The soundness of the hadith โ€œDo not write anything from meโ€ฆโ€ and explanation of what it means

๐“๐ก๐ž ๐ฌ๐จ๐ฎ๐ง๐๐ง๐ž๐ฌ๐ฌ ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐ก๐š๐๐ข๐ญ๐ก โ€œ๐ƒ๐จ ๐ง๐จ๐ญ ๐ฐ๐ซ๐ข๐ญ๐ž ๐š๐ง๐ฒ๐ญ๐ก๐ข๐ง๐  ๐Ÿ๐ซ๐จ๐ฆ ๐ฆ๐žโ€ฆโ€ ๐š๐ง๐ ๐ž๐ฑ๐ฉ๐ฅ๐š๐ง๐š๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐ฐ๐ก๐š๐ญ ๐ข๐ญ ๐ฆ๐ž๐š๐ง๐ฌ

Mohamad Mostafa Nassar

Twitter@NassarMohamadMR


Question

Is this hadith sahih=authentic, and what does it mean: โ€œDo not write anything from me, and whoever writes anything but the Qurโ€™an, let him erase itโ€? May Allah reward you with good.

Answer

Praise be to Allah.

It goes under the title of Chapter: Verification Of Hadith And The Ruling On Writing Down Knowledge

It was narrated from Abu Saโ€™eed al-Khudri that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: โ€œDo not write anything from me; whoever has written anything from me other than the Qurโ€™an, let him erase it and narrate from me, for there is nothing wrong with that.โ€ (Narrated by Muslim, al-Zuhd waโ€™l-Raqaaโ€™iq, 5326) 

Al-Nawawi said in his commentary on Sahih Muslim: 

โ€œAl-Qaadi said: there were many disputes among the แนขahฤbah=Companions of the Prophet and Taabiโ€™een=successors concerning the writing down of knowledge. Many of them regarded this as being makrooh=disliked, but most of them regarded it as permissible.

This dispute is no longer an issue. 

They differed as to the meaning of this Hadith which says that it is forbidden. It was said that this pertained to one who was sure of his memory, and there was the fear that he may rely upon what he had written if he wrote it down; the ahaadeeth which say that it is permissible to write things down is to be interpreted as referring to the one whose memory is not reliable.

Such as the Hadith, โ€œWrite it down for Abu Shaahโ€; or the Hadith of the saheefah of โ€˜Ali (may Allah be pleased with him); the Hadith of the book of โ€˜Amr ibn Hazm, which contains laws on inheritance, sunnahs and diyaat (blood money);

the Hadith about writing down charity, and the minimum amounts at which zakat=almsgiving=one of the pillars of Islam becomes obligatory (nisaab), with which Abu Bakr sent Anas (may Allah be pleased with him) to Bahrain; the Hadith of Abu Hurayrah which says that Ibn โ€˜Amr ibn al-โ€˜Aas used to ; write things down but he (Abu Hurayrah) did not write things down, and other ahaadeeth.

And it was said that the Hadith forbidding writing down ahaadeeth was abrogated by these ahaadeeth. The prohibition was in effect when there was the fear that (the words of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) might be mixed with the Qurโ€™an.

When that danger was no longer present, permission was given to write down (ahaadeeth). And it was said that the prohibition mentioned in the Hadith referred to writing ahaadeeth on the same page as Qurโ€™an, lest they become mixed and thus the reader would be confused when looking at this page. And Allah knows best. 

The Hadith of Abu Shaah was narrated by al-Bukhari from Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him), who said: โ€˜When Allah granted His Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) victory over Makkah, he stood before the people and praised and glorified Allah, then he said:

 โ€œAllah protected Makkah from the elephant and has given authority to His Messenger and the believers over it, so fighting was forbidden for anyone before me, and was made permissible for me for part of a day, and it will not be permissible for anyone after me.

Its game should not be chased, its thorny bushes should not be uprooted, and picking up its fallen things is not allowed except for one who makes public announcement for it, and he whose relative is murdered has the option either to accept a compensation for it or to retaliate.โ€ Al-โ€˜Abbas said, โ€œExcept Al-Idhkhir (a kind of plant), for we use it in our graves and houses.โ€

The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said, โ€œExcept Al-Idhkhir.โ€ Abu Shaah, a Yemeni, stood up and said, โ€œO Messenger of Allah! Get it written for me.โ€ The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said, โ€œWrite it for Abu Shaah.โ€  (al-Luqatah, 2254) 

Ibn Hajar said: What may be understood from the story of Abu Shaah (โ€œWrite it for Abu Shaahโ€) is that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) gave permission for Hadith to be written down from him. 

This contradicts the Hadith of Abu Saโ€™eed al-Khudri, which says that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said, โ€˜Do not write down anything from me except the Qurโ€™an.โ€™ (Narrated by Muslim). 

The two may be reconciled by noting that the prohibition applied only to the time when the Qurโ€™รขn was being revealed, lest it be confused with something else, and that permission was given at other times; or that the prohibition applied only to writing down things other than Qurโ€™an with the Qurโ€™รขn on one thing.

And that permission was given to write them separately; of that the prohibition came first and the permission abrogated that when there was no longer any fear of confusion. This is most likely to be the case.                               

It was said that the prohibition applied only to those whom it was feared would depend on the writing and not memorize things, and that permission was given for those from whom such a thing was not feared. 

The scholars said: a group of the Sahaabah=Companions of the Prophet and Taabiโ€™een=successors regarded it as makrooh=disliked to write down the Hadith and they regarded it as mustahabb to learn it from them by heart, as they had learned it. But when people were no longer able to strive so hard (in memorizing) and the scholars feared that knowledge might be lost, they compiled it in books.โ€

Allah knows Best.

What is the meaning of the hadith โ€œWe are an unlettered nation; we do not write or calculateโ€?

Refuting The Argument from Hadith in Which the Prophet Says โ€œDo Not Write Down Anything from Me Except Qurโ€™anโ€

Chapter: Verification Of Hadith And The Ruling On Writing Down Knowledge