The Canonization of Ibn Mâjah: Authenticity vs. Utility in the Formation of the Sunni Ḥadîth Cano
Summary: In Sunni Islam, the canonical ‘Six Books’ of hadith derive their authority as doctrinal references from scholarly consensus on their...
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IS THE DEVIL IN THE DETAILS? Tension Between Minimalism and Comprehensiveness in the Shariah
Summary: The comprehensiveness of Islamic law has been questioned seriously in the modern period by Muslim reformists like Rashīd Riḍā . Such reformists have...
Did the Prophet Say It or Not? The Literal, Historical, and Effective Truth of Hadīths in Early Sunnism
Summary The article contends that ahl-al-hadīth did not view the historical reliability of hadīths through the epistemological lens of later Sunni legal...
Critical Rigor vs. Juridical Pragmatism
Summary Modern scholarship has accepted the ‘backgrowth of isnāds’ in the early ḥadīth tradition, but this phenomenon did not occur without controversy among...
The Last Days of al-Ghazzālī and the Tripartite Division of the Sufi World
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How We Know Early Ḥadīth Critics Did Matn Criticism and Why It’s So Hard to Find
Summary Western scholars generally agree that early ḥadīth critics limited their authentication of ḥadīths to examining isnāds. The argument that...
New Data on the Delateralization of Ḍād and its Merger with Żā’ in Classical Arabic
Summary The history of the phoneme ḍād and its merger with the phoneme żā’ has proven enigmatic. By presenting data from Old South Arabian speech...
Criticism of the Proto-Hadīth Canon: al-Dāraquṭnī’s Adjustment of the Ṣaḥīḥayn
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