With the passing of the generation that had seen and heard the Holy Prophet, the work of the collection of Ḥadīth entered upon a third stage. There were no more reports to be investigated from different persons, and the whole Ḥadīth was now the property of teachers who taught at various centres, and, therefore, in the third stage it could all be learnt by repairing to these centres instead of enquiring about it from individuals. At this stage, moreover, the writing of Ḥadīth became more common. The large number of students at the different centres, having abundance of material to digest, to which was also added the further task of remembering the names of the transmitters, sought aid from the pen, so that the work might be easier. By this time the practice of writing had become general and writing material abundant. Moreover, there was now no fear of the Ḥadīth being confused with the Holy Qur’ān. It must, however, be remembered that at this stage the ḥadīth were written merely as an aid to memory; the mere fact that a report was found among the manuscripts of a person was no evidence of its authenticity, which could be established only by tracing it to a reliable transmitter. ‘Umar ibn ‘Abd al-‘Azīz, commonly known as ‘Umar II, the Umayyad Caliph, who ruled towards the close of the first century of Hijrah, was the first man to issue definite orders to the effect that written collections should be made. He is reported to have written to Abū Bakr ibn Ḥazm: “See whatever saying of the Holy Prophet can be found, and write it down, for I fear the loss of knowledge and the disappearance of the learned men; and do not accept anything but the Ḥadīth of the Holy Prophet; and people should make knowledge public and should sit in companies, so that he who does not know should come to know, for knowledge does not disappear until it is concealed from the public.”18 The importance of this incident lies in the fact that the Caliph himself took an interest in the collection of Ḥadīth, the Umayyads generally having stood aloof from the great work up to this time. Abū Bakr ibn Ḥazm was the Caliph’s Governor at Madīnah, and there is evidence that similar letters were written to other centres.19 But ‘Umar II died after a short
18 Bu. 3:34.
19 FB. I, p. 174.