What Salad Are You?
October 3, 2005
Are you an “ill-equipped traditional-minded” Muslim or a “modern-leaning, anti-traditionalist” Muslim? Between these two poles is the ‘resulting salad’ as Shaykh Gibril puts it.
Well, traditional or modern, all should agree that the path ahead should be the path of re-discovering the Science of Hadith: a path of learning from specialists that have been given permission to teach by their own teachers.
This book is made up of two parts. The first part is made up of essays by Shaykh Gibril Fouad Haddad who has devoted his life to studying Hadith from authorised traditional Ulema. The second part is a translation by Musa Furber of Shaykh ibn Hajar al-Asqalani’s Nukhbat al-Fikar (Chosen Thoughts on the Nomenclature of Hadith Specialists)
“The present work is a tribute to those prestigious Predecessors {who had strived to preserve and record Hadith}. It is intended as a presentation of their thought on some of the core issues and principles of the Sunna. The first article, “The Story of Hadith,” is a brief description of what we mean by that term and the genesis of its genres in response to a layperson’s question. The next two articles address the epistemic relationship of learning, understanding, and practicing in the view of the early Ulema of Hadith and Fiqh: “Have You Seen a Faqih?” and “The Superiority of Fiqh Over Hadith,” summarises what we know of the schools of Law the compilers of the Musnad, two Sahihs and Sunnan followed. The fifth article, “Strictness and Laxity in Hadith Criticism,” diagnoses the two extremes that distinguish the derogators and the unscrupulous from the careful hadith critic. The sixth article, “Isnad and the Sects,” takes a glimpse at the lose/lose scenario of ill-prepared tradition-minded Muslims facing Western-minded Muslims and their agendas.”
— From the Author’s Introduction
Contents
The Story Of Hadith
Have You Ever Seen a Faqih?
Superiority of Fiqh Over Hadith
Madhhahib of the Imams Of Hadith
Strictness and Laxity in Hadith Criticism
Verifiable Transmission (Isnad) and the Sects
“Famous-Hadith” and “Forgery” Compilations
The “Disclamed” Munkar Hadith
Use of Weak Hadiths In Islam
Weak Hadiths in Sahih al-Bukhari?
Lone-Narrator Reports
Hadith Narration ad Sensum vs. ad Litteram
Hadith Authentication by Kashf
Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani’s Nukhbat al-Fikar
