Hadith studies

Hadith studies is the academic study of hadith, (i.e. what most Muslims believe to be a record of the words, actions, and the silent approval of the Islamic prophet Muhammad as transmitted through chains of narrators).^[1] While Muslim religious scholars had developed a practice aimed towards parsing between reports about Muhammad to determine which ones are authentic (and therefore legally and ethically actionable) and inauthentic, known in tradition as the hadith sciences, academics have begun to approach hadith from a secular point of view which did not assume any legitimate hadith had been successfully passed down.

^ An Introduction to the Science of Hadith, translated by Eerik Dickinson, from the translator's introduction, p. xiii, Garnet publishing, Reading, U.K., first edition, 2006.

[1] An Introduction to the Science of Hadith, translated by Eerik Dickinson, from the translator's introduction, p. xiii, Garnet publishing, Reading, U.K., first edition, 2006.

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