The Effect of the Companions Professions to Hadith Narrations

Abstract

Of all the peculiarities of the first century of the Hijra, the companions' extensive knowledge on the context of the narrations will prove to be the most important one. Since a companion's profession plays a critical role in defining the context and in shaping his/her capacity as a narrator, this study aims at identifying those professions with regard to the narrated hadithsand analyzing whether the profession had any effect on narrating hadithsselectively. Further, a ratio of the hadiths related to his profession and the differences between his/her version of testimony and other versions (if applies) are provided. Another aim of the study is to follow those "profession related narrations" in the subsequent literature of fiqh and hadith. Finally, the study sheds light on the likely explanations about why some companions who had a profession never narrated any hadithrelated to the profession.