SIGNS INDICATIVE OF FABRICATION IN NARRATIONS

Abstract

The science of authenticating Prophetic narrations (ahadīth) to sift fabricated narrations from authentic ones, is as old as the emergence of fabricated narrations. This research study aims to reiterate the signs of fabrication in narrations, the hadīth methodology to counter it as well as the factors leading to fabrications. Hadīth scholars equipped themselves with an intellectual and historical toolkit to effectively detect fabrications in hadīth. In their endeavor they included scrutiny of the main text of the hadīth (matn) as impartially as the chain of transmitters (isnād). Their effort was not only directed to preserving the Sunnah at hand but also to lay the foundations for dependable hadīth authenticating sciences. The parameters laid down by scholars are consensually agreed upon by the hadīth scholars of Ahl as-Sunnah wa’l Jama’ah (People of the Sunnah and Community). As a result, both the authentic hadīth corpus (disseminated in different compilations) as well as authenticating methodology is preserved and warranted under the same dais.