"The Content of Character" (Part 8)

"The Content of Character: Ethical Sayings of the Prophet Muhammad (saw)"
Translation and Introduction by Hamza Yusuf
Collected by Shaykh Al-Amin Ali Mazrui

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A final few notes.

I didn't intend to highlight the last section of the book, and I won't, unless someone specifically requests it. The post-hadith section of the book first discusses the classification of hadith (in regards to strength) and then more specifically talks about many of the weaker hadith included in the compilation. Sh. Hamza contends (while quoting various scholars who agree with this opinion) that the use of weaker hadith is permitted for various reasons, specifically:

- If a hadith is weak in its chain of narration, it can be strengthened by numerous different chains narrating a similar hadith.
- It is in line with already proven principles of Islam.
- The hadith is not extremely unreliable.
- Those who act on the hadith do so "without believing it is absolutely established" [Imam Suyuti summarization; p. 55 in Content of Character]

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Finally, Sh. Hamza includes a biography of many of the narrators/collectors of the hadith included in his compilation. What absolutely amazed me while sifting through the stories was how far these men and women traveled in their acquisition of knowledge. In the biographies, it wasn't uncommon to hear about them traveling through Syria, Iraq, Egypt and even so far as China (particularly striking, considering the hadith "Pursue knowledge even to China, for its pursuance is the sacred duty of every Muslim." [Ibn 'Abdal-Barr]) in order to collect hadith or to learn from the most knowledgeable scholars.

The second striking quality that was common in all the narrators was their strong memory. There were narrators who had memorized THOUSANDS of hadith and were able to recall not only their exact phrasing, but also their chains of narration off the top of their head. One man was reported to have such a strong memory that he could memorize an entire book after just one reading. Imam Tirmidhi's memory was extraordinary, even late in his life when he had gone blind; it's said that once, after his blindness set in, he was walking down a path and bent low at one section to avoid a low tree branch he had once encountered there before.

All in all, it's really an amazing small and simple book. Go buy it. Seriously.
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