ḤADĪTH SCHOLARS’ EFFORTS IN FACING FABRICATION OF ḤADĪTH

Abstract

Since the demise of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, the Companions and the following generations paid great attention to preserving the Dīn. These efforts started with the compilation of the Qurʾān during the reign of Abu Bakr . Later, more efforts were exerted across generations in the compilation of the Sunnah of the Prophet Muhammadﷺ to preserve it from mistakes and lies. False reports were made and related to the Prophet Muhammadﷺ for several reasons; however, scholars exerted efforts to stop the dissemination of those fabrications by writing compilations about fabricators’ names, fabricated ḥadīths, and common unauthentic ḥadīths. Furthermore, scholars developed rules and methodologies to identify fabricated ḥadīths and to scrutinize the text and chain of narrators of ḥadīths.  In this paper, some of these efforts are highlighted, some examples of the books written for this purpose are mentioned, and some of the rules stated by these scholars are listed. This study was made using library research and content descriptive analysis methods for the information obtained from published books and papers. The study has shown that tremendous efforts were made to resist fabrications and to expose fabricators since the third century AH, and these efforts resulted in extensive and comprehensive compilations about fabricators and fabricated ḥadīths as well as the development of other fields of Islamic sciences such as ʿilmu al-Jarḥi wat-Taʿdīl and ʿilmu at-Tārīkh. These efforts should be brought to light in our contemporary time in which some voices claim once again that the Sunnah of the Prophet Muhammadﷺ is not authentic or cannot be considered as a reliable source of law.

KEYWORDS: ḥadīths, Sunnah, fabrications, Prophetic traditions, scholars’ efforts, criticism.