Between Text and Context: Understanding Ḥadīth through Asbab al Wurud

Abstract

A comprehensive understanding of Ḥadīth, with their narrative background in Islamic tradition, would require the application of the principle of asbāb al-wurūd (discerning the specific circumstances for the reason or purpose of revealing Ḥadīth), an approach which gives detailed information about narrated Ḥadīth. Having such a comprehension about the essence of the message of Ḥadīth could enhance the understanding of Muslim audiences and followers. This situation will indirectly provide a stepping stone to comprehensive information to prevent misunderstanding the message of Islamic religion. Taking due cognizance of these circumstances could potentially result in preventing actions of religious radicalism, which might result from obtaining religious messages through a solely textual approach. In this situation, the sufficient application of asbāb al-wurūd plays a significant role in leading an order to achieve the contextual comprehension of the religious message of Ḥadīth. This paper aims to examine the significance of asbāb al-wurūd in understanding the contextual meaning of Ḥadīth beyond a textual basis. The findings reveal that the contextual elaboration of the message of Ḥadīth could be adapted in a proper way, in which its textual comprehension could be elaborated on clearly through detailing its asbāb al-wurūd, one method of which is to refer to Muslim scholars together with schools of thought in order to clearly attain the message of Islamic religion. Furthermore, this article attempts to address such a way of bringing about textual understanding to the context to assist in adapting the contextual significance of a clear and detailed comprehension of Ḥadīth. The significance of this study is to contribute to providing a detailed explanation on both text and context in seeking for clarity on the Ḥadīths’ information and message with a clear basis as a safeguard against extremist interpretations of Islam.