THE PROPHET (PBUH) HIMSELF AND IBN KHALDUN ON HADITH

[Heba E. Husseyn]

 


In his commentary on the collection of Muslim, al Nawawi wrote: “A number of scholars discovered many ahadith in the collections of Muslim and Bukhari which do not fulfill the conditions of verification assumed by these men.” The collectors attach a greater weight to the trustworthiness of the narrators (a subjective criteria). Their criterion was certainly valuable, but it was not sufficient. In our opinion the criterion for hadith criticisms as well as standard for materials concerning the prophet's life, is the one which the Prophet (pbuh) himself gave. He said: “After I am gone differences will arise among you. Compare whatever is reported to be mine with the book of God; that which agrees therewith you may accept as having come from me; that which disagrees you will reject as fabrication.” The great men of Islam right from the very beginning observe this valid standard. It continues to be the standard of thinkers today. Ibn Khaldun wrote: “I do not believe any hadith or report of a companion of the prophet to be true which differs from the common sense meaning of the Quran, no matter how trustworthy the narrators may have been. It is not impossible that a narrator appears to be trustworthy though he may be moved by ulterior motive. If hadiths were criticized for their textual contents as they were for the narrators who transmitted them, a great number would have been rejected. It is a recognized principle that a hadith could be declared spurious if it departs from the common sense meaning of the Quran from the recognized principles of Shariah, the rules of Logic, the evidence of sense, or any other self-evident truth.” This criterion given by the  Prophet (pbuh) as well as ibn Khaldun, perfectly accords with modern scientific criticsm.

[Zainab_M]

Alhamdulilah .. wonderful words by the beloved Prophet (pbuh) and Ibn Khaldun, who was one of the very few genuine scholars free from the usual bias and hypocrisy. 

If I recall correctly, I suppose this is an excerpt from the writing of Mohammad Haykal.