Hadiths are of great value not only as the words of a prophet who enlightens people on the issues they dispute and to whom the Qur’ân al-kerîm, the source of guidance and mercy, was revealed (al-Nahl 16/44, 64), but also as the opinion of the Messenger of Allah, who understood the Qur’ân better than anyone else and knew best what the divine intention was in the verses. Among the divine commands that the Prophet explained to people through his words and demonstrated their implementation through his actions are prayer, fasting, zakat and hajj. Issues such as the times of prayers, how many rak’ahs and how to perform them, how to fast, from which goods and how much to pay zakat, and how to perform hajj were not included in the Qur’an, but were clarified by hadiths, and many issues related to Islamic law were resolved with the information given in the hadiths. In addition, verses in the Qur’an whose meaning cannot be easily understood because they can be interpreted in several ways (mushkil), verses in which narrower meanings are meant by wide-ranging expressions, such as the interpretation of shirk with the word “oppression”, can also be interpreted with hadith narrations. Hadiths have also clarified many issues that are not included in the Qur’an and have shown ways of application in these matters. For example, issues such as a woman cannot make up the prayers that she cannot perform during her menstrual period, a man cannot marry his wife’s aunt and aunt over his wife, it is forbidden to marry those who are forbidden to marry due to proximity by descent, and the Prophet has resolved issues such as the forbidden to marry those who are forbidden to marry due to proximity by milk, the right of shuf’a, and the provisions regarding inheritance that will fall to the grandmother and paternal relatives.

Issues related to the hereafter such as grave life, resurrection, judgement, account, mîzan, heaven and hell life, which are mentioned in the Qur’an but not much information is given about them, can also be learnt through hadiths. Hadiths also contain extensive information on moral virtues, rules that will ensure spiritual and moral development, behaviour patterns necessary for a regular family life, provisions regulating social and commercial relations between people, ruler-governed relations, etc.

The fact that obedience to the Prophet is enjoined in more than thirty verses (see ʿAbd al-Bālāqī, al-Muʿjam, “ṭwʿa”, “rasūl”), and especially that there is a definite command, “Whatever the Messenger gives you, take it, and whatever he forbids you, avoid it” (al-Hashr 59/7), indicates that the Messenger’s practice should be adopted even in matters not explicitly mentioned in the Qur’ān. The verses stating that Muslims do not have the opportunity to act contrary to the judgements of Allah and the Prophet (al-Ahzâb 33/36), that they will not be considered as believers unless they appoint the Prophet as arbitrator in their disputes and submit to his judgement (al-Nisâ 4/65), and that the Messenger of Allah is a good example for those who hope in Allah and the Last Day and remember Allah much (al-Ahzâb 33/21). The Prophet’s words and deeds are of indispensable importance for Muslims. Verses such as “Allah has sent down to you the Book and wisdom and taught you what you do not know” (al-Nisā 4/113) and “Remember the signs of Allah and wisdom recited in your houses and reflect on them” (al-Ahzāb 33/34) are considered to refer to the Prophet’s Sunnah in word and deed, especially when they are mentioned side by side with the Qur’an (Shāfiʿī, al-Risāla, pp. 78, 93, 103). The fact that the verses that command belief in and obedience to Allah also stipulate belief in and obedience to the Messenger of Allah reinforces this opinion of the scholars. Expressions such as “Allah said this” or “My Lord commanded me this” in some hadiths indicate that some of the hadiths of the Messenger of Allah are the product of revelation. When such narrations, which are called “sacred hadiths”, are repeated in different parts of the same hadith book or when they are included in another hadith book, the absence of the phrase “Allah said this”, which indicates that they are sacred hadiths, leads to the belief that sacred hadiths are too many to be identified (Ibn Hajar, Feth al-bārī, I, 174). It is known that the view that hadiths, like the Qur’an, are the product of revelation goes back at least to Hassān b. Atiyya (d. 130/748 [?]) (al-Dārimī, “Muḳaddimah,” 49). Imam al-Shāfiʿī, who held the same view as the majority of Islamic scholars, considered the Qurʾān to be revelation in the form of metateuch (read revelation), whereas he considered the sunnah, or hadīth, to be revelation in the form of unmetateuch (unread revelation). However, hadiths differ from the Qur’an in that neither the words nor the meaning belongs to God, they are not infallible in both words and meaning, they are not written down by the order of the Prophet himself, and they are not memorised and recited for the purpose of worship.

According to the majority of Islamic scholars, the words of hadiths belong to the Prophet, while their meaning and concept belong to God. For this reason, holy and prophetic hadiths are also called “revelation-i hafî” as well as “revelation-i unseen”. According to Muhammad Hamīdullah, since the Messenger of Allah was a messenger sent by Allah, he, like every messenger, had to speak and act according to the instructions of the sender in matters related to his mission. As a matter of fact, the verse “Whatever the messenger brings you, take it, and whatever he forbids you, avoid it” (al-Hashr 59/7) proves this (IA, XI, 243). As a matter of fact, Imam Shafi’i must have acted with the same logic, for he stated that there were two types of Allah’s commands to the Prophet and called the first one “revelation” (Qur’an) and the second one “messenger” (al-Üm, V, 127).

Those who argue that the words and meanings of the hadiths originate from revelation say that they were either revealed through Jabrā’il (al-Dārimī, “Muḳaddima,” 49; Shāṭibī, IV, 24) or inspired in sleep or wakefulness. Jabrāl came to the Prophet from time to time in human form. Jabrāl came to the Prophet in human form from time to time and explained the nature and practice of certain acts of worship (Musnad, II, 325; IV, 129, 161, Muslim, “Masājid”, 166, 167) and explained the questions that Jewish scholars asked or were going to ask in order to test the Prophet (Musnad, III, 108, 113), and the Prophet’s teaching the answers to the questions that some Muslims asked him about matters they did not know shows the close relationship of hadith and sunnah with revelation (Bukhārī, “Hajj”, 17, “Umrah”, 10, “Feżāʾil al-Ḳurʾān”, 2). Scholars point out that some verses indicate that the Prophet received revelation from Allah other than the Qur’ān. For example, the Messenger of Allah, who confided a secret to Hafsa, warned her not to tell it to anyone, but Hafsa told the secret to ‘A’ishah, and Allah reported it to His Messenger, who then narrated the incident in the Qur’ān (al-Tahrīm 66/3). In the month of Dhu’l-Qa’dah (March 628), before the Messenger of Allah set out for Mecca to perform ‘umrah, he had a dream that he had entered Mecca and circumambulated it, and he informed his companions about it, but the Prophet could not go beyond Hudaybiyah and had to make a treaty with the Meccans, The fact that some of the Companions expressed their sorrow to the Messenger of Allah and reminded him that his promise had not been fulfilled, the verse pointing to the truth of the Prophet’s dream (al-Fath 48/27), and some other examples reveal that the Messenger of Allah was informed by Allah outside the Qur’anic revelation. Therefore, the Prophet’s role in the hadiths is to express what he has to say in his own words or to demonstrate it through his actions and behaviour. On the other hand, according to the Hanafī imams’ classification of revelation (Erdoğan, pp. 77-78), the Messenger of Allah’s re’y and ijtihad also played a role in the formation of hadiths. However, since the Messenger of Allah was constantly under the control of revelation and his erroneous opinions and judgements on matters related to his prophethood were corrected by revelation (see, for example, al-Anfal 8/67; al-Tawbah 9/43; al-Tahrîm, Abasa 80/1-10), such hadiths were also considered a kind of revelation.

Considering this last view, which is also related to the Messenger of Allah’s attribute of “ismat” and which seems to stem from the idea that he should make accurate judgements due to his high intellectual and mental faculties (fetânet) and extensive experience, the differences of opinion on whether the hadiths should be considered the product of revelation or the opinions and judgements of the Messenger of Allah do not have much practical importance in terms of the value of the hadiths. This is because the fact that the Prophet’s words, deeds and actions related to religion in a broad sense are kept under the supervision of divine authority and corrected when necessary makes it necessary to accept the conformity of hadiths to the purpose of revelation in general and the binding nature of their provisions. All these points also show the legal value of the Prophet’s hadith and Sunnah. The verses pointing to the prestige of the Messenger of Allah and the importance of his judgements reveal that his words, commands and prohibitions cannot be separated from the Qur’anic judgements and that they should be accepted as part of Islamic judgements (Shāṭibī, IV, 14-15). The Prophet expressed this by saying, “I was given the Book and another like it” (Abu Dāwūd, “Sunnah”, 5). When Muâz b. Jabal was to be sent to Yemen as a governor, he told the Prophet that he would consult the Prophet’s Sunnah on matters that he could not find in the Qur’an, and this was welcomed by the Messenger of Allah, and the fact that Abu Bakr and ‘Umar consulted hadith on matters that they could not find in the Qur’an during their caliphate shows that sunnah and hadith are the second source to be consulted after the Qur’an. All the imams of all sects have stated that if their views contradict a true hadith, they abandoned their personal views and adopted that hadith. Imam Shafi’i’s statement, “Is there any other evidence but the word of the Messenger of Allah?” (Sha’rānī, I, 212) reflects the viewpoint of the first imams towards hadīth.

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