HADITH

Abstract

The first edition of which was published in November 2023 and the second edition was revised and expanded in March 2024 “Did the Hadith Scholars Critique the Content?” The work titled was written by Mehmet Ali Çalgan. In his work, Çalgan responded to the fact that the common claim that “Muhaddiths criticized the sanad but did not criticize the text and content” is not true, by providing many examples from classical works that the muhaddiths criticized the content, and by making use of the books, theses and articles written by recent researchers. The author pointed out that the earlier scholars criticized the content, but most of the time they did not explain it clearly, that many terms used in that period, such as munkar, batıl, mevzu, teferrud, were some of the general expressions they used when they criticized the content, if these features are known, content criticisms made in the classical period can be noticed. He also pointed out that content criticism is necessary but insufficient in determining the authenticity of a hadith, and that the authenticity of the hadith and the text/content should be evaluated together and a judgment should be made about its authenticity. In the work, the author also talked about the studies carried out until recently on text and content criticism and the mistakes made in these studies. The author focused on the works of some scientists who worked on the subject and examined the issues that he thought were wrong in these works. In the work, the problems and limitations of criticizing the content of hadiths are also pointed out.