This blog applies Wittgenstein’s “beetle in the box” critique to hadith science, exposing how assessments of honesty, memory, precision, and piety rely on unverifiable private states.

Hadith sciences rest on inductive leaps. which is simply assuming past reliability guarantees future truth. But as Hume showed, this logic collapses. Chains of narration aren’t math equations; they’re fragile human memories, easily distorted by context, politics, and bias.

Jewish rabbis and Muslim scholars have both expanded simple scriptural commands into overly complex systems, turning specific prohibitions like "don't cook a goat in its mother's milk" and straightforward four-step ablution into elaborate rituals with unnecessary additions beyond divine instruction.

Sunni tradition idealizes al-Zuhri to protect vast hadith chains dependent on him, downplaying his decades of Umayyad service. Historical evidence and early Muslim critics reveal his political entanglements, notably promoting Jerusalem’s sanctity for state interests during ʿAbd al-Malik’s reign.

The article applies isnād criticism to 1 Corinthians 15:6, showing Paul’s “500 witnesses” claim is a single-source, unverifiable report. It exposes the evidential weakness, highlighting a double standard in Christian critiques of Islamic hadith methodology.

Al-Shāfiʿī argues that accepting solitary hadith is justified by analogy to Quranic cases requiring ijtihād. The article refutes this, showing that applying divine law differs fundamentally from adding new, extra-Quranic legislation.

The Quran assumes core worship practices like prayer and fasting were inherited traditions, not newly invented rituals. Early scholars acknowledged established communal practice as authoritative, showing that hadith isn’t needed to know fundamental rites.

Dr. Shadee Elmasry distorts and misrepresents the Western epistemology of hadith by building strawman arguments, projecting colonialist motives, and dismissing critical method. This article rebuts his claims point-by-point using traditional hadith grading and accurate historical context.

A Quran-alone critique of Imam al-Shāfiʿī’s Kitāb Jāmiʿ al-ʿIlm, arguing the debate with a so-called Quranist was staged to reinforce hadith-based jurisprudence rather than engage a genuine opponent.

Dirār ibn ʿAmr al-Ghaṭṭāfānī (d. ca. 845/220 AH) was a Basran judge known for "radical" rationalist views. In his Kitāb al-Taḥrīsh (“Book of Instigation/Agitation”), he criticizes the misuse of Prophetic…