Preservation of Quran vs. Hadith

Traditionalists argue that the preservation of the Quran is no different than the preservation of Hadith and that it would be hypocritical to reject the Hadith and only follow the Quran.

This is a widely inaccurate comparison to consider that the preservation of Hadith was anything like the preservation of the Quran. Here is a summary of why this is a grossly erroneous comparison.

1. God guarantees the preservation of the Quran, not the Hadith
2. The Quran cannot be fabricated, but the Hadith was and can be
3. The Quran is the most mass-memorized text in the history of the world
4. There was a deliberate effort from the earliest companions to preserve the Quran, but not the Hadith
5. The Quran is consistent in transmission, the Hadith is inconsistent in transmission
6. The Quran was preserved in written form, unlike the Hadith

1. God’s Guarantee

God in the Quran claims that He will preserve the Quran, while there is no similar guarantee for the Hadith.

[15:9] Absolutely, we have revealed the reminder, and, absolutely, we will preserve it.

إِنَّا نَحْنُ نَزَّلْنَا ٱلذِّكْرَ وَإِنَّا لَهُۥ لَحَـٰفِظُونَ

Some argue that the above verse is only in reference to “the reminder” ( ٱلذِّكْرَ ) and not the Quran, but if we see the following verse, we see that “the reminder” ( ٱلذِّكْرَ ) is contained in the scripture.

[21:10] We have sent down to you a scripture containing your reminder. Do you not understand?

 لَقَدْ أَنزَلْنَآ إِلَيْكُمْ كِتَـٰبًا فِيهِ ذِكْرُكُمْ أَفَلَا تَعْقِلُونَ

2. Impossible to Imitate

The Quran, unlike the Hadith, is perfect and impossible to imitate. There is no dispute regarding the authenticity of the Quran because it is impossible to create another book like it.

[17:88] Say, “If all the humans and all the jinns banded together in order to produce a Quran like this, they can never produce anything like it, no matter how much assistance they lent one another.”

 قُل لَّئِنِ ٱجْتَمَعَتِ ٱلْإِنسُ وَٱلْجِنُّ عَلَىٰٓ أَن يَأْتُوا۟ بِمِثْلِ هَـٰذَا ٱلْقُرْءَانِ لَا يَأْتُونَ بِمِثْلِهِۦ وَلَوْ كَانَ بَعْضُهُمْ لِبَعْضٍ ظَهِيرًا

[2:23] If you have any doubt regarding what we revealed to our servant, then produce one sura like these, and call upon your own witnesses against GOD, if you are truthful.

 وَإِن كُنتُمْ فِى رَيْبٍ مِّمَّا نَزَّلْنَا عَلَىٰ عَبْدِنَا فَأْتُوا۟ بِسُورَةٍ مِّن مِّثْلِهِۦ وَٱدْعُوا۟ شُهَدَآءَكُم مِّن دُونِ ٱللَّهِ إِن كُنتُمْ صَـٰدِقِينَ

[10:38] If they say, “He fabricated it,” say, “Then produce one sura like these, and invite whomever you wish, other than GOD, if you are truthful.”

 أَمْ يَقُولُونَ ٱفْتَرَىٰهُ قُلْ فَأْتُوا۟ بِسُورَةٍ مِّثْلِهِۦ وَٱدْعُوا۟ مَنِ ٱسْتَطَعْتُم مِّن دُونِ ٱللَّهِ إِن كُنتُمْ صَـٰدِقِينَ

[11:13] If they say, “He fabricated (the Quran),” tell them, “Then produce ten suras like these, fabricated, and invite whomever you can, other than GOD, if you are truthful.”

 أَمْ يَقُولُونَ ٱفْتَرَىٰهُ قُلْ فَأْتُوا۟ بِعَشْرِ سُوَرٍ مِّثْلِهِۦ مُفْتَرَيَـٰتٍ وَٱدْعُوا۟ مَنِ ٱسْتَطَعْتُم مِّن دُونِ ٱللَّهِ إِن كُنتُمْ صَـٰدِقِينَ

The Quran, unlike the Hadith, is numerically and mathematically coded, which serves as a checksum to the Quranic text.

[41:41] Those who have rejected the Quran’s proof when it came to them, have also rejected an Honorable book.

 إِنَّ ٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا۟ بِٱلذِّكْرِ لَمَّا جَآءَهُمْ وَإِنَّهُۥ لَكِتَـٰبٌ عَزِيزٌ

[41:42] No falsehood could enter it, in the past or in the future;* a revelation from a Most Wise, Praiseworthy.

 لَّا يَأْتِيهِ ٱلْبَـٰطِلُ مِنۢ بَيْنِ يَدَيْهِ وَلَا مِنْ خَلْفِهِۦ تَنزِيلٌ مِّنْ حَكِيمٍ حَمِيدٍ

The same is not true regarding Hadith. In the ninth century, during the life of some of the most famous Hadith narrators known today, they were swimming in a sea of millions of fabricated narrations of Hadith. While today they claim that Bukhari sifted through 600,000 Hadith, according to his biography he actually went through 10 million hadith.

In the book “An Introduction to Sahih Bukhari, Authors Biography, Recensions, and Manuscripts,” by Mustafa Al-Azami it cites a quote from Tarikh Bukhara (History of Bukhara), where ibn Ahmad ibn Ahmad Ghunjar said:

“I heard Abu ‘Amr Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Muqri’: I heard Mahib ibn Sulaym: I heard Ja’far ibn Muhammad ibn al-Qattan, the Imam of Karminyah: I heard Muhammad ibn Isma’il [Bukhari] say, “I wrote from over a thousand teachers, and from each teacher over ten thousand hadiths. I remember the chain for every hadith that I know.”

If Bukhari studied under a thousand teachers, and from each over ten thousand hadith would mean that Bukhari wrote and memorized over 10 million Hadith.

If we are to take Bukhari’s quote seriously, we can calculate how long such an accomplishment would take in the most optimistic scenario. If we generously assume that Bukhari could write one Hadith and memorize its isnad in a minute.

Not only were there millions of fabricated Hadith but there is no consistent method of determining which Hadith is reliable and which one is not.

The canonization of Bukhari and Muslim and eventually the other compilations that make up the Sitta was strictly for the sake of eliminating all the new Hadith that people were generating. So, by limiting the “authentic” Hadith to what consists of these six compilations, they could avoid the constant shifts in the foundation of their religion. The reason for this necessity was that up until the turn of the millennium, the most renowned Hadith compilers were the individuals who compiled the most Hadith. The Sahih Movement was frowned upon when Bukhari and others created their compilations. While much of these compilations are lost, individuals like Tabarani is said to have hundreds of thousands of Hadith in his compilation. Abu al-Abbas Ahmad ibn Mansur stated, “I have narrated 300,000 narrations from at-Tabarani.”^[3] So resorting back to the Sahihs was a hope to reduce the entire Hadith corpus to something more manageable. But despite the effort, even these books are full of inauthentic narrations and fabrications attributed to the prophet.

This history is detailed in the book “Canonization of al-Bukhari and Muslim” by Jonathan Brown.

“For over two centuries after al-Bukhari’s and Muslim’s deaths, the study and collection of hadiths continued unabated. Al-Bukhari’s and Muslim’s remarkable contribution came with their decision to compile books devoted only to hadiths they considered authentic (sahih). This act broke stridently with the practices of the transmission-based school and thus met with significant disapproval in the immediate wake of the authors’ careers.

“In the fourth/tenth century, however, the initial controversy surrounding the Sahihayn and their authors dissipated as a relatively small and focused network of scholars from the moderate Shafi’i tradition began appreciating the books’ utility. These scholars found the Sahihayn ideal vehicles for articulating their relationship to the Prophet’s normative legacy as well as standards against which to measure the strength of their own hadith collections. Employing the Sahihayn for these purposes required intimate familiarity with the two books and thus spurred an intensive study of the works and their authors’ methodologies. Simultaneously, between the end of the third/ninth and the middle of the fifth/eleventh century, the broader Muslim community began imagining a new level of authority for Prophetic traditions.” p. 6

“This ability of al-Bukhari’s and Muslim’s collections to serve as an acknowledged convention for discussing the Prophet’s authenticated legacy would serve three important needs in the Sunni scholarly culture of the fifth/eleventh century. As the division between different schools of theology and law became more defined, scholars from the competing Shafi’i, Hanbali and MaÎiki schools quickly began employing the Sahihayn as a measure of authenticity in debates and polemics. By the early eighth/fourteenth century, even the hadith-wary Hanafi school could not avoid adopting this convention. With the increased division of labor between jurists and Hadith scholars in the mid-fifth/eleventh century, the Sahihayn also became an indispensable authoritative reference for jurists who lacked expertise in Hadith evaluation. Finally, al-Bukhari’s and Muslim’s works served as standards of excellence that shaped the science of Hadith criticism as scholars from the fifth/eleventh to the seventh/thirteenth century sought to systematize the study of the Prophet’s word.” p. 7

“Although occasional criticism of the Sahihayn continued even after their canonization at the dawn of the fifth/eleventh century, advocates of institutional Sunnism found it essential to protect the two works and the important roles they played. Beginning at the turn of the fourth/tenth century and climaxing in the mid-seventh/thirteenth, a set of predominately Shafi’i scholars created a canonical culture around the Sahihayn that recast the two books’ pre-canonical pasts as well as those of their authors according to the exigent contours of the canon.” p. 7

Later on, all Sunni schools expanded this corpus to what is known as the Kitab al-Sitta, which they consider the most reliable and authentic sources of hadith for Sunni Muslims. This shows that the Hadith, unlike the Quran, is replicable and therefore incapable of being preserved like the Quran because it is impossible to determine which Hadith is authentic and which one is not.

3. Mass Memorization & Transmission

No other book in history has been memorized by more people, either in its entirety or partially, than the Quran. Throughout history, millions of people have memorized the entire Quran, and even more have memorized portions of it. It is the most widely transmitted (mutawatir) narration in history.

4. The Companion’s Efforts

There was a deliberate effort by the earliest companions to preserve the Quran, but there was no effort whatsoever by these same individuals to preserve the Hadith.

If we utilize the Sunni historical sources, we see that Abu Bakr and Umar commissioned Zaid ibn Thabit to compile the suhuf of the Quran. Uthman compiled the mushaf under his reign, and Ali also has narrations that he compiled the Quran. Yet none of these individuals made any effort to catalog or preserve the Hadith according to their own sources. Instead, they actively worked to suppress and eliminate the spread of Hadith.

After the demise of the Holy Prophet, Abu-Bakr gathered people and said, ‘You are reporting about the Messenger of Allah inconsistent narrations. People coming after you will be engaged in more intense discrepancy. Therefore, do not report anything about the Messenger of Allah, and if anyone asks you, you should refer to the Book of Allah as the arbitrator. You should thus deem lawful whatever is lawful therein and deem unlawful whatever is unlawful therein.’

Al-Dhahbiy: Tadhkirat al-Huffadh 1:32
`Abd al-Ghaniy Abd al-Khaliq: Hijjiyyat al-Sunnah 394

“Bukhari mentions a hadith related from the ‘book’ of Abd Allah ibn Abi Awfa, while Abu Bakr, the first Caliph, is reported to have collected five hundred hadiths, which he later destroyed because he suspected that it contained some hadiths related by unreliable people.” – p. 24

Narrated ‘Aisha: My father had collected five hundred hadiths of the Prophet. On the night he did it, he tossed and turned in bed. I asked, “Do you have an illness or have you heard something?” In the morning, he said, “My daughter! Bring me the hadiths that I gave you.” I brought them. He wanted some fire and burned them. When I asked him why he burned them, he said, “I do not want to die having these hadiths with me because I am afraid that there are hadiths that are not originally as they are reported though I heard them from people whom I trust; I am afraid to narrate them that way”

Report from al-Hakim an-Nisaburi
Al-Dhahbiy: Tadhkirat al-Huffadh 1:5
Al-Qasim ibn Muhammad: al-I`tisam bi-Habl-illah al-Matin 1:30
`Abd al-Ghaniy `Abd al-Khaliq: Hijjiyyat al-Sunnah 394

In another narration, Bukhari, we see that Umar declined to have a written Hadith from the prophet because he believed the Quran was sufficient.

Narrated ‘Ubaidullah bin `Abdullah: Ibn `Abbas said, “When the ailment of the Prophet (ﷺ) became worse, he said, ‘Bring for me (writing) paper and I will write for you a statement after which you will not go astray.’ But `Umar said, ‘The Prophet is seriously ill, and we have got Allah’s Book with us, and that is sufficient for us.’ But the companions of the Prophet (ﷺ) differed about this, and there was a hue and cry. On that, the Prophet (ﷺ) said to them, ‘Go away (and leave me alone). It is not right that you should quarrel in front of me.” Ibn `Abbas came out saying, “It was most unfortunate (a great disaster) that Allah’s Messenger (ﷺ) was prevented from writing that statement for them because of their disagreement and noise.

حَدَّثَنَا يَحْيَى بْنُ سُلَيْمَانَ، قَالَ حَدَّثَنِي ابْنُ وَهْبٍ، قَالَ أَخْبَرَنِي يُونُسُ، عَنِ ابْنِ شِهَابٍ، عَنْ عُبَيْدِ اللَّهِ بْنِ عَبْدِ اللَّهِ، عَنِ ابْنِ عَبَّاسٍ، قَالَ لَمَّا اشْتَدَّ بِالنَّبِيِّ صلى الله عليه وسلم وَجَعُهُ قَالَ ‏”‏ ائْتُونِي بِكِتَابٍ أَكْتُبُ لَكُمْ كِتَابًا لاَ تَضِلُّوا بَعْدَهُ ‏”‏‏.‏ قَالَ عُمَرُ إِنَّ النَّبِيَّ صلى الله عليه وسلم غَلَبَهُ الْوَجَعُ وَعِنْدَنَا كِتَابُ اللَّهِ حَسْبُنَا فَاخْتَلَفُوا وَكَثُرَ اللَّغَطُ‏.‏ قَالَ ‏”‏ قُومُوا عَنِّي، وَلاَ يَنْبَغِي عِنْدِي التَّنَازُعُ ‏”‏‏.‏ فَخَرَجَ ابْنُ عَبَّاسٍ يَقُولُ إِنَّ الرَّزِيَّةَ كُلَّ الرَّزِيَّةِ مَا حَالَ بَيْنَ رَسُولِ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم وَبَيْنَ كِتَابِهِ‏.‏

Sahih al-Bukhari 114
https://sunnah.com/bukhari:114

In the book Ta’wil Mukhtalif al-Hadith by Ibn Qutaybah (828-890 CE/213-276 AH), on page 70 of the Annotated Translation, Ibn Qutaybah says the following regarding ‘Umar’s view on Hadith transmission:

…’Umar, who was abrasive against whoever transmitted numerous ahadith or reported information related to judicial judgment without any witness. He used to order (the narrators) to reduce the number of narrations so that the masses will not be confused or corrupted by falsehood.

Additionally, it is reported that during his reign as Caliph, Umar did not allow the prophet’s companions to travel freely without his permission because he did not want them to propagate Hadith. It wasn’t until the reign of Uthman that this ban was lifted, and the companions were allowed to emigrate to some of the newly Muslim-conquered regions.

In Tadhkirat al-huffaz, al-Dhahabi reported from Shu’bah, from Sa’id ibn Ibrahim from his father, that Umar detained Ibn Mas’ud, Abu al-Darda’, and Abu Mas’ud al-Ansari, saying to them: You have narrated hadith abundantly from the Messenger of Allah. It is reported that he had detained them in Medina, but they were set free by Uthman.

Ibn Sa’d, and Ibn Asakir reports from Mahmud ibn Labid that he said: I heard Uthman ibn Affan addressing people from over the pulpit: It is unlawful for everyone to narrate any hadith he never heard of during the time of Abu Bakr and that of Umar. Verily that which made me abstain from narrating from the Messenger of Allah was not to be among the most conscious of his Companions, but I heard him declaring: “Whoever ascribing to me something I never said, he shall verily occupy his (destined) abode in Fire.”

Also, we find the following Hadith in The History of al-Tabari, Vol. XIV p. 108, and from the Leiden edition of al-Tabari titled “Annales quos scripsit Abu Djafar Mohammed ibn Djarir at-Tabari” Vol III, p. 188.

According to Abu Kurayb – Abu Bakr b. Ayyash – Abu Hasin: Whenever ‘Umar appointed his governors, he would go out with them to bid them farewell, saying, “I have not appointed you governor over Muhammad’s community with limitless authority. I have made you governor over them only to lead them in prayer, to make decisions among them based on what is right, and to distribute (the spoils) among them justly. I have not given you limitless authority over them.

Do not flog the Arabs and humiliate them; do not keep them long from their families and bring temptation upon them; do not neglect them and cause them deprivation. Be exclusively devoted to the Qur’an, and diminish the annotations of Muhammad, and I am your partner.”

He would also allow vengeance to be taken on his governors. If there was a complaint against a governor, he would bring together the governor and the complainant. If there was a genuine case against (the governor) for which punishment was obligatory, he would punish him.

In the book “Imam Abu Hanfiah Life and Work” by Shibli Nomani, on pages 131-132, it states,

Similarly when sending a number of Companions to Iraq, ‘Umar went part of the way with them to see them off. “Do you know,” he asked them, “why I am accompanying you part of the way?” “In order to honour us,” they replied. “That is so,” said ‘Umar, “but there is also another reason. I want to tell you that the people of the country to which you are going are fond of reading the Qur’an. Try not to entagle them in traditions but narrate very few traditions from the Prophet.” When the Companions arrived at Qurzah, the inhabitants came to see them and requested them to narrate traditions; but they declined to do so, excusing themselves by saying that they had been forbidden by the caliph.

Abu Hurayrah, asked by Abu Salamah whether he used to narrate traditions as freely in ‘Umar’s time as he was then doing, replied, “No, for if I had tried, ‘Umar would have had me whipped.”

The book “Hadith Literature, Its Origin, Development & Special Features” by Muhammad Zubayr Siddiqi describes that Umar imprisoned Ibn Mas’ud, Abu’l-Darda, and Abu Mas’ud al-Ansari because they related too many traditions.” – p. 23

So, while the earliest believers made a deliberate effort to preserve the Quran, they made no effort to catalog and preserve the Hadith. Instead, they took an active approach to diminish the spread of Hadith.

5. Consistency

Every Quran has been consistent throughout history, but this is not the case for the Hadith narrations. Depending on the region, compiler, and narrators, we see vast differences in Hadith narrations. In a previous article, we looked at what should be considered the three most reliable Hadith to test their authenticity. We found that the Hadith failed the authenticity test in all three cases.

For instance, the Hadith narrations regarding the Tashahhud vary greatly, yet each of the narrators claims that it was taught to them no different than the verse of the Quran. The Hadith, considered the most mass-transmitted Hadith, states, “Anyone who says a lie about me will have their seat in Hell,” it is unclear if the prophet used the word “deliberate” or not. The single Hadith that historically should have been heard by most people, the prophet’s farewell sermon, lacks details about not only what he said, but there are also multiple narrations from that is narrated that contradict one another.

Again, this is not the case with the Quran. So, while the Quran is consistent in its transmission, the Hadith is not.

[39:23] GOD has revealed herein the best Hadith; a book that is consistent, and points out both ways (to Heaven and Hell). The skins of those who reverence their Lord cringe therefrom, then their skins and their hearts soften up for GOD’s message. Such is GOD’s guidance; He bestows it upon whomever He wills. As for those sent astray by GOD, nothing can guide them.

 ٱللَّهُ نَزَّلَ أَحْسَنَ ٱلْحَدِيثِ كِتَـٰبًا مُّتَشَـٰبِهًا مَّثَانِىَ تَقْشَعِرُّ مِنْهُ جُلُودُ ٱلَّذِينَ يَخْشَوْنَ رَبَّهُمْ ثُمَّ تَلِينُ جُلُودُهُمْ وَقُلُوبُهُمْ إِلَىٰ ذِكْرِ ٱللَّهِ ذَٰلِكَ هُدَى ٱللَّهِ يَهْدِى بِهِۦ مَن يَشَآءُ وَمَن يُضْلِلِ ٱللَّهُ فَمَا لَهُۥ مِنْ هَادٍ

[39:29] GOD cites the example of a man who deals with disputing partners (Hadith), compared to a man who deals with only one consistent source (Quran). Are they the same? Praise be to GOD; most of them do not know.

 ضَرَبَ ٱللَّهُ مَثَلًا رَّجُلًا فِيهِ شُرَكَآءُ مُتَشَـٰكِسُونَ وَرَجُلًا سَلَمًا لِّرَجُلٍ هَلْ يَسْتَوِيَانِ مَثَلًا ٱلْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ بَلْ أَكْثَرُهُمْ لَا يَعْلَمُونَ

6. Manuscripts

The Quran was written and compiled during the life of the prophet. The earliest written compilation of Hadith was the Muwatta of Imam Malik, published ~150 years after the death of the prophet, while the works of Bukhari and the Kutub al-Sittah were published ~250 years after the death of the prophet.

We have many manuscripts, some partial, some complete, of the Quran within the first 200 years of its revelation, and almost no manuscripts of Hadith during the same period.

The oldest Arabic manuscript of Bukhari is dated 407 AH (1017CE) and only contains books 65 through 69, with book 65 being incomplete. This manuscript is kept at the National Library of Bulgaria, and can be viewed online at World Digital Library‘s official website.

The oldest full manuscript of Bukhari is a version narrated by Abu Dharr al-Heravi (d. 1043CE), kept at the Süleymaniye Library in Istanbul, and dated 1155CE / 550 AH. Another complete manuscript is kept at Chester Beatty Library in Dublin, Ireland (no. 4176). It was copied by Ahmad bin Ali bin Abdul Wahhab and was dated 28 November 1294CE / 8 Muharram 694 AH.

For a list of the earliest manuscripts of the Quran, check out the following article and compare it to the list of manuscripts of the Hadith.