and religious matters generally, numerous hadiths falsely fabricated and attributed to the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace. These fall into two categories:

The first consists of false statements that it is impermissible to utter, let alone attribute to the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace.

The second consists of statements made by some of the early generations, scholars, or other people, which may be true, concern matters open to scholarly judgment, or represent the views of those who expressed them, but are then attributed to the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace. This is common among those unfamiliar with hadith. An example is the set of questions compiled by Shaykh “Abū al-Faraj Abd al-Wāhid ibn Muhammad ibn Alī al-Ansārī,” which he made a test for distinguishing a follower of the Sunnah from an innovator. These are “well-known questions” concocted by fabricators, who supplied a chain of transmission leading back to the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and presented them as his words. Anyone with even the slightest knowledge recognizes this as a fabrication and a false attribution.

Although most of these questions accord with the fundamental principles of the Sunnah, some concern matters on which a person who disagrees is not to be judged an innovator. One example is the question of the first blessing He bestowed upon His servant. The people of the Sunnah disagree over this question, but their disagreement is merely verbal, since it turns on whether pleasure followed by pain is to be called a blessing. These questions also contain some less well-founded views.

It is therefore obligatory to distinguish authentic hadiths from fabricated ones, for the Sunnah is truth, not falsehood; it consists of authentic hadiths, not fabricated ones. This is “a fundamental principle of great importance” for Muslims generally, and especially for those who claim adherence to the Sunnah.