Quote:
Originally Posted by DD
I am not a scholar, but what is the definition of Tawatur?
As i have mentioned previously, there was no mention of Mahdi in Muwatta, followed by mentioned of a ruler with no name in Bukhari and only later Ahadith mention the title Al-Mahdi. There does not appear to be a tawatur but an evolution.
|
Tawatur means an unbroken chain of narrations. if it's not mentioned in Bukhari and Muslim with the title of "Mahdi" doesn't mean it's not true rather simply indicates that those ahadith were collected later by other Scholars.
Point is as long as the ahadith are authentic and their chain is unbroken it doesn't matter if they were written long after bukhari and muslim.
Below is some useful information, please read.
Translated from al-Kattani's Nazm al-Mutanathir fi al-Hadith al-Mutawatir by GF Haddad
The coming out of al-Mahdi is narrated from the following Companions :
1. Ibn Mas`ud by Ahmad, Abu Dawud, al-Tirmidhi, and Ibn Majah;
2. Umm Salama by Abu Dawud, Ibn Majah, and al-Hakim;
3. `Ali ibn Abi Talib by Ahmad, Abu Dawud, and Ibn Majah;
4. Abu Sa`id al-Khudri by Ahmad, Abu Dawud, al-Tirmidhi, Ibn Majah, Abu Ya`la, and al-Hakim;
5. Thawban by AHmad, Ibn Majah, and al-Hakim;
6. Qurra ibn Iyas al-Muzani by al-Bazzar and al-Tabarani in al-Kabir and al-Awsat;
7. `Abd Allah ibn al-Harith ibn Jaz' by Ibn Majah and al-Tabarani in al-Awsat;
8. Abu Hurayra by Ahmad, al-Tirmidhi, Abu Ya`la, al-Bazzar, al-Tabarani in al-Awsat, and others;
9. Hudhayfa ibn al-Yaman by al-Ruwyani;
10. Ibn `Abbas by Abu Nu`aym in Akhbar al-Mahdi;
11. Jabir ibn `Abd Allah by Ahmad and Muslim, the latter not mentioning al-Mahdi by name;
12. `Uthman by al-Daraqutni in al-Afrad;
13. Abu Umama by al-Tabarani in al-Kabir;
14. `Ammar ibn Yasir by al-Daraqutni in al-Afrad, al-Khatib, and Ibn `Asakir;
15. Jabir ibn Majid al-Sadafi by al-Tabarani in al-Kabir;
16. Ibn `Umar by al-Tabarani in al-Awsat;
17. Talha ibn `Ubayd Allah by al-Tabarani in al-Awsat;
18. Anas ibn Malik by Ibn Majah;
19. `Abd al-Rahman ibn `Awf by Abu Nu`aym;
20. `Imran ibn Husayn by Abu `Amr al-Dani in his Sunan and others.
Tawatur was reported on the subject by al-Sakhawi in Fath al-Mughith from Abu al-Husayn al-Abirri al-Sijistani's (d. 363) Sharh al-Risala, Manaqib al-Shafi`i, and Maghani al-Wafa bi Ma`ani al-Iktifa; also Abu al-`Ala' Idris ibn Muhammad ibn Idris al-Husayni al-`Iraqi in his epistle on the topic; also al-Saffarayini in his Sharh `Aqidat al-Imam Ahmad; Ibn Khaldun said of the narrations that he was able to gather according to his competence, that the hadiths to that effect contain weaknesses, but it was replied to him that the narrations are too numerous not to reach the level of tawatur and they are in Ahmad, al-Tirmidhi, etc.... and cannot be denied; al-Shawkani in his epistle al-Tawdih fi Tawatur ma Ja'a fi al-Mahdi wa al-Dajjal wa al-Masih; Ibn Hajar al-Haytami in al-Sawwaiq al-Muhriqa and al-Qawl al-Mukhtasar fi `Alamat al-Mahdi al-Muntazar...
Al-Kattani also says: "I have seen in our time many people expressing doubt about al-Mahdi, saying: 'Are the hadiths pertaining to him really decisive as evidence or not' and many of them choose to stand with Ibn Khaldun and rely on him, although he is not one of the experts in this field. And truth demands that we go back, in every discipline, to those that master it, and ironclad knowledge belongs to Allah Most High and Exalted."
GF Haddad