The ‘first’ hadees

• Or how the Prophetic (PBUH) narrations get misunderstood

‘Deeds depend upon intentions; and every person will get rewarded according to what he has intended.’ While this does happen to be the first Prophetic narration in Sahih Bukhari (the collection held to be most authentic by Sunni Muslims), of course it’s not the ‘first’ hadees. But it’s one of the most popular: ask any child to recall a Prophetic narration, and chances are that he will come up with this one. It is also included in Sahih Muslim (second in reliability only to Sahih Bukhari) with slight variation in words. It being so well-known makes it a good example of how easily the narrations can get misunderstood – even simple ones that don’t contain the intricacies of jurisprudence.

There’s no dearth of Muslims who quote the above narration (to themselves if not to others) to justify all sorts of shady deals and dubious acts on their part. What has been quoted above is only a part of the narration, and that is how it is usually reproduced. Reading of the complete text makes it sufficiently clear that what is at issue is the question of emigration (something which is legitimate in itself); and according to the narration one should expect the rewards to be according to his intentions: whether it was done for economic prosperity, for romantic purposes (to marry a woman), or for the sake of one’s religion. The action in question needs to be legitimate. Seen in context, there’s very little room for doubt about the meaning. Quoted as a one-liner (as is often done) leaves the door open to multiple interpretations, including the one that justifies illegitimate actions based on ‘good’ intentions. This can be dangerous, for the author has yet to meet a man who has anything but the best of intentions always.

Of course, by quoting out of context one can give any number of interpretations to Quranic verses too. A well-known example is verse 56:79 which, if taken in context, is clearly addressing the matter of accurate transmission of Quranic verses. Many jurists on the other hand, by taking it out of its context, have concluded from it that one must be in a state of ablution (wuzu) before touching the Quran. So, the context is all-important when it comes to understanding the Quran too; but it’s always there right where a given verse has came from. That’s because the Quran is a coherent book – by the Almighty, no less. While with some effort one can look up the context before making up one’s mind about the meaning of a narration (like we did above), in many cases one can never be sure whether the available context is complete or has been arbitrarily narrated. That’s because the hadees literature is essentially a collection of random incidents and sayings; and figuring out the correct context can often be tricky, if not impossible.

The chain of narrators and the reliability of each person in the chain has of course been the focus of much attention in the study of hadees literature. The narration we have chosen is sound in this respect

The chain of narrators and the reliability of each person in the chain has of course been the focus of much attention in the study of hadees literature. The narration we have chosen is sound in this respect. Also, it is originally narrated by Umar (RA), testimony to whose carefulness in such matters is the fact that he is the source of only a handful of narrations despite being such a close companion of the Prophet (PBUH) for so many years.

So, we move on to the matter of words. Religion is discourse, and in discourse words are pivotal; for they often affect meanings. The Prophetic narrations are for the most part claimed to have preserved meaning instead of the actual words (Prophetic supplications and prayers transmitted verbatim being the rare exceptions). Preservation of meaning on the part of multiple narrators naturally leaves ample room for variation in the actual words used in each telling. Oral culture or not, the human memory has its limitations when it comes to remembering and recalling prose. The narration we are discussing here is not only worded slightly differently in Muslim; but also provides some more explanation than it does in Bukhari. In this case however, neither of these things changes the meaning in any significant manner.

In summary, our ‘first’ hadees has all the things going in its favour: it’s short; it comes with its context; it has a sound chain of narrators; the words are simple enough not to have ambiguity in their meanings. But it still gets misunderstood by so many Muslims. By no means all narrations have all these things going for them. They are therefore even more prone to being misunderstood. The hadees literature provides invaluable information about the seventh century Hijaz – something not offered by too many other sources. What’s more, this literature is more than just a source of history for it touches upon aspects of religion as well. For both these reasons, it’s vitally important that the Prophetic narrations be understood in the light of the Quran – about which there are no doubts regarding accuracy of transmission, context, or words – and not the other way around, as way too many Muslims propose to do.