The Science of Hadith

[Faithfulservant]

Thank you

[thipps]

Originally Posted by Faithfulservant

God frightens his devotees with eclips.
Mohammed said, "The sun and the moon are two signs amongst the signs of Allah and they do not eclipse because of the death of someone but Allah frightens His devotees with them. " Vol. 2:158

h| Faithfulservant,

In the text below:

• ‘the Hour’ refers to what Christians call Judgment Day. Muslims also know it as Day of Resurrection.
• The ‘Sahaabah’ (may Allah be pleased with them) are the Companions of the Prophet Mohammad (pbuh).

Sheikh Muhammed Salih Al-Munajjid explains that:

During the Jaahiliyyah [age of ignorance], people used to believe that eclipses happened to mark the birth or death of a great person, but the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) declared this belief to be false and explained the divine wisdom behind the occurrence of eclipses:

Imaam al-Bukhaari and Muslim narrated that Abu Mas’ood al-Ansaari said: “the sun was eclipsed the day Ibraaheem, the son of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) died, and the people said, ‘The sun is eclipsed because of the death of Ibraaheem.’ The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: ‘The sun and the moon are two signs from Allah, and they do not become eclipsed for the death or the birth of anyone. If you see that, hasten to remember Allah and to pray.’”

Solar and lunar eclipses are two of the signs of Allah with which He scares His slaves and reminds them of some of the things which will happen on the Day of Resurrection, when the sun will be wound round and will lose its light and be overthrown and the stars will fall (See Qur’an, 81:1), and the sight will be dazed, the moon will be eclipsed and the sun and moon will be joined together (by going into one another, or folded up, or deprived of their light) (See Qur’an, 75:8-9). This is why Muslims should be alarmed by eclipses. The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) used to fear Allah very much, and 'Aisha (May Allah be pleased with her) reported that there was a solar eclipse in the time of the Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him). He stood up to pray and prolonged his stand very much. [See Book 4(Prayer), 1966 & 1968, Sahih Muslim for more details] This is indicative of the great extent to which he kept the Hour in mind and feared it. We, on the other hand, have become negligent and most people no longer think of eclipses as anything other than a natural phenomenon which they go out to watch with special glasses, carrying cameras. They limit themselves to the worldly scientific explanation without understanding the reminder of the Hereafter which it brings. This is one of the signs of hard-heartedness and a lack of concern about the matters of the Hereafter. It reflects a lack of fear of the onset of the Hour, and ignorance of the aims of sharee’ah [Islamic Law] and the reports that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) used to feel fear when these eclipses happened. The Sahaabah (may Allah be pleased with them) used to stand to pray the eclipse prayer, because they believed that if indeed the Hour had come, they would not then be counted negligent of their prayer, and if this eclipse was nothing to do with the Hour, then they would not lose anything by praying, for they would have earned a great reward. We ask Allah to make us among those who fear Him and who are afraid of the Hour. May Allah bless our Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him).
And Allah knows best.

[thipps]

Adam was made 90 feet tall. Allah made Adam 60 cubits high (generally a cubit was 18 inches. Therefore, Adam was 90 feet tall) The Prophet said, "Allah created Adam, making him 60 cubits tall. (Hadith, Volume 4, Book 55, Number 543, Narrated Abu Huraira.)

H| FaithfulServant,
Found some comments on this hadith. Thought it wouldnt hurt as i found it beneficial for myself as well.
Shiekh Munajjid commented on the issue as follows:
"You should note that Allah is Able to do all things. Just as He is able to create man in the form that he appears in now, He is also Able to create man in a larger or smaller form.
If this is difficult for you to understand, then think of the dwarves that we see, who are child-sized men. If this can happen, then why could the opposite not happen, namely a man being sixty cubits tall?"

I have not had time to research more on this issue for other views (if they exist), as time is always short. I recall reading on some website that this height refers to Adam(pbuh)'s height in paradise only & not on earth but i dont know the credentials of the personal who wrote this, so it is not possible for me, as a layman, to say if it is an accepted possibility by the scholars. Consider this only as a thought for now. Maybe someone else here on the forum can shed some more light on the issue.
For my Muslim brothers and sisters, a small reminder;
Imam al-Shaafa’i (may Allaah have mercy on him) said: “I believe in Allaah and in that which came from Allaah in the sense meant by Allaah. I believe in the Messenger of Allaah[pbuh] and in what came from the Messenger of Allaah in the sense meant by the Messenger of Allaah.” [al-Irshaad Sharh Lam’at al-I’tiqaad, p. 89]
We ask Allaah to show us the truth as true and help us to follow it, and to show us falsehood as false and help us to avoid it.

P.S. Havent had time to get to that last hadith yet.
Anyway, hope that helps.
And Allah knows best.

[Servant]

Originally Posted by Faithfulservant

Adam was made 90 feet tall. Allah made Adam 60 cubits high (generally a cubit was 18 inches. Therefore, Adam was 90 feet tall) The Prophet said, "Allah created Adam, making him 60 cubits tall. (Hadith, Volume 4, Book 55, Number 543, Narrated Abu Huraira.)

Assalamalekuum,

Most of these hadiths are metaphorical and should not be taken literally.

Adam was 90 ft tall at the time he was created and any absurd and/or idiotic scientific so-called evidence cannot deny this fact. Because scientists can’t even explain and/or answer one simple question, i.e. how the life began on the Planet earth?

Science and/or scientists tell us that the theory of evolution is true, which ironically has two distinct aspects. One is its theory and the other is its cause. The theory of evolution is said to be a certainty, whereas the cause of evolution is as yet unknown. How it is possible for a concept to be believed with such certainty when the causes are unknown?

You cannot demand a scientific explanation for something divine, which is beyond the scope of science. That's like demanding a scientific evidence for the birth of Prophet Jesus (PBUH) or when he rose from the dead (according to the Christian belief)

Wa'salaam

[Friend]

Originally Posted by Servant

Assalamalekuum,

Most of these hadiths are metaphorical and should not be taken literally.

Adam was 90 ft tall at the time he was created and any absurd and/or idiotic scientific so-called evidence cannot deny this fact. Because scientists can’t even explain and/or answer one simple question, i.e. how the life began on the Planet earth?

Science and/or scientists tell us that the theory of evolution is true, which ironically has two distinct aspects. One is its theory and the other is its cause. The theory of evolution is said to be a certainty, whereas the cause of evolution is as yet unknown. How it is possible for a concept to be believed with such certainty when the causes are unknown?

You cannot demand a scientific explanation for something divine, which is beyond the scope of science. That's like demanding a scientific evidence for the birth of Prophet Jesus (PBUH) or when he rose from the dead (according to the Christian belief)

Wa'salaam

Salaamu Alyckum

Servant,Welcome to CR/RFT/M/Islam, and thanks for your Informative answer

[Faithfulservant]

I appreciate all your answers.. I however cannot grasp the idea that God would make Adam 90 feet tall...That would make him as tall as an 8-10 story building.. I do not believe in evolution.. I believe that God created everything just like he said. But in our Bible he does not say anything like this so thats why I was questioning it.

I also believe you cannot discount science completely just the men that create theories with no basis on the truth of God. Our bodies are a scientific genius.. the universe is a scientific genius.. biology..chemistry...medicine...all forms of science were created by God. Its the use of them that get misused and misunderstood.

[thipps]

Originally Posted by Faithfulservant

How the baby's looks are determined.
Mohammed said, "As for the child, if the man's discharge precedes the woman's discharge, the child attracts the similarity of the man, and if the woman's discharge precedes the man's, then the child attracts the similarity of the woman." Vol. 5:275

h| everyone,
This is best left to the scientists and scholars who can work this out as to what it is referring to. There are possibilities that still have not been explored. In time, deeper scientific research will help us here to determine the exact meaning. One possibility is in The Journal of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. Please see the following link:
http://www.rcpe.ac.uk/publications/a...n_genetics.pdf

Another way to look at it is what Sheikh Sulaymân al-`Îsâ says:
Turning our attention to the child resembling one of its parents, this is also confirmed by the prophetic hadith. The child may sometimes resemble his father, his mother, one of his uncles, his grandparents, or he may closely resemble none of them.


Dr. Muhammad Ali al-Bârr, in his book Human Creation between Medicine and the Qur’an (page 164) writes:

In brief, the factors governing the child’s resembling one parent, grandparent, or even coming with new attributes that do not belong to any of his relatives – like what happened at the time of the Prophet (peace be upon him) when al-Farâzî’s wife gave birth to a black baby while none of their relatives were black – is a very complicated matter. Genetics plays a very complicated role. Some of these genes follow the Mendelian model with respect to dominant and recessive genes and others do not.

Even those genes that submit to such laws might at times not act in accordance with those laws. The gene may or may not be fully expressed.


Modern medicine is still ignorant of many of the determining factors that bring about how much a child will resemble either of its parents. Until now, we do not know the role that may be played by the release of one fluid before the other in how the child will resemble one of his parents. Until and unless this is decisively determined in the future, we have no other choice but to simply believe what our Prophet (peace be upon him) said. He does not say anything except the truth.

In fact, this should encourage medical scholars to investigate these matters and discover new things.

I have given you the answer of Dr. Muhammad al-Bârr, because this is an important issue and I found his answer to be sufficient.

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Hope this helps.
And Allah knows best.

[thipps]

H| everyone,

There is another thread which was started on hadith entitled 'Authority of the Hadith' and there is some further information on the science of hadith in it. Link is below:
http://www.comparative-religion.com/...ead.php?t=2282
This information is contained in post#5 by 'Friend'. I learned many things from it myself. jazakallah 'Friend'.

[Friend]

We miss brother thipps

we pray to Allah that he is well