Contribution of Abu Isa Tirmidhi to the Science of Hadith

Abstract

Indeed, the hadiths are one of the topics that have been causing extensive discussions in the West since the 19th century. Many western scholars believe that the hadiths were fabricated and they have no historical significance. At the same time, there are many researchers who totally reject these views. Most researchers, in particular, Ignaz Goldziher, Schacht denied most hadiths and they claimed that hadiths have no historical significance. According to them, rulers and jurists all fabricated ḥadiths to reinforce their legal views or to validate already-existing practices. Other groups of scholars, such as John Burton, Motzki, and N.Abbot, admit the hadiths as reliable sources after the Qur'an. The superficial conclusions of Western scholars have been denied by Muslim researchers by F.Sezgin, Abu Shuhba, al-Marsafi, al-A’zami, Maloush on the basis of historical facts. However, scholars on both sides have not seriously objected to “al-Kitab as-Sitta” which translates as “The Authentic Six”. The six major hadith collections (“Sahih Bukhari”, collected by Imam Bukhari , “Sahih Muslim, collected by Muslim b. al-Hajjaj, “Sunan Abu Dawood”, collected by Abu Dawood , “Jami al-Tirmidhi”, collected by al-Tirmidhi, Sunan al-Sughra, collected by al-Nasa'i, Sunan ibn Majah, collected by Ibn Majah have been considered as valuable source on the history of Islam. “Jami al-Tirmidhi” plays an important role among them. Some researchers think this work second or third vital source after “Sahih Bukhari”. In the article, the life of hadith scholars, his scientific legacy, structure and importance of “Jami al-Tirmidhi”, special style of Abu Isa Tirmidhi in hadith methodology, opinions of other scholars on this work, differences between Imam Bukhari and Imam Tirmidhi on writing and selecting hadiths and legal issues of them will be discussed.