Marwan ibn al-Hakam: The Case Study Sunni Ahadits Science Would Rather Not Discuss

Marwan ibn al-Hakam is classified by many Sunni scholars as a swahabah, on the technical ground of having seen the Prophet as a child.  He later became secretary to Mu’awiyah ibn Abu Sufyan, then chief advisor to Yazid ibn Mu’awiyah, and eventually the fourth Umayyad caliph in his own right.  That career arc alone should raise an eyebrow.  What follows should raise considerably more than that.

Marwan advised Yazid to dispatch an army against Makkah and Madina.  The result was the siege of the Haramayn, the sacking of the Prophet’s Mosque, the burning of the Ka’bah, the deaths of thousands of swahabah, and the violation of the womenfolk of the Prophet’s own city.  This included the Battle of al-Harrah in 63 AH, 683 CE, one of the darkest episodes ever inflicted on Madina by a Muslim army.  Marwan also advised Yazid to intercept Sayyidina Husayn ibn ‘Ali and the Ahl al-Bayt at Karbala, an operation that produced the single greatest atrocity in Islamic memory.  As caliph, he continued persecuting the Ahl al-Bayt, and conducted himself far more like a pre-Islamic Arab king than a man who had once stood in the Prophet's presence. 

Hafizh Shihab ad-Din Abu al-Fadhl Ahmad ibn ‘Ali ibn Hajr al-‘Asqalani, in his introduction to Fath al-Bari, stated plainly that Marwan ibn al-Hakam has two traditions recorded in Swahih al-Bukhari.  Narrated onward by Sayyidina Sahl ibn Sa’d as-Sa’idi, Imam ‘Urwah ibn az-Zubayr ibn al-‘Awwam, Imam Abu al-Hasan ‘Ali ibn Husayn Zayn al-‘Abidin, and Imam Abu Bakr ibn ‘Abd ar-Rahman ibn al-Harits ibn Hisham, all of whom were satisfied enough with Marwan’s religious standing and knowledge to transmit from him.  Two hadits is not a large number.  It is, however, two hadits too many for a man whose political career reads like a rap sheet, and the smallness of the number does nothing to resolve the actual problem, which is methodological rather than statistical.

Sayyidina Sahl ibn Sa’d as-Sa’idi was a swahabah from the Answar of Madina, one of the last swahabah to pass away, and a frequent narrator of hadits describing the Prophet’s daily conduct and the affairs of Madina during and after his lifetime.

Imam ‘Urwah ibn az-Zubayr ibn al-‘Awwam was not a swahabah but a senior tabi’un, the son of Sayyidina az-Zubayr ibn al-‘Awwam and Sayyidatina Asma’ bint Abu Bakr, which made him the nephew of Sayyidatina ‘Aishah bint Abu Bakr.  He is regarded as one of the seven great jurists of Madina and a foundational figure in the transmission of sirah and hadits.

Imam Abu al-Hasan ‘Ali ibn Husayn Zayn al-‘Abidin was the son of Sayyidina Husayn ibn ‘Ali and grandson of Sayyidina ‘Ali ibn Abu Thalib.  He survived the massacre at Karbala, and is recognised across Sunni and Shi’ah tradition alike as a leading tabi’un of exceptional piety and scholarship, and is honoured as the fourth Imam in Shi’ah tradition.

Imam Abu Bakr ibn ‘Abd ar-Rahman ibn al-Harits ibn Hisham was a tabi’un from the Quraysh of Madina, counted among the seven jurists of Madina alongside Imam ‘Urwah ibn az-Zubayr, and known for his scholarship in fiqh and hadits during the generation immediately following the swahabah.

The Uncomfortable Machinery beneath All This

Classical Sunni uswul al-hadits operates on a doctrine of blanket ‘adalah, presumed uprightness, applied to every swahabah as a category, on the theory that companionship with the Prophet itself conferred sufficient moral standing to make individual scrutiny unnecessary.  This doctrine works well when the swahabah in question is Sayyidina Abu Hurayrah ‘Abd ar-Rahman ibn Sakhr ad-Dawsi az-Zahrani al-Azdi narrating rulings on prayer.  It works considerably less well when the swahabah in question orchestrated a siege of the Haramayn and the massacre of the Prophet’s own grandson.  The doctrine was not built to survive Marwan ibn al-Hakam as a test case, and the fact that it has survived him regardless says more about institutional reluctance to reopen settled categories than it does about Marwan’s actual character.

There is also a prior question the doctrine conveniently sidesteps.  Marwan’s own claim to swahabah status rests on having been a small child during the Prophet’s lifetime, not an adult companion in any functional sense.  Even the foundation of the classification is thinner than the label implies, and yet the label, once applied, does the same protective work as it would for a swahabah of unimpeachable record.

None of this touches the Qur’an, which remains beyond question.  It does mean that the isnad-based confidence Sunni Muslims place in secondary transmission deserves to be treated as exactly that, secondary, provisional, and worthy of the same critical eye applied to everything else that human beings have handled after Revelation itself.  Marwan ibn al-Hakam is not an argument against hadits as a science.  He is an argument against switching that science off the moment it reaches a politically inconvenient name.