Questions about Hadiths

[sazzie]

I’d like to learn a bit more about authenticity of hadiths, i’m curious to know the following -

1 - How do we know for sure that any hadith is authentic and valid?

2 - If the hadiths were not recorded until around two hundred years after Muhammad (PBUH)'s death, is this not a reason to be apprehensive about how genuine they are?

3 - How many of the hadiths came from people who were close to the prophet (PBUH)? By close I mean within his regular circle of close friends and family.

4 - And people seem to give more weight to hadiths over the quran, for example, on Islamic question and answer sessions on tv, the imams quote more often from the hadiths than the quran in repsonse to queries. Is this right? Shouldn’t the quran be our only guidance as we know for sure it came from Allah whereas hadiths came from man?

Answers will be much appreciated for I am confused!

[psyah]

Re: Questions about Hadiths

Peace sazzie

I'll give a more detailed response later inshaAllah and I'm sure others will too ... Four very important facts to learn about ahadith are these:

1) Authenticity does not mean truth
2) Most Authentic collections are based on the authenticity of narration (i.e. that RasoolAllah (SAW) said it or did it) but they do not attempt to qualify their meaning or context this is up to the scholars of the time to use many things to work those parts out.
3) The extraction of meaning from ahadith is virtuous based on sound reasoning and sincerity both - so we should be concerned with these two things and less concerned with "truth" because arriving at "truth" is a gift from God.
4) Authenticity has varying degrees - there are not simply two positions authentic and unauthentic ...

[Mirch]

Re: Questions about Hadiths

I'd like to learn a bit more about authenticity of hadiths, i'm curious to know the following -

1 - How do we know for sure that any hadith is authentic and valid?

Only two criteria are used. 1. Chain of narration is authenticated. If the chain of narration is authentic and complete then the Hadees is considered authentic. 2. Repetition , if same hadees is quoted by many narrators it is considered authentic.

2 - If the hadiths were not recorded until around two hundred years after Muhammad (PBUH)'s death, is this not a reason to be apprehensive about how genuine they are?

Hadees were being recorded during the time of Holy Prophet(SAW) , first compilation of those ahadees took place first time after 200 years of his(SAW) death.

3 - How many of the hadiths came from people who were close to the prophet (PBUH)? By close I mean within his regular circle of close friends and family.

I do not have that figure but a substantial number of ahadees came from his(SAW) regular circle of close friends and family.

4 - And people seem to give more weight to hadiths over the quran, for example, on Islamic question and answer sessions on tv, the imams quote more often from the hadiths than the quran in repsonse to queries. Is this right? Shouldn't the quran be our only guidance as we know for sure it came from Allah whereas hadiths came from man?

Somethings have a black and white answers in Quran and others do not a big example is payment of zakat . Where as it is mentioned in Quran that Muslims are supposed to pay zakat but how much are they supposed to pay , it comes from the Sunaah of Holy Prophet(SAW)
So those things which are not mentioned in Quran or which are not so black and white , but people need guidance for them then scholar look to other sources. Like hadees , sunnah , ijma , ijtehad , qyas etc.

These are simple answers of your simple questions. If you come up with more questions please do ask.

[lethal_kamikaze]

Re: Questions about Hadiths

^
agreed with both.