THE SUNAN
TheSunan, or "traditions," of Mohammed are now gathered in six books, though two of these are more specifically called the Sahihs, or "sincere books." These six works bear to Mohammedanism much the same relation as the Four Gospels do to Christianity. That is to say, they are the accounts of the prophet's life as handed down by his disciples. Of course to the Mohammedans the Sunan are not the main source of teaching. That is the Koran, which, as we have seen, is Mohammed's own book, dictated by the prophet himself. Moreover, the Sunan do not approach Mohammed with anything like the same accuracy and closeness with which the Gospels approach Jesus. The Sunan are slight and fragmentary traditions, gathered from every possible source at an interval of more than two centuries after their prophet's death. They have, however, been accepted as holy books or "canons" of the Mohammedan faith. Much of the Mohammedan religious law of to-day is founded on them; and they are taught in all the schools and made the basis of many a hair-splitting argument about right and wrong.
Unlike the Christian religion, that of Mohammed sprang immediately into world-wide power; hence no sooner was the prophet dead than every companion of the revered teacher, every listener who had ever heard him speak, narrated to eager audiences each remembered trifle. Naturally these became exaggerated in the telling. Moreover, when rival caliphs fought and slew one another, each claiming rightful heirship from the prophet, their followers would inevitably invent traditions to justify each leader's claim. Exaggeration,if not direct falsehood, soon became inextricably mixed with fact. When, later on, men tried to set their faith upon a firmer basis, they sought to sift these manifold traditions and decide which were worthy of belief.
The first man who set down these sifted traditions in a book was Al Bukhari. He traveled all over the Arab Empire to gather all the tales he could, and he continued elaborating on his book, the first Sahih, until his death in A.D. 870. Al Bukhari himself tells us that in his travels he gathered six hundred thousand tales about Mohammed. Of these he admitted to his Sahih, as being most trustworthy, a little over seven thousand. The second Sahih, written by a follower of Al Bukhari, was garnered from three hundred thousand tales.
Of slightly later date than these two works were the four Sunan, founded partly on the earlier books, but built upon a stricter critical analysis of what should be accepted, and written after an even wider gathering of all the legends of the empire. Hence the Sunan include the earlier books, and the entire collection is commonly spoken of by the later name. When, however, we speak of these Sunan as a "critical" selection from the million legends, the modern reader must not think of this as implying modern scientific criticism and analytical accuracy. Each tale was chiefly accepted on the ground that, in the series of men by whom it was said to have been handed down through the generations, all the men were known and all were of reputed trustworthiness.
That is to say, in an age already become notorious for its lack of veracity, a superficial confidence in individual veracity, extending back through many links for over two hundred years, was accepted as the ultimate proof of truth.
The most widely read and quoted of the Sunan is that of Abu Da'ud, who sums up his own work by declaring that only four of all the thousands of religious rules he has gathered need be remembered by each man for his own religious guidance. These four laws Abu Da'ud gives as follows:"Actions will be judged according to intentions. The proof of a Moslem's sincerity is that he pays no heed to that which is not his business. No man is a true believer unless he desires for his brother that which he desires for himself. That which is lawful is clear, and that which is unlawful likewise, but there are certain doubtful things between the two, from which it is well to abstain."