{"id":88141,"date":"2020-09-17T00:16:21","date_gmt":"2020-09-17T06:16:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=88141"},"modified":"2020-09-17T00:28:47","modified_gmt":"2020-09-17T06:28:47","slug":"revision-5-4-islamic-law-c","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2020\/09\/revision-5-4-islamic-law-c.html","title":{"rendered":"Revision 5.4 \u201cIslamic Law\u201d (C)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Selimiye<\/a>
The Selimiye Mosque, in Edirne, Turkey, which was designed by the great Mimar Sinan
(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Actually, what I have been saying is an oversimplification. It was only gradually that the chain of transmitters, known in Arabic as an isnad, <\/em>became a required part of a hadith <\/em>report. For approxi\u00admately the first century after the death of the Prophet, no special care was taken in the transmission of traditions about him. Perhaps the Muslims could not imagine anybody willing to lie or to forge in the name of religion. If so, they were naive, for the period saw thou\u00adsands of forged traditions emerge, supporting this or that religious or political faction against its rivals. There were, in fact, powerful reasons to want various religious and political and judicial ques\u00adtions to be resolved in one\u2019s own interest, and some unscrupulous people were quite willing to put words into the Prophet\u2019s mouth to make sure that such would be the case.[1]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Serious students saw the need for some control, some method of sorting out the hadith <\/em>reports and separating the authentic from the spurious and self-interested. They required each narrator to state his source, preferably back to the time of the Prophet. Gradu\u00adally, a \u201cscience\u201d of hadith <\/em>criticism emerged in the second and third centuries after Muhammad. This criticism was undertaken espe\u00adcially by those concerned with law, who had an obvious interest in making certain that the legal precedents upon which they based their decisions were accurately reported.<\/span><\/p>\n

The first need was for biographies of the people who showed up prominently in the various traditions and in the lists of those who transmitted them. Thus, there is a rich body of biographical works on the Prophet himself, on his companions, and on each generation thereafter. Beyond sheer interest in the lives of important people, there was generally a very practical goal in this study, and that goal was to check the trustworthiness of each transmitter. Looking back at the sample hadith <\/em>quoted above [in a previous blog entry], scholars of the subject would want to know whether Abdullah ibn Yusuf and al-Layth actually lived at the proper time and place. Could they really have met? If it could be demonstrated that Abdullah spent his entire life in Spain, while al-Layth never left Iraq, that would be sufficient reason to reject the report. Or perhaps Abu al-Khayr, the transmitter who sup\u00adposedly heard the report from a man named Uqba ibn Amir, was born after Uqba\u2019s death, or was only eighteen months old when Uqba passed away. In either case, obviously, Abu al-Khayr could hardly have heard and passed on a report from Uqba, and the tradi\u00adtion would, again, have to be ruled out as a probable fraud. (Such things were occasionally discovered in isnads<\/em> that, on the surface, looked perfectly plausible.) Was Yazid a reliable transmitter? Did he have a reputation as an honest man? Did he have any particular rea\u00adson for passing on a tradition that condemned the wearing of silk? (Was he, perhaps, a cotton merchant?) In the consideration of many hadith <\/em>reports, the question of the transmitters\u2019 religious commit\u00adments had to be taken into account. Were they heretics? Were they zealously partisan Shiites? Did they have a particular theological axe to grind?<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a>\u00a0In the 1980s, many Latter-day Saint historians accepted Mark Hoffman\u2019s forgeries for similar rea\u00adsons. It had never entered their minds that anyone would want to create fraudulent Mormon historical texts.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 Actually, what I have been saying is an oversimplification. It was only gradually that the chain of transmitters, known in Arabic as an isnad, became a required part of a hadith report. For approxi\u00admately the first century after the death of the Prophet, no special care was taken in the transmission of traditions […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[195,7539,198,16466,16469,99,66,2950,105,183,3397,2631,8394,189,186,192,1769,1637,82,87,90,102,150,16478,16118,16475],"class_list":["post-88141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-arab","tag-arabia","tag-arabic","tag-bida","tag-bidah","tag-hadith","tag-islam","tag-islamic","tag-isnad","tag-koran","tag-language","tag-law","tag-mohammad","tag-mohammed","tag-muhammad","tag-muhammed","tag-muslim","tag-prophet","tag-quran","tag-sharia","tag-shariah","tag-sunna","tag-sunnah","tag-tradents","tag-transmission","tag-transmitters"],"yoast_head":"\nRevision 5.4 \u201cIslamic Law\u201d (C)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"    Actually, what I have been saying is an oversimplification. It was only gradually that the chain of transmitters, known in Arabic as an\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2020\/09\/revision-5-4-islamic-law-c.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Revision 5.4 \u201cIslamic Law\u201d (C)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"    Actually, what I have been saying is an oversimplification. It was only gradually that the chain of transmitters, known in Arabic as an\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2020\/09\/revision-5-4-islamic-law-c.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sic et Non\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-09-17T06:16:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-09-17T06:28:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2017\/01\/Edirne_7333_Nevit.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dan Peterson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dan Peterson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2020\/09\/revision-5-4-islamic-law-c.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2020\/09\/revision-5-4-islamic-law-c.html\",\"name\":\"Revision 5.4 \u201cIslamic Law\u201d (C)\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2020-09-17T06:16:21+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-09-17T06:28:47+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045\"},\"description\":\"    Actually, what I have been saying is an oversimplification. It was only gradually that the chain of transmitters, known in Arabic as an\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2020\/09\/revision-5-4-islamic-law-c.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2020\/09\/revision-5-4-islamic-law-c.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2020\/09\/revision-5-4-islamic-law-c.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Revision 5.4 \u201cIslamic Law\u201d (C)\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/\",\"name\":\"Sic et Non\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045\",\"name\":\"Dan Peterson\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ed1a72d26805e35a503e3167599df7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ed1a72d26805e35a503e3167599df7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Dan Peterson\"},\"description\":\"\\\"Life was very unsatisfying until I discovered Dan's blog, which gave me a reason to live.\\\" (gemli, 7 November 2019)\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/author\/danpeterson\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Revision 5.4 \u201cIslamic Law\u201d (C)","description":"    Actually, what I have been saying is an oversimplification. It was only gradually that the chain of transmitters, known in Arabic as an","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2020\/09\/revision-5-4-islamic-law-c.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Revision 5.4 \u201cIslamic Law\u201d (C)","og_description":"    Actually, what I have been saying is an oversimplification. It was only gradually that the chain of transmitters, known in Arabic as an","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2020\/09\/revision-5-4-islamic-law-c.html","og_site_name":"Sic et Non","article_published_time":"2020-09-17T06:16:21+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-09-17T06:28:47+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2017\/01\/Edirne_7333_Nevit.jpg"}],"author":"Dan Peterson","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Dan Peterson","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2020\/09\/revision-5-4-islamic-law-c.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2020\/09\/revision-5-4-islamic-law-c.html","name":"Revision 5.4 \u201cIslamic Law\u201d (C)","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website"},"datePublished":"2020-09-17T06:16:21+00:00","dateModified":"2020-09-17T06:28:47+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045"},"description":"    Actually, what I have been saying is an oversimplification. It was only gradually that the chain of transmitters, known in Arabic as an","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2020\/09\/revision-5-4-islamic-law-c.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2020\/09\/revision-5-4-islamic-law-c.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2020\/09\/revision-5-4-islamic-law-c.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Revision 5.4 \u201cIslamic Law\u201d (C)"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/","name":"Sic et Non","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045","name":"Dan Peterson","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ed1a72d26805e35a503e3167599df7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ed1a72d26805e35a503e3167599df7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Dan Peterson"},"description":"\"Life was very unsatisfying until I discovered Dan's blog, which gave me a reason to live.\" (gemli, 7 November 2019)","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/author\/danpeterson"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1019"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88141"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88141\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}