Method of Hadith Criticism for Fighting Hoax
Niki Alma Febriana Fauzi
1
1
Faculty of Islamic Studies, Universitas Ahmad Dahlan, Jl. Ring Road Selatan, Tamanan, Banguntapan, Kragilan,
Tamanan, Banguntapan, Bantul
Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta 55191
Keyword : Social Media, Method of Hadith Criticism, Information, Hoax
Abstract : Social media has become an impartiatly part of people life in contemporary era. All information can be
obtained through social media, either politics, economics, religious life and so on. Sometimes,
unfortunately, some people are trapped by hoax information. There is no awareness to verify information
which they acquire. This paper explores method of hadith criticism for verifying information. In order to
reach out objective of this paper, literature studies were done to obtain data required. This paper is using
qualitative method as a method of analyse.Based on this study, the writer found that method of hadith
criticism in ‘ulūm al-ḥadīth can be utilized to verify information which spread on social media. In addition,
in this paper, the writer tries to apply the method of hadith criticism to verify information step by step.
1 INTRODUCTION
Social media is being one of the most recent
developments in the field of communication and
information technology. Social media has many
benefits for humans. For example, this can be seen
from how Van Dijk explained the characteristics of
social mediathat he calls “social media logic”. The
first characteristic is programmability which is
defined as the ability of a social media platform
totrigger and steer users’ creative or
communicativecontributions, while users, through
their interactionwith these coded environments, may
in turn influencethe flow of communication and
information activatedby such a platform; the second
is popularity, which meanssocial media platforms
have a sophisticated mechanism to filter out popular
items and influential people, as well as the ability to
influence or manipulate theserankings;the third is
connectivity, which is a strategic tactic that
effectively enables human connectedness while, at
the same time, pushing automated connectivity; the
fourth is datafication, meaning that social mediacan
trackinstantaneous movements of individual user
behavior,aggregate this data, analyze it, and
subsequently translate the results into valuable
information about individuals, groups, or society at
large. On the other hand, social media has also
negative impact on various aspects of human’s life.
Niki Alma Febriana Fauzi and Ayub have
summarized the negative impacts into four parts,
namely in sociological and communicational
aspects, in the economic sector, in psychological
aspects of human’s life, and in the dynamics of
political life. In sociological and communicational
aspects, the development of social media has
transformed traditional one-way communication into
multi-dimensional, two-way, peer-to-peer
communication. As a result of social media, face-to-
face communication slowly lost its role as the main
form of social interaction. Another example where
social media has given the bigger negative impact is
in the dynamics of political life. Recent findings
reveal negative impacts of social media on political
activism and participation. People who gain their
political information through social media are prone
to be the victims of deliberate misinformation
commonly known as “fake news” or hoax
information. In this regard, people of Indonesia has
become victims.
Hoax information spreading on social media has
gotten to the point that was dangerous. One of
causes bringing to it was emerged so called “fake
media” (media abal-abal). Chief of Indonesia Press
Council (Dewan Pers Indonesia), Yosep Adi
Prasetyo, said that there have been 43.300 fake
media in Indonesia. Fake media is unofficial and not
licensed media by law. Therefore it potentially
serves fake news and hoax. In addition, it tends to
1858
Fauzi, N.
Method of Hadith Ciriticism for Fighting Hoax.
DOI: 10.5220/0009936518581863
In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Recent Innovations (ICRI 2018), pages 1858-1863
ISBN: 978-989-758-458-9
Copyright
c
2020 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved
ignore principles and ethics jurnalism.
Unfortunately, while people are seeking information,
they often refer to the fake media. Lack of
communication or interaction ethics in social media
can lead to negative impact for people life. Possibly,
we can not stop people who make hoax and fake
information as a work to get wealth. At least,
however, we may look for validity of information
we obtain, and in turn, if it is not valid we may
contribute to block spreading the hoax. Therefore,
looking for validity of information on social media
is most important. Some principles in ‘ulūm al-
ḥadīth (sciences of hadith) can be alternative to
verify information spreading on social media.
Method of hadith criticism may be defined as a
branch of sciences of hadith which is used to verify
hadiths for differentiating between authentic one and
not.[Addumaini, t.t] The process of hadith
authentication should be done as a consequence of
hadith transmission which through one generation of
people to others. As we know, the people are
characteriscally difference; some have integrity and
good personality, while some are amoral and less
intelligent. In addition, it is also an effect of
falsification of hadith has taken place in history of
hadith codification itself. [Jokowi Pemimpin Terbaik
se-Asia dan Australia Versi Bloomberg, Detickom
2016] In other words, method of hadith criticism
came out as a cosequence of existence of
information need to verify.Method of hadith
criticism includes two aspects, which are sanad
(chain of narrators) and matan (content of the
hadith). Muslim scholars have constructed principles
in doing hadith criticism, either sanad or matan.
Some of them are relevant to be contextualized in
verifying information spreading on social media. In
the section that follows, it will be argued that some
principles in the method of hadith criticism may be
utilized to fight hoax, and I will elaborate how to
contextualize them in terms of social media.
2 METHOD OF HADITH
CRITICISM: FORMAL
CRITERIA AND SUBTANTIAL
CRITERIA
The authenticity of hadith has been a concern of
classical Islamic scholars since the early days of
Islam. To do that, they make benchmarks to analyze
which hadiths are valid and not. These benchmarks
or criteria include external criteria (al-khārijī) and
internal (al-dākhilī). Ibnu Shalah said that the
authentic hadith is “the one which has a continuous
isnad, made up of reporters of trustworthy memory
from similar authorities, and which is found to be
free from any irregularities (i.e. in the text) or
defects (i.e. in the isnad)”. This definition described
by IbnShalah is a definition that was chosen by
many scholars.However, the definition is not
without criticism. The criticism does not only come
from Western scholars, but also from contemporary
Muslim scholars. It is because the criteria are
considered - although they cover two criteria - only
emphasize to external criteria, and tend to ignore
internal criteria.This is actually understandable
because indeed classical Islamic scholars when
testing the internal validity of hadith put more
emphasis on the matan format; is there an addition
(ziyādah), insertion (idrāj), reversal (iqlāb) or
subtraction (nuqshān) which can result in a
contradiction in the hadith or among hadith, which
in turn it will impact the hadith to be weak. They
(classical Islamic scholars) paid less attention - to
say no at all - to the substance of the hadith which is
actually no less important for testing. Looking at
these criticisms, contemporary Islamic scholars do
not remain silent, and then try to formulate a method
(manhaj) to examine the internal aspects of a hadith,
especially in terms of their substance. This internal
testing of the hadithin its development, is commonly
referred to as the criticism of the matan hadith.
aluddn al-Adlab and Musfir ad-Dumain are
two of contemporary Islamic scholars who try to
formulate rules to test the internal validity of the
hadith. Their two works in sequence are Manhaj
Naqd al-Matn a inda ‘Ulam’ al-ad an-Nabaw
and Maqys Naqd Mutn as-Sunnah.Al-Adlab in
his work explained that the substance of a hadith
must not conflict with (a) the Qur'an, (b) the hadith
which has been proven authentic, (c) reason, and (d)
history. In addition, it must also indicate that the
hadith is the word of the Prophet. While ad-Dumain
distinguishes between the criteria possessed by
hadith and fukaha experts. According to him, among
the hadith experts a hadith would be weak (dha’if)
because it contained an element of incoherence,
which is contrary to (a) the Qur'an, (b) hadith or
sunnah which has been proven authentic, (c) hadith
or sunnah that has been established, ( d) correct
Arabic, (f) historical facts, fixed sharia principles
and rules, and (g) common sense. Whereas
according to jurists, the matan hadith is accepted if it
is coherent, and vice versa it is rejected if it conflict
to (a) the Qur'an, (b) hadith that has been proven
authentic, (c) ijmak, (d) practice of shahabah, (e)
Method of Hadith Ciriticism for Fighting Hoax
1859
qiyas, (f) general principles of shari'ah, and (g)
prevalence in common cases. Referring to the
criticism of the matan hadith above, Syamsul Anwar
then classify into two preferences, namely; formal
criteria of the authenticity of matan and subtantial
criteria of the authenticity of matan. According to
Syamsul Anwar, the criteria included in the formal
criteria of the authenticity of matan are two of the
criteria for the validity of the hadith that have been
made by the scholars, namely free from sy
(anomaly) and ‘illah. What “free from sy” means
is it has three elements; (a) free from opposition, (b)
free from pollution, and (c) free from error. While
what “free from ‘illah” means is it includes some
elements; (a) free from internal contradictions, and
(b) free from social interpenetration (mixing one
matan with another). Therefore, as a whole the
elements of the formal criteria of the Matan criticism
are five: three are elements that are free from sh
and two are elements that are free from ‘illah.
The substantial criteria for authenticity of the matan
referred to by Syamsul Anwar in this case is the
liberation of a matan hadith from incoherence. What
“free from incoherence” means is emerging the
harmony of meaning among the hadith, and the
substance of its meaning is free from incoherence
with a number of meanings that have been accepted
and acknowledged.Free from incoherence is also
actually included in one of the free elements of
‘illah. This criterion is more related to the substance
and meaning that is the content of the hadith than it
relates to the format of matan. If in formal criteria,
the hadith is more seen in terms of the format of the
matan such as whether the matan of hadith is
reversed in order or not, is it different from other
similar matan of the hadith, whether there are
additions or there are written errors and so on, then
in substantial criteria, hadith is seen in the substance
of meaning contained in it.
Looking for the True Information
From the explanation above, it appears that there are
similarities between hadith and news. The similarity
is that both are information about something or
someone.In this section, the author, thereforewill
explain how the true of information can be
identified.In epistemological philosophy, several
truth theories have been developed to test a
proposition or statement (report) whether it is valid
or not. According to Syamsul Anwar, there are two
theories that are considered relevant, namely
correspondence theory and coherence theory.
Correspondence truth theory is the most accepted
theory by realist groups. This truth theory says that a
statement (news) is true if the statement is in
accordance with the facts; and vice versa, if it is not
in accordance with the facts, then the statement is
incorrect. The essence of the theory of truth
correspondence is the emphasis on the equivalence
of truth to reality or fact. John Hospers said,
“A proposition is true if it corresponds with a fact;
for instance, if it is a fact that you have a pet
leopard, and if you say that you have a pet leopard,
your statement is true because it corresponds with
the fact. Truth is corresponds with fact.”
As for the theory of truth coherence, the benchmark
of the truth of a statement (news) is its coherence
with previous statements that have been accepted as
truth. This theory of truth is very popular with
idealist groups. Robert C. Solomon in his
book,Introducing Philosopy; A Text with Integrated
Readings, writes about definition of the theory of
truth coherence,
“The coherence theory of truth: which says that a
statement or a belief is true if and only if it
“coheres” or ties in with other statements and
beliefs.”
These two theories of truth can be used to help
tracking correct or true information.
Contxetualizing Method of Hadith Criticism fo
Fighting Hoax
One of principles of sanad criticism was relevant is
knowing definitely narrators. It means narrators of
information are not unknown person (majhul), either
its identity, personality or credibility. While sanad of
hadith contains of such an unknown person, it would
be considered as weak hadith. This principle may be
applied while getting information through social
media. In term of social media, which may be
considered as narrators are media sites. While
information brought by “unknown media sites”, we
can not directly trust without looking for identity
and credibility of the media cites. In the sciences of
hadith, looking for identity and credibility of
narrators may be done by refering to history books
on them (the books of Rijāl and Tārīkh al-Ruwāh).
These books are convinced by Muslims as the most
authoritative sources for looking identity and
credibility of hadith narrators.
The question, then, is how to look for “credibility”
of media sites? To do that, we are able to refer to
authoritative data about list of media sites that
Indonesia Press Council has. Currently they have
ICRI 2018 - International Conference Recent Innovation
1860
verified media sites in their official site, whether the
cites have been verified or not. This way may
effectively goes for fighting hoax because among its
sources are fake media and unknown media sites
have not been verified either factually or
administrative. First step is visiting Indonesia Press
Council’s site at dewanpers.or.id, and then choosing
word “Data Pers”. After that, just write site’s name
will be checked in search. In case the site’s name
does not appear in search, it means that the site has
not been verified.
In addition of sanad criticism, matan criticism is also
relevant to be applied in looking for validity of
infomation spreading on social media. al al-Dn
al-Adlab, one of contemporary Muslim scholars,
argued that authentic hadith should not contradicts
al-Quran, hadiths have been proven authentic,
reason, and history. An example of hadith which
contradict al-Quran is hadith on the corpse was
tortured because of the cries of his family, namely:
“From Ibn Umar, from his father, The Prophet
Shallallaahu’alayh wa Sallam said: The deceased is
tortured in his grave for the wailing done over him
(weeping accompanied by shrieking and saying
which show that they reject their destiny)”
(Collected by Bukhari no. 1292).
Muslim scholars argued that the hadith has been
ever rejected by Aishah who quoted a verse of the
al-Quran, namely:
“And no bearer of burdens will bear the burden of
another.” (al-An’am: 164).
Concerning hadith which contradicts hadith which
have been proven authentic, al-Adlabi explains two
conditions in which the hadiths can be considered as
contradictory; namely: (1) the hadiths can not be
compromised, and (2) the hadits have same degree
in dalalah. An example of hadith which contradict
the hadith has been proven authentic is following
hadith:
:
:
“It was narrated that Salman said : I heard the
Messenger of Allah saying: Whoever goes to the
Morning prayer first thing in the morning, he goes
out with the banner of faith but whoever goes out to
the marketplace first thing in the morning, he goes
out under the banner of Iblis (Satan)” (Collected by
Ibnu Majah).
According to al-Adlabi, this hadith clearly
contradicts other hadiths which tell the virtues of
honest traders and two people who buy each other
and they advise each other. For example, as the
following hadith:
:
: »
–
:–
«
“From Abdullah Ibn ‘Umar -may Allah be pleased
with him- that Allah’s messenger -peace and prayer
of Allah be upon him- said, “The trustworthy, honest
Muslim merchant will be with the Prophets, the
honest men, and martyrs on the Day of
Resurrection.” (Collected by Ibnu Majah, al-Hakim,
al-Daruquthni and the others).
As for the hadith that contradicts reason is hadiths
about giving the name of a child by the name of
Muhammad. The hadiths about this are many,
among of them:
:
:
:
:
:
.
“From Sa'ad bin AbiWaqash said: I heard the
Messenger of Allah say to someone: Is your wife
pregnant. The man answered: Yes, O Messenger of
Allah, my wife is pregnant. Then the Prophet said:
when you go back to your house, hold your wife's
stomach while praying: In the name of Allah, O
Allah, I actually named this child by the name of
Muhammad. Then really God will give a son to
you.”
:
:
.
“From Sa'id bin al-Musayyab said: The Messenger
of Allah said: Poverty will not come into the house
in which there is my name (Muhammad).”
:
" :
."
“From Abu Umamah al-Bahili said: The Messenger
of Allah said:who has children, then named him
Muhammad because of expecting blessings, then his
parents and children will go to heaven.”
According to al-Adlabi, these hadiths contradicted
reason, because the naming of Muhammad could not
Method of Hadith Ciriticism for Fighting Hoax
1861
determine the sex of the child to be born, could not
prevent or invite poverty, and could not determine
the fate of someone whether to go to heaven or not.
However, what can determine the sex of the child is
God, preventing poverty by working hard and
trusting in Allah, and whether someone enters into
heaven is due to faith and good deeds.
Lastly, concerning the hadith which contradicts the
historical facts is a hadith about the age of the
prophets when appointed as a prophet. The hadith is
as follows:
“No prophet was appointed as a prophet except after
the age of 40”
Ibn al-Jauzi considers this hadith to be false, because
it contradicts historical facts. The historical fact is
that there was the Prophet Isha who he was
appointed as a Prophet at the age of 33.
What has been explained above shows one important
thing thatthe core of the principles of matan
criticism is measuring coherency of information
with other established sources/postulates. The extent
to which information may be valid depends on
coherency of information with others. According to
the author, this coherency may be traced through
methods, i.e. clarification, confirmation, and
comparison.
Method of clarification may be applied by clarifying
or looking for validity of information spreading on
social media to whose authority. On news that their
validity was still doubted and involving prominent
figure or others, for instance, we may clarify or look
for the validity to them directly. This method was
utilized to ensure coherency of information with
fact.
Method of confirmation may be applied by tracing
origininal source of citation on which information
was quoted by media. An example is news on
president Jokowi became the best president of Asia-
Australia 2016 as reported on several days ago.
Indonesian media cited the news from Bloomberg.
After checking it at Bloomberg, it has been founded
that the news is incorrect. There is distortion there.
The fact is Bloomberg informed that Jokowi bacame
a president who has most positive performance than
other seven leaders who were in list of assessment.
In other words, the news in Indonesian media is not
confirmed by Bloomberg, the original source of the
news. In this regards, method of confirmation
applied to make sure coherency of information with
other established information/sources.
Method of comparison may be done by comparing
news of a media with news of another media. In case
the difference is found, validity of the news is
reasonable to be questioned. This calls people to be
wise in receiving information on social media. At
least, people do not trust and sharing them without
clarifying.
3 CONCLUSION
This paper has discussed method of hadith criticism
for fighting hoax. It has explored the method to be
contextualized in order to verify information spread
on social media. The method of hadith criticism
either sanad (chain of narrators) or matan (content of
hadith) has contributed to this study. The first step
has to be done to identify hoax is by valuating media
cites contains the news. It may be conducted by
contextualizing theoy of sanad criticism on unknown
narrators (majhul). After that, the next step is
measuring coherency of information in news by
some methods, namely clarifiacation, confirmation,
and comparison.
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