4 - Sufi Contributions to Hadith Commentary

Summary

Several studies examine Sufi contributions to Qur’anic exegesis and the genre of Sufi Qur’an commentaries, but there is a dearth of studies on Sufi contributions to the genre of hadith commentaries. In this chapter I highlight some of the most important contributions to the field of hadith commentaries by Sufis in order to show the different qualities of these commentaries. Of course, many if not most of Sunnī Islam's greatest hadith commentators were themselves initiated into Sufi ṭarīqas and were influenced by Sufi thought, but not all of them were seen primarily as Sufis, and their commentaries did not necessarily contain many Sufi themes. In this chapter, I look at major works by those who are strongly identified as Sufis, and whose works show Sufi themes as present if not dominant. In addition, in response to Jamal Elias's questioning of the existence of Sufi Qur’an commentaries as a separate genre, my survey and analysis leads to the question of whether these hadith commentaries can be classified as a separate genre or if there is a more meaningful way to distinguish these works. I use two stories about a meeting – or perhaps two meetings – between the major hadith transmitter, Abū Dāwūd al-Sijistānī (d. 275/889), and the prominent Sufi figure, Sahl al-Tustarī (d. 283/896), to frame and direct this enquiry.

The well-known traditionist, Abū Ṭāhir al-Silafī (d. 576/1180), narrates two stories about the meeting between Abū Dāwūd and al-Tustarī. According to one, when al-Tustarī first met Abū Dāwūd, he asked Abū Dāwūd to put out his tongue, which he used to teach the words of Muḥammad, and al-Tustarī proceeded to kiss it, either to honour it or to receive the blessings and light of the hadith. According to the second story of their meeting, a man seeking to receive Abū Dāwūd's great work, the Sunan, thought to first take the opportunity to visit the famed al-Tustarī, who was on the way. Al-Tustarī advised him that even if he received Abū Dāwūd's hadith, in fact even if he became Abū Dāwūd himself, that it would not benefit him unless he acted on his knowledge.