Hadith

S1 E7 Jonathan A. C. Brown on the Qur’an and the Hadith

cover of Brown - Misquoting Muhammad

When many of us think of a scripture, we think of the Protestant Christian Bible: a well-defined, reasonably small library of writings which can be printed in a single, thick volume.

.

It’s not that simple in Islam. While there is the Qur’an, there is also an enormous body of reports about Muhammad’s sayings and deeds called the Hadith, and Islamic law is fundamentally based on these more than on the Qur’an.

.

As it is clear that many are inaccurate, Islamic scholars have long tried to sort these Hadith reports into the categories of “sound,” “well-known,” or “weak.” But even when this is done, the modern believer faces the problem of scriptural passages which seem implausible or morally problematic. In his Misquoting Muhammad, Dr. Jonathan A.C. Brown discusses many ways Islamic scholars have grappled with problematic scritural passages. In this interview we discuss some notorious examples, including a passage from Sura 4 of the Qur’an, and the hadith of the fly.

.

You can subscribe to Thinking About Religion wherever you get your podcasts or by email.

.

Bonus audio: Dr. Brown talks about his conversion to Islam and about his interest in Egypt.