For this reason...

For this reason, Abu Bakr saw no other alternative except to place a ban on the hadith of the holy Prophet so that people might not have access to this strong weapon; therefore the Caliph prohibited the Muslims to quote the hadith of the holy Prophet, and issued a proclamation to the effect that the people were not to quote the hadith of the holy Prophet and that they had to follow only the holy Qur'an.[^5] The idea was that the holy Qur'an should be separated from the hadith, so that the Caliphs could interpret it as they wished.

Before his death Abu Bakr prepared a will deed by virtue of which he left the Caliphate to 'Umar.[^6] There is no doubt that most of the Muslims who, having been deprived of the hadith of the holy Prophet, had a narrow vision, so they did not oppose the move. Even 'Umar, during his rule, followed strictly the policy of banning the hadith. Once, however, he put before the people a proposal regarding the narration and the writing of the holy Prophet's hadith in order to get their opinion.

The people, in general said that it was necessary to revive the practice of quoting and writing the hadith. With extreme cleverness, 'Umar, after having pondered over the problem for a month, discovered a way out of the narrow strait in which he had been placed.

He went to the people and made the following pronouncement:- "I very much wanted to write down the Sunnah of the holy Prophet (P) but I remembered the peoples of the past, who by writing some of the books and paying too much attention on them, neglected the heavenly book, so I decided not to mix up the holy Qur'an with anything else."[^7] When He ('Umar) used to send out the holy Prophet's companions on official business, he emphasized upon them not to narrate any hadith, because that would make the people neglect the holy Qur'an.

And if he came to know that any of them had disobeyed his orders, he would summon him to appear before him and used to detain him as long as he lived.[^8] Besides, if some written hadith were discovered with the people he would collect and burn them up. Thus ended the Caliphate of 'Umar, and 'Usman succeeded to the Caliphate with the help of an organized party that had come into being.[^9] During the rule of 'Usman, the Caliphate authorities waged a severe war on the narration of hadith.