The Significance of the Successors (al-Tābiʿūn) as Reflected in Early Ḥadīth Collections

Abstract

In the early generations of Islam, the Successors (al-tābiʿūn) played an important role by making significant contribution to the formation of Islamic sciences such as fiqh, ḥadīth, and tafsīr. Thus, it is not surprising to see var-ious references to their opinions in the early examples of different Islamic literary genres. For example, early ḥadīth collections include a great num-ber of traditions attributed to the Successors – which would later be called al-ḥadīth al-maqṭūʿ – alongside those attributed to the Prophet. This paper, focusing on the usages of al-ḥadīth al-maqṭūʿ in the early ḥadīth literature, is an inquiry into why the Successors’ opinions constituted such an important part of ḥadīth collections. It argues that the veneration of the Successors is derived from the common recognition that they were better qualified to understand religious texts than later generations and that even their personal opinions were either based on the religious texts or at least consistent with them. The historical basis of this widely accepted recognition is the existence of an intimate and close teacher-student relationship between the Companions and the Successors, which made it possible for the latter to inherit the knowledge of the former.

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