Researching the role of Mawali in narrating hadith, Supiyan Tsauri achieved Doctorate

Thursday, January 11th, 2018 | [post_view]
(21) Supyan Raih Doktor

Image: New doctorate of Religion Faculty, Unissula, Supiyan Tsauri Lc (the fifth from the left)

A lecturer of Religion Faculty at Unissula, Supiyan Tsauri, Lc officially obtained Doctorate after succeeding to defend his dissertation entitled “Mawali contribution of companions in narrating hadith: a study of hadith narration in the book of Musnad Ahmad Ibn Hanbal at UIN Walisongo Semarang (21/12). Supiyan was promoted by Prof Dr Erfan Subahar, M.Ag., and co promotor Dr A Hasan Asy’ari, M.Ag.

In his dissertation, Supiyan raised the issue of mawali in companions who narrated hadith from the prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him). Mawali is a familiar term among arabian people which means slave. “Higlighting the position of mawali in hadith, I would like to explain that the way Islam treated slaves was very noble in giving their rights as human beings, including for mawali.” “When people nowadays are voicing about human rights, Islam has already implemented human rights since long time ago related to the concept of human equality.” he explained.

The book of Musnad Ahmad Ibn Hanbal, is a book of hadiths made by Ahmad Ibn Hanbal who compiled hadits based on the names of the prohet’s companions. “There were about 800 companions in this book, and there were at least 32 mawali who were found in the book.” He said.

This study broke the orientalists’ accusations who stated that the process of narrating hadith through sanad was contrived. “in narrating hadiths, Islam does differentiate the status of its narrator (free man or slaves), but the quality of his hadiths,” he continued, “Sanad is not contrived, even according to ‘Ulama, sanad is the weapon of the messanger ummah to differentiate the right news and the false ones which many times are on the behalf of the prophet’s hadiths.” he said.

With this study, it is stated that since Islam’s inception, Islam wants to eliminate negative perception towards mawali status in society. According to him, mawali received their equal rights in terms of knowledge, politics, etc., even more noble. “For example Bilal bin Rabbah was chosen as Muadzin by the prophet, Salman Al Farisi was chosen as the accurate strategist for war, up to Zaid bin Haritsah, Usamah bin Zaid as a great warlord.” he said.  It shows that the position of mawali in society was raised since the arrival of Islam. Thus, there is no difference in narrating hadiths between slaves and free man.