‘Umar menjawab: “Engkau mesti membawa bukti tentang perkara ini, jika tidak, aku akan menghukummu.” Abu Musa datang kepada kami ketika kami sedang duduk, dan wajahnya berpeluh. Kami bertanya: “Apa yang berlaku kepadamu?” Lalu dia memberitahu kami dan bertanya: “Adakah sesiapa antara kamu yang mendengar hadith ini?” Kami menjawab: “Ya, kami semua telah mendengar (hadith) ini.” Maka kami menghantar seorang lelaki dari kalangan kami sehingga dia sampai kepada ‘Umar dan memberitahunya. ‘Ali berkata: “Jika aku mendengar sebuah hadith daripada Nabi Allah ﷺ yang Allah memberi manfaat kepadaku dengannya, dan jika ada sesiapa yang bercakap kepadaku mengenainya, aku akan meminta sumpah daripadanya, dan jika dia memberikannya, maka aku akan mempercayainya.” Daripada ini kita melihat sikap berhati-hati para Sahabat ﷺ dalam meriwayatkan hadith dan kesungguhan yang amat sangat yang mereka tunjukkan dalam menerima riwayat. Bahkan diriwayatkan bahawa ‘Umar tidak memberi perhatian yang banyak kepada riwayat Fatimah binti Qays (yang menyatakan) bahawa tiada nafkah atau tempat tinggal bagi wanita yang telah ditalak tiga secara muktamad. Beliau berkata: Kami tidak akan meninggalkan Kitab Tuhan kami atau Sunnah Nabi kami ﷺ kerana ucapan seorang wanita, kerana kami tidak tahu sama ada dia mengingatnya atau terlupa. Ini tidak bermakna (bahawa ‘Umar meninggalkan hadithnya) kerana dia seorang wanita, sebaliknya maksudnya ialah kami tidak akan meninggalkan Kitab dan Sunnah kerana ucapan seseorang yang tidak diketahui sama ada dia mengingat atau terlupa. Illah (sebab) ialah sama ada dia mengingatnya atau tidak, dan bukan kerana dia seorang wanita.
‘Umar replied: “You must bring me an evidence about this matter otherwise I will punish you.” Abu Musa came to us while we were sitting down and his face was sweaty. We said: “What is the matter with you?” So he informed us and asked: “Did anyone of you hear this Hadith?” We replied: “Yes, all of us have heard this (Hadith).” So we sent a man from amongst us till he came to Umar and told him. Ali said: “If I heard a Hadith from the Prophet of Allah which Allah benefited me with it, and if anyone talked to me about it, I would ask for an oath from him, and if he gave it to me then I would trust him.” From this we see the care of the Sahabah in the narration of hadīth and the extreme care they excercised in accepting reports. It has even been narrated that Umar did not give much attention to the narration of Fatimah ibn Qays (which states) that there is no maintenance (nafaqa) or lodging for the woman who has been irrevocably divorced with three pronouncements. He said: We shall not abandon the Book of our Lord or the Sunnah of our Prophet for the speech of a woman for we do not know if she has memorised it or forgotten it. This does not mean (that Umar left her hadīth because) she is a woman, rather what it means is that we will not leave the Book and Sunnah for the speech of someone for whom it is not known whether she has memorised it or forgotten it. The illah (reason) is whether she memorised it or not, and not because she was a woman.
Apabila fitnah (perang saudara) berlaku selepas pembunuhan Uthman, dan orang Islam mula berselisih sesama sendiri sehingga terbentuk pelbagai kumpulan akibatnya, perhatian setiap kumpulan tertumpu kepada mengeluarkan dalil-dalil dan meriwayatkan hadith-hadith yang menyokong dakwaan mereka. Sebahagian daripada mereka, apabila memerlukan sebuah hadith untuk menyokong sesuatu pendapat atau untuk membuktikan sesuatu perkara, akan mereka-reka sendiri sebuah hadith. Maka berleluasalah rekaan-rekaan sedemikian pada zaman kekacauan ini. Selepas fitnah (perang saudara) itu reda, orang Islam memulakan usaha memeriksa hadith-hadith, dan mereka mendapati bahawa rekaan-rekaan tersebut telah tersebar luas. Lalu mereka bersungguh-sungguh memisahkan rekaan-rekaan itu daripada hadith-hadith yang sahih.
When the fitna (civil war) ensued after the murder of Uthman and Muslims started to disagree among themselves and different groups were formed as a result. The attention of every group was devoted to deducing evidences and reporting ahadīth which supported their claims. Some of them when they needed a hadīth to support a saying or establish proof for something, they would themselves fabricate a hadīth. There was a proliferation of such fabrications during this period of disorder. After the fitna (civil war) had abated the Muslims embarked upon checking the ahadīth, they found that those fabrications had become widespread. So they worked hard to separate the fabrications from the sound (Sahih) ahadīth.
Dan apabila zaman para Sahabah telah berakhir dan para Tabi'in datang selepas mereka, mereka turut mengikuti kaedah yang sama. Mereka menurut jejak para Sahabat yang mulia dalam memberi perhatian kepada hadith dan penyebarannya melalui kaedah periwayatan, sehingga pada zaman Khalifah yang adil, 'Umar ibn 'Abd al-'Aziz, pada awal kurun kedua Hijrah, beliau memerintahkan agar hadith dibukukan. Al-Bukhari berkata dalam Sahih-nya, dalam kitab al-'ilm (Kitab Ilmu), bahawa 'Umar ibn 'Abd al-'Aziz menulis kepada Abu Bakr ibn Hazm: "Carilah apa yang dapat kamu temui daripada hadith Rasulullah ﷺ dan tuliskannya. Aku bimbang akan hilangnya ilmu dan berkurangnya bilangan para ulama. Janganlah kamu menerima apa-apa selain hadith Nabi ﷺ, dan hendaklah kamu menyebarkan ilmu serta duduk mengajar orang yang tidak berilmu sehingga mereka berilmu. Sesungguhnya ilmu itu tidak akan lenyap melainkan apabila ia disembunyikan."
And when the age of the Sahabah had come to an end and the Tabi'un came after them they followed on the same method and they followed the noble Sahabah in their attention to the hadīth and its spread through the medium of narration until the reign of the just Khalifah 'Umar ibn 'Abd al-'Aziz in the beginning of the second Hijri century, He ordered the hadīth to be written down. Bukhari said in his Sahih in the kitab al-'ilm (The Book of Knowledge) that 'Umar ibn 'Abd al-'Aziz wrote to Abu Bakr ibn Hazm: 'Look for what you can find of the ahadīth of the Messenger of Allah and write them down. I fear for the loss of the lessons of knowledge and the dwindling numbers of the scholars. Do not accept anything other than the hadīth of the Prophet so that you may dissiminate knowledge and sit down to teach those who do not have knowldge until they have knowldge. Verily, knowledge does not perish unless it is kept secret'.
Demikian juga, beliau menulis surat kepada 'Amil-'amilnya (gabenor daerah) di bandar-bandar utama supaya mengejar hadis-hadis.
Likewise, he wrote to his 'Amils (district governors) in Major towns to pursue the ahadīth.
Orang pertama yang merekodkan hadis mengikut perintah 'Umar ibn 'Abd al-'Aziz ialah Muhammad ibn Muslim ibn 'Ubayd Allah ibn 'Abd Allah ibn Shihab az-Zuhri. Beliau mempelajari ilmu daripada sekumpulan Sahabat muda dan Tabi'in yang senior. Kemudian, perekodan hadis menjadi meluas dalam generasi yang mengikuti generasi az-Zuhri. Antara mereka yang mengumpulkan hadis ialah Ibn Jurayj di Makkah, Malik di Madinah, Hammad ibn Salama di Basrah, Sufyan al-Thawri di Kufah, al-Awza'i di wilayah al-Sham dan lain-lain di pelbagai negeri Islam. Koleksi hadis mereka bercampur dengan kata-kata Sahabat dan fatwa-fatwa (keputusan hukum) Tabi'in. Semua ini berlaku pada abad kedua Hijrah. Kemudian, para periwayat hadis mula menulis himpunan dan karangan mereka sendiri pada awal abad ketiga. Penghimpunan hadis terus berlangsung secara berterusan sehinggalah munculnya Imam Bukhari. Beliau terkenal dalam ilmu hadis dan menulis kitabnya yang masyhur, Sahih al-Bukhari, di mana beliau memetik hadis-hadis yang beliau anggap sahih. Beliau diikuti oleh Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj, yang merupakan murid Bukhari. Beliau menulis kitabnya yang terkenal, Sahih Muslim. Kedua-dua karya ini digelar 'al-Sahihayn' (dua kitab Sahih).
The first one to record the hadīth in accordance with the order of 'Umar ibn 'Abd al-'Aziz was Muhammad ibn Muslim ibn 'Ubayd Allah ibn 'Abd Allah ibn Shihab az-Zuhri. He learned knowledge from a group of young Sahabah and senior Tabi’een. Then the recording of hadīth became widespread in the generation which followed the generation of az-Zuhri. From among those who collected the hadīth they were Ibn Jurayj in Makkah, Malik in Madinah, Hammad ibn Salama in Basra, Sufyan al-Thawri in Kufa, Al-Awza’i in the al-Sham region and others in the various Islamic lands. The hadīth collections of those people were mixed with the sayings of Sahabah and the fatwas (legal verdicts) of the Tabi’een. All this was in the second century A.H (After Hijra). Then the transmitters of hadīth began to write their own compilations and compositions in the beginning of the third century. Compilation of hadīth continued consecutively until the appearance of Imam Bukhari. He was distinguished in the science of hadīth and he wrote his renowned book ; Sahih al-Bukhari in which he quoted those hadīth which he perceived to be authentic. He was followed in his tracks by Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj who was a student of Bukhari. He wrote his famous book: Sahih Muslim. Those two works are designated as the 'Sahihayn' (the two Sahih works).
Apabila para imam hadis mula mencatatkan hadis, mereka mencatatkannya sebagaimana yang mereka temui. Mereka tidak menggugurkan apa-apa yang sampai kepada mereka dalam kebanyakan keadaan kecuali yang diketahui sebagai palsu dan direka-reka. Mereka menghimpunkannya beserta sanad-sanadnya sebagaimana yang mereka temui, kemudian mereka meneliti secara ketat kedudukan para perawi sehingga mereka yakin siapa yang riwayatnya boleh diterima, siapa yang riwayatnya ditolak, dan siapa yang riwayatnya tidak boleh mereka terima. Mereka meneruskannya dengan kajian terhadap laporan dan kedudukan riwayat, kerana setiap riwayat yang diriwayatkan oleh perawi yang bersifat amanah dan tepat tidak semestinya boleh diambil, kerana dia tetap terdedah kepada kelupaan atau kesilapan.
When the imams of hadīth began to record the hadīth, they recorded them in the manner in which they found them. They did not omit anything that reached them in the majority of cases except what was known to be fabricated and concocted. They compiled them with their isnāds as they found them, and then they rigorously investigated the status of the transmitters until they were certain of whose narration could be accepted, and whose narration is to be rejected and whose narration they could notaccept. They followed that up with a study of the report and the status of the narration because everything that is narrated by a transmitter who is characterised with trustworthiness and accuracy cannot be taken because he is susceptible to forgetfulness or error.
Hadith merupakan topik yang luas yang merangkumi semua disiplin Islam. Ia termasuk tafsir (tafsir al-Qur'an), perundangan dan Sirah. Perawi hadith akan meriwayatkan sebuah hadith yang mengandungi tafsir bagi suatu ayat al-Qur'an yang mulia, atau sebuah hadith yang memuatkan hukum mengenai sesuatu peristiwa, atau dia akan meriwayatkan sebuah hadith yang menyebut salah satu daripada peperangan, dan seterusnya. Apabila orang Islam mula mengumpulkan ahadith dan hadith mula dibukukan, pengumpulan hadith bermula di pelbagai bandar dalam Negara. Pengumpulan hadith memisahkan hadith Rasulullah ﷺ daripada segala yang selainnya. Oleh sebab itu, hadith menjadi bebas daripada fiqh sebagaimana ia menjadi bebas daripada tafsir. Ini berlaku pada penghujung dua ratus tahun yang pertama. Selepas itu, gerakan pengumpulan hadith menjadi giat, dan para penyusun memisahkan hadith yang sahih daripada yang daif, dengan menerangkan keadaan para perawi (periwayat) serta memutuskan hukum sama ada memuji atau mencela mereka.
Hadīth was a broad topic which encompassed all the Islamic disciplines. It included tafsīr (Qur’ānic exegesis), legislation and the Sīrah. The hadīth transmitter would narrate a hadīth which would include the tafsīr of an ayah of the Noble Qur’ān, or a hadīth which contained a ruling on an incident, or he would narrate a hadīth which would mention one of the battles, and so on and so forth. When the Muslims began to collect the ahadīth and the hadīth came to be put down in writing, the compilation of hadīth began in the various cities of the State. The compilation of hadīth singled out the hadīth of the Messenger from everything other than it. Due to this the hadīth became independent from the fiqh just as it became independent from the tafsīr. This was at the end of the first two hundred years. Afterwards the movement for the collection of hadīth was active and the compilers separated the sound hadīth from the weak ones, describing the men (transmitters) and passing a ruling whether in favour or against them.