Hadith: Difference between revisions

{{QualityScore|Lead=3|Structure=3|Content=2|Language=2|References=2}}'''Hadith''' (حديث; pl. ''ahadith أحاديث'') literally translates to mean "talk", but is most commonly used as an Islamic term that refers to the orally-transmitted accounts of Muhammad's life, wherein Muhammad does, says, or tacitly (that is, silently) approves of something. The hadiths, passed down orally before being written down, for the most part, some 150-200 years after [[Muhammad's Death|Muhammad's death]], are second in their religious authority only to the [[Qur'an]] and, since the collections of hadith are far, far vaster (and more detailed) than the (at times vague) Qur'an, they form the basis for the great majority of [[Islamic law]] and the [[Sunnah]]. Indeed, even the details regarding the [[Five Pillars of Islam]] are found only in the hadith (the Qur'an, focused more on matters of belief, simply mentions these rituals every once in a while without providing anything in the way of clear details).

In [[Shiite|Shi'ite]] Islam (approx 10-20% of the world's Muslim population)<ref name="rl" /><ref>[http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/540503/Shiite Shīʿite] - Encyclopædia Britannica Online (2010)</ref><ref name="pew" /><ref name="pew2" /> they have their own collections and are more particular in regards to the Hadith narrations they will accept. If a narrator was not a member of the Ahl al-Bayt (Muhammad's household) or one of their supporters, then the narration is typically rejected. For example, they reject narrations from Abu Huraira. Al-Kafi is considered the most reliable collection of Shi'ite hadith.<ref>[http://www.ahya.org/amm/modules.php?name=Sections&op=viewarticle&artid=72 Al Kafi - The Bukhari of Shi'ism] - AHYA</ref>

Consequently, even from an Islamic standpoint, the vast, vast, majority of hadith floating around prior to the compilation of the hadith are considered unreliable. Most famously, the Sunni scholars [[Sahih Bukhari|Imam Bukhari]] (d. 870) and Imam Muslim (d. 875) are said to have sifted through hundreds of thousands of narrations to ultimately decide only a few thousand were truly reliable. Slightly earlier collections of hadith do exist, famously the collections of Imam Malik (d. 795) and Imam Ibn Hanbal (d. 855), but these are not considered as altogether reliable (even if individual traditions within these works are reliable) as the collections of Bukhari and Muslim.