(INTRODUCTION)
The Sunan, or "traditions," of Mohammed are now gathered in six
books, though two of these are more specifically called the Sahihs,
or "sincere books." These six works bear to Mohammedanism much the
same relation as the Four Gospels do to Christianity. That is to say,
they are the accounts of the prophet's life as handed down by his
disciples. Of course to the Mohammedans the Sunan are not the main
source of teaching. That is the Koran, which, as we have seen, is
Mohammed's own book, dictated by the prophet himself. Moreover, the
Sunan do not approach Mohammed with anything like the same accuracy
and closeness with which the Gospels approach Jesus. The Sunan are
slight and fragmentary traditions, gathered from every possible source
at an interval of more than two centuries after their prophet's death.
They have, however, been accepted as holy books or "canons" of the
Mohammedan faith. Much of the Mohammedan religious law of to-day is
founded on them; and they are taught in all the schools and made the
basis of many a hair-splitting argument about right and wrong.
Unlike the Christian religion, that of Mohammed sprang immediately
into world-wide power; hence no sooner was the prophet dead than every
companion of the revered teacher, every listener who had ever heard him
speak, narrated to eager audiences each remembered trifle. Naturally
these became exaggerated in the telling. Moreover, when rival caliphs
fought and slew one another, each claiming rightful heirship from the
prophet, their followers would inevitably invent traditions to justify
each leader's claim. Exaggeration, if not direct falsehood, soon
became inextricably mixed with fact. When, later on, men tried to set
their faith upon a firmer basis, they sought to sift these manifold
traditions and decide which were worthy of belief.
The first man who set down these sifted traditions in a book was Al
Bukhari. He traveled all over the Arab Empire to gather all the tales
he could, and he continued elaborating on his book, the first Sahih,
until his death in A.D. 870. Al Bukhari himself tells us that in his
travels he gathered six hundred thousand tales about Mohammed. Of these
he admitted to his Sahih, as being most trustworthy, a little over
seven thousand. The second Sahih, written by a follower of Al Bukhari,
was garnered from three hundred thousand tales.
Of slightly later date than these two works were the four Sunan,
founded partly on the earlier books, but built upon a stricter critical
analysis of what should be accepted, and written after an even wider
gathering of all the legends of the empire. Hence the Sunan include
the earlier books, and the entire collection is commonly spoken of by
the later name. When, however, we speak of these Sunan as a "critical"
selection from the million legends, the modern reader must not think of
this as implying modern scientific criticism and analytical accuracy.
Each tale was chiefly accepted on the ground that, in the series of men
by whom it was said to have been handed down through the generations,
all the men were known and all were of reputed trustworthiness.
That is to say, in an age already become notorious for its lack of
veracity, a superficial confidence in individual veracity, extending
back through many links for over two hundred years, was accepted as the
ultimate proof of truth.
The most widely read and quoted of the Sunan is that of Abu Da'ud, who
sums up his own work by declaring that only four of all the thousands
of religious rules he has gathered need be remembered by each man
for his own religious guidance. These four laws Abu Da'ud gives as
follows: "Actions will be judged according to intentions. The proof of
a Moslem's sincerity is that he pays no heed to that which is not his
business. No man is a true believer unless he desires for his brother
that which he desires for himself. That which is lawful is clear, and
that which is unlawful likewise, but there are certain doubtful things
between the two, from which it is well to abstain."