Rethinking Ḥadīth (Prophetic Traditions) as ‘Natural’ Narrative: In the Framework of Fludernik’s ‘Natural’ Narratology

Abstract

By the concept of ‘natural’ narrative, Monika Fludernik brought a new perspective for narratology in the late ’90s. In her narrative theory, narrativity starts with the human experience rather than the plot. Fludernik’s approach may provide an insight into understanding ḥadīth. Each ḥadīth account is a report of a saying, an event, or an experience about the Prophet Muhammad from the perspective of companion narrators. Ḥadīth also asserts the Prophet’s life experience by telling how he acted in his life and reacted to people’s attitudes. Ḥadīth transmission is also an experience referring to narration of prophetic knowledge from one generation to the next. In this article, I try to discuss to what extent ḥadīth can be considered ‘natural’ narrative in the framework of Fludernik’s theory.

Keywords

• Ḥadīth Narrative,Natural Narrative,Structure of Ḥadīth,Context of Ḥadīth

Hadis Rivayetlerini Fludernik’in ‘Doğal’ Anlatı Teorisi Bağlamında Ele Almak

Abstract

Monika Fludernik, ‘doğal’ anlatı kavramı ile 90’lı yılların sonunda anlatıbilime yeni bir perspektif getirmiştir. Bu teoriye göre anlatıyı oluşturan esas unsur olayların belirli bir mantıkla art arda sıralanması değil, onun bir tecrübenin ifadesi olmasıdır. Fludernik’in yaklaşımı, hadisi anlamak noktasında ışık tutabilir. Zira hadisler, Hz. Muhammed’e ait ya da onunla ilgili bir söz, olay ya da yaşanmış bir tecrübenin sahabi ravi perspektifinden naklidir. Hadisler aynı zamanda Hz. Peygamber’in hayatı boyunca nasıl davrandığını ve insanların tutum ve davranışlarına nasıl tepki verdiğini bize anlatarak onun hayat tecrübesini ortaya koyar. Öte yandan hadis rivayeti, Hz. Peygamber’den edinilen bilginin bir nesilden diğerine anlatımını konu edinen bir tecrübedir. Bu makalede, Fludernik’in teorisi çerçevesinde hadisin ne ölçüde ‘doğal’ anlatı olarak ele alınabileceği tartışılmaktadır.

Keywords

• Hadis Anlatısı,'Doğal' Anlatı,Hadisin Yapısı,Hadisin Bağlamı

References

1. Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal, Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Shaybānī. al-Musnad. Cairo: Muʾassasat Qurṭuba, n.d.
2. Alber, Jan. “Natural Narratology.” In Routledge Encyclopedia of Narrative Theory, ed. David Herman, Manfred Jahn, and Marie-Laure Ryan (London & New York: Routledge, 2010), pp.528-530.
3. Apaydın, Mehmet. Hadislerin Tespitinde Bütünsel Yaklaşım. Istanbul: Kuramer Yayınları, 2018.
4. al-Bayhaqī, Aḥmad b. al-Ḥusayn b.ʿAlī. Shuʿab al-Īmān. Ed.ʿAbd al-ʿAlī ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd Ḥāmid. Riyadh: Maktabat al-Rushd, 2003.
5. Beaumont, Daniel. “Hard-Boiled: Narrative Discourse in Early Muslim Traditions.” Studia Islamica 83 (1996), pp.5-31.
6. al-Bukhārī, Muḥammad b. Ismāʿīl. al-Jāmiʿ al-Ṣaḥīḥ. Ed. Muḥammad Zuhayr b. Nāṣir. Cairo: Dār Ṭawq al-Najāt, 1422.
7. Coşkun, Selçuk. Hadîse Bütüncül Bakış: Tesbît-Anlama-Anlatma Bağlamında Bir İnceleme. Istanbul: Marmara Üniversitesi İlahiyat Fakültesi Vakfı Yayınları, 2014.
8. al-Dārimī, Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān. Sunan al-Dārimī. Ed. Ḥusayn Salīm Asad al-Dārānī. [Medina]: Dār al-Mughnī, 2000.

9. El Calamawy, Sahair. “Narrative Elements in the Ḥadīth Literature.” In Arabic Literature to the End of the Umayyad Period, ed. A. F. L. Beeston, T. M. Johnstone, R. B. Serjeant, and G. R. Smith (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983), pp.308-316.
10. Elias, Jamal J. “The Ḥadīth Traditions of ʿĀʾisha as Prototypes of Self-Narrative.” Edebiyât 7 (1997), pp.215-233.
11. Fludernik, Monika. Towards a ‘Natural’ Narratology. London & New York: Routledge, 2002.
12. Genette, Gérard. Narrative Discourse: An Essay in Method. Trans. from French by Jane E. Lewin. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1983.
13. Goodwin, Charles. Conversational Organization: Interaction between Speakers and Hearers. New York: Academic Press, 1981.
14. Günther, Sebastian. “Fictional Narration and Imagination within an Authoritative Framework: Towards a New Understanding of Ḥadīth.” In Storytelling in the Framework of Non-fictional Arabic Literature, ed. Stefan Leder (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 1998), pp.433-471.
15. Ibn Māja, Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad b. Yazīd al-Qazwīnī. Sunan. Ed. Muḥammad Fuʾād ʿAbd al-Bāqī. [Beirut]: Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Kutub, n.d.
16. al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī, Abū Bakr Aḥmad b. ʿAlī. al-Kifāya fī ʿIlm al-Riwāya. Ed. Ibrāhīm Ḥamdī al-Madanī. Medina: al-Maktaba al-ʿIlmiyya, n.d.
17. Kuzudişli, Ali. Rivayetlerde Sarmal Özellik. İzmir: Tibyan Yayıncılık, 2012.
18. Labov, William & Joshua Waletzky. “Narrative Analysis: Oral Versions of Personal Experience.” Journal of Narrative and Life Experience 7:1-4 (1997), pp.3-38.
19. Labov, William. Language in the Inner City: Studies in the Black English Vernacular. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1972.
20. Leder, Stefan. “The Literary Use of the Khabar: A Basic Form of Historical Writing.” In The Byzantine and Early Islamic Near East: Problems in the Literary Source Material, ed. Averil Cameron and Lawrence I. Conrad (Princeton: The Darwin Press, 1992), pp.277-315.
21. Meister, Jan Christoph. “Narratology.”In The Living Handbook of Narratology, ed. Peter Hühn, John Pier, Wolf Schmid, and Jörg Schönert (Hamburg: Hamburg University), http://www.lhn.uni-hamburg.de/article/narratology (accessed Feb. 12, 2019).
22. Muslim b. al-Ḥajjāj al-Qushayrī. al-Musnad al-Ṣaḥīḥ. Ed. Muḥammad Fuʾād ʿAbd al-Bāqī. Beirut: Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth al-ʿArabī, n.d.
23. al-Nasāʾī, Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Aḥmad b. Shuʿayb. al-Mujtabā min al-Sunan. Ed. ʿAbd al-Fattāḥ Abū Ghudda. Aleppo: Maktabat al-Maṭbūʿāt al-Islāmiyya, 1986.
24. Özafşar, Mehmet Emin. Hadisi Yeniden Düşünmek: Fıkhi Hadisler Bağlamında Bir İnceleme. Ankara: Otto, 2015.
25. Pratt, Mary Louise. Toward a Speech Act Theory of Literary Discourse. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1977.
26. Prince, Gerald. A Dictionary of Narratology. Lincoln & London: University of Nebraska Press, 2003.
27. al-Rāmhurmuzī, Abū Muḥammad al-Ḥasan b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Khallād. al-Muḥaddith al-Fāṣil bayna al-Rāwī wa-al-Wāʿī. Ed. Muḥammad ʿAjāj al-Khaṭīb. Beirut: Dār al-Fikr, 1404.
28. Riessman, Catherine Kohler. Narrative Analysis. London & New Delhi: Sage Publications, 1993.
29. Ryan, Marie-Laure & Ernst van Alphen. “Narratology.” In Encyclopedia of Contemporary Literary Theory: Approaches, Scholars, Term, ed. Irena R. Makaryk (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1993), pp.110-116.
30. Ryan, Marie-Laure. “Narrative.” In Routledge Encyclopedia of Narrative Theory, ed. David Herman, Manfred Jahn, and Marie-Laure Ryan (London & New York: Routledge, 2010), pp.469-474.
31. Senturk, Recep. Narrative Social Structure: Anatomy of the Hadith Transmission Network, 610-1505. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2005.
32. Siddiqi, Muhammad Zubayr. Ḥadīth Literature: Its Origin, Development and Special Features and Criticism. Calcutta: Calcutta University, 1961.
33. Speight, R. Marston. “Ḥadīth.” The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World, http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/article/opr/t236/e0286 (accessed July 17, 2019)
34. Speight, R. Marston. “The Will of Saʿd b. a. Waqqāṣ: The Growth of a Tradition.” Der Islam 50 (1973), pp.249-267.
35. Sperl, Stefan. “Man’s ‘Hollow Core’: Ethics and Aesthetics in Ḥadīth Literature and Classical Arabic Adab.” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 70:3 (2007), pp.459-486.
36. al-Tirmidhī, Abū ʿĪsā Muḥammad b. ʿĪsā. al-Shamāʾil al-Muḥammadiyya. Beirut: Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth al-ʿArabī, n.d.
37. al-Tirmidhī, Abū ʿĪsā Muḥammad b. ʿĪsā. Sunan. Ed. Aḥmad Muḥammad Shākir, Muḥammad Fuʾād ʿAbd al-Bāqī, and Ibrāhīm ʿAtwa ʿIwaḍ. [Cairo]: Maktabat al-Ḥalabī, 1975.
38. al-ʿUthaymīn, Muḥammad. Muṣṭalaḥ al-Ḥadīth. Cairo: Maktabat al-ʿIlm, 1994.
39. Yaqṭīn, Saʿīd. al-Kalām wa-al-Khabar: Muqaddima lil-Sard al-ʿArabī. Beirut: al-Markaz al-Thaqāfī al-ʿArabī, 1997.
40. Zaman, Iftikhar. “The Evolution of a Hadith: Transmission, Growth and the Science of Rijal in a Hadith of Sa’d b. Abi Waqqas.” Unpublished PhD Dissertation, The University of Chicago, Chicago, 1991.
41. al-Zarkashī, Badr al-Dīn Muḥammad b. Bahādur. Hz. Aişe’nin Sahabeye Yönelttiği Eleştiriler. Trans. into Turkish by Bünyamin Erul. Ankara: Kitâbiyât, 2007. [Translation of: al-Ijāba li-Īrād mā Istadrakathu ʿĀʾisha ʿalā al-Ṣaḥāba]