MUHAMMADIYAH.OR.ID, GARUT — Muhamad Rofiq Muzakkir, Secretary of the Council for Religious Opinion and Reform of Muhammadiyah Central Board, stated that hadith occupies a central position as the second primary source of Islamic law after the Qur’an.
The Secretary delivered the remarks during a religious lecture at the Muhammadiyah Regional Board of Garut on Thursday (14/4).
Beyond complementing scripture, he said, hadith provides essential explanations for verses that are general in nature. Many religious obligations such as prayer, pilgrimage, and almsgiving, could not be properly carried out without understanding the hadith.
“Without hadith, many religious obligations cannot be done correctly,” he said.
A Scientific Approach to Verifying Tradition
However, Rofiq stressed that the importance of hadith also demands caution. Muslims, he said, bear a significant responsibility to ensure that what they practice truly originates from the Prophet.
In this context, he introduced the concept of Naqd al-Hadith, or hadith criticism. Contrary to common misconceptions, he explained, the discipline does not aim to undermine hadith. Instead, it serves as a scientific method to verify and filter reports, preventing false attributions to the Prophet.
He likened the process to a goldsmith examining precious metal, carefully distinguishing pure gold from mixed or counterfeit material. Similarly, scholars scrutinize hadith through established methods before accepting them as valid.
The Central Role of Sanad in Islamic Scholarship
At the heart of this verification process lies the concept of sanad, or the chain of transmission linking each report back to its original source. Rofiq cited the classical scholar Abdullah ibn al-Mubarak, who famously stated:
الإِسْنَادُ مِنَ الدِّيْنِ، وَلَوْلاَ الإِسْنَادُ لَقَالَ مَنْ شَاءَ مَا شَاءَ
“Sanad is part of the religion. Without it, anyone could say whatever they wished.”
According to Rofiq, this principle reflects a historical reality. Fabrication of hadith did occur in early Islamic history, driven by political, theological, and personal motives. Therefore, the development of a robust transmission system became essential to safeguard authenticity.
Moreover, he noted that Islamic scholarship developed a highly sophisticated methodology to address this challenge. Scholars compiled extensive biographical records of narrators, assessed their credibility, and documented their findings in specialized reference works known as rijal literature.
A Distinctive Method in Global Religious Traditions
Rofiq also compared the sanad system with textual traditions in other religions, including the Old Testament and New Testament. He argued that these traditions do not employ similarly detailed and traceable chains of transmission.
According to him, the compilation of these texts involved long processes of writing and editing without fully traceable transmission chains. Some modern scholars, such as Bart D. Ehrman, have acknowledged the role of community influence in shaping certain scriptural narratives.
“There is no continuous chain of narrators that can verify each statement as directly originating from a prophet,” Rofiq said.
Ultimately, he concluded that the sanad system represents a unique methodological achievement in human intellectual history. It reflects a deep religious commitment to preserving the teachings of the Prophet while ensuring that accepted traditions meet rigorous scholarly standards.
The lecture served as a reminder that understanding hadith requires more than practice alone. It also demands awareness of the complex scholarly processes that safeguard their authenticity.
