Projecting back theory: a study of Muhammad Mustafa Azam i's responses to Joseph Schacht's theory on sanad

Hadits is the second most important source of Islam ic jurisprudence after Al-Qur'an. Since hadits were an important source for the development of Islamic law, the comm unity had to know which trad itions were reliable, and which were clearly false. The important part to know if hadils is rel iable or not is researching the system of isnad (chain of transmitters). The problem appears while discourse of hadits study comes at the authentici ty of hadits i tsel f. Some scholars had made researches to find that i f hadits is rea11y authentic or it is only the product of human kind. One of orientalists that made hi msel f drowni ng in this study is Joseph Schacht. The study attempts to note. identify. and explain the theory of Joseph Schacht regarding with the authenticity of hadits. Since Schacht's theory had been analyzed and criticized by Muham mad Mustafa Azam i, so this study specifically elaborates Azami 's responses to Schacht's theory on sanad. nie origins of muhammadan jurisprudence is the mon umental work of Joseph Schacht. Not only that, th is work is also controversial. Many scholars criticize it, Fuat Sezgin, G.H.A. J uynboll, Nabia Abbot, Harald Motzk i, and Azami. The documents that he used to research is the classic jiqh books, such as al-Risalah, al-Umm, and Muwattha'. Schacht explai ned that Islami c law had not been exist in the era of the Prophet. It just recentl y appeared 100 unti l 200 years after the death of the Prophet. He also cited that the Islam ic law was adopted from the popular practices and administrati ve regulation of the U mayyad government. Furthermore, he stated that hadus is only a "living tradition .. from the school cf law and then is projected back to the past until the saying of the Prophet. Aza m i then seriously opposed the thesis by giving detai l arguments. Azam i said that sunnah had been used along ago before them coming of Islam. Then the Musl ims used it terminologically by adding (al) before the word sunnah, which means ways or procedures of shari'ah from the Prophet PBU H. The most i m portant pan is that the etymological meani ng is not disappeared, because the second is only used i n a specific meaning. Azami also criticized Schacht's study which used the.flqh books as object of study. According to his opinion, hadits literat ures and .flqh I iterat ures have thei r own different characteristics. Therefore, researchi ng hadits in the fiqh l iteratures is not proper, researchi ng hudits m ust be from the hadits literatures.