" For a non-Muslim hadith is confusing. There is no consensus as to which hadith are reliable and which are not."
Dear Scott, There is a consensus, though it may not be based on the best criteria. But hadiths are usually classed as 'sound' or 'weak' by virtue of their chain of transmission. "Dr. Khalifa is incensed by the idea that the Prophet might have married a child and consummated the wedding at age 11. He rejects this strongly, and it is an argument constantly used against Islam by those who "bash" the faith of Muhammed. He takes the view that such a marriage is counter-Quranic and seems to carry the point well - at least that particular point, anyway. This would throw all the hadith accredited to Aisha out the window, and there are a lot of them." Gee, I suppose we can dispense with the fact Baha'u'llah had more than one wife the same way! And we can ignore the fact the Bab had slaves . . . "It comes down to this for me as an outsider (to Islam) where hadith and Qur'an would seem to disagree hadith must give way if the text and the tradition cannot be brought into juxtaposition." Yes, but from the standpoint of Muslims the hadith support their interpretation of what might otherwise be a somewhat ambiguous verse. I'm not saying they are right, only that they are not being unreasonable. The Jews weren't being unreasonable when they insisted Jesus couldn't be the Messiah according to scripture either. Reasonable or not, they were still wrong. Ultimately a Manifestation must be recognized on His own terms. warmest, Susan __________________________________________________ You are subscribed to Baha'i Studies as: mailto:archive@mail-archive.com To unsubscribe, send a blank email to mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe, use subscribe bahai-st in the message body to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Baha'i Studies is available through the following: Mail - mailto:bahai-st@list.jccc.edu Web - http://list.jccc.edu/read/?forum=bahai-st News - news://list.jccc.edu/bahai-st Public - http://www.escribe.com/religion/bahaist Old Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/bahai-st@list.jccc.net New Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/bahai-st@list.jccc.edu
