Does Prophet Muhammed forbid the writing of his hadith?

It has been documented in Muslim, Ahmed and other sources of Hadith that the prophet Muhammad has prohibited the writing of his hadith. The historical evidence supports this fact, since the words and actions (Hadith & Sunna) attributed to the Prophet did not appear until the second century after his death.

The Quran has prophesied the fabrication of Hadith and Sunna by the Prophet’s enemies:

“We have permitted the enemies of every prophet human and jinn devils to inspire in each other fancy words, in order to deceive. Had your Lord willed, they would not have done it. You shall disregard them and their fabrications.” 6:112

The Quran states that it is in accordance with God’s will that the fabrication of the Hadith was allowed to happen and that is to serve as criteria for exposing the true believers from the hypocrites. Those who are attracted to and uphold Hadith are proven to be false believers. This can easily be explained by the fact that true believers are satisfied with God alone. They are satisfied with God’s words alone and with God’s Law (Quran) alone. On the other hand, false believers are not satisfied with God alone, thus they seek other sources and other idols besides God:

“This is to let the minds of those who do not believe in the Hereafter listen to such fabrications, and accept them, and thus expose their real convictions.” 6:113

Immediately after these Quranic words God describes the Quran as “fully detailed” and as the only source of law:

“Shall I seek other than God as a source of law, when He has revealed to you this book fully detailed?” 6:114

The books of Hadith report the Prophet prohibiting the writing of his hadith and that his followers should not write anything from him other than the Quran!

Shown below are two such Hadith. They are taken from two of the sources of hadith which are regarded as authentic (sahih) by Hadith scholars, they are Sahih Muslim and Is-haah Ahmad Ibn Hanbal:

The Prophet said, “Do not write down anything from me except the Quran.” [Ahmed, Vol. 1, Page 171, and Sahih Moslim, Zuhd, Book 42, Number 7147]

This Hadith states that the Prophet maintained his anti-Hadith stand until death. [Ahmed Ibn Hambal, Vol. 1, Page 192]

(1) Ibn Saeed Al-Khudry reported that the messenger of God had said, “Do not write anything from me except Quran. Anyone who wrote anything other than the Quran shall erase it.”

Some Hadith scholars tried to imply that Muhammed changed his view about writing the hadiths. However, the following hadith, which was reported 30 years after the death of the Prophet, confirms that the Prophet Muhammed never authorized the writing of the hadiths since the time he told his followers not to write but the Quran..

(2) From Ibn Hanbal; Zayd Ibn Thabit (The Prophet’s closest revelation writer) visited the Khalifa Mu’aawiyah (more than 30 years after the Prophet’s death), and told him a story about the Prophet. Mu’aawiyah liked the story and ordered someone to write it down. But Zayd said. ” the messenger of God ordered us never to write anything of his hadith”.

(3) The famous book, “Ulum Al-Hadith” by Ibn Al-Salah, reports a hadith by Abu Hurayra in which Abu Hurayra said the messenger of God came out to us while we were writing his hadiths and said; “What are you writing?” We said, “Hadiths that we hear from you, messenger of God.” He said, “A book other than the book of God?” We said, “Should we talk about you?” He said, Talk about me, that would be fine, but those who will lie will go to Hell. Abu Hurayra said, we collected what we wrote of Hadiths and burned them in fire.

(4) In the famous book, “Taq-yeed Al-Ilm”, Abu Hurayra said, the messenger of God was informed that some people are writing his hadiths. He took to the pulpit of the mosque and said, “What are these books that I heard you wrote? I am just a human being. Anyone who has any of these writings should bring it here. Abu Hurayra said we collected all these and burned them in fire.

(5) Ibn Hanbal in his Musnad book, narrates a hadith in which Abdullah Ibn Omar said, “the messenger of God one day came out to us as if he was going to depart us soon and said, “When I depart you (die), hold to the book of God, prohibit what it prohibits and accept as halal what it makes halal.”

(6) Again, in the book “Taq-yeed Al-Ilm”, Abu Saeed Al-Khudry said, ” I asked the messenger of God a permission to write his hadiths, but he refused to give me a permission.”

(7) The farewell Pilgrimage of the Prophet Muhammed is a corner stone in the Muslim history. The Final Sermon given by the Prophet during this pilgrimage was witnessed by thousands of Muslims. There are however three versions of this sermon in the Hadiths books. This by itself reflects the degree of corruption of the Hadith books as this is the most witnessed speech of the prophet Muhammed.

1- First version, ” I left for you what if you hold on to, you will never be misguided, the book of God and my Family. Moslim 44/4, Nu2408; Ibn Hanbal 4/366; darimi 23/1, nu 3319. This is the version made up by the Shiite Muslims.

2-Second version, “I left for you what if you hold on to, you will never be misguided, the book of God and my Sunnah” . Muwatta, 46/3 This is the version made up by the Sunni Muslims.

3- Third version, “I left for you what if you hold on to, you will never be misguided, the book of God.” Moslim 15/19, nu 1218; Ibn Majah 25/84, Abu dawud 11/56. This last version is the version hated by the Sunni and Shiite Muslims alike. This is the only version which conforms with the repeated assertion in the Quran that Muhammed’s message was only the Quran. Many Sunni Muslims and Shiite Muslims do not even know that this version of the sermon exists. In reality, they do not want to know, the truth hurts.

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