this and some other similar traditions are pointing to a series of graves of the past people where people took the graves of the pious and virtuous people as their qibla instead of performing prayers towards the true qibla. They used to perform prayers over the grave and the picture which was near the grave and were refraining from facing the true qibla which God has selected.

Thus the tradition has no connection to the graves which have never been prostrated upon by the Muslims but have recited prayers near them facing the divine qibla (Ka’ba).

And if they expedite in visiting the graves of the pious people and worship God near their pure bodies and the holy graves, it is because of the high esteem these dignified places have acquired due to the burial of their bodies. We shall discuss about them later on.

(2) By  is meant the portrait of idols and by  is meant the graves of polytheists which were still respected by their near and far ones.

Over here we shall narrate the verdicts of the four scholars of Sunni school of thought:

                                                                           

It is makruh (abominable) to build a house, dome, school or mosque over the grave.” [14]

With such consensus existing amongst the four Imams how can the judge of Najd insist that construction over the grave is haram (prohibited)!?

Moreover, its being makruh is itself not having a decisive and correct reference especially when construction over the grave provides a means of worship for the visitor to the grave of Prophets and pious people.

Notes :

[1] Sahih Muslim, kitab al-jana’iz, vol. 3 p. 61; Sunan al-Tirmidhi, bab ma ja’a fi taswiyat al-qabr, vol. 2 p. 256; and Sunan al-Nasa’i, bab taswiyat al-qabr, vol. 4, p. 88.

[2] Ibn Hajar al-‘Asqalani, Tahdhib al-tahdhib, vol. 11, p. 125.

[3] Ibn Hajar al-‘Asqalani, Tahdhib al-tahdhib, vol. 11 p. 130.

[4] Ibn Hajar al-‘Asqalani, Tahdhib al-tahdhib, vol. 4 p. 115.

[5] Ibn Hajar al-‘Asqalani, Tahdhib al-tahdhib, vol. 11 p. 218.

[6] Ibn Hajar al-‘Asqalani, Tahdhib al-tahdhib, vol. 2  p. 179.

[7] Ibn Abi al-Hadid al-Mu’tazili, Sharh Nahj al-balagha, vol. 9 p. 99.

[8] Al-Munjid.

[9] al-Fiqh ‘ala al-madhahib al-‘arba’a, vol. 1, p.  420.

[10] al-Fiqh ‘ala al-madhahib al-‘arba’a, vol. 1, p. 420. Therefore, no groups from the Islamic tradition have acted upon this tradition, except the Shafi’i’s and the Shi’a.

[11] Sahih Muslim, kitab al-jana’iz, vol. 3 p. 61.

[12] al-Nawawi, Sharh Sahih Muslim, vol. 7, p. 36.

[13] al-Qastallani, Irshad al-sari, vol. 2 p. 468.

[14] al-Fiqh ‘ala al-madhahib al-‘arba’a, vol. 1, p. 421.