Human memory
Many assume that because the companions could remember the Qur'an, they could remember every word Prophet Mohammed (peace be upon him) spoke or every action he took. But the companions themselves did not believe this. The conflict that took place between the Muslims and the false prophet Musaylama at Yamama provides historical proof. When around seventy Qur'an memorisers died, the senior leaders of the community led by Abu Bakr, panicked.
They did not rely on the memories of those still alive to preserve the Qur'an for future generations. Instead, they reluctantly compiled the written copy because they knew memory was fallible.
It is important to recognise that the credit for preserving the Qur'an does not go to the companions as a human achievement. Muslims who trust Allah know that it was He who preserved it, as He says "it is We who have sent down the reminder, and it is for Us to preserve it" (15:9). It would be contradictory to fully believe this verse while simultaneously claiming that the Qur'an was preserved by the companions.
In fact, although the companions were deeply concerned, they were initially reluctant to compile anything because Prophet Mohammed (peace be upon him) himself never compiled a book. They only proceeded because this was the method Allah intended when He said, "...it is for Us to preserve it" (15:9). The Qur'an's preservation was Allah’s work, not theirs. Just as only Allah sent the revelation to humanity, only Allah guarantees its protection when He says "it is for Us to gather it into its Qur’an" (75:17).
During this time, the hadith still remained oral, fragmented and were actively being removed from circulation by Caliphs' Abu Bakr and Umar.
First group
The first group consisted of the early believers. Figures like Abu Bakr, Umar, Ali, Zayd ibn Thabit, and Ubayy ibn Ka'ab who were present at the completion of the revelation, embraced Islam at the very beginning when it was weak and persecuted. They joined because they recognised the truth of the Qur'an, not because there was a worldly benefit to gain.
They defended a new faith under constant attack. Many of this group lost their homes, wealth, and social standing, yet they remained steadfast and defended the message and Prophet Mohammed (peace be upon him) with their lives.
Despite spending decades with the Prophet, they narrated almost no hadith. Their focus was the Qur'an by preserving it, teaching it, and living by it. These are "...the first forerunners from among the emigrants and the
supporters..." (9:100).
Second group
The second group consisted of those who joined Islam in the later years of Prophet Mohammed's (peace be upon him) life, when Islam became the dominant power. The most prominent example is Abu Hurairah, the single largest hadith narrator in Islamic history.
Abu Hurairah joined Islam three years prior to the death of Prophet Mohammed (peace be upon him), when the Muslims were already victorious and Medina was secure. Unlike the early believers, he did not endure persecution, loss of wealth, or the hardships of the early group.
It is well known Abu Hurairah became immensely wealthy in his later years, accumulating far more than his official income could explain. Historical records show that in his early days Abu Hurairah was part of a group of poor men who stayed at the mosque. He openly admitted he followed Prophet Mohammed (peace be upon him) for food and survival.
Logically, why would the senior authorities who spent the most time with Prophet Mohammed (peace be upon him) be the most silent, while those who joined at the end for social or economic convenience provide thousands of 'essential' laws?
Abu Hurairah
Abu Hurairah narrated over 5,000 hadith, which is more than Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, Ali, Aisha, Zayd ibn Thabit, and Ubayy ibn Ka'b combined. With variations in wording, his narrations exceed 10,000 sentences, which is more than double the length of the Qur'an. Yet despite this extraordinary memory capability, he never memorised the Qur'an in its entirety.
He is not listed among the Qur'an memorisers, teachers, reciters, scribes, or compilers, even though 10‑year‑old children routinely memorise the entire Qur'an today. We know some people struggle to memorise the Qur'an even with great effort, but if Abu Hurairah truly possessed exceptional memorisation skills granted by Allah, why would he use them to memorise thousands of hadith rather than the Qur'an itself?
When Abu Hurairah joined Islam late, the Qur'an was almost complete and its teachers already established. Yet Prophet Mohammed (peace be upon him) never named him among those to learn the Qur'an from.
He became a hadith narrator because hadith were transmitted by meaning, paraphrased, summarised, and reworded, which is far easier to do than memorising revelation verbatim. Even though Abu Hurairah narrated thousands of hadith, he was known for misunderstanding the nuance of what Prophet Mohammed (peace be upon him) actually said. Senior companions, including Aisha, corrected and reprimanded him for this, such as when he compared women to donkeys. So when he paraphrased or interpreted hadith in his own words, there is a real possibility that he misunderstood or altered the meaning entirely.
This is the same reason Muslims reject the idea that the Torah and Gospel are preserved. Once human beings begin paraphrasing, summarising, and transmitting by meaning, the original becomes mixed with human input, and human input has always led to corruption of the message.
Had Abu Hurairah memorised the Qur'an, he would have been fully aware that Allah had "...sent down to you the Book fully detailed..." (6:114), or Allah "...did not leave anything out of the record..." (6:38) or the Qur'an contains "...a detailing of all things..." (12:111).
Most importantly, he would have been aware the religion was completed when Allah said "...today I have perfected your system for you, and completed My blessings upon you, and I have approved submission as the system for you..." (5:3).
A person who truly understood these verses would never then believe that thousands of additional hadith were required to complete or explain Islam. The overwhelming majority of companions understood these verses and remained silent on hadith.
The questioning of Abu Hurairah's hadith is not a new idea. The jurist of Iraq and founder of the Hanafi school, Abu Hanifa, reportedly said 'I do not accept everything reported by Abu Hurairah; some narrations seem strange to me' (ibn Abi Ya'la, Tarikh Baghdad). Ibn Abd al-Barr said 'Malik did not abandon Abu Hurairah entirely, but he did not take every report unless it was supported by the practice of Medina'. This is like saying today 'I accept Abu Hurairah's hadith only if it agrees with the Qur'an'.
Hypocrites
We know that certain people were hypocrites because of their public displays of hypocrisy such as the likes of Abdullah bin Ubbay, but others were able to conceal their hypocrisy. When people claim that the same individuals who preserved the Qur'an were also the ones through whom the hadith came, they are ignoring the Qur'an when it says that "...from among the people of the city, they persist in hypocrisy..." (9:101). The Qur'an makes it clear that within the Muslim community in Medina there were the hypocrites, those who hid in plain sight and were dedicated to undermining Islam at every available opportunity. This means that not everyone claiming to be a Muslim was sincere or reliable. Even Prophet Mohammed (peace be upon him) could not identify them as the Qur'an tells him "...you do not know them, but We know them..." (9:101).
When it comes to reciting and passing on the Qur'an, the recitation can be taken from all, including hypocrites and even apostates as it does not rely on individuals' sincerity. Such people cannot tamper with the the Qur'an because Allah has stated "...it is for Us to preserve it" (15:9). Even if someone tried to change it they will not be able to because "no falsehood could enter it, presently or afterwards..." (41:42). Therefore, such people leave the Qur'an alone as it is futile to try and undermine Islam, so they focus on the external materials like the hadith. Even the orientalists of today leave the Qur'an alone because there is no weakness for them to attack. Instead, they focus on the hadith literature.
When it comes the hadith, the sincerity of the person is one of the key components. Because Medina was filled with people in whom "...they persist in hypocrisy..." (9:101), it would be irresponsible to say all the companions involved in hadith transmission are beyond reproach as we do not know what was in their hearts as even Prophet Mohammed (peace be upon him) did not know.
Hadith suppression
It is a double standard to claim the companions 'preserved' the hadith like the Qur'an when senior leaders actively destroyed hadith. Abu Bakr and Umar are recorded as burning written collections of narrations. Umar even threatened companions including Abu Hurairah, Abu Darda and ibn Mas'ud, to stop them from narrating too many stories fearing it would distract from the Qur'an.
During his caliphate, Umar refused to authorise a book of sunnah. Although his heart wanted to do so, his mind pointed him to the truth. He eventually stated that he would not 'clothe the Book of Allah with anything else'.
Therefore, one cannot claim the same companions who preserved the Qur'an were the same as those who 'preserved' the hadith, when the most senior of them were actively erasing the hadith from existence. If it really was the case that the hadith were essential in Islam, then the actions of people like Abu Bakr and Umar would be deemed criminal, and instead the likes of Abu Hurairah would be the vanguards of Islam. The irony is that Umar and Abu Bakr were in fact the most prominent people in defending Islam when they decided on the compilation of the Qur'an and simultaneously the destruction of the hadith.
Hadith filterers & guesswork
Unlike the Qur'an, which is a fixed, complete text with a clear beginning, middle, and end, the hadith corpus is a human attempt to sift through layers of corruption and guesswork. The Qur'an states that those who "...only followed guesswork..." (53:28) like the disbelievers of the past should know that "...guesswork is no substitute for the truth" (53:28), or like the Jews who "... have no knowledge except to follow guesswork..." (4:157), or that most people will be astray "...because they follow guesswork, and that is because they only guess" (6:116) and "...only follow guesswork. While guesswork does not avail against the truth in anything..." (10:36), or the polytheists who "...only follow guesswork, you only guess" (6:148), "... only follow guesswork, and they only guess" (10:66) and "...only follow guesswork, and personal desire, while the guidance has come to them..." (53:23).
The difference between divine preservation and human filtering is obvious when a comparison is made on how each text functions in practice.
If a preacher gave a sermon in a mosque in Bangladesh and invented a fabricated hadith on the spot, he would get away with it. Most of the audience would not even be aware of the fabrication, as they would be "...impressed by their physical stature; and when they speak, you listen to their eloquence" (63:4). The focus would be on the preacher's performance and melodic delivery rather than on verifying the content. Even someone who suspected the fabrication would hesitate to challenge it publicly until they could consult the vast hadith archives. By the time this verification occurred, the fabricated hadith would have already influenced the audience.
Contrast this with a tiny mosque in Chile, which has almost no Muslim population. If that same preacher began salat and changed just one letter of the Qur'an, for example saying 'zamma yatasa'alun' instead of "amma yatasa'alun..." (78:1), he would be corrected instantly.
Even if there are no Arabic speakers in the room, Allah has included a universal auto-correct feature, operating in real-time within the Qur'an's preservation, which means that even a single-letter error cannot survive for more than a second.
This is the difference between a text preserved by Allah and texts filtered by human beings.
Conclusion
The companions who were there from the beginning who sacrificed everything for the Qur'an did not want the hadith. They left a finished, protected Book for the community to follow, just like Prophet Mohammed (peace be upon him). To follow the hadith is to ignore the methodology of the very people who gave us the Qur'an and to trade sure knowledge for guesswork.