Assessing The Methodology Of Hadith Criticism On The Book Of Al-Bukhari And Muslim

Abstract

The Sahih Al-Bukhari and Muslim collection of hadith books are considered one of the most authentic hadith books among Ahl al-Sunnah wal-Jama’ah scholars. They unanimously accepted these two books as the main reference in Islam. However, some modern parties criticize some hadiths in these two books. Thus, this study evaluates the criticism by certain parties of some hadiths in the sahih al-Bukhari and Muslim according to the perspective of hadith science. This study uses a qualitative approach involving a literature review of related sources. The materials obtained will be analyzed using the document analysis method. The study results show the weakness of criticism used by those who criticize some hadiths in Sahih Al-Bukhari and Muslim books. The weakness is caused by several aspects including (i) ignorance of parts of the Sunnah, (ii) ignoring other narrations of a hadith, (iii) rejecting contradictory hadiths before trying to collect and strengthen one of them, and (iv) not paying attention to the reason, context, and circumstances of the hadith.