The objective hadith: a theoretical and applied study

Prepared by Dr. Mohamed Sayed Shahat Introduction Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and the final success is for the righteous. I bear witness that there is no deity but Allah, and I bear witness that our Prophet Muhammad is His servant and Messenger. To proceed: whoever opens their eyes to the lights of the Prophetic Sunnah sees that it has not left anything unmentioned. And the one who looks into its texts realizes that it has addressed issues related to permissible matters concerning people's lives, and that it is the reason for the salvation of the nation from deviation and its protection from fitan (trials and tribulations). Has the news of His saying, peace be upon him, reached you: "I have left among you that which, if you hold fast to it, you will never go astray: the Book of Allah and my Sunnah"? There is no topic of the modern era except that the Sunnah has a role in clarifying it. If it is good, it consolidates and strengthens it; if it is evil, it clarifies and warns against it or addresses it. There is no disease except that the Sunnah has a methodology for its treatment. The writings of scholars, old and new, stand as witnesses to the role of the Prophetic Sunnah in addressing societal and individual problems and in establishing virtues and morals. Furthermore, the observer sees that the topics of the Prophetic Sunnah have evolved and come to meet the needs of the era, aligning with people's realities. Every era has its requirements in writing, and as they say: "Necessity is the mother of invention." Similarly, writing should keep pace with the needs of the age. In the era of the predecessors, the need was for collection, which was done according to a precise methodology during the era of the just Caliph Omar ibn Abdul Aziz, by his order. Then came the stage of needing to organize what was collected, so scholars of Sunnah focused on arrangement either according to jurisprudential topics or based on the musnad (collections of hadith organized by narrators), and compiled works. Later, there arose a need for explanation, clarification of obscure terms, and refutation of doubts, leading to works that explain, respond, refute, and disprove. Thus, the scholars inherited from their predecessors, built upon, and added to their works. The writings became interconnected and harmonious, like a chain of gold, feeling as if each book was written in every era, with each new dawn planting new seeds in the sciences of knowledge. In the last century, there was a noticeable interest in fabricated (mawdu') hadith, which emerged due to the needs of the people of that time. It is a science that addresses societal diseases and reinforces values and morals. The importance of fabricated hadith appears through revealing the accuracy of deduction and linking the Sunnah to people's realities. The methods of research vary according to the requirements of the era, and the research path may differ from previous approaches based on new developments. Universities and research centers have paid attention to this aspect, and conferences and seminars are held under titles related to the subject of fabricated hadith. This book is one of the building blocks of writing about fabricated hadith, in which I have relied on a group of predecessors in this field. I do not claim perfection; rather, I ask Allah to benefit from it, its author, and every reader. Prepared by Dr. Mohamed Sayed Shahat