The term that expresses the words, actions and approvals of the Prophet; the science of determining, transmitting and understanding hadiths.

HISTORY

Etymology and Scope. The word hadîs (plural al-haâdîs), which is the opposite of qadîm meaning “old”, is a noun from the masdar tahdîs and means “news”. Any word that is transmitted to a person while he is awake or asleep by being announced or revealed to him, as well as a parable (“hadîth al-Mûsâ” [al-Tâhâ 20/9; al-Nâziât 79/15], “hadîth al-jünûd” [al-Burûj 85/17]) and a speech is called hadîth. In various verses, the Qur’ân al-kerîm is referred to as “hâza al-hadîs” (al-Kahf 18/6; al-Najm 53/59; al-Wâqiya 56/81), “ahsan al-hadîs” (al-Zumar 39/23). The Prophet also used the terms “ahsan al-ḥadīth, hayr al-ḥadīth, asdak al-ḥadīth” to refer to the Qur’an (al-Bukhārī, “Edeb”, 70, “Iʿtiṣām”, 2; Muslim, “Jumuʿa”, 43; al-Nasaʿī, “Ṣalāt al-ʿīdeyn”, 22). According to al-Farāʾ, the word ḥadīth is the plural of ḥadīth, which means “what is spoken”, but later came to be used as the plural of hadīth. The fact that the expression “hadīth al-nabī” is common but “uhdūset al-nabī” is not used shows this.

The word hadith gained a different meaning with Islam, and the words of the Messenger of Allah were called “al-ahādīs al-kawliyya”, his actions were called “al-ahādīs al-fi’liyya” and the things he approved (taqrīr) were called “al-ahādīs al-takrīriyya” (Abū al-Bekā, pp. 370, 402). Hadith scholars also included the Prophet’s characteristics related to his creation (shamāil) and his moral qualities within the scope of hadīth. It is understood that the Messenger of Allah used the word hadith for the first time about his own words. As a matter of fact, when Abu Huraira asked who would be the first to be granted his intercession on the Day of Judgement, the Messenger of Allah said, “O Abu Huraira! I was expecting that you would be the first to ask about this hadith because I knew your curiosity about it” (Bukhārī, “ʿIlm”, 33; “Riḳāḳ”, 51). He approved of the female Companions’ use of the word hadith when they asked the Prophet to set aside a day to converse with them, saying, “Only men benefit from your words (bihadīsike)” (al-Bukhārī, “Iʿtiṣām”, 9), and in the period of the Companions and later periods, this word was used to mean the words of the Messenger of Allah (saw) and the news reporting his actions and approvals.

Some scholars expanded the scope of the term hadīth to include the personal statements and fatwas of the Companions and the tābi’in and called the hadīths of the Prophet merfū, those of the Companions mawquf, and those of the tābi’in maktū (Ibn Ḥajar, al-Tahẕīb al-Tahẕīb, VII, 33). Later, when the word haber came to be used to denote all of the terms merfū, mawqūf, and maqtūf, some scholars called only merfū narrations and others called both merfū and mawqūf narrations hadīth. Again, in the early periods, the word hadith was also used to express all kinds of news belonging to the Companions and the Tâbi’een, together with the words, deeds and actions of the Messenger of Allah (saw). Although there are different opinions about the scope of hadith and sunnah, the use of these two terms as synonyms for the words, deeds and actions of the Messenger of Allah has been more accepted, especially among hadith scholars. Some scholars extended the framework of sunnah and hadith even further and included the Prophet’s ethics, shamāil, and what he said and did before his prophethood (Ibn Taymiyya, XVIII, 10; Kashf al-ẓẓunūn, I, 635-636). Since the second (VIIIth) century, one of the terms used to express hadith is ‘ilm. It is understood that the Qur’an, hadith, and fiqh were included in the scope of the word ‘ilm in the early periods, but later hadith was mostly meant by the word ‘ilm (Imtiyāz Ahmad, pp. 110-123). The author: M. YAŞAR KANDEMIR

This article appeared in the 15th volume of the TDV Encyclopaedia of Islam, published in Istanbul in 1997, on pages 27-64.