—“a man who gives charity and conceals it so completely that his left hand does not know what his right hand spends.” One narrator, however, turned it around and reported: “so that his right hand does not know what his left hand spends.” This is an inverted report, for he made the right the left and the left the right.

Another instance is the ḥadīth authenticated in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī: “There will remain in the Fire some unused capacity after those who were meant to enter it have entered, so Allah will bring into being a people for it and admit them to the Fire.” This wording is inverted; the correct version is: “There will remain in Paradise some unused capacity after the people of this world who are destined for it have entered; so Allah will bring into being a people for it and admit them to Paradise.” 1

Creating a people for the Fire conflicts with the perfection of Allah’s justice—how could He bring a people into existence solely for torment?—and it also contradicts the sound ḥadīth: “The Fire will go on saying, ‘Is there any more?’ until Allah places His Foot upon it; then one part will fold in upon another and it will say, ‘Enough, enough.’” 2

A further example is the ḥadīth of Abū Hurayrah in which the Prophet said: “When one of you goes down for prostration, he must not drop as a camel drops; rather, he should place his knees before his hands.” 3 This narration was inverted by the reporter, who said, “he should place his hands before his knees,” whereas the correct wording is, “he should place his knees before his hands.” We say this because the legal conclusion here contradicts the beginning of the ḥadīth: it opens with, “he must not drop as a camel drops,” forbidding imitation of the camel in the manner of prostration. If we