The Widespread Use of Weak Hadith in Sunni Islam

A summary of the 2011 academic paper “Even If It’s Not True It’s True: Using Unreliable Hadīths in Sunni Islam, Islamic Law and Society” by Jonathan Brown

Jonathan Brown in his academic paper writes that the mainstream Sunni stance was that weak hadith were allowed to be used for topics such as manners, preaching and history, but not for law and ritual.

From time Muhammad died in 632 until the modern era the majority of Sunni scholars allowed the use of weak hadith in the above categories. What was considered a weak hadith was the subjective opinion of each scholar and not always agreed upon. Thus, it is very difficult for a Muslim to really know which hadith are truly reliable. It would be nearly impossible after almost 1000 years of this to know what parts of the Islamic narrative are true and which are not as emphasis was not placed on authenticity from an early stage.

The irony is that scholars were more strict on narrations regarding to Islamic jurisprudence, but Islamic law is ever less relevant to Muslims today. As well, widespread ijtihad is the norm because the world has changed so much from Muhammad’s time. What’s the minimum amount needed to be stolen for a hand to be chopped off? What about the specific number of camels or sheep one need to give in zakat? These are far less relevant to Muslims than…