Research Paper Analysis of Credibility of Hadiths and Its Influence ...

Section II
Literature Review
There has been much discussion made regarding the credibility of the hadiths. In
general, the word sunnah means habit, practice, customary procedure, or action, norm
and usage sanctioned by tradition. To be precise, any time the word sunnah is mentioned,
it refers to Prophet Muhammad (Islamic Glossary Home, 2010). Here it means his
sayings, practices and endorsements (Hameed, 2006). According to contemporary
Muslims, all the sayings, sermons, and utterances of the Prophet were divinely inspired
(Kazi, 1991).
Hadith, Hameed (2006) notes, “explains, clarifies, and paraphrases the Quran”.
Rejecting the hadith may result in misinterpreting the Quran altogether. So Hameed
(2006) believes that hadith is integral to a proper understanding of the Quran.
Deen (2007) noted that after the Prophet‟s death, the new rightly guided rulers of
the Islamic Empire required much guidance for the new situations that kept arising. Deen
(2007), however, also noted that in some cases, the rulers of the Empire deviated from the
way of the Prophet to attain a greater good, acknowledging the fact that as times changed,
so did the laws and judgments.
In his famous Muhammedanische Studien, one of the first Western men to
research on the hadiths, Ignaz Goldziher (1890) noted that hadiths dealt with more about
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