HADITH

Is Studying Hadith From Al-Bukhari And Muslim on Your Own Advised?

Any Muslim can benefit from reading hadiths from al-Bukhari and Muslim, whether on his own or with others. As for studying hadith, Sheikh Shuayb al-Arnaut, with whom my wife and I are currently reading Imam al-Suyuti's Tadrib al-rawi [The training of the hadith narrator], emphasizes that the science of hadith deals with a vast and complex literature, a tremendous sea of information that requires a pilot to help one navigate, without which one is bound to run up on the rocks. In this context, Sheikh Shuayb once told us, "Whoever doesn't have a sheikh, the Devil is his sheikh, in any Islamic discipline."

LONE-NARRATOR REPORTS

The lone-narrator report (khabar al-wâhid) lexically means something narrated by only one person, and in hadith nomenclature, any report that does not reach the conditions of mass narration (tawâtur), whether narrated by one, two, or more narrators.1

Validity of weak hadith

Shaykh al-Islam Abu Zakariyya al-Nawawi (rah.) said in the 'Adhkar':
"The ulama among the experts in hadith and the experts in law and others have said: it is permissible and (also) recommended that the religious practice (al-`amal) concerning good deeds and good character (al-fada'il), encouragement to good and discouragement from evil (al-targhib wa al-tarhib) be based (even) on weak hadith (bi al-hadith al- da`eef) as long as it is not forged (mawdu`).
As for legal rulings (ahkam) such as what is permitted and what is forbidden, or the modalities of trade, marriage, divorce and other than that: one's practice is not based upon anything other than sound (sahih) or fair (hasan) hadith, except as a precaution in some matter related to one of the above, for example, if a weak hadith was cited about the reprehensibility (karahat) of certain kinds of sales or marriages. In such cases what is recommended (al-mustahabb) is to avoid such sales and marriages, but it is not obligatory (la yajib)."

Various Issues About Hadiths

Compilation of Quran and Hadith
When the Prophet died, only the Quran was compiled at AbuBakr's time, then unified and canonized in Othman's time. The sayings of Mohammed were not written down.
This is not true. Several hadiths in the Sahihs and Sunan show that the Prophet ordered certains Companions to write down something or everything he said.
The Prophet first forbade the writing of hadith so that people not confuse it with the Qur'an. He then allowed or ordered some Companions to write hadith when there was no risk of confusion.
These hadiths take precedence over the reports that mention an accross-the-board prohibition of writing for several reasons: the "write" reports are of a higher order of authenticity; the "do not write" reports are abrogated; the "write" reports are confirmed by the abundance of written reports from the Companion-generation manuscripted by their first-century students.

Hadiths On The Formation Of Human Life

What modern science confirms today was known by Islamic Science 1400 years ago