"As Ibn al-Salah, the most famous scholar of hadith criticism in the later period, explained, **at most one hadith would meet the requirements for mutawatir** ('Whoever lies about me intentially, let him prepare for himself a seta in hellfire'). No hadiths could actually be described as being narrated by a large number of narrators at ever stage of their transmission. In fact, when Mutazilites had insisted that hadiths be transmitted by a mere two people at every stage, the Sunni Ibn Hibban had accused them of trying to destroy the Sunnah of the Prophet in its entirety" <- basically showing that very few hadith actually have two people at each isnad level reporting same. pp 105-106
"The final means by which hadiths achieved exaggerated authority in the Late Sunni Tradition was the **exploitation of the concept of mutawatir** reports ... Although scholars like Ibn al-Salah had declard that **no such hadith existed in actuality**, al-Suyuti composed a collection ... in which he included 111 hadiths he declared mutawatir because ten or more companions had narrated it from the Prophet. But a mutawatir hadith had to have such a number of isnads at every level of transmission, and not all the chains of transmission that al-Suyuti used as evidence were reliable to begin with. **Because the concept of mutawatir was so ambiguous, later critics frequently abused the label to argue for the undeniable authenticity of a hadith** they were citing. Although earlier scholars had agreed that the hadith **My community will not agree on an error** lacked any fully sahih isnads, Abdullah al-Ghumari claimed that it was mutawatir ... How do we explain seemingly deceptive tactics like the exploitation of weak hadiths by late Sunni scholars?" pp 109
Both from the section on methods and history of hadith criticism from the book Hadith, Muhammad's Legacy in the Medieval and Modern World. Highly recommended reading to understand the actual standing of hadith literature as opposed to what you might have heard. Thank God for western academics like Dr. Brown for contextualizing islamic theological heritage and bringing it to english speaking audience.
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from Islam https://ift.tt/2LIE35R
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