robert spencer-did muhammad exist__ an inquiry into islams obscure origins-intercollegiate studies institute (2012) (1)

Riddled with Contradictions
The consequence of all this was inevitable: utter confusion. Since warring parties were all fabricating
hadiths that supported their positions, the Hadith are riddled with contradictions. Many of these, but by no
means all of them, revolve around differences in Islamic ritual practice, probably reflecting regional
variations. For example, among the hadiths compiled by the renowned ninth-century imam Muhammad Ibn
Ismail al-Bukhari is one recording that, according to Ibn Abbas, “the Prophet performed ablution by
washing the body parts only once.” 38 But Bukhari reports that another companion of Muhammad,
Abdullah bin Zaid, said that “the Prophet performed ablution by washing the body parts twice.” 39 And yet
another hadith collected by Bukhari has Muhammad praising Uthman for performing the ablutions not once
or twice but thrice, saying that if he does it that way while avoiding distractions, “his past sins will be
forgiven.” 40 Bukhari puts these three hadiths together without comment or attempt at harmonization.
In a hadith recorded by another ninth-century imam, Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj al-Qushayri, we are told that
Muhammad “disapproved the drinking of water while standing.” 41 Yet Muslim also reports that when Ibn
Abbas gave Muhammad some sacred water from the well of Zamzam in Mecca, Muhammad—whose
conduct is always exemplary for Muslims—“drank it while standing.” 42
Contemporary Islamic apologists point to a hadith in which Muhammad “forbade the killing of women
and children” as evidence of the humaneness, unusual for its time, of Islam's rules of warfare. 43
Immediately following that prohibition, however, Muslim includes another hadith in which Muhammad,
“when asked about the women and children of the polytheists being killed during the night raid, said: They
are from them.” 44 In other words, the children of the polytheists are from the polytheists and deserve to
share their fate.
Other contradictions involve details of Muhammad's own life, the Islamic eschatological scheme, and
more. Consequently, the ninth-century scholar Asim an-Nabil (d. 827) threw up his hands in despair: “I
have come to the conclusion that a pious man is never so ready to lie as in matters of the hadith.” 45
Collecting and Codifying the Hadith
Islamic authorities realized that some effort had to be made to bring order out of all this chaos. In the
latter part of the eighth century, the Abbasids initiated the collection and codification of the Hadith. By
doing so, they exponentially expanded specific knowledge about what the prophet of Islam had
commanded and condemned, approved and disapproved. The poet Marwan ibn Abi Hafsa accordingly
exulted about the Abbasid caliph Muhammad ibn Mansur al-Mahdi (775–785): “The amir al-mu'minin
[commander of the believers] Muhammad has revived the sunna of the Prophet with regard to what is
permitted, what forbidden.” 46
This great effort came to full fruition in the next century, with the appearance of the six most important
Hadith collections, none of which date from earlier than two centuries after Muhammad's death. Together