English Translation of Seminal Islamic Texts

 The Muslim ummah has accomplished an unparalleled work. The great muḥaddithūn have, even in the early period of Islamic history, to all possible human extent, strove to safeguard the prophetic knowledge, sifted and separated it from the weeds of fabrication. They stored it in reliable compilations. This proves that the ḥadīth compilation was done under the firm principles set by the experts in the science. It was accomplished between the middle of the second century Hijrah to the middle of the third. This period can be called the prime youth of ḥadīth compilation. It was during this period that the treasure of prophetic ḥadīth was recorded in the books. The appearance of the books and written record marks the end of the oral tradition. The books compiled during this period earned acceptance and fame both among common people as well as scholars. It is a known fact that during the period of oral transmission and narration of the prophetic ḥadīth , the practice of fabricati...

The Muslim ummah , in its entire history, has faced many kinds of assaults by enemies of Islam. However, the ḥadīth fabrication presented the most severe and unique challenge. The enemies of Islam, in the early phase of Islamic history, decided to damage the authenticity of the unparalleled and unexampled treasure of the prophetic knowledge, if not destroy it altogether. Their efforts, however, were thwarted by the efforts of imāms of the science of ḥadīth criticism. May Almighty bless the souls of those imāms who defended the treasure of prophetic knowledge! They exerted their full efforts in sifting the true knowledge from fabrications. They pointed out the loopholes through which the weak aḥādīth were mixed with the sound ones. The intensity of fabrications can be imagined by considering the fact that only a few thousand narratives could pass the test of a set criterion for the sound aḥādīth from hundreds of thousands of traditions. This renders it important for us to disc...