Computerized Ḥadīth Encyclopedias
Balancing digital convenience with the enduring authority of printed sources.
Computerized ḥadīth encyclopedias represent one of the major technological developments of our era, simplifying tasks that once demanded immense effort and time.
There is no doubt that the scientific advancement the world is witnessing today has made the difficult easy and brought the distant near. Any discovery humanity reaches—by the grace of Allāh, the Mighty and Majestic—comes with its benefits and its harms. And it is upon the rational person to use it for reforming himself and others.
Among the most important matters serving the religion of Islām is the appearance of computerized encyclopedias that contain within them thousands of heritage books. The emergence of these encyclopedias has indeed made it easier for many students of knowledge in their Islamic studies.
But the calamity is that most students of knowledge have begun to rely on these encyclopedias entirely. You will find some even boasting that they do not own books, claiming that one encyclopedia or another suffices them! Some researchers have started producing many papers in an unbelievable amount of time thanks to these encyclopedias. It is nothing more than a “push of a button,” as they say—suddenly the information is present before you, then you copy and paste, and out comes a research paper which you send to a peer-reviewed journal and then get promoted because of it!
This is one of the worst consequences students of knowledge have suffered from the appearance of these encyclopedias! I say: pitiable are those who think this way! These encyclopedias are nothing more than an assisting tool that points you to the existence of the information you want. After that, it is the role of the researcher or the student of knowledge to know how to use this information, employ it, and make the texts speak—so that he does not bring calamities upon knowledge and its people.
Indeed, one of the greatest weaknesses and deficiencies of Islamic knowledge in these days is the negative reliance upon such encyclopedias completely. And Allāh is the One whose help is sought.
And since these encyclopedias are at their core commercial products, with those in charge of them not being people of Islamic specialization, several flaws have crept into them. Among them, for example:
- Incorrect data entry: A computer is a mute device that depends solely on the symbols entered into it. If the data entry is faulty, you will not find what you are looking for. The presence of hamzahs, for instance, is crucial, yet data-entry teams often ignore them, leaving researchers to chase after missing words.
- Missing pages from source texts: Some works are entered with gaps. In al-ʿIlal of al-Dāraquṭnī, opening volume 11 reveals that pages 135 and 230 are absent.
- Footnotes inserted into the main text: Editors’ notes are sometimes merged into the body of the original book. In al-Mukhtārah of al-Ḍiyāʾ al-Maqdisī within the Alfiyyah ḥadīth encyclopedia, the editor’s rulings were entered as though they belonged to al-Ḍiyāʾ.
- Distortions, misreadings, and omissions: Numerous textual corruptions appear in the entered books—some perhaps inherited, others introduced during digitization.
- Faulty search functionality: Frequently a known word or phrase yields no results even though it is certainly present. Such failures stem from programming shortcomings.
- Commercial signatures embedded: The names of those who entered the books are sometimes left in the front matter, as in Musnad al-Bazzār (6/1): “Marwān Abū ʿAliyan, Spider Net Computer Center.”
In conclusion: I am not belittling the importance of these encyclopedias, but the book is the foundation and can never be dispensed with under any circumstances.
And Allāh grants success.
Written by: Khālid al-Ḥāyik
3 Muḥarram 1429 AH