Jāmi` at-Tirmidhī is a collection of hadīth compiled by Imām Abu `Isa Muhammad at-Tirmidhī (rahimahullāh).
About Jami`
at-Tirmidhi
Jāmi` at-Tirmidhī is a collection
of hadīth compiled by Imām Abu `Isa Muhammad at-Tirmidhī (rahimahullāh). His
collection is unanimously considered to be one of the six canonical collections
of hadith (Kutub as-Sittah) of the Sunnah of the Prophet (صَلَّى اللّٰهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ). It contains roughly 4400 hadīth (with repetitions) in 46 books.
Author bio:
He is Abū ‛Īsa Muḥammad ibn ‛Īsa
ibn Sawrah ibn Mūsa ibn al Ḍaḥḥāk al-Sulamī at-Tirmidhī (209-279
AH/824–892 AD). Imam at-Tirmidhi was born in the year 209 A.H. during the reign
of the Abbasid Khalifa Ma'mun al-Rashid. The Abbasid Caliphate, despite its brilliant
contributions to Islam, brought along with it many problems. Greek philosophy
had a free flow into the Islamic world. This was fully sanctioned by the
government until eventually it declared the Mu`tazila school of thought as the
state religion. Anyone who opposed the Mu`tazila school of thought would be
opposing the state. With the influence of Greek philosophy among the people,
many Muslims began attempting to reconcile between (this brand of) reason and
revelation. As a result many deviations were introduced and many innocent and
weak Muslims were led away from Allah and His Prophet (صَلَّى اللّٰهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ)). Many scholars of Islam had come to the fore in order to defend
the Shari`ah. Forgeries and interpolations in Hadith by rulers who wished to
fulfill their personal motives were common. In the first century `Umar bin
Abdul `Aziz (ra) initiated a movement for the compilation of the hadith of the
Prophet (s) as there was a fear of them being lost. A number of scholars of
Islam undertook this task, six among them stand taller than the rest. One of
the six was Imam Abu `Isa Muhammed ibn `Isa at-Tirmidhi.
Having grown up in an environment of learning and possessing many great
qualities naturally drove Imam Tirmidhi to dedicate his life totally towards
the field of Hadith. He obtained his basic knowledge at home and later
travelled to far off lands in search of knowledge of this science. He studied
Hadith under great personalities such as Imam al-Bukhari, Imam Muslim and Imam
Abu Dawud. In some narrations Imam al-Bukhari and Imam Muslim are his students
as well. Once Imam al-Bukhari mentioned to him "I have benefited more from
you than you have benefitted from me." Musa ibn `Alaq once said:
"When Imam al-Bukhari passed away, he left no one in Khurasan who compared
with Abu `Isa Tirmidhi in knowledge, memory, piety and abstinence." Imam
at-Tirmidhi said that he compiled this book and presented it to the learned
scholars of Hijaz, Iraq and Khurasan and they were pleased with it.
His Memory:
Imam Tirmidhi had an exceptionally
remarkable memory. If he heard something once he never forgot it. Once on his
way to Makkah, Imam Tirmidhi met a scholar of hadith (muhaddith) from whom he
had previously copied two chapters of hadith. Thinking that he had the notes
with him he asked the scholar if he would allow him to read out these two
chapters so that he could correct any errors. After realizing that he did not
have those notes with him he took a blank piece of paper and read out the
entire two parts from memory. When the muhaddith realized what he was doing he
rebuked Imam Tirmidhi saying: "Have you no shame, why are you wasting my
time." Imam Tirmidhi assured him that he had committed all the ahadith to
memory. The scholar was not convinced, even though Imam Tirmidhi had recited
all the hadith from memory. Imam Tirmidhi requested him to recite to him some
other hadith. The scholar recited forty ahadith, which Imam Tirmidhi then
repeated without making a single error, thus showing his remarkable power of
committing hadith to memory.
His Works:
Many books of hadith were compiled
before Imam Tirmidhi decided to compile his Jami`. Dawud Tayalisi and Ahmed ibn
Hanbal had compiled books consisting of both authentic and weak hadith. Later
Imam al-Bukhari compiled his Sahih and omitted all weak narrations from it. His
main objective was to derive masa'il (laws) from the relevant hadith. Later
Imam Muslim compiled his book with a primary focus on the isnad (different
chains of narrators). Imam an-Nasa'i's aim was to mention the discrepancies of
the hadith whilst Abu Dawud prepared a book which became the basis for the
fuqaha. Imam at-Tirmidhi combined the styles of al-Bukhari, Muslim, Abu Dawud
and an-Nasa'i by mentioning discrepancies regarding the narrators and also
making his compilation a basis for jurists.
His Students:
Imam Tirmidhi had a large number of
students from all over the world. The most famous amongst them were Haytham ibn
Kulaib, Abul Abbaas and Muhammad ibn Ahmad Shah Abdul `Aziz, who describes Imam
Tirmidhi in the following words: "His memory was unique and his piety and
fear of Allah ta'la was of a very high caliber. He would cry so much out of the
fear of Allah, that towards the end of his life he lost his sight."
According to Ibn Taymiyya and Shah Waliullah, Imam Tirmidhi was an independent
jurist (mujtahid).
His Death:
In the year 279 A.H. in a village
called Bawag at the age of 70 , Imam Tirmidhi passed away.
This collection is titled Al-Jami` al-Mukhtasar min as-Sunan `an Rasulu
Allah wa Ma`rifatu as-Sahih wa al-Ma`lul wa ma `alaihi al-`amal otherwise
known as Jami` at-Tirmidhi.
Methods of
Classification and Annotation:
According to the
commentators of Al-Jami`, Imam Tirmidhi maintained the following conditions
throughout the compilation of his book:
- He never narrated hadith from those who
fabricated hadith.
- Tahir Muqaddisi mentions that al-Jami`
ut-Tirmidhi contains four types of hadith:
[a] Those ahadith that conform with the conditions of al-Bukhari and Muslim.
[b] Those ahadith that conform with the conditions of Abu Dawud and Nasa'i.
[c] Those ahadith that have certain discrepancies either in the sanad or matan.
[d] Those weak hadith that some fuqaha have relied on. - Imam Tirmidhi accepts a hadith which is
narrated with the word `an provided both the narrators
are contemporaries.
- After mentioning a weak hadith, he
explains the state of its weakness.
- A mursal hadith is accepted by Imam
Tirmidhi when a chain of narrators which is not broken supports it.
The status of Jami` at-Tirmidhi is
among the six authentic books of hadith. It has been categorized as fifth
amongst the six most authentic books of hadith. According to the most preferred
opinion, al-Bukhari enjoys the highest status, followed by Muslim, Abu Dawud,
Nasai, Tirmidhi and Ibn Majah respectively. Haji Khalifa in al-Kashf al-Dhunoon
has categorized Tirmidhi in third position. Al-Dhahabi has written that
Tirmidhi in actual fact should be holding the third position, but due to him
bringing weak narrators like Kalbi and Masloob its status has dropped. However,
looking at the manner in which he set out his book it seems that Haji Khalifa's
opinion is best.
The special
characteristics of Jami` at-Tirmidhi:
- It is a Sunan and a Jami`.
- Only 83 hadith are repeated.
- Imam Tirmidhi omits the major portion of
the hadith and only mentions that part which is relevant to the heading.
(title)
- After mentioning a hadith he classifies
its narration (whether it is authentic or weak, etc.)
- He specifies the narrators names, e.g. if
the narrators kunya (honorific name) was mentioned, he would then mention
his proper name and vice versa.
- One hadith in Tirmidhi is a thulaathiyaat
i.e. the transmitters of the hadith between Imam Tirmidhi and the Prophet
(s) are only three.
- Every hadith in Tirmidhi al-Jami` is ma'mul
bihi (practiced upon by the jurists.)
- He explains the different madhahib
together with their proofs.
- He gives an explanation to all difficult
ahadith.
- His book has been set out in an excellent
sequence, making is easy to look for a hadith.
- There is no fabricated hadith in the
entire book.
- [vtab]
- Volume 1
- Volume 2
- Volume 3
- Volume 4
- Volume 5
- Volume 6
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