How do we know theyâre reliable? The Quran is reliable because people been memorizing it since it came but you canât memorize Hadith. It couldâve easily been manipulated and changed.
First of all, it's very absurd to deny Sahih Hadiths because the same people who transmitted those Hadiths to us are the same one's who passed the Quran to us today. How do you pray? How do you fast? What percentage of Zakah should you give? What are the historical contexts of the verses in the Quran? The Quran tells us that the messenger is a beautiful pattern for Muslims to follow (33:21), how do we know what the Prophet said or did if we want to follow him? The prophet's example are in the Sahih Hadiths, not in the Quran.
Secondly, the Hadiths have been preserved through something called Isnad (Chains of transmission) where the chain of narrators going back to the Prophet are reliable, sound memory and the other strict criteria's scholar's have put fourth, some Hadiths are weak and some are fabricated. We Muslims follow Hadiths that are Sahih (Authentic) and Hassan (Good). For example, Imam al Bukhari did not start "Writing" the Hadith after 200 years, he simply compiled already Authentic Hadiths.
Following is a list of some of the hadith collections prior to Bukhari:
1. Book of Khalid ibn Ma'dan (d. 104)
2. Books of Abu Qilabah (d. 104). He bequeathed his books to his pupil, Ayyub Saktiyan (68-131 A.H.), who paid more than ten dirhams as a fare for them being loaded on a camel.
3. The script of Hammam ibn Munabbih, already referred to.
4. Books of Hasan al-Basri (21-110 A.H.)
5. Books of Muhammad al-Baqir (56-114 A.H.)
6. Books of Makhul from Syria
7. Book of Hakam ibn 'Utaibah
8. Book of Bukair ibn 'Abdullah ibn al-Ashajj (d. 117)
9. Book of Qais ibn Sa'd (d. 117). This book later belonged to Hammad ibn Salamah.
10. Book of Sulaiman al-Yashkuri
11.
Al-Abwâb of Sha'bi, already referred to.
12. Books of Ibn Shihâb az-Zuhri
13. Book of Abul-'Aliyah
14. Book of Sa'id ibn Jubair (d. 95)
15. Books of 'Umar ibn 'Abdul Aziz (61-101 A.H.)
16. Books of Mujahid ibn Jabr (d. 103)
17. Book of Raja ibn Hywah (d. 112)
18. Book of Abu Bakr ibn Muhammad ibn 'Amr ibn Haq
19. Book of Bashir ibn Nahik.
20. Book of 'Abdul Malik ibn Juraij (d. 150)
21.
Muwatta of Malik ibn Anas (93-179)
22.
Muwatta of Ibn Abi Zi'b (80-158)
23.
Maghâzi of Muhammad ibn Ishaq (d. 151)
24.
Musnad of Rabi' ibn Sabih (d. 160)
25. Book of Sa'id ibn Abi 'Arubah (d. 156)
26. Book of Hammad ibn Salmah (d. 167)
27.
Jami' Sufyan ath-Thauri (97-161)
28.
Jami' Ma'mar ibn Rashid (95-153)
29. Book of 'Abdur-Rahman al-Awzâ'I (88-157)
30.
Kitâb az-Zuhd by 'Abdullâh ibn al-Mubârak (118-181)
31. Book of Hushaim ibn Bashir (104-183)
32. Book of Jarir ibn 'Abdul-Hamid (110-188)
33. Book of 'Abdullâh ibn Wahb (125-197)
34. Book of Yahya ibn Abi KathĂŽr (d. 129)
35. Book of Muhammad ibn Suqah (d. 135)
36.
TafsĂŽr of Zaid ibn Aslam (d. 136)
37. Book of Musa ibn 'Uqbah (d. 141)
38. Book of Ash'ath ibn 'Abdul-Malik (d. 142)
39. Book of Aqil ibn Khalid (d. 142)
40. Book of Yahya ibn Sa'id Ansari (d. 143)
41. Book of Awf ibn Abi Jamilah (d. 146)
42. Books of Jafar ibn Muhammad al-Sadiq (d. 148)
43. Books of Yunus ibn Yazid (d. 152)
44. Book of 'Abdur-Rahman al-Mas'udi (d. 160)
45. Books of Zaidah ibn Qudamah (d. 161)
46. Books of Ibrahim al-Tahman (d. 163)
47. Books of Abu Hamzah al-Sukri (d. 167)
48.
Al-Gharâib by Shu'bah ibn al-Hajjaj (d. 160)
49. Books of 'Abdul-Aziz ibn 'Abdullâh al-Majishun (d. 164)
50. Books of 'Abdullâh ibn 'Abdullâh ibn Abi Uwais (d. 169)
51. Books of Sulaiman ibn Bilal (d. 172)
52. Books of 'Abdullâh ibn Lahi'ah (d. 147)
53.
Jami' Sufyan ibn 'Uyainah (d. 198)
54.
Kitâb-ul-Ăthâr by Imâm Abu HanĂŽfah (d. 150)
55.
Maghâzi of Mu'tamir ibn Sulaiman (d. 187)
56.
Musannaf of Waki' ibn Jarrah (d. 196)
57.
Musannaf of 'Abdur-Razzâq ibn Hammam (136-221)
58.
Musnad of Zaid ibn 'Ali (76-122)
59. Books of Imâm Shâfi'i (150-204)
Dr. Mustafa Al Azami in his excellent acclaimed work
Studies in Early Hadith Literature from pages 34 to 60 mentions the names of 50 companions of the Prophet (peace be upon him) who wrote down hadith. Then from pages 60 to 74 he mentions the names of 49 successors from the first Islamic century that wrote down hadith. Then from pages 74 to 106 he mentions the names of 87 scholars that wrote down hadith from the late first and early second centuries. Then from pages 106 to 182 he mentions the names of 251 scholars from the early second century who wrote down hadiths.
This is clear evidence that the writing down and collection of hadith started much earlier than most people think.
Now one might ask himself why we don't have most of these first century hadith works.
Dr. Mustafa Al Azami in his other acclaimed work
Studies in Hadith Methodology and Literature on page 103 said:
What happened to the earlier Hadith literature?
I have mentioned earlier that hundreds and thousands of books of Hadith were in circulation in the first and second century. Only a very small amount of this Hadith literature has survived. It could be said that either what I have described is totally wrong, or these books were in existence at sometime but were lost later. This second hypothesis raises another problem,
i.e. of the negligence of the Hadith of the Propeht
s.a.w. by Muslim scholars. It is possible that they did not feel any necessity of Hadith literature and so it was destroyed?
As a matter of fact, my position is precise and correct.
These books were not destroyed nor did they perish, but were absorbed into the work of later authors. When the encyclopedia type books were produced, scholars did not feel the necessity to keep the early books or booklets, and so, slowly they disappeared. To explain this point I will describe the method of quotations in early days which would prove my point.
Indeed, Muslims today could be confident that we have incorporated all the hadiths that were written down in the first century. The strongest evidence for this is the Sahifah of Hammam bin Munabbih, where we find all of its hadith found in the later hadith collections.