c) Traditions that were narrated from the Prophet but were...

c) Traditions that were narrated from the Prophet but were moulded to serve the interest of the ruling government. d) Traditions that were blatantly distorted and forged in the interest of the caliphate system. These traditions itself are divided into many groups: Traditions which were forged in praise of caliphs. Traditions which were fabricated to denigrate the caliphs’ opponents. Traditions which have been forged to suit the policies of the Caliphs and their erroneous judgments.

Traditions prohibiting revolt against the ruler belongs to this group. According to them, the Prophet has said, “Obedience to a ruler is obligatory under all circumstances; even if he professes sin and tyranny. His government is the Wish of Allah, as good and evil are all Allah’s Acts: الخير كله والشر كله من الله They further say that man is not free in his actions .

These sets of traditions caused further schism and resulted in the formation of sects like Jabriah (necessitarians) and others in the caliphate school.

These four set of traditions; the sayings of the companions and their independent judgments in the ordinances as well as the views of their disciples (some of which are contrary to the text of the Quran and the Prophet’s Sunnah [^1] but nevertheless are now being narrated with the Prophet’s traditions in the caliphate school) created differences in the ordinances. Thus numerous jurisprudence schools of thought in the caliphate school came into existence.

For instance the believers in Ijma (the consensus), believers in independent reasoning (aql), the school of the predecessors and others were offshoot of the caliphate school due to such traditions. Permission for compilation of hadith in the caliphate school In 100 A.H. when Omar-ibn-Abdul Aziz lifted the ban from recording of the Prophet’s Sunnah in book format, the followers of the caliphate school strived hard in collecting the Prophet’s traditions from the narrators.

Traditionists would travel from one city to another for collecting as well as narrating traditions. They would receive traditions from the traditionists of one city and in turn, they would also narrate traditions to the traditionists of that city. As a result, the traditions that were confined among a few individuals in Medina, Kufa, Basra and Damascus spread in the entire Islamic nations of those days.

Dissemination of such traditions created severe differences in the caliphate school, which will be explained, in our subsequent discussions.