Appreciating the Sahihayn: A Proposition

[Thread]

The 2 Sahihs have been continuously defended & appreciated in many contexts. However, there are ways that are yet to be thoroughly explored.

One of those is to compare & contrast the Sahihayn with known forged books of hadith.

Many may not know that entirely fabricated books of hadith exist among us today, such as:

- Al-Ash’athiyyāt/Al-Ja’fariyyāt

- The Juz’ of Nubayt b. Shurayt

- The Musnad of Zayd

- The Musnad of al-Rabī’ b. Habib

Etc.

These texts are forged texts that come from a variety of different theological schools: Ibadhism, Zaydism, “Sufo-Shi’ism”, and possibly Isma’ilism.

Each of them embodies 2 main phenomena:

1. Fabricated texts ascribed to fabricated isnads

2. Texts stolen from other reports ascribed to fabricated isnads.

Despite coming from different schools, they’re actually quite similar in theIr patterns and “structural themes“.

Comparing the content and structure of these books with respect to their alleged sources will prove very valuable in demonstrating the disparity between the Sahihayn & such forged texts.

Similary, observing the different patterns in these books’ sources will prove very valuable.

This is something so obvious that a layman would be able to recognize the disparities in between them.

If I ever get the chance and time, I would further delve into this.... but until then, I’ll leave the idea out there for anyone who may be seriously interested in this.

A good chunk of it comes down to what Motzki correctly expected to observe in a book if it turned out to be a forgery: