# Should we throw away hadith altogether? *Is hadith a cancer? Filtering the tradition, not discarding it* - URL: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/eokcnwggiba/s/28/ - Date: 2021-01-26 · Kind: question · Transcript tier: machine · Recording: Monday Nights with Mufti #199 | Q&A Unscripted & Unrestricted! 😉 | Mufti Abu Layth (2:22:31–2:25:08) - Status: general teaching - Watch from the start of the segment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoKcNwGGIBA&t=8551s - Recording page: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/eokcnwggiba/ **Topics:** Quran-only movement; Sahih al-Bukhari (BukhariGate) **Question as asked:** Mufti, hadith is cancer. **Summary (not a quotation; machine-made, unchecked):** No: he says the hadith tradition is a beautiful, unparalleled record of the Prophet that should be filtered for corrupted reports, not discarded. **Checked position (checked by two independent reviews, not by the channel):** Mufti Abu Layth says the hadith tradition is a beautiful and unparalleled record of the Prophet that should be filtered for the reports that became corrupted, not thrown away. **Evidence, his words at 2:23:25:** “some infection crept in and it's our job to to to clean it but that's it i i don't say that you need to throw hadith away” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoKcNwGGIBA&t=8605s) ## Longer summary After joking that a viewer asking whom to listen to should listen to him, Mufti Abu Layth responds to a comment that hadith is cancer by correcting it and completing his point about his agenda: his aim is simply to filter. He says he is against speaking rudely of the heritage as a whole, since some elements may be infected but the whole need not be thrown away, and condemns Arab secular channels that swear at Bukhari, saying he does not believe in any conspiracy by al-Bukhari or that anyone was a double agent. He says it is wonderful that so many descriptions and details of the Prophet have reached us, that some became corrupted along the way but it remains a beautiful tradition other religions would be overjoyed to have for their figures of faith, and that binning everything would be reductionist and naive. ## Sources and names cited - Imam al-Bukhari ## Transcript (machine tier, 2:22:31–2:25:08) [2:22:19] ages ago that i did that i did people let's take a few quick questions uh all right you need to take uh yep akbar who do you recommend to listen to a cha cha cha you're coming on my show and asking people who do you recommend i should listen to you [2:22:46] listen to me so what is going on somebody said mufti hadith is cancer no look i want to correct i know i began earlier on saying look my agenda i don't know if i finished that my agenda is simply to filter through i am against people and against this idea of being an entire heritage or to speak rudely about it as in generally it is not you know the heritage isn't like that but yes some elements in there may be infected but you don't [2:23:25] need to chuck the whole thing away and you don't need to i know you get these people that come on some of these arab secular these kind of channels and they just insult you know just swear at bukhari and they just swear at this and they just this is never i condemn that and i've always made it clear that's not been my purpose and i don't believe there was some conspiracy by people like bukhari or some double agent and things like this it's it's just that look some some infection crept in and it's our job to to to clean it but that's it i i don't say that you need to throw hadith away [2:24:04] in fact it's wonderful you know when you think about it it is amazing that seriously that we have so many different descriptions and you know little details about the prophet because if they hadn't reached us we would have wondered today i wonder what the prophet would have been like i wonder what you would have said i wonder if there are some stories i wonder what and they've come to us but yes with it some have got corrupted along the way but it's still a beautiful kind of tradition and i tell you it's a tradition that wallahi it doesn't matter how many what people say [2:24:41] if other religions had even announced comparable to what we have in as you know as the legacy describing the profit if they even had an ounce of it they they would be over the moon i'm telling you they don't have anything like that dating back to the um you know figures of of faith so yeah but so yes by all means we clean things and we filter things but we don't you know it would be so it's so kind of reductionist and naive to say look let's bin ## Cite Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment eoKcNwGGIBA/s/28. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/eokcnwggiba/s/28/ Not a fatwa: these answers were given to specific people at specific times. Ask a qualified scholar about your own situation.