Nabia Abbott’s name became known to Western scholars when she dared to criticize and reject Joseph Schacht’s hadith thinking. Joseph Schacht is an orientalist or Western scholar who is sceptical of Islam. His thoughts always attack Islam through the hadith of the Prophet. He wanted to find the weakness of Islam through the second source of law after the Koran, namely the Hadith of the Prophet.
Therefore, Nabia denied and rejected the thoughts of Joseph Schacht. Nabia denies Joseph’s conclusion, which states that there is no authentic hadith in the Kutub as-Sittah or the six main books of hadith, except for a few valid in Imam Ahmad’s Musnad. If we’re not careful, we might get caught up in the thoughts of Joseph Schatcht.
Nabia Abbott’s expertise in Middle Eastern studies is noteworthy. Because she seriously studied the development of Arabic manuscripts, including hadith. Nabia Abbott’s seriousness in studying Arabic manuscripts is evidenced by the many written works in Islam, Islamic culture, and Arab History. She was able to obtain the title of professor. On October 15, 1981, Nabia Abbott breathed her last in Chicago.
Nabia’s Defense
In hadith thinking, Nabia Abbott is more inclined to the mindset of hadith scholars than the views of Western scholars. Even though she is an orientalist who used to be sceptical, her perspective on hadith is not the same as other orientalists, like Ignaz Goldziher, Joseph Schacht, and GHA Juynboll. At least Nabia Abbott believes that hadith is an accurate source of the Prophet.
Therefore she gave birth to a theory which she called the Explosive Isnad. This theory is not much different from the isnad system developed by hadith scholars. Nabia and the scholars of hadith concluded that the initial sanad was born at the time of the Prophet, which then grew and spread widely until later times.
Nabia acknowledged the transmission of hadith at the time of the Prophet. In fact, according to her, the hadith was written by several companions when the Prophet was still alive. Although, the writing of hadith was still non-massive because the Prophet himself did not want the hadith to be recorded at that time. The reason was, at that time, the revelation of the verses of the Qur’an was incessant. Therefore, the Prophet was worried that if the Companions wrote down the hadith, it would be mixed up with the verses of the Qur’an.