Two examples of how certain jurists have dealt with hadith—and of their unfamiliarity with the Sunnah:

I say: Anyone who seriously engages in hadith study, traces its transmission routes, examines its phrasing, and looks at how some jurists handle particular reports can verify this fact for himself. I shall offer two illustrations, one from early times and another from the modern period.

1. The Prophet ﷺ said, “There is no prayer for the one who does not recite the Opening Chapter of the Book.” Although this narration is authentic and recorded in both Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī and Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, the Ḥanafīs rejected it, claiming that it conflicts with the outward sense of the Qur’anic verse: “So recite whatever is easy for you of it” (73:20, al-Muzzammil). They therefore re-interpreted the hadith, alleging that it is only a single-chain report (āḥād). Yet the Commander of the Faithful in Hadith, Imām al-Bukhārī, states at the very beginning of his booklet “Section on Recitation” that this narration is mass-transmitted (mutawātir) from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.