GOING SWIMMING FULLY CLOTHED A Brief Introduction to Islamic Law | Hadiths (2nd draft) Origin Hadiths (or hadith, in English academic usage hadith is often both singular and plural) are the written recollections of the Prophet’s Sunnah (way of the Prophet). Hadiths are also referred to as Traditions of the Prophet or simply tradition. Most were collected approximately 200 years after his passing. A authenticated hadith in Islam is a legal precedent if it does not contradict the Koran. Sunni Islam considers the hadiths collected by six men – al-Bukhari, Imam Muslim, At-Tirmidi, Ibn Majah, Abu Dawood and An-Nisa’i – as the “six canonical collections.” Al-Bukhari's collection of 7,275 hadiths is considered the most authoritative. All of Bukhari’s (d. 870) and Imam Muslim’s (d. 875) hadiths as authenticated hadiths for Sunnis. Hadiths are hearsay evidence of what the Prophet Muhammad said or did, including the silent approval of actions done in his presence. An example of the Prophet's silent approval (he did not object) of beating a wife who asks for money: ... Umar then came forward, and when he had asked and had been granted permission he found the Prophet sitting sad and silent with his wives around him. He told that he decided to say something which would make the Prophet laugh, so he said, "Messenger of God, I wish you had seen the daughter of Kharija when she asked me for extra money and I got up and slapped her on the neck." God's messenger laughed and said, "They are around me as you see asking for extra money." Abu Bakr then got up, went to A'isha and slapped her on the neck, and Umar did the same to Hafsa ... Muslim An example of what the Prophet did that became law. In Islam a wife always walks behind her husband. The precedent was set by the Prophet who beat his child-bride for preceding him into his home (in Islam the family home is the property of the husband). ... He (Muhammad b. Qais) then reported that it was 'A'isha who had narrated this ... "He came (to the house) and I also came (to the house). I, however, preceded him and I entered (the house), and as I lay down in the bed, he (the Holy Prophet) entered the (house), and said: Why is it, O 'A'isha, that you are out of breath? I said: There is nothing. He said: Tell me or the Subtle and the Aware would inform me. I said: Messenger of Allah, may my father and mother be ransom for you, and then I told him (the whole story). He said: Was it the darkness (of your shadow) that I saw in front of me? I said: Yes. He struck me on the chest which caused me pain, and then said: Did you think that Allah and His Apostle would deal unjustly?" Muslim A authenticated (sahih) or good (hasan) hadith is one that can be traced to a witness (often referred to as Companions of the Prophet) of what the Prophet said or did, or did not do, via of chain of reliable transmitters. A weak (dhaeef) hadith is one where there is a break in the chain of transmitters and/or the integrity of the narrator(s) is suspect. A weak hadith can still be considered a legal precedent depending on the circumstances and the mainstream school of Islamic law. There are four mainstream Sunni schools of law (Hanafi, Shafi, Maliki and Hanbali) and two for Shiites (Ja’fari and Zaydi). All the schools were founded in the first two century of Islam and are named after their founder. There is no such thing as a modern school of Islamic jurisprudence. The Hanbali school is the most conservative and relies almost solely on the Koran and the hadiths for its rulings. It is the school of law favoured by those who subscribe to Wahhabism and wish to practice, or return to a purer form of Islam such as Saudi Arabia and Al-Qaeda respectively. Shiites consider the recollections of the Companions of the Prophet suspect because they voted Abu Bakr, a good friend of the Prophet to whom he had given his nine old daughter Aisha in marriage, his successor when God’s Messenger passed away instead of Ali, the Prophet's cousin and son-in-law. It is said that Ali was busy arranging his father-in-law's funeral when the vote was taken which is why he was overlooked. Shiites have developed their own books of hadiths which are largely based on what members of the “House of the Prophet” reported; that would be the Prophet’s daughter Fatima, Ali, and Ali’s two sons, Hassan and Hussein. The collected hadiths of the Prophet are estimated to number more than 70,000, although authenticated hadiths such as those that are part of the Sunni cannon number less than 20,000. We would not have the books of hadiths if the Prophet's wishes, expressed in a hadith, had not been ignored or judged to no longer apply. In a hadith collected by Imam Muslim, God's Messenger specifically requested that what he said and did not be written down unless it was part of the Koran. Do not write anything from me EXCEPT the Qur'an. Anyone who wrote anything other than the Qur'an shall erase it. This hadith is considered authentic by Sunnis even if it contradicts another tradition of the Prophet that the Koran be committed to memory and not written down. As explained in an earlier chapter, it was the Prophet's successor Abu Bakr who decided to make a written record of Allah's revelations to His Messenger, after 70 of the best memorizers of the Koran were killed putting down a rebellion against Muslim rule in the south of the Arabian Peninsula. The ban on recording hadiths remained in effect until about a century after the Prophet’s death. The collection and codification of hadiths lasted about two hundred years after which the books of hadiths were officially closed and no further modifications or additions allowed. Three centuries after the Prophet’s death it was decided that whatever questions humanity had about the nature of its existence, and what god expected from His creation could be found in the Koran and/or in the books of hadiths. Former nun and prolific writer on religion, Karen Armstrong, an unabashed fan of the Prophet (her latest panegyric to God’s Messenger is brazenly titled Muhammad: A Prophet for Our Time), writes in Islam, A Short History (2002) that hadiths were made necessary because: The Quran contains very little legislation, and what laws there were had been designed for a much simpler society. So some of the jurists began to collect reports about the Prophet and his companions to find out how they had behaved in a given situation … Thus they believed they would gain true ilm, knowledge of what was right and how to behave. (p.49) This development of hadith literature she explains, meant that: ...the Prophet, the Perfect Man, became the person to imitate. By imitating the smallest details of his external life and by reproducing the way he ate, washed, loved, spoke and prayed, Muslims hoped to acquire his interior attitude of perfect surrender to God. (p. 60) The Science of Hadiths Hadiths being hearsay evidence collected over two centuries after the Prophet’s passing cannot be expected to have the clarity and easy to follow structure of verses from the Koran. Earlier on in Islam, a scientific method, a science of hadiths was developed to ascertain whether a hadith was genuine. A hadith, for example, could not contradict the Koran, that would be like the Prophet contradicting God. One of the narrators of a hadith, of a reputable chain of narrators, had to have heard or seen the Prophet in action. An example of a hadith received by way of Abu Al Nauman, who said he heard it from Said ibn Zayd, who said he heard it from Ali ibn Zayd, who said he heard it from Jabir ibn Abdullah, that the Prophet said: Whoever has three daughters, cares and provides for them, and shows them mercy, will enter Paradise. In the hadiths the Prophet also elaborates on what heaven and hell are like, and who you will find there. For example, if it wasn't for the hadiths we would not be aware that the vast majority of human beings on fire in Allah's Hell are females, mothers mostly. Ibn Abbas reported that Allah's Messenger said: I had a chance to look into paradise and I found that [the] majority of the people was poor and I looked into the Fire and there I found the majority constituted by women. Muslim Imran b. Husain reported that Allah's Messenger said: Amongst the inmates of Paradise the women would form a minority. Muslim And why it is it life-givers that Allah will take pleasure in torturing when they cross into His Dominion. Narrated Ibn 'Abbas: The Prophet said: "I was shown the Hell-fire and that the majority of its dwellers were women who were ungrateful." It was asked, "Do they disbelieve in Allah?" (or are they ungrateful to Allah?) He replied, "They are ungrateful to their husbands and are ungrateful for the favors and the good (charitable deeds) done to them. Bukhari What do these observations about women in hell, why they are there and other observations of women's many failings, to be introduced later, and which will condemn more of them to burn in hell for an eternity have to do with Islamic law? EVERYTHING, and those who see no harm in establishing Sharia tribunals to deal with financial and family matters please take note. There is the concept in Western law that, not only are men and women equal before the Law, but also that the presiding judge not be biased as to whom to believe in disputes involving members of the opposite sex e.g. a husband and wife. Allah's revelations and His Messenger equally depreciating observations about women are part and parcel of Islamic law and can only prejudice the men who sit in judgment* to rule in favour of the men who appear before them. ------------ * Females cannot sit on Islamic tribunals. Islam considers female unfit to do so sit in on such tribunals because of what the Prophet called "a deficiency of the woman's mind" and Allah's revelation that men are superior (2:228) therefore more qualified . Hadiths As a Window Into the Prophet's Psyche Islam is a product of the Dark Ages. This is the period in our history generally accepted to be between 400 and 1000 CE when irrational beliefs and fears centered on all-powerful metaphysical being overwhelmed common sense and reason. The Prophet, if not typical of his generation, was a product of his time. The Koran was delivered to the Prophet Muhammad via the Archangel Gabriel. One night the angel did not show up when the Prophet expected him and God’s Messenger blamed a puppy. Maimuna (another of the Prophet's wives) reported that one morning Allah’s Messenger was silent with grief. Maimuna said: "Allah’s Messenger, I find a change in your mood today." Allah’s Messenger said: "Gabriel had promised me that he would meet me tonight, but he did not meet me. By Allah, he never broke his promises," and Allah’s Messenger spent the day in this sad mood. Then it occurred to him that there had been a puppy under their cot. He commanded and it was turned out. He then took some water in his hand and sprinkled it at that place. When it was evening Gabriel met him and he said to him: "You promised me that you would meet me the previous night." He said: "Yes, but we do not enter a house in which there is a dog or a picture." Then on that very morning he commanded the killing of the dogs until he announced that the dog kept for the orchards should also be killed, but he spared the dog meant for the protection of extensive fields or big gardens. Imam Muslim Like his patron Allah, it was the Prophet's prerogative to change his mind. He later amended his order and decreed that only black dogs be killed, and still later, that only black dogs with spots over their eyes be slaughtered. The prophet did not order the killing of all the dogs, for some are to be retained for hunting and watching. He ordered to kill the jet black ones. They might be more mischievous among them. Abu Dawud Abu Zubair heard Jabir Abdullah saying: "Allah's messenger ordered us to kill dogs and we carried out this order so much so that we also killed the dog roaming with a woman from the desert. Then Allah's apostle forbade their killing." He said: "It is your duty to kill the jet-black (dog) having two spots (on the eyes) for it is a devil." Imam Muslim Modern Islamic scholars have argued that the Prophet meant only dogs that were a nuisance, or a danger to the community such as rabid dogs. The Koran, in one verse refers to the Prophet as the "enrobed one", and in another as the "enwrapped one". 74:1 O enrobed one (Muhammad), 74:2 Arise and warn. ---- 73:1 O enwrapped one, 73:2 Keep vigil throughout the night, except for a little while; They are a reference to a trancelike state which sometime overcame the Prophet when he received a revelation from Allah or a vision of heaven or hell. One vision which I am sure Freud would have had a lot to say is, perhaps not surprisingly about women, wives and mothers mostly, roasting in Hell: Narrated Ibn 'Abbas: The Prophet said: "I was shown the Hell-fire and that the majority of its dwellers were women who were ungrateful." It was asked, "Do they disbelieve in Allah?" He replied, "They are ungrateful to their husbands and are ungrateful for the favors and the good done to them. Sahih Bukhari 1:2:28 Narrated Abu Said Al-Khudri: Once Allah's Apostle went out to the Musalla (to offer the prayer)... Then he passed by the women and said, "O women! Give alms, as I have seen that the majority of the dwellers of Hellfire were you (women)..." Sahih Bukhari 1:6:301 The Why and Wherefore of Hadiths The hadiths of the Sunni canon and the Shia collection are meant, in no particular order, to fill in the blanks left by Allah, reinforce what is written in the Koran, clarify God’s intent and, provide a living example in the person of the Prophet as to how to live by the dictates of the Koran. This last, but not least important purpose of the hadiths is why the believers consider the Prophet “the perfect human being”. You question this perfection at your risk and peril as was demonstrated during the so-called “cartoon protest”. Filling in the blanks Prayer The Koran demands that Muslims perform the Pilgrimage (the Hajj) but is short on specifics once you get there. It is the Prophet’s example which serves as a guide and fills in the blanks in Allah instructions. Another example of filling in the blanks might be the five daily prayers performed by Sunnis. The Koran only makes mention of three, maybe four prayers. The Dawn Prayer, the Noon Prayer and Night Prayer in verse 24:58. 24:58 O believers, let those your right hands possess (slaves and maid-servants) and those who have not reached the age of puberty ask your leave three times: (to attend to you or approach you) before the dawn prayer, when you put off your clothes at noon and after the evening prayer. These are three occasions of nudity for you; after which you are or they are not at fault, if you approach each other. That is how Allah makes clear His signs to you. Allah is All-Knowing, Wise. The middle prayer in verse 2:238 is assumed by Fakhry to mean the afternoon prayer. 2:238 Attend regularly to the prayers including the middle prayer, standing up in devotion to Allah. However many hadiths, including the following, contain a reference to five prayers: Abū Hurairah reported that He heard the Messenger, peace and blessings of Allah be on him, say: "Tell me if there is a stream at the door of one of you, in which he bathes five times every day, what dost thou say, will it leave anything of his dirt?" They said, "It would not leave anything of his dirt." He said: "This is the likeness of the five prayers, with which Allah blots out (all) faults." Bukhari Amplification Killing Apostates Allah said! 4:89 They wish that you disbelieve, as they have disbelieved, so that you will all be alike. Do not, then, take any companions from them, until they emigrate in the Way of Allah. Then should they turn back, seize them and kill them wherever you find them; and do not take from them any companions or supporter; The Prophet said! If a Muslim discards his religion, kill him. Bukhari Is it any wonder that Sharia tribunals, and ordinary Muslims are reluctant to show apostates any mercy with both Allah and His Messenger being so unequivocal in their joint denunciation and condemnation of those who would dare leave the perfect religion for one less perfect or no religion at all? Sex on demand Allah revealed to His Messenger that women had no right to refuse sex i.e. a married woman could not be raped 2:223 Your women are a tillage for you. So get to your tillage whenever you like. Do good for yourselves, fear Allah and know that you shall meet Him. And give good news to the believers. The Prophet reinterated Allah’s position in the following hadith: `Ali reported God's messenger as saying, "When a man calls his wife to satisfy his desire she must go to him even if she is occupied at the oven." Mishkat Al-Masabih: volume 2, p. 691 cf Tirmidhi Slavery For revelations about the do's and don'ts of trafficking in humanity and the care and feeding of slaves see appendix Slavery. Dihyah had asked the Messenger for Safiyah when the Prophet chose her for himself... the Apostle traded for Safiyah by giving Dihyah her two cousins. The women of Khaybar were distributed among the Muslims. Tabari VIII:117 Allah granted Rayhana of the Qurayza to Muhammad as booty. Tabari IX:137 From the captives of Hunayn, Allah's Messenger gave [his son-in-law] Ali a slave girl called Baytab and he gave [future Caliph] Uthman a slave girl called Zaynab and [future Caliph] Umar another. Ishaq 953 Believing women could own female slaves. If they were inclined to set them free, the Prophet recommended they give them to an uncle instead. Narrated Kurib: the freed slave of Ibn 'Abbas, that Maimuna bint Al-Harith told him that she manumitted (freed) a slave-girl without taking the permission of the Prophet. On the day when it was her turn to be with the Prophet, she said, "Do you know, O Allah's Apostle, that I have manumitted my slave-girl?" He said, "Have you really?" She replied in the affirmative. He said, "You would have got more reward if you had given her (i.e. the slave-girl) to one of your maternal uncles." Bukhari 47.765 Clarification Graven Images and Children's Toys Islam has a strict prohibition against statues, paintings and drawings of animals and people even though the Koran is not as unequivocal. The verses most often quoted in support of the destruction of most works of art that depict the human form have to do with Allah thundering against those who would associate other gods with Him or worship gods other than His eminence. For the Prophet, lifelike representation in art was a usurpation of Allah's creative talent. A perhaps tenuous example of a hadith used to clarify Allah’s intent: The Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) returned from a trip, and I had draped a cloth with pictures on it over a small closet. When he saw it, he ripped it down, his face colored, and he said, “A’isha, the people most severely tortured by Allah on the Day of Judgment will be those who try to imitate what Allah has created.” Bukhari Does the Islamic prohibition against statues, paintings and drawings of animals and people extend to children’s toys such as dolls and stuffed animals? A believer unsure about whether something is forbidden by God (haram) or is allowed (halal) will usually consult a religious expert on the Prophet’s Sunnah, for example a Mufti, a Muslim scholar. A question to this effect was asked by a concerned father on an Islamic website. The answer to our god-fearing father’s question was provided by Mufti Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi. To support his view that it is acceptable for a Muslim child to play with dolls and animal-like toys, Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi quotes from an authenticated hadith where the Prophet Muhammad’s is reported to have had a favourable reaction when coming across his child-bride Aisha playing with dolls. There are some kinds of three-dimensional figures which are not intended to be accorded respect … Children's playthings such as dolls, in the form of humans, animals, and the like fall into this category. Said the Prophet's wife `A'ishah (may Allah be pleased with her): “I used to play with dolls in the house of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be on him) and my friends would come over to play with me. They would hide when they saw the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) approaching, but he was in fact very happy to see them with me, and so we played together.” Bukhari Coitus interruptus during the rape of captives An example of a revelation within a hadith (both reinforcing each other) meant to reduce the resistance of the believers to raping their female captives in front of their husbands. The Apostle of Allah (may peace be upon him) sent a military expedition to Awtas on the occasion of the battle of Hunain. They met their enemy and fought with them. They defeated them and took them captives. Some of the Companions of the Apostle of Allah (may peace be upon him) were reluctant to have intercourse with the female captives in the presence of their husbands who were unbelievers. So Allah, the Exalted, sent down the Qur’anic verse: (4:24) 'And all married women (are forbidden) unto you save those (captives) whom your right hands possess.' Abu Dawud 2150 Before contraceptive devices were invented e.g. prophylactics, coitus interruptus was the most common way to try to avoid getting a female pregnant. Not something God's Messenger recommended you do, even during the rape of a female prisoner or slave. Narrated Abu Said Al-Khudri: that while he was sitting with Allah's Apostle he said, "O Allah's Apostle! We get female captives as our share of booty, and we are interested in their prices, what is your opinion about coitus interruptus?" The Prophet said, "Do you really do that? It is better for you not to do it. No soul that which Allah has destined to exist, but will surely come into existence." Sahih Bukhari 3:34:432 Abu Sirma said to Abu Sa'id al Khadri (Allah he pleased with him): "0 Abu Sa'id, did you hear Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) mentioning al-'azl?" He said: "Yes," and added: "We went out with Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) on the expedition to the Bi'l- Mustaliq and took captive some excellent Arab women; and we desired them, for we were suffering from the absence of our wives, (but at the same time) we also desired ransom for them. So we decided to have sexual intercourse with them but by observing 'azl (Withdrawing the male sexual organ before emission of semen to avoid conception)." But we said: "We are doing an act whereas Allah's Messenger is amongst us; why not ask him?" So we asked Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him), and he said: "It does not matter if you do not do it, for every soul that is to be born up to the Day of Resurrection will be born." Sahih Wives and their travelling companions Allah said that women should stay in their homes and not display their fineries. 33:33 Stay in your homes and do not display your finery as the pagans of old did: perform the prayer, give the alms and obey Allah and His Messenger. Allah only wishes to turn away abomination from you and purify you fully. O People of the House. But what if they had to travel. God's Messenger said they could (the covered finery is assumed, but only if accompanied by an acceptable male: [The Prophet said] "It is not permissible for a man to be alone with a woman, and no lady should travel except with a Muhram (her husband or a person whom she cannot marry e.g. her father, brother… " Bukhari (52:250) Making a man Muhram through suckling What if a Muhram was not available? According to God's Messenger, a female could make any men Muhram by suckling him. The Koran, to my knowledge, makes no mention of this procedure therefore the following could be considered an addition to Allah's Law: The Ulema' A'isha (Allah be pleased with her) reported that Salim, the freed slave of Abu Hadhaifa, lived with him and his family in their house. She (i. e. the daughter of Suhail came to Allah's Apostle (may peace be upon him) and said: "Salim has attained (puberty) as men attain, and he understands what they understand, and he enters our house freely, I, however, perceive that something (rankles) in the heart of Abu Hudhaifa," whereupon Allah's Apostle (may peace be upon him) said to her: "Suckle him and you would become unlawful for him, and (the rankling) which Abu Hudhaifa feels in his heart will disappear." She returned and said: "So I suckled him, and what (was there) in the heart of Abu Hudhaifa disappeared." Sahih Muslim 8:3425 Wives and the call of nature. Narrated 'Aisha: The Prophet said to his wives, "You are allowed to go out to answer the call of nature. " Bukhari 4:149 But perhaps ask permission first: Muhammad struck his favorite wife, Aisha, in the chest one evening when she left the house without his permission. Aisha narrates, "He struck me on the chest which caused me pain." Muslim 4:2127 Divorcing in a single breath Abd Allah ibn Abbas was a paternal cousin of the Prophet Muhammad. He was a natural to ask about whether the Prophet agreed that a man pronouncing "I divorce you" three times in a single breath was acceptable. Abu al-Sahba' said to Ibn 'Abbas: "Enlighten us with your information whether the three divorces (pronounced at and the same time) were not treated as one during the lifetime of Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) and Abu Bakr." He said: "It was in fact so, but when during the caliphate of 'Umar (Allah be pleased with him) people began to pronounce divorce frequently, he allowed them to do so (to treat pronouncements of three divorces in a single breath as one)." Muslim 9:3493 Remarrying after having been divorced by an impotent man Allah said: 2:230 If he divorces her, she shall not be lawful to him again until she has married another husband. If the latter divorces her, then it is no offence if they go back to each other, if they both think that they shall keep within Allah’s Bounds. Those are Allah’s Bounds which He makes clear to men who have knowledge. What if the next husband is impotent and the marriage ends in divorce and her previous husband wants her back? The Prophet said that she could not return to her previous husband unless she married again and has sex with her new husband and her new husband divorced her. Narrated Aisha: The wife of Rifa'a Al-Qurazi came to the Prophet and said, "I was Rifa'a's wife, but he divorced me and it was a final irrevocable divorce. Then I married AbdurRahman bin Az-Zubair but he is impotent." The Prophet asked her "Do you want to remarry Rifa'a? You cannot unless you had a complete sexual relation with your present husband." Sahih Bukhari 3:48:807 Yahya related to me from Malik… that Rifa'a ibn Simwal divorced his wife, Tamima bint Wahb, in the time of the messenger of Allah three times. She then married 'Abd ar-Rahman ibn az-Zubayr and he turned from her and could not consummate the marriage and so he parted from her. Rifa'a wanted to marry her again and it was mentioned to the Messenger of Allah, and he forbade him to marry her. He said, 'She is not halal for you until she has tasted the sweetness of intercourse.' Al-Muwatta 28 7.17b On Whipping Your Wife You can whip your wife but not as much as you whip a slave, and after you are done with the whipping, you should not have intercourse with her that night. Narrated 'Abdullah bin Zam'a: The Prophet said, "None of you should flog his wife as he flogs a slave and then have sexual intercourse with her in the last part of the day.' Sahih Bukhari 7:62:132 A woman came to Muhammad and begged him to stop her husband from beating her. Her skin was bruised so badly that it was described as being "greener" than the green veil she was wearing. Muhammad did not admonish her husband, but instead ordered her to return to him and submit to his sexual desires. Bukhari 7:72:715 Despite the Prophet's clarifications, how much of a beating and the type of beating a wife should be forced to endured is still the subject of much debate among Islamic scholars. Their debate is highlighted in the chapter on the next source of Islamic law, The Ulema. Prostitution It is not prostitution, the Prophet said, if you marry the prostitute, have sex with her, reward her for her efforts then divorce her after three days unless you wish to continue the relationship. Narrated Abdullah: We used to participate in the holy wars carried on by the Prophet and we had no women (wives) with us. So we said (to the Prophet ). "Shall we castrate ourselves?" But the Prophet forbade us to do that and thenceforth he allowed us to marry a woman (temporarily) by giving her even a garment, and then he recited: "O you who believe! Do not make unlawful the good things which Allah has made lawful for you." Qur'an 5:87 Sahih Bukhari 6:60:139 Narrated Jabir bin 'Abdullah and Salama bin Al-Akwa': While we were in an army, Allah's Apostle came to us and said, "You have been allowed to do the Mut'a (marriage), so do it." Salama bin Al-Akwa' said: Allah's Apostle's said, "If a man and a woman agree (to marry temporarily), their marriage should last for three nights, and if they like to continue, they can do so; and if they want to separate, they can do so." I do not know whether that was only for us or for all the people in general. Abu Abdullah (Al-Bukhari) said: 'Ali made it clear that the Prophet said, "The Mut'a marriage has been cancelled (made unlawful)." Sahih Bukhari 7:62:52 Sabra Juhanni reported: Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) permitted temporary marriage for us. So I and another person went out and saw a woman of Bana 'Amir, who was like a young long-necked she-camel. We presented ourselves to her (for contracting temporary marriage), whereupon she said: "What dower would you give me?" I said: "My cloak." And my companion also said: "My cloak." And the cloak of-my companion was superior to my cloak, but I was younger than he. So when she looked at the cloak of my companion she liked it, and when she cast a glance at me I looked more attractive to her. She then said: "Well, you and your cloak are sufficient for me." I remained with her for three nights, and then Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) said: "He who has any such woman with whom he had contracted temporary marriage, he should let her off. Sahih Muslim 8:3252 Additions The hadith against innovation What about jurisprudence based on hadiths only? With tens of thousands of hadiths informing every waking moment of a believers existence I would not know where to start, therefore I will give you, the hadith about making a man Muhram by sucking him notwithstanding, only one. It is an hadith against what we in the West call progress. This hadith, for all intents and purposes, is the dividing line in the so-called clash of civilizations or what outspoken Syrian-American Wafa Sultan calls "a clash between civilization and backwardness." The hadith against innovation must be taken into account whenever the march of civilization, which radical Islam would see reverse, leads to an invention or a new a way of doing things, no matter how insignificant or convenient, which was not known or available when the Prophet was alive or shortly thereafter. Yaroslav Trofimov, author of Faith at War, A Journey on the Frontlines of Islam (Henry Holt, 2005) writes about a visit to Arabia where the people he meets do not use toilet paper because it did not exist in the Prophet’s time. Muslims of the Saudi Wahhabi persuasion take the Prophet at his word when he declared that: Every innovation is a misguidance and every misguidance goes to Hell fire. Imam Muslim Others maintain that only innovations appearing three hundred years after the Prophet’s passing, when dogma was firmly and irrevocably established with the closing of the hadith collections, should be considered evil. And still others, I suspect the vast majority of believers, are in agreement with Imam Al-Bayhaqi (d. 1061) who elaborated on the Prophet’s damning of innovation: Innovation is of two types: praiseworthy innovation and blameworthy innovation, and anything that disagrees with the Sunnah is blameworthy. An example, the modern jet plane is the easiest and fastest way to get to Mecca for the Hajj therefore a praiseworthy innovation even if it’s not mentioned in the Koran as a mode of transportation to get to the annual pilgrimage. 22:27 And proclaim the pilgrimage to the people, and then they will come on foot or on every lean mount, coming from every deep ravine. It would be the height of arrogance for anyone to declare an end to the March of Civilization; but the Prophet, for the believers is no ordinary human being. He is, as Karen Armstrong reminded us "the Perfect Man"; so perfect that his every pronouncement is considered wisdom incarnate, and his every action is to be emulated as close as possible so as to live as God intended for us to live. To emulate the Prophet, and thereby gain Paradise, you have to follow the customs and traditions of his time. From that point of view, God's Messenger is correct and completely logical, innovation is bad, for every innovation makes living the life of the perfect human being that much more difficult. The "Perfect Man" said that innovation is bad, and therefore a sin, and as explained in the Introduction to this guide, Islamic law is all about sin. Can Islamic law adapt? Yes, but any adaption must not deny the underlying principles established by Allah and/or His Messenger. For example, Islamic courts in Saudi Arabia, Iran and Pakistan have on many occasions set the price of a human life, a price that may or may not have anything do with the value of 100 camels at the time of the Prophet. From the Prophet's last sermon: And intentional murder shall be punished according to talion law; where the murderess intention is not clear and the victim is killed using a club or a stone it will cost the perpetrator one hundred camels as blood money. Whoever demands more is a man from the time of ignorance. Hamidullah This is not real reform. Real reform will have to come from the next source of Islamic law, the Ulema (the community of Islamic scholars), the subject of the next chapter. Even the Ulema must thread carefully, remembering what Allah said about reformers. From a translation by Sheikh Muhammad Sarwar: 2:11 When they are told not to commit corruption in the land, they reply, "We are only reformers.” 2:12 They, certainly, are corrupt but do not realize it.
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