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Many Muslims defend Islam by reasoning that a particular Hadith is weak and therefore not authentic when an obvious flaw is pointed in the Hadith. Example1 and Example2

In this question, the OP asks and then answers himself saying that the Hadeeth is not authentic because it is not in line with the teaching of Qur'an.

What are the criteria for a Hadith to be considered not authentic?

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  • @TamerShlash: Criteria is plural not singular.
    – Noah
    Mar 16, 2013 at 17:02

1 Answer 1

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The main criteria for a hadith to be strongly authentic (Saheeh) is:

  1. Itisal Assanad, that a narrator narrates from his sheikh/teacher/the person being narrated from and has been in his time and has met him, even if he had met him once

  2. That the Narrator be righteous and pious, and Adala (العدالة) has it's requirements

  3. That the Narrators be perfect in accurateness, both accurate in memory or in writing, or both if the level of perfectness of a narrators accurateness lowers, then the Hadith would become Hasan

  4. That there is no Shudhudh (شذوذ), meaning that a trustworthy narrator does not contradict those who are more trustworthy then him

  5. That there is no deficiency (علة) that would make the Hadith rejected, meaning thee narration must be free from (العلة القادحة) and there are types of Ilal (علل).

Those narrators who are not righteous then their narration would fall under Mawdoo' or Matrook. Those narrations which have a (علة قادحة) the authenticity will change. Those Ahdeeth which do not meet the above are not narrations which are Saheeh, and the ruling on it's authenticity will be ruled accordingly.

For further information, see this (Arabic).

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  • Can a person be a true Muslim and yet consider all of the Ahdeeth to be spurious?
    – Ruminator
    Jul 24, 2016 at 15:35
  • That really depends as there are so many contexts, but in short, the answer is no, they have to accept the authentic Ahadeeth as they are the containers for the relation after the Quran (Quran and Sunnah are both revelation that must be acceped).
    – مجاهد
    Jul 27, 2016 at 15:20
  • Thank you. And where is that requirement established? Is it written in the Quran?
    – Ruminator
    Jul 27, 2016 at 15:53
  • There are many places in the Quran which mention this. Actually, to be more accurate, it orders to follow the sunnah, and the only way we get the sunnah is through Hadith, so in a way, yes, it is mentioned the Quran. The main places that order this is where Allah says to obey Allah and his messenger (4:59). There is far more to it than that, but it may be best if you ask a question here
    – مجاهد
    Jul 27, 2016 at 23:23
  • So who decides which to obey?
    – Ruminator
    Jul 27, 2016 at 23:46

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