Shehzad Saleem

 

A general practice in interpreting Ahadithis that each narrative is interpreted independently even if its variant texts exist. As a result, the complete picture in which a directive was given is sacrificed and one often ends up deducing a directive from incomplete data.
 
It needs to be appreciated that all the variant texts of a Hadith must be studied in order to form an opinion about it.¹ Many a time a person may form an opinion about a Hadith by not studying its variants; however, once he deliberates on all the variants, his overall interpretation changes. One glaring example of this are the Ahadith which mention the prohibition of pictures and portraits. If some of the narratives are studied only, one can easily conclude that this prohibition is absolute and every picture and portrait is prohibited in Islam. However, if all the variants are collected and analyzed, it becomes evident that the prohibition is regarding only those pictures which have been made for worshipping. Many similar examples can be cited from the corpus of the Hadith literature. Thus it is essential that if one is not satisfied from the apparent words of a Hadith, one must gather and collate all its variants to form an opinion.

[1].The subsequent words of the paragraph are translated from Mizan. See: Ghamidi, Mizan, 64-65.

 

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