The Preservation

As-salaam mu-‘Alaykum

Today I would like to start off by telling you four responsibilities Allah (SWT) gave to all the Prophets.

1)    Recite to them the scriptures

This order is telling the Prophets who were given scriptures to spread the message and recite the verses to the people.

2)    Purify them

When Allah says ‘Purify them’ what is He specifically talking about? Do we have to wash our clothes or have baths to become pure? This specific command is ordering the Prophets to spiritually cleanse the people’s soul. What do we mean by this? In the heart there are many diseases that make us dirty and vulnerable to Shaytaan. To mention a few: jealousy, envying others, pride, arrogance, hate and many more. So when Allah says ‘Purify them’ He wants us to get rid of these diseases and the way we can do this is by reciting the Qur’an.

3)    Teach them the book

What does ‘Teach them the book’ mean? The Prophets were entrusted with a job to 

guide us in accordance to the scriptures. Their responsibility was to interpret the scriptures and teach us the morals behind the divine revelation.

4)    Teach them wisdom

To understand this we must first know the definition of wisdom. The basic definition is to act upon knowledge. The Prophets were given the responsibility to teach us wisdom which means they told us how to act and make the correct decisions. The Prophet Muhammad (SAW) taught us wisdom from the Qur’an for example how we should treat our parents, or how we can get closer to Allah (SWT).

The Qur’an needs Hadiths. The Qur’an gives us orders, for example that those who believe should pray five times a day and worship none other than Allah, but Hadiths tell specific actions that tell us how to fulfil the order from the Qur’an. For example in the Qur’an it says “establish prayer” but the Hadith tells us how we establish prayer, the actions we take to establish prayer.

The Qur’an is also known as the “spoken revelation” which means that which is meant to be recited, whereas the Hadith is also referred to as “unspoken revelation” which is something that isn’t recited, but there is still a lot of reward in reciting Hadiths.

If you have forgotten what a Hadith is then a basic definition would be a saying and the actions of the Prophet (SAW) in which he did not disapprove.

So how now, after 1400 years have the Hadiths still been preserved? In the Prophet (SAW)’s period there were a lot of Sahaba (people that saw the Prophet and died as a Muslim) who memorised the sayings and actions of the Prophet and after he (SAW) died these Hadiths were passed on and eventually documented, this is what we call a chain of narration.

The most recognised narrator is Abu Hurairah (RA), he embraced Islam towards the last few years of the Prophet Muhammad (SAW)'s life. He desperately wanted to memorise Hadiths but his memory wasn't strong. He later went to the Prophet (SAW) and asked for the Prophet to make du'a for him, the Prophet then hugged him tightly and made du'a to Allah to give Abu Hurairah the ability to preserve Hadiths and to expand his memory. Abu Huraira went of to narrate approximately 5374 Hadiths, and was also named 'The Prophet's Shadow' because where ever the Prophet (SAW) went he would walk behind him, learning the sayings of the Prophet (SAW). There are three main ways to remember Hadiths, these are: Memorisation, Practice and Documentation. The Sahaba memorised thousands of Hadiths which they acted upon and eventually shared the knowledge for it to be documented.

And Allah knows best.

Thank you for reading. More posts soon to come In sha Allah.