Authenticity of the Character and Precedent of the Holy Prophet(pbuh) Now take the second attribute of the Holy Prophet (pbuh) by which he stands unique among all Prophets(pbut) and leaders of religion. Just as the Book transmitted to him, amounts of his character have also been preserved to serve as a beacon for us in all walks of life. From early childhood to the close of his life, a large number of those who saw him, witnessed the events of his life and heard his conversation, addresses, exhortations or warnings, had retained them in memory and passed them onto their successors. Some of the research scholars believe that the number of those who had passed on to the next generation eyewitness accounts or reports of events that they had heard during the lifetime of the Holy Prophet (pbuh) number a hundred thousand people. The Holy Prophet (pbuh) himself dictated some commands and handed or dispatched them to certain people. These were later bequeathed to the succeeding generations.
There were at least six Companions (pbut) who had recorded the Traditions of the Holy Prophet (pbuh) and tested the authenticity of their records by reading them out to the Holy Prophet(pbuh). These writings were also inherited by posterity. After the death of the Holy Prophet(pbuh), some fifty Companions (pbut) undertook to collect accounts of the circumstances and incidents of the Prophet's life and his holy utterances. The material gathered from this source also came into the hands of those who later accomplished the task of collecting and compiling the Traditions of the Holy Prophet (pbuh).
Besides, as I have mentioned earlier, the number of the Companions who transmitted orally their knowledge of the Holy Prophet's character(pbuh) runs to one hundred thousand, according to the estimate of some researchers. Little wonder, when we take into account the fact that the Holy Prophet (pbuh) performed his last Hajj, known as the Farewell Pilgrimage, in the company of one hundred and forty thousand people! All these believers saw him at the time of Hajj, learned from him the rituals of Hajj and listened to the addresses which the Holy Prophet (pbuh) delivered during this last Pilgrimage. It is improbable that when this assembly, who had attended such an important occasion as the Hajj, disperse to their own homes, their friends, relations and fellow-citizens should not have questioned them on the circumstances of their journey or failed to ascertain from them the injunctions about Hajj. One can well judge from this, after the Holy Prophet (pbuh) had departed from the world, how eagerly the people must have questioned those who had seen him and listened to his speech, on the details of his life, his sacred utterances, commands and instructions.
The procedure that had been adopted from the beginning regarding the traditions bequeathed to the later generations by the illustrious Companions(pbut) was that whoever ascribed an event or saying to the Holy Prophet(pbuh) had to state his source and furnish a chain of evidence. In this way, the sources of a particular tradition were traced through all connecting links back to the time of the Holy Prophet(pbuh) in order to determine whether their connection with the person of the Prophet of God (pbuh) was demonstrably true. If any links were found to be missing in the chain of transmission, the authenticity of the tradition fell into suspicion. When in the cast of a tradition, a complete line of evidence had been set up to the time of the Holy Prophet(pbuh), and even one of the reporters along the line had been recognized as unreliable, the tradition was discarded. If you ponder this a while, you will realize that circumstances relating to no other man in history have been recorded with such rigorous scrutiny. It is the distinction of Muhammed (pbuh) that no tradition ascribed to him has been accepted, save on authority. And while looking for the authority of a tradition, it was not considered sufficient to establish a chain of evidence up to the time of the Holy Prophet(pbuh) , but each one of the successive transmitters was carefully scrutinized as well so as to determine his or her reliability. For this purpose, the circumstances of all the reporters were thoroughly investigated and full-scale books were compiled. Setting forth details as to who was trustworthy and who was not; what sort of character and personality each of them had; whose memory was sound and whose weak. Furthermore, the reporter who had actually met the source from whom he had derived the tradition was distinguished from the one who merely named the source without ever having met him. Information about all these reporters has been documented on such a comprehensive scale that today we can easily determine in the case of each tradition whether it has been derived from trustworthy or fake sources. Is there any other person in the history of mankind whose life story has been derived by such authentic means? Is there another single instance in which, while discovering the history of one individual person, comprehensive books were compiled on the life stories of thousands of reporters who had narrated some tradition about that person? The primary motive behind the vigorous campaign of the modern Christian and Jewish scholars is to cast doubt on the authenticity of the tradition is jealousy, for they know full well that the authority on the genuineness of their own Scriptures as well as for that of the histories of their Prophets is non-existent. It is owing to this jealousy that they have dispensed with all intellectual honesty in their criticisms on Islam, the Holy Qur'an and the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh).
There were at least six Companions (pbut) who had recorded the Traditions of the Holy Prophet (pbuh) and tested the authenticity of their records by reading them out to the Holy Prophet(pbuh). These writings were also inherited by posterity. After the death of the Holy Prophet(pbuh), some fifty Companions (pbut) undertook to collect accounts of the circumstances and incidents of the Prophet's life and his holy utterances. The material gathered from this source also came into the hands of those who later accomplished the task of collecting and compiling the Traditions of the Holy Prophet (pbuh).
Besides, as I have mentioned earlier, the number of the Companions who transmitted orally their knowledge of the Holy Prophet's character(pbuh) runs to one hundred thousand, according to the estimate of some researchers. Little wonder, when we take into account the fact that the Holy Prophet (pbuh) performed his last Hajj, known as the Farewell Pilgrimage, in the company of one hundred and forty thousand people! All these believers saw him at the time of Hajj, learned from him the rituals of Hajj and listened to the addresses which the Holy Prophet (pbuh) delivered during this last Pilgrimage. It is improbable that when this assembly, who had attended such an important occasion as the Hajj, disperse to their own homes, their friends, relations and fellow-citizens should not have questioned them on the circumstances of their journey or failed to ascertain from them the injunctions about Hajj. One can well judge from this, after the Holy Prophet (pbuh) had departed from the world, how eagerly the people must have questioned those who had seen him and listened to his speech, on the details of his life, his sacred utterances, commands and instructions.
The procedure that had been adopted from the beginning regarding the traditions bequeathed to the later generations by the illustrious Companions(pbut) was that whoever ascribed an event or saying to the Holy Prophet(pbuh) had to state his source and furnish a chain of evidence. In this way, the sources of a particular tradition were traced through all connecting links back to the time of the Holy Prophet(pbuh) in order to determine whether their connection with the person of the Prophet of God (pbuh) was demonstrably true. If any links were found to be missing in the chain of transmission, the authenticity of the tradition fell into suspicion. When in the cast of a tradition, a complete line of evidence had been set up to the time of the Holy Prophet(pbuh), and even one of the reporters along the line had been recognized as unreliable, the tradition was discarded. If you ponder this a while, you will realize that circumstances relating to no other man in history have been recorded with such rigorous scrutiny. It is the distinction of Muhammed (pbuh) that no tradition ascribed to him has been accepted, save on authority. And while looking for the authority of a tradition, it was not considered sufficient to establish a chain of evidence up to the time of the Holy Prophet(pbuh) , but each one of the successive transmitters was carefully scrutinized as well so as to determine his or her reliability. For this purpose, the circumstances of all the reporters were thoroughly investigated and full-scale books were compiled. Setting forth details as to who was trustworthy and who was not; what sort of character and personality each of them had; whose memory was sound and whose weak. Furthermore, the reporter who had actually met the source from whom he had derived the tradition was distinguished from the one who merely named the source without ever having met him. Information about all these reporters has been documented on such a comprehensive scale that today we can easily determine in the case of each tradition whether it has been derived from trustworthy or fake sources. Is there any other person in the history of mankind whose life story has been derived by such authentic means? Is there another single instance in which, while discovering the history of one individual person, comprehensive books were compiled on the life stories of thousands of reporters who had narrated some tradition about that person? The primary motive behind the vigorous campaign of the modern Christian and Jewish scholars is to cast doubt on the authenticity of the tradition is jealousy, for they know full well that the authority on the genuineness of their own Scriptures as well as for that of the histories of their Prophets is non-existent. It is owing to this jealousy that they have dispensed with all intellectual honesty in their criticisms on Islam, the Holy Qur'an and the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh).
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