Top ten reasons

why Muslims should turn to the Quran

God has revealed a perfect book, the Quran, to Prophet Muhammad over 1400 years ago, to set the religion of Islam (Submission) straight once in for all. God calls it the Final Testament to humanity. It is a complete and fully detailed book, and is only one volume. But then came hadith books, volumes and volumes of them, the sources other than the Quran, which eventually transformed the religion of Islam into what we know today. These sources derailed the beautiful religion of God from its right tracks. It is time for true, caring Muslims to reclaim Islam, and bring it back to its origin of intention—Submission to the will of God. They can do so by being informed about hadiths and their significance.

What does the word Hadith mean? If you go to any traditional Muslim source or web site, you may find the following explanation for hadith:

Hadith literally means a saying. But when used as a term in the religion of Islam, a hadith means a report of what the Prophet Muhammad said or did on a certain occasion. His sayings are found in books called the Hadith books. Some famous collectors of Hadith are Bukhari, Sahih Muslim, Abu Dawood and Tirmizi. There are several others.

What is missing from these explanations is the fact that the collection of Hadith did not begin until 200 years after Muhammad’s death! According to some estimates there were over two million hadiths

floating around when these hadith collectors were in business. For example, it is claimed that Bukhari has compiled 6000-7000 hadiths from among some 600 thousand he had heard! Other collectors did the same thing.

Why should Muslims be at the mercy of Bukhari and his counterparts, and their skill of selection of these hadiths when they reportedly discarded 99% of hadith they encountered? Even with all their screening, there is plenty of nonsense in them. Should we take all these hadiths now, assuming they are genuine? How good was their screening? Since all Muslims scholars agree that there are still bad hadiths out there, what should be our criteria to see if a hadith is true or false?

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