Q1a. Write an account of why it became important to compile Prophetic Hadith after the death of Rightly guided caliphs?

The compilation of Prophetic Hadith after the era of the Rightly Guided Caliphs was a vital necessity for the preservation of the faith. Primarily, it was driven by the fear of loss of sacred knowledge as the generation of the Companions (Sahaba) - the direct transmitters of the Sunnah - began to pass away.

The urgency was driven by the passing of the "living narrators" the Companions who witnessed the Prophet's (pbuh) actions firsthand. As their numbers dwindled, there was a real risk that the authentic words and practices of the Prophet (pbuh) would be forgotten, lost, or distorted if not preserved in writing.

Crucially, compilation served as a defence against the corruption of the Sunnah. Following the Rightly guided caliphs, the political landscape became unsettled. The fabrication of Hadith - both deliberate and accidental - began to rise rapidly, motivated by sectarian bias, personal agendas, or the simple desire to attribute one's own views to the Prophet (pbuh).

To combat this corruption, early scholars pioneered the science of Hadith verification ('Ulum al-Hadith). Caliph Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz (Umar II) officially initiated the first large-scale, systematic written compilation of Hadith, recognising that an authoritative, vetted written record was the only way to distinguish the authentic Sunnah from falsehood. He charged scholars like Muhammad ibn Muslim az-Zuhri with this monumental task.

Finally, as Islamic jurisprudence (Fiqh) developed rapidly, scholars required a compiled, authentic source of Sunnah to resolve legal disputes and clarify rulings that could not be derived from the Quran alone. The written compilation of Hadith therefore provided the second essential pillar, alongside the Quran, for deriving Islamic law and preserving the Prophet's teachings for all future generations.