The Ten Promised Paradise: a study of the origin and formation of a Sunnī doctrine through Isnād-cum-Matn analysis

Abstract

The concept that a certain nine or ten Companions, assured of Paradise in a Prophet ḥadīth, are superior to the rest of the Companions is among the most noteworthy Sunni beliefs. However, though well represented in the works of the ninth-century ḥadīth scholars, this concept has yet to receive adequate discussion in current scholarship. This article investigates its origin by examining various versions of the ‘Ten Promised Paradise’ ḥadīth through isnād-cum-matn analysis. The analysis suggests that this hadith, first emerging before 700, was widely circulated in Iraqi cities (above all, Kufa), and Madina before the mid-eighth century. Through examination of the socio-political milieu in which the earliest known disseminators of the ḥadīth lived, this article argues that the concept came into circulation after the second fitna. This ḥadīth’s ascendancy emerged (in Kufa) from protest against both the Umayyad hostility towards the ʿAlids and their partisans and proto-Shiʿi movements of all kinds (the Ghulāt and Hāshimīs); its propogation in Madina was most likely prompted by rivalry between the caliphate and the Hijazi elite. The article goes on to explore how the ethos of this ḥadīth became an early Sunni doctrine. A close examination of the transmitters following the earliest identifiable disseminators of various versions of the ḥadīth reveals that many transmitters played a prominent role in shaping the communal identity of the ahl al-ḥadīth. They took part in formulating their historical memory, developing ḥadīth criticism and establishing sunna either by articulating the ‘orthodoxy’ or by combating the so-called ‘innovators’.