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The documentation of Hadiths "Chinese Whispers" We all know that the WHOLE Quran was completely written down when the prophet Muhammed died. We also know that he left clear instructions to the Quran writer about the position of every sura and verse in the Quran. What we now call Prophet Muhammed's hadiths was collected over two hundred years after his death and then allowed to be written years after all the four guided Khalifas refused to permit such writing. The prophet Muhammed himself when he died had no idea about any Hadiths books. Actually, these books recorded more than one hadiths in which the Prophet ordered the true believers not to write ANYTHING but the Quran. For more details please sea the section about the history of the compilation of hadith. Now to the 'Chinese whispers' .......... To understand the reason the hadiths we have today that were attributed to our beloved prophet Muhammed have been so vastly corrupted, I will have to remind you with the "Chinese Whispers". The lecturer in a college course was talking about the verbal transfer of information, demonstrating the effect of verbal transfer of information on altering an original message. What he did was ask 10 people to come forward from his audience ..... he then asked 9 of them to leave the hall, and then gave the one in the hall a small piece of paper to read out to the audience ..... The man read the following extract from the Bible : "After this Jesus went down to Capernaun in company with his mother and followers and his disciples, but they did not stay there long. As it was near the time of the jewish passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. There he found in the temple the dealers in cattle, sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers seated at their tables. Jesus made a whip of cords and drove them out of the temple, sheep, cattle, and all." After that, the lecturer took the piece of paper from the first man put it in his pocket , called the 2nd man in , and asked the first man to repeat to the 2nd man the words that he had just read out from the paper. The man said the following: "After this Jesus went down to Capernaun in company with his mother and his disciples, and they stayed a long time. After that Jesus went back to Jerusalem. Beside the temple he saw people who were buying cattle and pigeons, he also saw money-changers. Jesus kicked them all out." Now the lecturer asked the third man to come in and asked the second man to repeat what he had just heard from the 1st man ....... he in turn said: "After this Jesus went down to Jerusalem with his mother and some of his disciples and stayed for a couple of days .... After that Jesus went back to the temple. Beside the temple he saw people who were buying cattle and pigs, he also saw money-changers. Jesus shouted at them and told them they were wicked." Once again the next man came in , and the message was repeated as follows: "One day Jesus was in Jerusalem with his mother where he was was for many years .... but one day Jesus left Jerusalem and went to a far away. Beside the temple he saw people who were buying horses and pigs, he shouted at them for having so much money and told them that money was wicked." By the time the next man narrated the same story it became: "Jesus was born in Jerusalem and lived with his mother for many years there .... one day Jesus went to the market place in Jerusalem and in the market he saw people who were riding horses and selling pigs, he shouted at them for having so much animals and money asked them to give their money to charity for it is wicked." In turn, the next man said the following: "Jesus was born in Jerusalem and lived with his mother all his life .... one day Jesus went to the market place in Jerusalem and in the market he saw people who were riding horses and selling pigs, he shouted at them for their cruelty to the animals and asked them to give up all their money or to make sure their animals are well fed." In turn, the next man said the following: "Jesus was born in Jerusalem and lived near a market place where there were lots of people mistreating the poor pigs and whipping their horses ......... one day Jesus went to the market place and saw those wicked people who were only interested in selling their pigs, they were very loud and rude to him, so he did not reply back but cursed their money and left ..." Now any of you can go back and read the first account of this story and then once again read this last one which was only the 6th new narration! Moreover, what is important here, is that this incident took place in a period of 10 minutes in a lecture ........ What would be the case of for thousands of hadith, most of them many pages long that were transmitted through many people and over a period of 200 years ??? You must also note that the ten men in the lecture were all honestly trying to repeat the story as best as they can remember ...... thus we cannot accuse them of deliberately trying to corrupt the story they were narrating ......... Similarly , many of the narrators of the hadith may have been honest people, but how accurate can a story be narrated across 200 years and by 6 to 10 different men in a chain???? The following hadith is one example: We should not be surprised to see God clearly telling us in the Quran to follow NO OTHER HADITH but the Quran. "Which Hadith, other than this (Quran), do they uphold?" 77:50 "These are God's revelations that we recite to you truthfully. In which Hadith other than God and His revelations do they believe?" 45:6 "Among the people, there are those who uphold baseless hadith, and thus divert others from the path of God without knowledge, and take it in vain. These have incurred a shameful retribution." 31:6 "God has revealed herein the best Hadith; a book that is consistent, and points out both ways." 39:23 "Let them produce a hadith like this, if they are truthful." 52:34 "Therefore, let Me deal with those who reject this Hadith; we will lead them on whence they never perceive." 68:44 For a detailed historical account of the compilation of hadith please check the article: . Back to ARTICLES page . |
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