Sep 09, 2007
Salaam,
I followed the link and read chapter 7, and also had a quick scan of the other chapters.
I think I have read this before, or something similar.
There are many books written by Shia denouncing the Sunni beliefs and vice versa. This one concentrates on examples of Hadith which can be questioned.
However, the flaw in this line of arguement is that Sunni scholars do not believe that all the Hadith in Bukhari, Muslim etc are 100% accurate. In fact the compilers went out of the way to record some Hadith which were mutually contradictory - but gave the record of the narrator and chain of narrators.
Bukhari etc were more interested in chronicalling the Hadith in existence and filtering out the obviously weak/false ones. They did not claim that all the Hadith were true.
Some were mis-remembered, or mis-quoted - others are subject to interpretation.
My view is quite simple - any Hadith that contradicts the Quran and Sunnah, is one that is not to be trusted.
To highlight the fact there are questionable Hadith in Bukhari is not to highlight something new - nor is it a reason to discard the body of Hadith.
Similar books have been written ridiculing/criticising the beliefs of Shia - I have read these, but I chose to get my knowledge of Shia beliefs from Shia scholars/believers directly.
(Incidentally, there are quite well written books produced by Shia quoting Hadith from Bukhari and Muslim which talk about the Prophet's (saw) will and the rightful place of Ali (ra) as his first Khalifa. These Hadith are in the books of Hadith and have always been there. This, in my view, is a point in favour of Imam Bukhari and Muslim etc)
Wasalaam,
Shafique
(For the record, I am a Sunni and do not agree with the 12er Shia doctrines of Imamate, or any other Shia sect)