The Effect of Geographical Belonging on Hadith Interpretation: The Example of Victorious Community Hadith

Abstract

The scholarly activities of an author cannot be evaluated independently from the social and human environment in which he lived. In commentary (sharh)/interpretation studies, which is the activity of understanding hadiths, it can be said that the interpreter's scientific method, his sect and the geography in which he lived, and the relationship he established with the political structure of his period had a significant effect on the way he interpreted the hadith. Although these factors affecting the interpretation of the hadith have been the subject of various studies, no research has been found on how the interpreter's sense of belonging to the geography where he lived, carried out his scholarly activities, or was under political patronage affected his interpretation of the hadith. However, this is an important issue that should be raised in the literature due to its effect on shaping the nature of interpretations. This article analyses the hadith A community from my ummah will continue to be victorious in the truth until the Day of Judgement within the framework given above. Focusing on the debates about the geography of this community praised by the Prophet, the study examines the status of the hadith in the historical process and tries to determine what kind of effect the interpreter's sense of belonging to the geography where he lives, with which he is in contact for scholarly, political etc. reasons has on the interpretation. In this study, not only the hadith commentary literature was used as a source, but also history, geography, the virtue of cities, and political texts were applied and analyzed in a wide range of literature. As a matter of fact, in addition to the interpretations in the commentary literature, references to the hadith of the victorious community are also seen in the correspondence between scholars and state rulers, in historical speeches in scholarly assemblies and religious movements, or in political texts written with the encouragement of statesmen. Such examples have enabled us to develop a broader understanding of the process of interpretation of the hadith. The hadith, which we refer to as the hadith of the victorious community throughout the study, has many reports (riw? yas) and some scholars have accepted it in the category of mutawatir. Firstly, the verses of the hadith, which have prepared the ground for geographical discussions, and which indicate the region in which the community praised by the Prophet will be located, have been analyzed. Damascus and Bayt al-Maqdis are the two regions explicitly mentioned in the reports (riw? yas) of the hadith. Based on this, the scholars from Damascus interpreted the community as the people of Damascus and the scholars from Jerusalem as the people of Jerusalem. The expression people of the gharb in the narration of Muslim's Sahih played an important role in the diversification of interpretations regarding the geography of the community. The commentators debated at length what was meant by the people of the land of the garb and were largely convinced that this expression meant the west of the earth. However, this situation brought up a new debate about the boundaries of the land of the west and which cities/regions would be included in the scope of this expression. According to the commentators, the geographies to the west of Hijaz, the place where the Prophet said the hadith, are considered to be gharb. From this point of view, the Damascenes considered Damascus, which they regarded as the beginning of the West, as the region where the victorious community would be found. At the same time, the Egyptian commentators claimed that the victorious community would be the Egyptians since Egypt was also considered to be on the gharb line. The scholars of al-Andalus and Maghrib, who said that the word gharb means Maghrib, identified the community with their own geography. The desire of the commentators to praise their own geographies with the Prophet's language sometimes led to forced interpretations, so much so that in the following period, Istanbul was also counted among the people of the gharb even though it was geographically not possible. As a result of the research, it is understood that the Prophet said the hadith in question to inform that there would be a community that would be in the truth until the Day of Judgement and would struggle for the truth, and in our opinion, he did not aim to identify this community with geography and to praise the Muslims in a single region. However, commentators from different regions identified the community mentioned in the hadith with their own geographies due to their sense of belonging. This shows that the sense of belonging of the commentators to their own geographies greatly influenced their interpretation of hadith.