Re: Injunctions on length of pants
PCG,
my view is not to 'clam up and not question anything'. Like the Prophet (saws) has said that the cure to ignorance is to question. I am sick of muslims who clam up and do not question the religious figureheads, and would rather do rituals with no understanding, but I am certainly against questioning the words of the Prophet (saws) himself.
We are not talking here about a hadith reported through a single companion and declared weak etc, its reported in multilple ahadith, with different wordings, but almost the same idea.. again and again and again. Doesn't it make you wonder of its importance if the Prophet (saws) kept insisting on it? Shouldn't you just look it up, rather than say its about 'pride' or ahadith should only be for history..
The sunni/shia disagreement on ahadith is a separate issue, and yeh political figureheads and people with ulterior motives definitely invented false ahadith. I would encourage you to read up further on the issue, remember.. the quran tells us that truth stands out clear from error. Its not impossible to distinguish between the ahadith which are words of the Prophet (saws) and which are fabrications.