By: Hafiz Azhar A. Syed
Date: Friday, 18 February 2011, 6:54 am
SAHEEFAH OF HAMMAM BIN MUNABBEH
[Saheefah means Scroll.]
Saheefah Hammam ibn Munabbih is supposedly the earliest known collection of Ahadith compiled by the 8th century scholar Hammam ibn Munabbih. No one knew its whereabouts until the 20th century!
Strangely, Dr Muhammad Hameedullah of India/France suddenly came up with its published “translation” in English in 1994. Muhammad Hameedullah of Deccan, India (1908-2002) spent 50 years in France after the fall of Deccan to India in 1948 and exiled himself to France. He moved to the USA in 1998 and lived with his brother's great grand-daughter until his death in 2002.
In his death confessions he admitted that he was the chief instrument in fabricating the said Saheefah.
Mullah Ikhwan Sarhadi Afindi applauds Hameedullah's great “discovery” (in Paris) as the earliest work of Hadith. He says, “The Saheefah Hammam ibn Munabbih was prepared by Hazrat Abu Hurairah for his pupil Hammam ibn Munabbih. Abu-Hurairah died in 58 A.H./677 CE, Hammam ibn Munabbih died in 101 A.H./719 CE.”
It consists of 138 Ahadith that can also be found in Sahah Sittah with similar content and chain of narrators.
I visited Hameedullah in Nov 2002 along with some friends to meet with him and to check on his health. During the visit, he asked us to pray for his forgiveness. Haeedullah said that he had done the forgery in good faith and only when he was losing his faculties due to senility. He admitted plagiarizing from the SAHAH SITTAH.
His intentions? "To provide some credibility to the Hadith literature that is being challenged by some Quranic voices."
Where was the Arabic original discovered? “In the basement of my house in Paris.”
Sir, where is the original Arabic scroll? He answered, "I don't know why I burned it."
Why did it remain hidden for 12 centuries and how did it end up in Paris? Why wasn't it translated by anyone before? Why didn't anyone hear about it or mention it at all through these centuries? "I don't know", he said.
Now the English 'Saheefah' is very much there and Mullahs are using it to mislead people.
PS: Some Mullahs have recently claimed that Dr Hameedullah had discovered the scroll in 1960 in Paris.
By: Hafiz Azhar A. Syed
Wassalam,
SA
SA