@RandomHuma11601 @IslamicOrigins I think you're right to identify al-Zuhri as the common link of this tradition & its likely originator [1/x]

https://x.com/RandomHuma11601/status/1837202166211117533

@RandomHuma11601 Originally al-Zuhri probably didn't attribute this tradition to the Prophet [2/x]
archive.org/details/980000…

How exegesis can influence the contents of Hadith 🧵

In a Sunni hadith, the Prophet warns against a hellbound group of women who are “kāsiyāt ͑āriyāt” (clothed & naked). This seemingly contradictory phrase troubled exegetes: how can one be clothed & naked at the same time? [1/8] An exegete al-Nawawī (d. 676/1277) listed 4 competing views: these women were...
1️⃣clothed in God’s grace, devoid (= naked) of gratitude for it
2️⃣clothed but devoid of good deeds etc.
3️⃣clothed in partly revealing clothing
4️⃣clothed in clothes showing their bodies’ contours [2/8]

Rijal critics often say things like “so-&-so’s memory became bad when he became older.”

Here’s why such claims are not very helpful when assessing the reliability of hadiths. [1/8]🧵 1st, it’s a generic claim. Hadith transmitters tended to be old (as old age offers a shorter path to the Prophet). Old people commonly experience memory loss, so it’s not really saying much that so-&-so had memory issues (would be a surprise if he didn't)[2/8]

“The beginning of wisdom is fear of God” (raʾsu l-ḥikmati makhāfatu Llāh)

This famous Islamic saying ultimately originates in Psalms 111:10 (reshit ḥokma yirʾat YHWH).

Some notes on Its history in Hadith literature… [1/5]🧵

In an early Basran report, Khālid al-Rabaʿī notes that this saying is found in “the Psalms of David” (though he wrongly asserts that it is in the book's "opening") [2/5]

🧵 [1/6] On the RHYMES of sūrat AL-IKHLĀṢ

Considerations about the rhyme (-ad) play a crucial part in the formation of each of this short sūra’s 4 āyas… [2/6] The 1st āya describes God as "one," strangely using the word “aḥad.” But usually the Qur’an refers to God as "one" using “wāḥid.” Wāḥid’s rhyme is -id, but aḥad’s rhyme is -ad.

[1/6] 🧵Two people are crossing a desert. They have one water bottle that can sustain only one of them. What do they do? Rabbi Akiva says: one of them should drink, while the other dies of dehydration.

There's an Arabic parallel for this hypothetical scenario... [2/6] The famed freethinker Abu Bakr al-Razi (d. 925AD) writes: Two people are crossing a desert. They have one water bottle that can sustain only one of them. What do they do? Al-Razi says: the one who most benefits society should drink, while the other dies of dehydration.

1/7 Why did Sarah Laugh? 🤣 Genesis tells us that she laughed after being told she’ll give birth in old age. But in Q 11 (Hud):71 she laughs before she’s told that she’ll give birth. So what triggered her laughter in the Qur’an?

2/7 Tabari lists some solutions by Muslim exegetes, e.g.:
💠Sarah didn’t “laugh” she “ovulated.”
💠She laughed at Lot’s people because they were oblivious to their fate (Tabari’s preferred solution) [Lot’s people are mentioned in the previous verse]

Hadith vs. Mishnah:
🟡"Who is rich? The one who is content with his lot."🟡

Note also the question 🟢"who is wise?"🟢 that is found in both texts though the answer is different...

As is common, a saying that is attributed to a Rabbi, in this case Ben Zoma, in the Jewish source is attributed to a Biblical Prophet in the Muslim source.

Compare a slightly different example of this practice in a recent tweet

https://twitter.com/hadithworks/status/1729464036218036564

[1/10] Editing/Emending a Hadith’s Text🧵
In Ibn Rāhawayh’s Musnad, we read that at al-Aswad b. Yazīd’s wedding, they wanted to serve nabīdh🍷 in vessels named الجراي (sic). He refused to serve his guests from vessels from which he doesn’t drink 🍷. So they got حباب jars instead. [2/10] What are الجراي the vessels from which al-Aswad (Kufan, d. 75/694) refused to drink? The word has no meaning that makes sense here. Unfortunately Ibn Rāhawayh’s Musnad survives in a unique manuscript so the reading cannot be checked against others.

HADITH ORIGIN 🧵[1/9]: Ismāʿīl b. Zakariyyā ⬅️ʿĀṣim ⬅️Muḥammad b. Sīrīn (d. 110/728) who said:
[After the fitna they began asking about isnāds so that they may carefully consider who the ahl al-sunna were & learn their ḥadīth; & who the ahl al-bidaʿ were & avoid their ḥadīth]

[2/9] P. Pavlovitch @muha_akhusiyya convincingly identified Ismāʿīl b. Zakariyyā (Kufa, Baghdad, d. 173/789) as the likely disseminator of this important tradition. He also noted that the mention of ahl-sunna & ahl al-bidaʿ probably do not go back to Ibn Sīrīn (Basra, d. 110/728)

Prophet Joseph’s 2 fellow inmates (Qurʾān 12:35) are often said to be Pharaoh’s chief baker & cupbearer, as in Genesis 40. What are their names? Muqātil b. Sulaymān (d. 150/767) calls them شرهم أقم (ShRHM ʾQM) & شرهم أشم (ShRHM AShM). Why these names? An answer @ end of🧵 The odd names mentioned by Muqātil perplexed later transmitters. Al-Qurṭubī (Cordova, d. 671/1272) wrote that one inmate was called شرهم (ShRHM) & the other سرهم (SRHM). Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī (Egypt, d. 852/1449) wrote that one was شَرهم (Sharham) & the other شُرهم (Shurham).