Here are a podcast and notes on The Hadith, Pt. 1 (36 minutes).

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This series on the Hadith contains 3 lessons. If this is new territory for you, please listen to the previous short podcasts, Islam A and Islam B.

References have been provided for most citations.  Please feel free to send me corrections or help with missing data.

 

Introduction

  • Hadith record words & actions of Muhammad (M).
  • Hadith (H), which were written down after the Qur’an (Q), don’t have the authority of scripture.
  • H refers to Q, which was put together from various manuscripts—4.61
    • Sometimes a hadith explains a verse in the Q. E.g., every night the sun prostrates itself under the throne of Allah (A) -- 4.421.
    • Yet H and Q interact intimately.
  • Human links necessary, with each authority in the chain named.
  • Many collections
    • Muslim b. al-Hajjaj al-Qushayri
    • Muhammad ibn Isma’il al-Bukhari – Persian, 9 volumes.
  • Parallels
    • Q : M :: Christ (Word of God) : 12 apostles.
    • H: Islam :: NT : Christianity

I. M—PERSONAL

  • Born 570 AD in Mecca, Arabia (polytheism)
  • Orphaned early.
  • Married to Khadija 595-619; after her death he took other wives. ‘Aisha—married at age 9 (seems to be M’s favorite). Her father is Abu Bakr, caliph who succeeded M. (She was a pistol!)
  • We know a lot about his family life—his wives, how they interacted…
  • And we know about his pursuits
    • Merchant—journeys to Syria
    • Prophet (from 610), his followers accompany him to Medina (622)—the hijra.
    • His battles—iron armor—3.282
    • MAN OF ACTION
      • Camels, horses, white mule—4.160
      • Travel wisdom—4.245: “Allah’s apostle said, ‘Journey is a piece of torture, for it disturbs one’s sleep, eating, and thinking. So, when you fulfill your job, you should hurry up to your family.”
  • Hands
    • Soft hands—3.194.  Usually a sign of absence of manual labor, or aristocracy. But M was no member of the idle rich! If anything else, he wielded a sword, and must have been physically strong, tough.
    • Ate with knife—1.207
    • Wore a ring—1.630
  • Hair
    • A hairy man—4.272
    • Beard
    • Coiffure: dyed hair—1.167; oiled and combed—2.617
  • Intimate details
    • Leather sox, often mentioned
    • Snored.
    • How he urinated / defecated
    • How cleaned his nose—1.162
    • Sweat
    • Semen spots.
    • Instructions on how to spit, e.g. in the Mosque.
    • Used odd number of stones to clean his private parts—1.162
    • His followers emulated him, even in intimate areas.
  • Sexuality
    • Sexual prowess (11 wives on one night—strength for 30!)—1.268
    • Fondled wives in menses—1.298
  • Fascination with bodily fluids:
    • Pus (corpse), menstrual blood, sputum, semen, saliva, sleepers, sweat, feces, snot, urine
    • In comparison with Bible:
      • Fixation on bodily fluids not dissimilar to OT (levitical purity laws), though quite different from the NT.
      • Jesus: saliva (once, in the context of a healing); sweat (Gethsemane prayer); blood (Passion).
  • Snot
    • blow out nose (3x in ablutions, as Satan dwells in upper nose)—4.516
    • Sneezing—counts as a good deed to reply to the sneezer--3.800
  • Urine
    • 1.215—man tortured in grave because had soiled himself with urine.
    • Man oversleeping (past sunrise)—because Satan urinated in his ear (blocking call of muezzin?)—4.492
  • ALSO flatulence (even Satan passes wind, 1.582), head lice, snoring….
  • Weekly bath—1.817, 2.2, 3.833
    • Friday both washes away sins committed in previous 7 days--2.8,33
    • For all Muslims who have reached puberty, 1.817
  • Fine character
    • Readings from 1.810, 3.157
    • Motives not only financial (dies with relatively little, esp. compared to the riches that will flow into the Caliphate in the following centuries)
    • Yet admits suffered demonic attack—4.634
  • End of life
    • Aging
    • Fell off horse (elderly?)—1.657
    • At death (8 June, 632 AD, in his early 60s), face glowing like Moses’—1.648
      • At time of death, had only weapons (and the armor was mortgaged!); white mule; small piece of land which went to charity; provision for wives
      • Buried in Medina.

Conclusion

  • Much more about M’s personal life in the H than in the Q.
  • And far more about his daily life and habits than about any character in all of biblical history.
  • Muhammad was a sinner, and portrayed as one. M prays for forgiveness and cleansing for his sins—1.711; for past and future sins—2.221. See John 8:46; 1 Kings 8:46.
  • Very human! Contrast to Christ—not the humanity, but that there is no divinity.
  • Perhaps we know so little about Christ because we might be tempted to fasten on the external details, rather than focusing on where we should focus: the heart. Easy to take pride in what is seen, rather than in the heart (2 Cor 5:12).