Forty Gems of Beauty — Page 1
: Introduction Definition of Hadith Hadith [plural A ha d i th ] is an Arabic word; its root-meaning is a statement which may either be an entirely novel one or may have been put in a novel way. Since the speech of the Holy Prophet (May peace and blessings of Allah be on him) is replete with novel and priceless truths, it has been terminologically described as Hadith. Hadith thus stands for the holy word that our master, the Noble Prophet (May peace and blessings of Allah be on him) actually uttered or which relates some incident of his holy life, in terms of ocular evidence, and was committed to writing after the lapse of sometime through his companions and the Muslim narrators of a later date. Arabs were gifted with an extraordinarily excellent memory, as is acknowledged even by Christian historians. Whatever they would hear or see, they could remember distinctly and with the utmost sense of responsibility and since Hadith is a holy and religious discipline and an important branch of learning, the greatest care was especially exercised in dealing with it with a scrupulous regard for truth and veracity. The A ha d i th of the Holy Prophet (May peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) were thus transmitted to the succeeding generations with more than usual caution. There is no doubt that some narrators were not so reliable in respect of memory or intelligence, or, for that matter, even in point of integrity, that their reports may be relied on fully. But the early scholars of A ha d i th , who collected the whole body of the sayings and A ha d i th of the Holy