17th's corner...

[17th Angel]

Jazak Allah khair!

 

[Saltmeister]

Sah

You are aware I hope that hadiths are not all considered authentic? It depends which scholar you read as to what they consier authentic or weak. This goes by a number of things including the chain or narration and other hadiths from the same narrator (basically if they have told a whopper in one then the others are suspect). So be careful and check if they seem to go against the Quran.

wasalaam

The hadiths, I guess, are very much like sacred tradition in the Catholic and Orthodox Churches. It was not enough to have a written tradition. What was needed was a frame of reference (sacred tradition) to explain the written tradition to the local culture, and to preserve the first-century experience. I personally wouldn't agree that the first-century experience of Christianity was ever actually preserved, but anyway . . .

As for the hadiths, if they came from the 7th century, would you not have doubts about whether they can speak for you today? Okay, I suppose maybe it preserves the 7th century Islamic experience. It saves Muslims having to build a time machine. Muslims can then use their minds to decide what to do with themselves in today's culture(s).

 

[Muslimwoman]

As for the hadiths, if they came from the 7th century, would you not have doubts about whether they can speak for you today? Okay, I suppose maybe it preserves the 7th century Islamic experience. It saves Muslims having to build a time machine. Muslims can then use their minds to decide what to do with themselves in today's culture(s).

For me it very much comes down to what makes sense. For example if there was a hadith that said men should shave with a dagger rather than a broadsword, that does not mean men should always shave with a dagger rather than a razor. It would simply be telling us a smaller object is preferable and is less likely to cut your head off.

I don't believe the Quran calls for us to live frozen in time and the Prophet did not expect us to do so. Everything in the authentic hadiths was recorded to try to guide us, give us examples of how Muslims lived at the time of the Prophet and after his death. They are guidelines that we can draw upon, rather than just make it up as we go along.

Of course there are some that believe that if a hadith says put your left sock on before your right, that it is a must and doing so makes them more pious. I shall reserve comment on my views.