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The Qur'an does not constitute the sole source of
doctrine and legislation in Islam. During Muhammad's life
and after his death, complementary information of a
legislative nature was indeed sought in the study of the
words and deeds of the Prophet.
Although writing was used in the transmission of
hadith from the very beginning, a lot of this came also
from the oral tradition. Those who undertook to assemble
them in collections made the kind of enquiries which are
always very taxing before recording accounts of past
events. They nevertheless had a great regard for accuracy
in their arduous task of collecting information. This is
illustrated by the fact that for all of the Prophet's
sayings, the most venerable collections always bear the
names of those responsible for the account, going right
back to the person who first collected the information
from members of Muhammad's family or his companions.
A very large number of collections of the Prophet's
words and deeds thus appeared under the title of Hadiths.
The exact meaning of the word is 'utterances', but it is
also customary to use it to mean the narration of his
deeds.
Some of the collections were made public in the
decades following Muhammad's death. Just over two hundred
years were to pass before some of the most important
collections appeared. The most authentic record of the
facts is in the collections of Al Bukhari and Muslim,
which date from over two hundred years after Muhammad and
which provide a wider trustworthy account. In recent
years, a bilingual Arabic/English edition has been
provided by Doctor Muhammed Muhsin Khan, of the Islamic
University of Madina. [ Pub. Sethi Straw Board Mills (Conversion) Ltd and
Taleem-ul-Qur'an Trust, Gujranwala, Cantt. Pakistan. 1st
edition 1971, for Sahih Al Bukhari.] Al Bukhari's work is generally
regarded as the most authentic after the Qur'an and was
translated into French (1903-1914) by Houdas and Marcais
under the title Les Traditions Islamiques (Islamic
Traditions). The Hadiths are therefore accessible to
those who do not speak Arabic. One must, however, be wary
of certain translations made by Europeans, including the
French translation, because they contain inaccuracies and
untruths which are often more of interpretation than of
actual translation. Sometimes, they considerably change
the real meaning of a hadith, to such an extent indeed
that they attribute a sense to it which it does not
contain.
As regards their origins, some of the hadiths and
Gospels have one point in common which is that neither of
them was compiled by an author who was an eyewitness of
the events he describes. Nor were they compiled until
some time after the events recorded. The hadiths, like
the Gospels, have not all been accepted as authentic.
Only a small number of them receive the quasi-unanimous
approval of specialists in Muslim Tradition so that,
except al-Muwatta, Sahih Muslim and Sahih al-Bukhari, one
finds in the same book, hadiths presumed to be authentic
side by side with ones which are either dubious, or
should be rejected outright.
In contrast to Canonic Gospels which though questioned
by some modern scholars but which have never been
contested by Christian high authorities, even those
hadiths that are most worthy to be considered as
authentic have been the subject of criticism. Very early
in the history of Islam, masters in Islamic thought
exercised a thorough criticism of the hadiths, although
the basic book (The Qur'an) remained the book of
reference and was not to be questioned.
I thought it of interest to delve into the literature
of the hadiths to find out how Muhammad is said to have
expressed himself, outside the context of written
Revelation, on subjects that were to be explained by
scientific progress in following centuries. Al-though
Sahih Muslim is also an authentic collection, in this
study 1 have strictly limited myself to the texts of the
hadiths which are generally considered to be the most
authentic, i.e. those of Al Bukhari. I have always tried
to bear in mind the fact that these texts were compiled
by men according to data received from a tradition which
was partially oral and that they record certain facts
with a greater or lesser degree of accuracy, depending on
the individual errors made by those who transmitted the
narrations. These texts are different from other hadiths
which were transmitted by a very large number of people
and are unquestionably authentic. [ Muslim specialists designate the first by the
word Zanni and the second by the word Qat'i.]
I have compared the findings made during an
examination of the hadiths with those already set out in
the section on the Qur'an and modern science. The results
of this comparison speak for themselves. The difference
is in fact quite staggering between the accuracy of the
data contained in the Qur'an, when compared with modern
scientific knowledge, and the highly questionable
character of certain statements in the hadiths on
subjects whose tenor is essentially scientific. These are
the only hadiths to have been dealt with in this study.
Hadiths which have as their subject the interpretation
of certain verses of the Qur'an sometimes lead to
commentaries which are hardly acceptable today.
We have already seen the great significance of one
verse (sura 36, verse 36) dealing with the Sun which
"runs its course to a settled place". Here is
the interpretation given of it in a hadith: "At
sunset, the sun . . . prostrates itself underneath the
Throne, and takes permission to rise again, and it is
permitted and then (a time will come when) it will be
about to prostrate itself . . . it will ask permission to
go on its course . . . it will be ordered to return
whence it has come and so it will rise in the West . .
." (Sahih Al Bukhari). The original text (The Book
of the Beginning of the Creation, Vol. IV page 283, part
54, chapter IV, number 421) is obscure and difficult to
translate. This passage nevertheless contains an allegory
which implies the notion of a course the Sun runs in
relation to the Earth: science has shown the contrary to
be the case. The authenticity of this hadith is doubtful
(Zanni).
Another passage from the same work (The Book of the
Beginning of the Creation, vol. IV page 283, part 54,
chapter 6, number 430) estimates the initial stages in
the development of the embryo very strangely in time: a
forty-day period for the grouping of the elements which
are to constitute the human being, another forty days
during which the embryo is represented as 'something
which clings', and a third forty-day period when the
embryo is designated by the term 'chewed flesh'. Once the
angels have intervened to define what this individual's
future is to be, a soul is breathed into him. This
description of embryonic evolution does not agree with
modern data.
Whereas the Qur'an gives absolutely no practical
advice on the remedial arts, except for a single comment (sura 16, verse 69) on the possibility of using honey as
a therapeutic aid (without indicating the illness
involved), the hadiths devote a great deal of space to
these subjects. A whole section of Al Bukhari's
collection (part 76) is concerned with medicine. In the
French translation by Houdas and Marcais it goes from
page 62 to 91 of volume 4, and in Doctor Muhammad Muhsin
Khan's bilingual Arabic/English edition from page 395 to
452, of volume VII. There can be no doubt that these
pages contain some hadiths which are conjectural (Zanni),
but they are interesting as a whole because they provide
an outline of the opinions on various medical subjects
that it was possible to hold at the time. One might add
to them several hadiths inserted in other parts of Al
Bukhari's collection which have a medical tenor.
This is how we come to find statements in them on the
harms caused by the Evil Eye, witchcraft and the
possibility of exorcism; although a certain restriction
is imposed on the paid use of the Qur'an for this
purpose. There is a hadith which stresses that certain
kinds of date may serve as protection against the effects
of magic, and magic may be used against poisonous
snakebites.
We should not be surprised however to find that at a
time when there were limited possibilities for the
scientific use of drugs, people were advised to rely on
simple practices; natural treatments such as
blood-letting, cupping, and cauterization, head-shaving
against lice, the use of camel's milk and certain seeds
such as black cumin, and plants such as indian Qust. It
was also recommended to burn a mat made of palm-tree
leaves and put the ash from it into a wound to stop
bleeding. In emergencies, all available means that might
genuinely be of use had to be employed. It does not seem-a
priori-to be a very good idea, however, to suggest
that people drink camel's urine.
It is difficult today to subscribe to certain
explanations of subjects related to various illnesses.
Among them, the following might be mentioned:
--the origins of a fever. there are four statements
bearing witness to the fact that "fever is from the
heat of hell" (Al Bukhari, The Book of Medicine,
vol. VII, chapter 28, page 416).
--the existence of a remedy for every illness:
"No disease God created, but He created its
treatment" (Ibid. chapter 1, page 396). This concept
is illustrated by the Hadith of the Fly. "If a fly
falls into the vessel of any of you, let him dip all of
it (into the vessel) and then throw it away, for in one
of its wings there is a disease and in the other there is
healing (antidote for it). i.e. the treatment for that
disease" (Ibid. chapter 15-16, pages 462-463, also
The Book of the Beginning of Creation part 54, chapters
15 & 16.)
--abortion provoked by the sight of a snake (which can
also blind). This is mentioned in The Book of the
Beginning of Creation, Vol. IV(chapter 13 and 14, pages
330 & 334).
--haemorrhages between periods. The Book of Menses
(Menstrual Periods) Vol. VI, part 6, pages 490 & 495
contains two hadiths on the cause of haemorrhages between
periods (chapters 21 & 28). They refer to two women:
in the case of the first, there is a description (undetailed) of the symptoms, with a statement that the
haemorrhage comes from a blood vessel; in the second, the
woman had experienced haemorrhages between periods for
seven years, and the same vascular origin is stated. One
might suggest hypotheses as to the real causes of the
above, but it is not easy to see what arguments could
have been produced at the time to support this diagnosis.
This could nevertheless have been quite accurate.
--the statement that diseases are not contagious. Al
Bukhari's collection of hadiths refers in several places
(chapters 19, 25, 30, 31, 53 and 54, Vol. VII, part 76,
of the Book of Medicine) to certain special cases, e.g.
leprosy (page 408), plague (pages 418 & 422), camel's
scabies (page 447), and also provides general statements.
The latter are however placed side by side with glaringly
contradictory remarks: it is recommended, for example,
not to go to areas where there is plague, and to stay
away from lepers.
Consequently, it is possible to conclude that certain
hadiths exist which are scientifically unacceptable.
There is a doubt surrounding their authenticity. The
purpose of reference to them lies solely in the
comparison that they occasion with the verses of the
Qur'an mentioned above: these do not contain a single
inaccurate statement. This observation clearly has
considerable importance.
One must indeed remember that at the Prophet's death,
the teachings that were received from this fell into two
groups:
--firstly, a large number of Believers knew the Qur'an by
heart because, like the Prophet, they had recited it
many, many times; transcriptions of the text of the
Qur'an already existed moreover, which were made at the
time of the Prophet and even before the Hegira [ The Hegira was in 622, ten years before
Muhammad's death.].
-secondly, the members of his following who were
closest to him and the Believers who had witnessed his
words and deeds had remembered them and relied on them
for sUPport, in addition to the Qur'an, when defining a
nascent doctrine and legislation.
In the years that were to follow the Prophet's death,
texts were to be compiled which recorded the two groups
of teachings he had left. The first gathering of hadiths
was performed roughly forty years after the Hegira, but a
first collection of Qur'anic texts had been made
beforehand under Caliph Abu Bakr, and in particular
Caliph Uthman, the second of whom published a definitive
text during his Caliphate, i.e. between the twelfth and
twenty-fourth years following Muhammad's death.
What must be heavily stressed is the disparity between
these two groups of texts, both from a literary point of
view and as regards their contents. It would indeed be
unthinkable to compare the style of the Qur'an with that
of the hadiths. What is more, when the contents of the
two texts are compared in the light of modern scientific
data, one is struck by the oppositions between them. I
hope I have succeeded in showing what follows:
--on the one hand, statements in the Qur'an which often
appear to be commonplace, but which conceal data that
science was later to bring to light.
--on the other hand, certain statements in the hadiths
which are shown to be in absolute agreement with the
ideas of their times but which contain opinions that are
deemed scientifically unacceptable today. These occur in
an aggregate of statements concerning Islamic doctrine
and legislation, whose authenticity is unquestioningly
acknowledged.
Finally, it must be pointed out that Muhammad's own
attitude was quitedifferent towards the Qur'an from what
it was towards his personal sayings. The Qur'an was
proclaimed by him to be a divine Revelation. Over a
period of twenty years, the Prophet classified its
sections with the greatest of care, as we have seen. The
Qur'an represented what had to be written down during his
own lifetime and learned by heart to become part of the
liturgy of prayers. The hadiths are said, in principle,
to provide an account of his deeds and personal
reflections, but he left it to others to find an example
in them for their own behaviour and to make them public
however they liked: he did not give any instructions.
In view of the fact that only a limited number of
hadiths may be considered to express the Prophet's
thoughts with certainty, the others must contain the
thoughts of the men of his time, in particular with
regard to the subjects referred to here. When these
dubious or inauthentic hadiths are compared to the text
of the Qur'an, we can measure the extent to which they
differ. This comparison highlights (as if there were
still any need to) the striking difference between the
writings of this period, which are riddled with
scientific inaccurate statements, and the Qur'an, the
Book of Written Revelation, that is free from errors of
this kind. [ The truth of the
hadiths, from a religious point
of view, is beyond question. When they deal, however,
with earthly affairs there is no difference between the
Prophet and other humans. One hadith gives an account of
an utterance of the Prophet: "Whenever I command you
to do something related to Religion do obey, and if I
command you something according to my own opinion (do
remember this) I am a human being".
Al Saraksi in his 'Principles' (Al Usul) transmitted this
statement as follows: "If I bring something to you
on your religion, do act according to it, and if I bring
you something related to this world, then you have a
better knowledge of your own earthly affairs".]
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