the Al-Tabari and Ibn-Ishaq and other sources are extremely doubtful and unauthenticated. Most Muslim scholars today firmly and strongly believe in this. Not that the hadiths above are bad or anything, but as most Muslim Scholars agree, we Muslims can't take them as absolute Truth or accurate information. Much of these volumes are either corrupt or taken out of context. Again, this is according to the Muslims scholars. This is why these volumes are considered "unauthenticated". Also visit: What parts of the Bible and Hadiths do Muslims believe are closest to the Truth, and Why?
From www.answering-christianity.com/chapter2_rebuttal.htm:
The narrations above from Al-Tabari came from a book that contains historical accounts that were documented 100s of years after the Prophet's, peace be upon him, death. Not everything you read is accurate and was necessarily told by the Prophet word for word, or even if at all! It is important, if you wish to be objective and honest, to put the Noble Quran as the center for any Islamic argument. If the Noble Quran makes a claim, then it is definitely agreed upon by all Muslims, and it is perfectly authentic. Otherwise, GOD Almighty only Knows about what is true and what is false regarding the narrations that you use in Hadiths and Sunnah books.
In fact, the Al-Tabari volume is not very authentic and very doubtful when compared to the Hadiths' volumes and collections. But even the Hadiths contain much corruptions in them, because they were documented 100s of years after the Prophet's death. The "Sahih Bukhari" or "Authentic Bukhari" in English was the first volume to be compiled. Bukhari is not an Arabic name! Bukhari is derived from the word "Bukhara", which is a city in Afghanistan:
"We now come to the Iron Gate which corresponds exactly to the Quranic description, and has the best claim to be connected with Alexander's story. It is near another Derbend in Central Asia, Hissar District, about 150 miles southeast of Bukhara......." (www.answering-christianity.com/iron_gates.htm)
For anyone who knows the Islamic history, this means that the Muslims spread Islam to the pagan Arabs, established the Islamic State in Arabia, then fought the Persians (Iranians) and the Romans; invaded the Persians and crushed the Romans, then fought the Hindus in Hindustan, invaded much of their lands such as "Pakistan", "Afghanistan", and much of the Indian territories, convert people there to Islam, and then Brother Bukhari appeared from his home town, Bukhara and decided to compile the Hadiths of "Sahih Bukhari".
Are these narrations all 100% perfect and reliable? Any person with the least atom of a brain would say no. I am not saying that all of the Hadiths must be rejected. But for us to day to have close to 2,000,000 of them is quite ridiculous, because they can't all have been written down during our Prophet's times in Arabia. Most of the Hadiths' chains of narrations today have 10s of narrators in them. In the Hadith books, you would see something like the following:
"About such and such, that he heard his father say that such and such said, that he heard such and such say, that he heard such and such say, etc...." Most of the narrations' links have tons of narrators in them, many times more than 10, and these people would be generations after each others! In other words, they're not people at the same age or the same group. And the worst dilemma of all, is that many of these chain of narrations have broken links in them, meaning, that two or three generations are missing in the chain!
Most of the hadiths are corrupt and are not recognized as authentic. Most certainly the books of Al-Tabari and Ishaq are among the weakest and most doubtful sources, because they are more like history books that were written 300 years after the Prophet's death. Their narrations were orally transmitted by others. Many people took hadiths out of context, and many others added or took from them, and many others even fabricated lies, as Allah Almighty Warned us in the Noble Quran:
"A section of the People of the Book (Jews and Christians) say: Believe in the morning what is revealed to the believers (Muslims), but reject it at the end of the day; perchance they may (themselves) turn back (from Islam). (The Noble Quran, 3:72)"
Also, it is almost impossible to narrate a narration/saying accurately after 300 years in Arabic, because the language is very complex, poetical and artistic:
From www.answering-christianity.com/warning.htm:
Problems with the proper Arabic language and the large quantity of narrations:
In Arabic, only original Arabs and those who speak proper (not slang) Arabic fluently, understand and appreciate the fact that the words are very minimum and their meanings are very maximum. It is true and not a deception or innovation by translators to English that a single Arabic word can and would be translated to 3-5 English words! The reason for this is because in Arabic (and this is part of the complexity in grammar, art and poetry of the Arabic language) meanings and not necessarily actual words can be all put together in one word. In Arabic, a word is not original. There are of course "root" words, but in most proper Arabic words, the actual word is not original; meaning that depending on the grammar, letters (of meaning) can be added to or taken from it to add or take from its meaning and intention. This can change the entire meaning of the whole word and sentence.
That is why Arabic poetry is historically known to be a very complex and advanced one.
Having said all of this, in the case of the hadiths, given the fact that there exists "weak/doubtful ones", and what is considered as "strong and reliable ones", it is difficult to know for sure if a single hadith was told as is 100% unchanged (intentionally or not intentionally) by the Prophet peace be upon him. One word taken off from the hadith and the whole meaning can and would be changed to something else.
For those "reliable or strong" hadiths, their sources are doubtful. I have no doubt that the companions of the Prophet may Allah Almighty bless their souls did not intentionally commit forgery or lies. But for one such as Abu Huraira to narrate thousands upon thousands of hadiths is preposterous! Given the complexity and sensitivity of the Arabic language, it is extremely vital that every word be included in the narration. I find it impossible to believe that Abu Huraira and many others like him were able to narrate everything perfectly in its original text.
That is why I accept the hadiths that are linked to the Noble Quran as the Truth and reject the others.
Also, there is no proof what so ever that all of the accepted hadiths of today were all written during the Prophet's time. Some or even many of them were probably written down from individuals for personal use, but the thousands of hadiths (I was told close to 2 million hadiths!!) that exist today were not possibly all written during the Prophet's time.
I only accept the hadiths that have a direct relationship to the Noble Quran, such as explaining how to Pray, fast, etc....
Example about my own name to simplify things:
Take "Osama" for example. First of all, Osama in Arabic is written as "Osamat" with the "t" silent. The "t" however is not always silent, and it can be used to give meanings and intentions to the name "Osama". Osama can be written as "Osamatun", "Osamatan", "Osamatin", "Osamata",
"Osamati", "Osamato". The punctuations added to the "t" cause for any of these names to be pronounced.
When writing positively about "Osama", such as "Osama bin Zaid", the leader who defeated the Romans in one of the battles, these punctuations are added to his name for praising. Unfortunately, I am not an expert in Arabic, nor can I explain in deep details about proper Arabic, but I know that use of punctuations IMPROPERLY can result in insulting the individual. I can write negatively about a name using punctuations in their proper places.
THE REASON WHY THE NOBLE QURAN IS SO PERFECT IS BECAUSE its grammar was constructed in a very complex way, and the Arabic words were not only original words, but were put together uniquely in an excellent artistic fashion that no Arabic poet could match up to back then when Allah Almighty challenged the Arabs to come up with a "SURAH LIKE IT".
To the reader, please visit: What parts of the Bible and Hadiths do Muslims believe are closest to the Truth, and Why?
