Although the literal narration is better and always preferable, narration of meaning is allowed if the narrator has an expert command of Arabic, if the word used is appropriate in the given context, and if the original has been forgotten. However, the Companions always narrated Tradit
The Companions strove to verify the Tradition’s meaning. None of them lied, for their fear of Divine punishment was too great. However, reporters might have misunderstood the Tradition, missed an important point while receiving it from the Messenger, or interpreted it incorrectl
There were several ways to tell whether a Tradition had been fabricated or not. One was to encourage the narrators to confess. This was not uncommon among those who had fallen into sectarianism and then, being guided to the truth, acknowledged the Traditions they had fabricated. In ad
Some examples of fabricated Traditions are the following: • Abu Hanifa is perhaps the greatest Muslim jurist, and still shines like a sun in the sky of Islamic jurisprudence. But the saying attributed to the Prophet that “Abu Hanifa is the lamp of my nation” [1] is not a h
Some Orientalists and their Muslim followers try to cast doubt on the Sunna’s authenticity on the pretexts that some Companions narrate too many Traditions and that there are vast numbers of Traditions. First, the Traditions are not limited to the Messenger’s words.
The first written compilations of Traditions were made during ‘Umar ibn ‘Abd al-‘Aziz’s caliphate, at the beginning of the second Islamic century of Hijra (719-722). However, it should be remembered that all Traditions that would be collected and arranged in bo
