Random Lessons I Got from Hadith Classes that Aren’t Exactly About Hadith

Bismillah. 

If I am given a choice to study subjects on al-Quran or Hadith, I would choose the Quran. But, like it or not, the Quran and Hadith depend on each other. So, I have to learn both. Back when I was in IIUM, I took a Hadith subject called Tadwin as-Sunnah (Writing of the Sunnah) taught by Dr K. There are a few lessons that I kind of realised as I learned more in the al-Quran Sunnah field. 

This photo got the IRK class vibes, so why not? (Credits to Owner)

#1 Amali : The ‘Hadith Notebooks’ 

We always come across the word kutub sittah (the Six Books of Hadith), kitab sahih and musnad. However, those are not the only types of hadith books that exist in the field.

During Tadwin Sunnah’s class, all students were assigned to find different types of hadith books such as sahih, musnad, mustadrak, mu’jam, and much more. My group got a type of hadith book called Amali (الأمالي). They are actually notebooks that were written by students of Hadith in the past. Imagine: There is an ‘Alim (knowledgeable person) teaching Hadith to a group of students who were sitting around him, ready with their papers and ink. So, the compiled papers with the notes on Hadith are the books that we call now, as Amali. 

Honestly, it was the first time I heard of it. There were only two Amali books that my group found in the IIUM’s Darul Hikmah library. The books were often numbered and are named according to their owner. For example: Amali Abdul Razaq, Amali Al-Jurjani, Amali, Amali An-Nasaie, and others. I had no idea that those kinds of hadith notebooks existed until that day. 

Can you imagine that a notebook you randomly write for religious studies suddenly becomes part of important hadith resources? (although not necessarily the main ones).  Poof, mind-blowing. 

Lesson learned: There are more types of hadith books than the famous Sahih and Musnad that we often hear about. Each of them has its own unique characteristics, but I won’t lecture you about them here haha. 

#2 Touching Books 

    My lecturer, Dr K also mentioned the importance of touching the books( لمس الكتب /lams-al-kutub) to get the feel of them and actually start to interact with the kutub. So, at one time, all students were instructed to go to the library, find their assigned type of hadith books there and observe them. At that moment, I don’t really understand the significance of that task; I mean, “What’s the big deal of touching books?” 

    Now I realise that lams-al-kutub is important for students so that they feel closer to the books (kutub= books). The books should not be viewed as intimidating alien objects. But the kutub are part of the students’ learning experience, their resources, and their guide to understand more of the hadith world. 

    Getting to know and familiarize oneself with the physical characteristics of kutub can help him/her to slowly overcome the intimidating feeling of reading a foreign language book. I used to feel; “How on Earth can I understand these thick-skinned Arabic kutub? They seem monstrous.” 

    But as I got to know the structure, the organisation, the format, and the style of different Arabic kutub, I gained a little bit more confidence. “At least I know how it is organised.” For example, in Malay and English books, we often found the table of content/ isi kandungan of the book at the beginning pages of the book. But in Arabic books, usually the ‘table’ of content is at the back of the book. The reason? Wallahua’lam I have no idea, as of now. The good news is the position of the glossary list is still the same as in Malay and English books; so one less confusion there. 

    As for the touching-books exercise, I am cast under the spell of wanting to buy Arabic books now. But I try to exercise self-control to buy only the ones that I immediately need to refer to. Wish me all the best for that. My book-buying habit has been inseparable since primary school.

Lesson learned: Get to know them first. Only when you know them, then the love can grow.

#3 Arabic Names

So, after we finished our presentation slides for the amali books, we needed to present it to the whole class. It was my first time doing a presentation in Arabic in IIUM. I was extremely nervous and worried. My Arabic debate days at secondary school aren’t really helping because I was not a good Arabic debater in the first place (I was just trying out new things). My Arabic speaking spontaneity is non-existent. 

Gladly, I learned that the majority of my classmates kind of read text from their slides or their notes. Not exactly a fluent presentation where one speaks as if he/she memorised the script or speaking spontaneously. So, I am a bit comforted by that observation and I said to myself; “Okay I can do that; preparing speaking notes and peeking at them once in a while and reading some parts from the slides”. I am a beginner, give me a chance lah. 

I was presenting the part about the examples of amali books. I was literally reading the examples of the amali and the name of their authors from the slides, using a few connecting phrases. By the way most Arabic books do not have ‘tanda baca’. So at that time, I was just guessing on how to pronounce the names of the authors (Yeah, I was quite st*pid at that time). 

So, as I was pronouncing the name of an author in which one of his names is الحميري, by saying “Al-Hamiri”, Dr K corrected my pronunciation. He said, “AL-HIMYARI” from the back of the class. I am like “Opss”, I pronounced the author’s name wrongly, but alhamdulillah at least I learned the correct way of pronouncing it. Later, after I finished presenting, I Googled the word Al-Hamiri and I found out it means DONKEYS! Hamir (حمير) is actually the plural word for himar (حمار). 

“Did I just call a hadith scholar as Donkeys?! No wonder Dr K immediately corrected me on the spot.” 

Lesson learned: If you found a scholar’’s name with this name, الحميري, most likely it is NOT pronounced as Hamir. 

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Those are all the 3 lessons that I would like to share with you. Hope you get new information out of this post too!

Wassalam,

Auni B | 10.35 pm | 30 January | From the land by the beach.