revealed to the Prophet—she said: “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ would remain in devotional seclusion in the Cave of Ḥirāʾ for a number of consecutive nights, and al-taḥannuth means worship…” and the ḥadīth continues.¹
Someone hearing this report might assume that the gloss—“al-taḥannuth means worship”—comes from ʿĀʾishah herself, yet in reality it is the comment of al-Zuhrī, d. 124 AH. It has been inserted into the ḥadīth without any indication that it is interpolated. This type of interpolation is meant as an explanatory note, and here the explanation is indispensable: linguistically, ḥinth denotes “sin,” as in Allah’s words, “They used to persist in the great sin” (Q 56:46). Had the meaning of al-taḥannuth not been clarified, one might have confused it with “sin,” whereas the Prophet ﷺ was engaging in worship—worship that in fact removes sin. This is therefore an instance of naming a thing by the opposite of its usual sense.
An example of interpolation occurring at the end of a report is the ḥadīth of Abū Hurayrah, d. 59 AH, in which the Prophet ﷺ said: “On the Day of Resurrection my community will be summoned with radiant faces and limbs, shining from the traces of wuḍūʾ. So whoever of you can extend his radiance and gleaming limbs, let him do so.”² If you read the narration as it stands, you would think it is entirely the Prophet’s statement. In fact, the final clause—“So whoever of you can extend his radiance and gleaming limbs, let him do so”—is not from the Prophet ﷺ but an interpolation by Abū Hurayrah. The authentic prophetic wording ends with: “On the Day of Resurrection my community will be summoned with radiant faces and limbs, shining from the traces of wuḍūʾ.”
Abū Hurayrah added the closing sentence as a juristic inference,