The soundness of the hadeeth “Do not write anything from me…” and explanation of what it means

 

Is this hadeeth saheeh, and what does it mean: “Do not write anything from me, and whoever writes anything but the Qur’aan, let him erase it”? May Allaah reward you with good.

Praise be to
Allaah.

It was
narrated from Abu Sa’eed al-Khudri that the Messenger of Allaah

(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “Do not write anything
from me; whoever has written anything from me other than the Qur’aan,
let him erase it and narrate from me, for there is nothing wrong with
that.” (Narrated by Muslim, al-Zuhd wa’l-Raqaa’iq, 5326) 

Al-Nawawi
said in his commentary on Saheeh Muslim: 

“Al-Qaadi
said: there were many disputes among the Sahaabah and Taabi’een concerning
the writing down of knowledge. Many of them regarded this as being makrooh,
but most of them regarded it as permissible. This dispute is no longer
an issue. 

They differed
as to the meaning of this hadeeth which says that it is forbidden. It
was said that this pertained to one who was sure of his memory, and
there was the fear that he may rely upon what he had written if he wrote
it down; the ahaadeeth which say that it is permissible to write things
down is to be interpreted as referring to the one whose memory is not
reliable, such as the hadeeth, “Write it down for Abu Shaah”; or the
hadeeth of the saheefah of ‘Ali (may Allaah be pleased with him); the
hadeeth of the book of ‘Amr ibn Hazm, which contains laws on inheritance,
sunnahs and diyaat (blood money); the hadeeth about writing down charity,
and the minimum amounts at which zakaah becomes obligatory (nisaab),
with which Abu Bakr sent Anas (may Allaah be pleased with him) to Bahrain;
the hadeeth of Abu Hurayrah which says that Ibn ‘Amr ibn al-‘Aas used
to ; write things down but he (Abu Hurayrah) did not write things down,
and other ahaadeeth. And it was said that the hadeeth forbidding writing
down ahaadeeth was abrogated by these ahaadeeth. The prohibition was
in effect when there was the fear that (the words of the Prophet

(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) might be mixed with the
Qur’aan. When that danger was no longer present, permission was given
to write down (ahaadeeth). And it was said that the prohibition mentioned
in the hadeeth referred to writing ahaadeeth on the same page as Qur’aan,
lest they become mixed and thus the reader would be confused when looking
at this page. And Allaah knows best. 

The hadeeth
of Abu Shaah was narrated by al-Bukhaari from Abu Hurayrah (may Allaah
be pleased with him), who said: ‘When Allaah granted His Prophet

(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) victory over Makkah, he
stood before the people and praised and glorified Allaah, then he said:
“Allaah protected Makkah from the elephant and has given authority to
His Messenger and the believers over it, so fighting was forbidden for
anyone before me, and was made permissible for me for part of a day,
and it will not be permissible for anyone after me. Its game should
not be chased, its thorny bushes should not be uprooted, and picking
up its fallen things is not allowed except for one who makes public
announcement for it, and he whose relative is murdered has the option
either to accept a compensation for it or to retaliate.” Al-‘Abbas said,
“Except Al-Idhkhir (a kind of plant), for we use it in our graves and
houses.” The Messenger of Allaah

(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said, “Except Al-Idhkhir.”
Abu Shaah, a Yemeni, stood up and said, “O Messenger of Allaah! Get
it written for me.” The Messenger of Allaah

(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said, “Write it for Abu
Shaah.”  (al-Luqatah, 2254) 

Ibn Hajar
said: What may be understood from the story of Abu Shaah (“Write it
for Abu Shaah”) is that the Prophet

(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) gave permission for hadeeth
to be written down from him. 

This contradicts
the hadeeth of Abu Sa’eed al-Khudri, which says that the Messenger of
Allaah

(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said, ‘Do not write down
anything from me except the Qur’aan.’ (Narrated by Muslim). 

The two
may be reconciled by noting that the prohibition applied only to the
time when the Qur’aan was being revealed, lest it be confused with something
else, and that permission was given at other times; or that the prohibition
applied only to writing down things other than Qur’aan with the Qur’aan
on one thing, and that permission was given to write them separately;
of that the prohibition came first and the permission abrogated that,
when there was no longer any fear of confusion. This is most likely
to be the case.                               

It was
said that the prohibition applied only to those whom it was feared would
depend on the writing and not memorize things, and that permission was
given for those from whom such a thing was not feared. 

The scholars
said: a group of the Sahaabah and Taabi’een regarded it as makrooh to
write down the hadeeth and they regarded it as mustahabb to learn it
from them by heart, as they had learned it. But when people were no
longer able to strive so hard (in memorizing) and the scholars feared
that knowledge might be lost, they compiled it in books.”