“Why, I was just in Philadelphia and there’s a young imam there who’s told his entire community that it’s okay for guys and girls to shake hands with each other! Can you believe it?” My good friend gestured dismissively in the air as if condemning the imam and his fatwa from afar. Having emigrated from Pakistan just weeks before, he was complaining that Muslim scholars in the United States adapted their fatwas to the fickle opinions of the Muslim American public instead of representing authentic Islam. When I responded to say that the imam’s point of view could very well be valid, he replied, “But what about that sahih hadith that says that it’s better to be stabbed in the head rather than shake hands!”

I certainly see his point. There is a hadith collected by al-Tabaraani, which quotes the Prophet, peace be upon him, as saying:

“For one of you to be stabbed in the head with an iron needle is better for him than that he should touch a woman who is not permissible for him.” (al-Kabeer)

And as my friend points out, the chain of narrators of this hadith has been considered by Shaykh al-Albaani, among other scholars, to be sahih. But then, what is wrong with the imam in Philadelphia? Does he not know about this report? Is he overruling the very command of Prophet (peace be upon him)? Is he, God forbid, a deviant?

These questions not only apply to this imam, but also generalize to other situations. I can’t count the number of times that I’ve heard “but what about that sahih hadith…” used to criticize scholars, dismiss some fatwas in favor of others, and even undermine entire methodologies of Islamic thought. Thus, I don’t want to limit the discussion to this particular issue. Instead, I want to share some thoughts on why it may be problematic to take a sahih hadith to be the end of the discussion when deducing or dismissing a legal opinion.

What’s in a Hadith?

Before discussing the potential constraints of a hadith, it is worth discussing the term itself. As classically defined, a hadith is (1) a quote of what the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, said, (2) a description of his action or appearance, or (3) a description of one of his follower’s actions of which he tacitly approved. Thus, a hadith can include any word the Prophet ever said, regarding the sacred or the mundane, whether it be spoken in private or as part of a public speech.

Hadiths are used extensively by scholars to inform legal opinions [fatwas], but unlike the Quran, they are not believed to be fully or divinely preserved, allowing for varying degrees of authenticity for each report, based on the reputations of people who narrated it. Some of the most authentic [sahih] reports are found in a pair of books, Sahih Bukhari and Sahih Muslim, and it these hadiths that are most commonly used to derive Islamic rulings.

However, despite centuries of work by Islam’s most renowned scholars in analyzing and verifying them, hadith reports are characterized by certain fundamental limitations. Here, I briefly propose 5 things to think about before rushing to a conclusion based on a hadith, no matter how sahih.

1. The Prophet May Have Been Misquoted

Consider the hadith found in Sahih Bukhari from multiple transmitters that places the following words in the mouth of the Prophet:

“Bad luck can be found in houses, women, and horses.” (Sahih Bukhari)

It seems that the hadith was controversial even at the time of the Companions, for we have a report attributed to Aisha, may Allah be pleased with her:

Two men from Banu Aamir came to Aisha and told her that Abu Huraira narrates that the Prophet said: ‘Bad omen is in a house, a woman and a horse.’ She was enraged, full of anger and said; ‘By the One who revealed the Qur’an to Muhammad, Allah’s Messenger did not say that; what he actually said was that in the days of ignorance, people used to take bad omen in these things.’ (Musnad Ahmad)

Many scholars also believe this account to be sahih and conclude from this report that, if Aisha is correct, these transmitters only heard part of the Prophet’s statement, and not the whole thing, and consequently turned the hadith on its head! A reader of hadiths would do well to keep in mind that even if its narrators are well-intentioned, a hadith that reaches us may not perfectly capture the words of the Prophet, as distortions may arise through accidents of hearing or through the imperfect memories of its all-too-human narrators.

2. The Prophet May Have Revoked the Hadith

There is no doubt that, despite the arduous and admirable efforts of early scholars in preserving the vast goldmine of reports attributed to the Prophet, the hadith collections are not exhaustive. That is, they certainly do not contain every single statement uttered by the Prophet, peace be upon him.

The lack of completeness poses a problem in carelessly quoting hadith, because there are instances in which one commandment by the Prophet is later taken back and replaced with another. One of the clearest examples is in the Prophet’s own words:

“I used to forbid you to visit graves, but now visit them.” (Sahih Muslim)

There is always the possibility that a command issued by the Prophet was abrogated (this could have happened for a myriad of reasons) and thus the hadith that we happen to have in front of us no longer applies; it has been replaced by another hadith which we may or may not have in any of the sahih compilations.

In another example, Abu Hurairah, may Allah be pleased with him, believed that he heard the Prophet say that those Muslims who were in a state of impurity at dawn during Ramadan should not fast that day (and he even transmitted this hadith to many Muslims), only to be later corrected by Aisha, may Allah be pleased with her, that this rule was abrogated and not practiced by the Prophet himself. The incident is found in Sahih Muslim.

We are fortunate to know of several instances of hadith abrogation. Unfortunately, however, we cannot claim to know all — in theory, any hadith that concerns a commandment or a prohibition, no matter how sahih, may have been abrogated by a hadith that was issued later, but never written down.

3. The Hadith May Not Be Intended For Our Time and Place

Many scholars hold that the hadiths should be taken as embodiments of general Quranic principles in the context of a specific place, time, and culture, 7th century Arabia. For example, consider the following hadith:

“Whatever of the izaar [lower garment for men] is below the ankles is in the Fire.” (Sahih Bukhari)

Taking this hadith literally and applying it to clothing today would mean that someone who wears jeans that extend to his sneakers is damned to Hell! However, other hadiths clarify the context of this statement, suggesting that it is not meant to apply in every situation:

When the Prophet said: “Whoever trails his garment on the ground out of pride, Allaah will not look at him on the Day of Resurrection,” Abu Bakr said to him, “O Messenger of Allaah, my izaar [lower garment for men] slips down if I do not pay attention to it.” He said: “You are not one of those who do it out of pride.” (Sahih Bukhari)

In the Western world, long pants are not symbols of pride and acting on this hadith literally and cuffing pants above one’s ankles defies both common sense and Islamic reasoning. (On the other hand, one could argue that the hadith discourages sporting luxury watches and designer handbags, which have become the modern-day symbols of pride and vanity.)

Just as some prohibitions issued by the Prophet to his followers should not be applied verbatim, some of his habits do not need to be imitated to the letter. For example, the prophet commonly performed miswak using the araak twig. This is probably not because of the special value of this twig, but because this was the standard way of cleaning one’s mouth in 7th century Arabia. Following the Prophetic emphasis on cleanliness today should lead us not to the miswak, but to the most hygienic practices available to us today: toothpaste, mouthwash, and regular dental appointments!

Many practices that are derived from the hadiths, such as performing miswak using twigs or restricting how long women can travel alone, clearly reflect the norms of ancient times. These and other prophetic practices should be recontextualized to provide guidance for Muslims living today.

Similarly, it is important to consider whether the hadith could have been issued in a very specific situation. In both Sahih Bukhari and Sahih Muslim, there are hadiths in which the Prophet discourages drinking while standing. Perhaps the most severe hadith is the following:

“No person should stand and drink water, and if one forgetfully stands and drinks water, it should be vomited out.” (Sahih Muslim)

At the same time, however, we find numerous reports of the Prophet drinking water while standing, such as this report:

Ali drank while standing then he said: “Some people say it is makrooh [disliked by God] for one of you to drink while standing, but I saw the Prophet doing what you have seen me do.” (Sahih Bukhari)

Short of an abrogation, the best way to reconcile these hadiths is to suggest that the command to sit applies in a very specific situation while more generally, drinking while standing is allowed. I should note that there are scholars who synthesize these hadiths in other ways, such as by saying that drinking while sitting is preferred but not required, and drinking while standing is disliked. But upon closer examination, that seems to contradict both of the hadiths mentioned above, which are both very stark in their respective positions.

It is therefore clear that many hadiths, which were primarily intended for the immediate followers of the Prophet, are time- and context-dependent. While there is certainly wisdom in these hadiths, it is unwise to assume that they should be applied cut-and-paste more than a millennium later.

4. It May Be the Prophet’s Own Thoughts and Opinions

Not every command of the Prophet is grounds for Islamic legislation. There is a story found in Sahih Muslim, which makes this abundantly clear:

God’s Messenger came to Madinah and found the people grafting trees. He said: “What are you doing?” They said: “It has been our practice to do this,” whereupon he said: “Perhaps if you do not do that, it may be better for you.” So they abandoned this practice and this reduced their yield. They mentioned it to the Holy Prophet, whereupon he said: “I am a human being, so when I command you about a thing pertaining to religion, do accept it, and when I command you about a thing out of my personal opinion, keep it in mind that I am a human being.” (Sahih Muslim)

In another version of this hadith in Sahih Muslim, the phrase “Perhaps if you do not do that, it may be better for you.” is substituted by the stronger wording, “If you did not do it, it would be good.” The Prophet’s remark to keep an open mind regarding technical matters advises Muslims not to uncritically adhere to hadiths that concern matters tangential to religion and are better answered through scientific inquiry, such as medical prescriptions, choices for food and drink, grooming, and sleeping habits.

It is worth noting that the Prophet’s companions themselves distinguished the Prophet’s human thoughts and preferences from his religious instructions:

Khalid ibn al-Waleed reported that some grilled lizard meat was brought to the Prophet and put in front of him. He stretched out his hand to take some, but one of the people present said, ‘O Messenger of Allah, it is lizard meat,’ so he pulled his hand back. Khalid ibn al-Waleed asked, ‘O Messenger of Allah, is lizard haram?’ He said, ‘No, but it is not known among my people and I cannot face eating it.’ So Khalid took some of the lizard meat and ate it, whilst the Messenger of Allah looked on. (Sahih Bukhari)

There may or may not be righteousness in imitating the Prophet’s personal preferences, but it is clear from the above hadith that not all Companions felt the need to do so.

5. The Prophet May Have Said Nothing Like It

In the minds of many Muslims, a hadith having a sahih chain of transmitters leaves no doubt that it was said by the Prophet, or that at least some version of it was said by the Prophet. I hope that the above discussion has convinced you that we should nevertheless be cautious in acting upon the literal meaning of an authentic hadith without further investigation.

But as it turns out, even hadith that have been verified as sahih are fallible, as should not be a surprise, as any verification scheme devised by imperfect human minds will likely be imperfect. One example should suffice to prove this general fact.

Abu Hurairah said: “The Messenger of Allah took my hand and said: ‘Allah created the earth on Saturday, and over it He created the mountains on Sunday. He created the trees on Monday, He created things entailing labor on Tuesday, He created light on Wednesday, He scattered the animals in it on Thursday, and He created Adam, peace be upon him, after ‘Asr on Friday, the last of creation in the last hour of Friday, between ‘Asr and nightfall.” (Sahih Muslim)

Besides the fact that this hadith seems to wholly contradict our empirical understanding of the physical world, it also differs from the story of creation mentioned in the Quran. The hadith mentions the creation of the earth in seven days of the week, while creation of the heavens and earth, as mentioned in the Quran, occurs over six days/periods (7:54).

It was to protect the sanctity of the hadith that the Prophet himself as well as the early caliphs discouraged people from writing down and freely narrating statements of the Prophet. Given the risk of inauthenticity, classical scholars in our tradition used to treat even sahih hadiths with care. While they deemed sahih hadiths a suitable basis for legislative opinions, they did not consider them robust and certain enough for matters of core beliefs — with the exception of the handful of hadith transmitted by large numbers of independent narrators (termed mutawatir). Very telling, one of these few mutawatir hadiths is the following statement from the Prophet:

“Do not attribute lies to me, for anyone who attributes lies to me will be doomed to Hellfire.” (Sahih Muslim)

Final Remarks

There are many reasons to be cautious when using a hadith to make decisions about the will of God. The hadith may not be authentic or perfectly collected, even if some scholars deem it sahih — neither they, nor any of the narrators, are free from error. The hadith may not be meant for us, either because it was meant for a specific time or a specific circumstance. It may have been revoked by later hadith, or it may only reflect the Prophet’s human, fallible thoughts and preferences. The possibilities for distortion, poor interpretation, and poor application are many.

It follows that issuing and rejecting fatwas on the sole basis of hadiths can be a very dangerous activity, even when performed by knowledgeable scholars. While the hadiths provide us unparalleled insight into the early history of Islam, and are thus invaluable to all Muslims, extreme deliberation must accompany any attempt when relying on hadith in matters concerning Islamic law.

I ask Allah for my guidance, your guidance, and the guidance of the Muslim community. Ameen.