Hadith and Sunnah 2 pdf

same Ahأ¥dith in order to test the precision of their memory, and never founda word more or less. 19 All this is quite well-known, and has been narrated inthe biographies, histories and detailed catalogues of the reporters of theHadith, and should suffice to establish the great power of memory thesegreat masters possesed. If one looks carefully into these catalogues, onewould find that the Ahأ¥dith reported by people with a relatively weakmemory have been excluded from the catagory of Sahih (or the mostauthentic) Ahأ¥dith. This again is a sufficient proof for the scrupulous carethat the masters of this science have taken in determining the authenticity ofthe Hadith.20Besides the power of memory, there is another factor as well. Since Allأ¥h,the Almighty, had chosen these august personalities for this task, theirfaculty of memory had been strengthened with Divine help. For example, ina Hadith, Abu Hurayrah relates that once the Prophet (S) said:”He who spreads the mantle would not forget anything that hewould hear from me.” “I spread my mantle until he (concluded)narrating something. I then pressed it against my chest, and so,thereafter, I never forgot anything that I heard from him. “21It would not be proper to raise the objection here that we have justpresented a Hadith in support of our argument, while the very validity of theHadith, as such, is in dispute. As a matter of fact, all the Ahأ¥dith of theProphet (S) are not in dispute, but only those which have a bearing on theinjunctions of the Sharicah. The Hadith we have just referred to only relatesan incident. Such Ahأ¥dith fall into the catagory of the science of history,which is unanimously accepted as a valid standard of reference in anargument. Besides, we ourselves hear of people in our own day who possessextraordinary memories.22So much for the power of memory. Now, the zeal and incentive of thosescholars for committing the Hadith to memory and for transmitting themintact is evident. Among the incentives behind this zeal were the praises andprayers of reward the Holy Prophet (S) offered for such as guarded hisSunnah. For example, the Prophet (S) said:”May Allأ¥h grant happiness to the man who heard what I hadsaid, then committed it to memory, preserved it intact, andtransmitted it to others exactly as he had heard it. “2316