The Manufacture of Hadith
The hadîths, in a broad sense, are the sayings attributed to the Prophet of Islam. After the Quran, they constitute the second scriptural source among Sunnis and are used to codify the lives of Muslims who must adhere to the precepts they contain. However, the authenticity of the hadîths is highly questionable. Forgery dates back to the very origins of Islam, and Muslim scholars, aware of this practice, had to develop a methodology to dismiss hadîths considered suspicious. This led to the canonization of six collections of hadîths, including the two famous “sahih” by scholars al-Bukhari and Muslim. But can we be certain that these collections contain only “authentic” hadîths? Are the methods used by hadîth scholars really reliable? Since the pioneering work of Ignaz Goldziher, historians have shown that the answer to these questions is, in most cases, negative.
