You are on page 1of 24 Search inside document The Authentication of Hadith: Redefining Criteria Israr Ahmad Khan Abstract Muslim scholars deserve appreciation for their invaluable contribution toward preserving the hadith literatures authenticity. However, much more needs to be done to further strengthen its authenticity. Such great hadith authorities as Malik ibn Anas d. However, they did not check the text matn with the same zeal.
This remains the case today, even to the extent that scrutinizing the text scrutiny is considered forbidden. While further verification of hadiths is still needed, this closed door toward verifying the texts validity must be opened.
The present article represents an attempt to redefine the criteria for checking the texts and then applying these criteria to certain selected hadiths recorded by al-Bukhari and Muslim.
In this way, he sought to avoid the possibility of intentional or unintentional error. Khan: The Authentication of Hadith 51 was extraordinarily careful about narrating hadiths from the Prophet saw.
This situation was exploited by people with vested interests who fabricated hadiths concerning Alis legitimacy. No hadith work in which the reports were recorded on the basis of text verification in addition to chain authentication can be identified. Scattered comments and observations on certain hadiths from the angle of texts are attributed to some scholars. However, serious efforts are missing from the legacy. Ibn al-Jawzi d. But these two scholars contribution is very limited.
