مقارنة بين منهج المحدثين والمؤرخين في نقل الرواية في السيرة النبوية وقبولها

A Comparative Study of Mohadithins & Historians Approaches Regarding Transmission and Accepting the Narration in the Biography of the Holy Prophet

Abstract

The tradition of writing the biography of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) was initiated in early Islamic era, and Mohadithins and historians took care about its classification. Mohadithins themselves emerged with keen and intensive principles to serve in the fields of hadith and Sirah, so they memorized it, wrote it down in books, followed its narrators and transmitted it, and set the rules and criteria for criticizing its texts and chains of transmission. The Muslim historian were also among them whom differentiated the historical traditions and biography in their historical backgrounds, lenient rules. The importance of the research which is that it deals with an obscure topic in writing the Prophet's biography, which is the approach followed by the mohadithins and historians in transmitting and accepting the narration. Mohadithins do not stress the application of these rules to the narratives of the biography and historical events, and they tolerate them while they do not tolerate beliefs and rulings. The historian only cares about recording and documenting the historical events, while the mohadith goes to investigate the narration from the holy Prophet (PBUH) and distinguish the acceptable ones from the rejected. One of the common points between the approach of the mohadithins and historians is the commitment to the chain of narrators, but the degree of reliance on the chain is different for the mohadithins than for the historians, as the mohadithins are more concerned with the chain. The present paper examines the methodologies of both school of thoughts with respect to acceptance of hadith and historical traditions.