Reason 10 of 10
Islam's practice rests on reports written down centuries later
How to pray, fast, give and live as a Muslim comes mainly from hadith and biography, collected 120 to 250 years after Muhammad. Sunni and Shia Muslims accept largely different collections. The New Testament was written within the lifetime of eyewitnesses.
A timeline
Muhammad died in AD 632. The first full biography, by Ibn Ishaq (died about 767), survives only in later editions, chiefly Ibn Hisham's (died about 833). Al-Bukhari died in 870, Muslim in 875; Abu Dawud, al-Tirmidhi, al-Nasa'i and Ibn Majah completed the six Sunni books by about 915. The four main Shia collections come from al-Kulayni (died 941), Ibn Babawayh (died 991) and al-Tusi (died 1067). Al-Tabari's history and commentary were finished in the early 900s.
Later biographers report that al-Bukhari chose his roughly 7,500 reports (counting repetitions) from hundreds of thousands in circulation. Whatever the exact number, the selection was made more than two centuries after the events.
A book that needs a second book
The Quran calls itself fully explained and an exposition of all things, yet the shape of the daily prayers, the rules of fasting and zakat, and most of Islamic law come from the hadith. A small Quran-only movement rejects the hadith for exactly this reason. Most Muslims accept them because the Quran commands obedience to the messenger.
أَفَغَيْرَ ٱللَّهِ أَبْتَغِى حَكَمًا وَهُوَ ٱلَّذِىٓ أَنزَلَ إِلَيْكُمُ ٱلْكِتَٰبَ مُفَصَّلًا وَٱلَّذِينَ ءَاتَيْنَٰهُمُ ٱلْكِتَٰبَ يَعْلَمُونَ أَنَّهُۥ مُنَزَّلٌ مِّن رَّبِّكَ بِٱلْحَقِّ فَلَا تَكُونَنَّ مِنَ ٱلْمُمْتَرِينَ 114
114Shall I seek other than Allah for judge, when He it is Who hath revealed unto you (this) Scripture, fully explained? Those unto whom We gave the Scripture (aforetime) know that it is revealed from thy Lord in truth. So be not thou (O Muhammad) of the waverers.
Quran 6:114 (Pickthall) · context
وَيَوْمَ نَبْعَثُ فِى كُلِّ أُمَّةٍ شَهِيدًا عَلَيْهِم مِّنْ أَنفُسِهِمْ وَجِئْنَا بِكَ شَهِيدًا عَلَىٰ هَٰٓؤُلَآءِ وَنَزَّلْنَا عَلَيْكَ ٱلْكِتَٰبَ تِبْيَٰنًا لِّكُلِّ شَىْءٍ وَهُدًى وَرَحْمَةً وَبُشْرَىٰ لِلْمُسْلِمِينَ 89
89And (bethink you of) the day when We raise in every nation a witness against them of their own folk, and We bring thee (Muhammad) as a witness against these. And We reveal the Scripture unto thee as an exposition of all things, and a guidance and a mercy and good tidings for those who have surrendered (to Allah).
Quran 16:89 (Pickthall) · context
يَٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوٓا۟ أَطِيعُوا۟ ٱللَّهَ وَأَطِيعُوا۟ ٱلرَّسُولَ وَأُو۟لِى ٱلْأَمْرِ مِنكُمْ فَإِن تَنَٰزَعْتُمْ فِى شَىْءٍ فَرُدُّوهُ إِلَى ٱللَّهِ وَٱلرَّسُولِ إِن كُنتُمْ تُؤْمِنُونَ بِٱللَّهِ وَٱلْيَوْمِ ٱلْـَٔاخِرِ ذَٰلِكَ خَيْرٌ وَأَحْسَنُ تَأْوِيلًا 59
59O ye who believe! Obey Allah, and obey the messenger and those of you who are in authority; and if ye have a dispute concerning any matter, refer it to Allah and the messenger if ye are (in truth) believers in Allah and the Last Day. That is better and more seemly in the end.
Quran 4:59 (Pickthall) · context
مَّن يُطِعِ ٱلرَّسُولَ فَقَدْ أَطَاعَ ٱللَّهَ وَمَن تَوَلَّىٰ فَمَآ أَرْسَلْنَٰكَ عَلَيْهِمْ حَفِيظًا 80
80Whoso obeyeth the messenger hath obeyed Allah, and whoso turneth away: We have not sent thee as a warder over them.
Quran 4:80 (Pickthall) · context
Two communities, two canons
The split over who should lead after Muhammad (Abu Bakr, chosen by the community, or Ali, the Prophet's cousin and son-in-law) hardened after the killing of Ali's son Husayn at Karbala in 680. Sunni and Shia Muslims today rely on largely different hadith collections and judge narrators differently. The Pew Research Center (2009) estimated Shia Muslims at 10-13 percent of the world's Muslims.
The New Testament is first-generation testimony
Paul's letters date from about AD 48-64, within 15 to 35 years of the cross. Most scholars date Mark to about 65-70 and the other Gospels to the following decades. Luke says he investigated from the eyewitnesses; John and Peter write as eyewitnesses.
1Since many have undertaken to set in order a narrative concerning those matters which have been fulfilled among us, 2even as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word delivered them to us, 3it seemed good to me also, having traced the course of all things accurately from the first, to write to you in order, most excellent Theophilus; 4that you might know the certainty concerning the things in which you were instructed.
Luke 1:1-4 (WEB) · context
1That which was from the beginning, that which we have heard, that which we have seen with our eyes, that which we saw, and our hands touched, concerning the Word of life 2(and the life was revealed, and we have seen, and testify, and declare to you the life, the eternal life, which was with the Father, and was revealed to us); 3that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us. Yes, and our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.
1 John 1:1-3 (WEB) · context
16For we didn’t follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.
2 Peter 1:16 (WEB) · context
What Muslims answer
Muslims answer that hadith were memorised and partly written from the first generation, that the isnad (chain of narrators) system tested every report, and that al-Bukhari applied strict criteria.
Why that answer fails
The isnad system mainly tests the chain of narrators rather than the content; Muslim scholars themselves rejected huge numbers of fabricated reports, which shows how many circulated. Whatever its strengths, it reaches back through two centuries of oral transmission that no outside source can check, while the New Testament documents were circulating in the eyewitnesses' lifetime.
Where scholars disagree
- Early written hadith collections (sahifas) existed; scholars debate how much of the later collections they preserve.
Sources
- Earliest source A. Guillaume, The Life of Muhammad (OUP, 1955), introduction on Ibn Ishaq and Ibn Hisham.
- Jonathan A. C. Brown, Hadith: Muhammad's Legacy in the Medieval and Modern World (Oneworld, 2009), on the collections and their compilers.
- Pew Research Center, Mapping the Global Muslim Population (October 2009).
- The Quran, Pickthall translation: 4:59, 4:80, 6:114, 16:89.