The problem of hadith between the hadith approach and the modernist approach, presentation and criticism

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Islam is suitable for every time and place and encompasses all aspects of life, traditional and contemporary. It ensures individual happiness, societal well-being, goodness in this world, and bliss in the Hereafter.Since Western colonialism, the Islamic world has faced numerous challenges and rapid social, intellectual, and educational transformations that have affected Islamic thought. Consequently, some thinkers have reinterpreted and distorted Islamic foundations and texts through a new reading they termed “modernity.”Modernists subjected religious texts to Western philosophical tools, claiming that these texts and established religious principles required Western scientific methodologies to uncover their underlying realities, despite the unsuitability of these methodologies for interpreting religious texts. Scholars and intellectuals agree that these methodologies were developed for secular and atheistic contexts.Modernists boldly challenged the Islamic heritage, rejecting Muslim scholars’ methodologies as outdated. Instead of following established Islamic approaches to understanding the Qur’an and Sunnah, they adopted Western methodologies that, according to their claims, would free Muslims from inward-looking attitudes and confinement within their heritage and inherited traditions.Consequently, some modernists introduced new readings of religious texts, particularly the Prophetic Sunnah. Among the disciplines they addressed is Mushkil al-Hadith (Problematic Hadith). This research examines and refutes some of their statements and doubts.