The Arabic word Hadith literally means "communication, story, conversation; Religious or secular, historical or recent." Whenever used as an adjective, it means "new;" it occurs 23 times in the Qur'an in the sense of story or communication.

According to scholars of Hadith, it stands for "what was transmitted on the authority of the Prophet, his deeds, sayings or tacit approval". Thus, Hadith literature means the literature which consists of the narration of the life of the Prophet and the things approved by him. However, the term was used sometimes in a much wider sense covering the narration about the Prophet's companions and their successors.

Sunnah, according to Arabic lexicographers, means: "a way, course, rule, mode, or manner, of acting or conduct of life." In the Qur'an the word Sunnah and its plural have been used 16 times in the sense of an established course of rule, mode of life, and line of conduct.

In Islamic history, the Arabic definite article "Al" was affixed to the word Sunnah in order to denote the Sunnah of the Prophet, while the general use of the word continued, though decreasing day by day. At the end of the second century, the word began to be used almost exclusively in the legal books to denote the norms set by the Prophet or the norms deduced from the Prophet's norm.

The two words, Hadith and Sunnah soon began to be used interchangeably, though there is a slight difference between them. The science of Hadith was developed to evaluate every single statement ascribed to the Prophet. The aim of this branch of Islamic study is to make clear which Hadith is authentic and which is not.

The scholars are unanimous that the authority of the Qur'an is binding on all Muslims. The authority of the Prophet comes next only to the Qur'an. His authority is not derived through the community's acceptance of the Prophet. It is Allah who has outlined the Prophet's position and his authority. It is expressed through divine will.

Allah states in the Qur'an that He has sent down His revelations to the Prophet that he "may explain to mankind what has been revealed for them." Thus, the Prophet's task is to expound and explain the Qur'an to people. To give one example, the Qur'an commands us to attend regularly to our prayers, but does not tell us how to pray. It was the Prophet's task to demonstrate the form of prayer in word and practice.

The Prophet also has been given a position with legislative powers. Allah describes him in the Qur'an in these words: "He (meaning the Prophet) will make lawful for them all good things and prohibit only foul things. He will relieve them of their burden and the fetters which had encumbered them." There are several examples of actions or practices initiated by the Prophet and later sanctioned by Allah.

In his actions and practices, the Prophet provides a model to be followed by the Muslim community. All Muslims have to follow the Prophet's example in every way, particularly since they have been specifically commanded by Allah to do so. Allah states in the Qur'an that obedience to the Prophet is a duty required by all people. Numerous are the Qur'anic statements which require us to obey Allah and His messenger: "Believers, obey Allah and obey the messenger and those in authority among you." (4;59) Also: "Whatever the messenger gives you, take it; and whatever he forbids you, refrain from it." (59; 7)

From these Qur'anic references we conclude that the Prophet's authority does not rest on acceptance by the community or on the opinion of certain lawyers or scholars, or the founders of the schools of thoughts. This point has been made absolutely clear in the Qur'an. For this reason, the Muslim community has accepted the authority of the Prophet from the beginning of his mission and has accepted all his verbal commands, deeds, tacit approval as the way of life, a binding duty and a model to be followed. All the Prophet's activities have been covered by the Sunnah which remains one of the main sources of Islamic law, second only to the Qur'an.

From this summary of what Professor Azami has written, it is clear that following the Sunnah is part of our religion of Islam which cannot be disregarded. It is simply not possible for a Muslim to deny the Prophet's Sunnah and hope to win acceptance by Allah. That is because such disregard of the Sunnah flies in the face of clear and decisive Qur'anic orders requiring us to implement the Prophet's Sunnah.

As Hadith and Sunnah were reported from one generation to another, there was bound to be some inaccuracies of reporting. In addition, people hostile to Islam started to fabricate statements and attribute them to the Prophet. Hence, scholars recognized that it was their duty to sort out the true from false in what is attributed to the Prophet. This has led to the establishment of the science of Hadith, which is a unique branch of Islamic study that has won the admiration of scholars throughout the world. Muslim scholars of Hadith studied the character and history of every person that has been known to report even a single Hadith and established whether he was a man of trust and honesty or not. If they found him trustworthy, truthful, accurate in his reporting, God-fearing, then they accepted what he has reported, provided that he had heard it from a similar trustworthy person.

Thus we have a chain of transmitters for every Hadith. Each one of them must be of the highest caliber. Otherwise, the reported Hadith would be classified as weak, doubtful or false.

Among those scholars of Hadith, Al-Bukhari and Muslim stand out as the most reliable and perfectionist in their work. The other four, At-Tirmithi, Abu Dawood, An-Nassaie and Ibn Majah occupy a position close to that of Al-Bukhari and Muslim. Hence, the compilations made by these six have acquired a higher status, since they include Hadiths of the highest authorities. However, there are many other scholars, some of whom lived earlier than these six , most notably Al-Shaf'ie, Malik and Ahmad ibn Hanbal who were also scholars of Hadith in addition to their eminencies as scholars of Fiqh or Islamic law. The last of these three, Imam Ahmad, was one of the greatest authorities on Hadith.

You have mentioned that some of the Hadiths you have read in these books are not acceptable. You have used descriptions which suggest that you are a very strict person with a very keen and restrictive sense of propriety. This is commendable when it comes to matters of religion, provided that it does not exceed the proper limits. When you use such words to describe a practice attributed to the Prophet by highly renowned scholars of Hadith, then you have actually overstepped your limits. You have to ask first how is it possible that the Prophet is reported to have done so and so? Is such a practice to be judged in such a strict light?

The story which you have referred to is a very simple one. What you have to remember is that we have learned many of the very intimate aspects of the life of the Prophet because his life served as a model or us to follow. When he is reported to have done something, then that very report indicates very clearly that such a practice is permissible. Hence, no one with an exaggerated sense of propriety can tell us that it is not permissible.

Scholars have laid down five conditions for the acceptability of any Hadith. Three of these conditions relate to the sanad or chain of reporters and two to the text. The first three are:

1) the reporter must be intelligent and accurate and must report the Hadith exactly as it was reported to him;

2) the reporter must be known for his high moral standards, his piety and scholarly work which makes him reject all types of distortion;

3) these two qualities must apply to all reporters in the chain. If either or both are not met by a single reporter in the chain, the Hadith is considered to lack in authenticity.

The other two conditions which relate to the text are that the Hadith must not suffer from:

a) an oddity or

b) a defect which detracts its validity.

What is meant by oddity with regard to the text of a Hadith is the case when a reliable reporter is found to be at odds with an even more reliable one. In other words, there is no question of the reliability, intellectual standard or accuracy of either of the two reporters. Indeed both are acceptable and the Hadith they report are taken as correct in the first instance. But when we find the reporter giving us a text which we find to contradict another text reported by someone who is even more reliable, then the case is certainly odd.

On the other hand, there are defects which may detract the validity of a particular Hadith. The clearest example of these is when the text of a particular Hadith is found to contradict a statement in the Qur'an.

The five conditions together provide a system which enables us to establish the authenticity and accuracy of every statement attributed to the Prophet, peace be upon him. Indeed, no other creature has ever had his statement subjected to such a thorough system of verification and establishing authenticity and accuracy. The important thing is, of course, that the system should be well applied.

Scholars of Hadith like Al-Bukhari, Muslim, Al-Tirmithi, An-Nassaie and most others concentrated mainly on the sanad, or the chain of reporters, establishing the correctness of the chain of reporters of every Hadith and making a thorough study of each reporter. They classified each reporter according to a scale they had established. If they learned that a particular reporter had told a lie in any situation, then they left aside what he had reported, unless it was collaborated by other reliable reporters or they had the same Hadith through another chain of reporters. If they learned that a particular scholar of Hadith seemed not to be so accurate in his reporting when he attained old age, they would draw a line saying that they would accept what he reported before a particular year, but reject what he reported later.

The system is very thorough and the study of reporters is extremely detailed. Therefore, when they establish that a particular text has been reported by a chain of reporters, each of whom was both reliable and accurate, they judge the Hadith to be authentic. Moreover, each of the great scholars of Hadith, like Al-Bukhari, Muslim, Abu Dawood, At-Tirmithi, Ibn Majah and others worked on their study of reporters on the basis of a set of conditions which they had established.

Some of these scholars have been far more strict than others. Therefore, a Hadith which may be described as "Saheeh" by someone like At-Tirmithi may be only described as "Hassan" by Al-Bukhari. The two terms indicate grades of authenticity; with "Saheeh" meaning "highly authentic". It goes without saying that the set of conditions established by Al-Bukhari was the most stringent of all. Therefore, when he classifies a particular Hadith as authentic, it means that there can be no doubt as to its being properly reported by a chain of reporters who are all highly reliable.

Speaking strictly from this particular angle, we can say that there is no "weak" Hadith in either of the two authentic collections of Al-Bukhari and Muslim, both of which are known by the name "Saheeh."

It was the job of scholars of Fiqh to study the texts of Hadith and put aside any which suffer from oddity or defects. It is important to realize that this can only be done on the basis of thorough knowledge of the Qur'an and other branches of Islamic scholarship as it requires a profound insight into the study of Hadith itself so as to compare texts which speak of the same subject and so on. In this respect, the work of scholars of Fiqh complements the work of scholars of Hadith. Together they have provided a standard of research in scholarship which is unparalleled the whole world over.

It is possible that a Hadith may be authentic as far as its chain of reporters is concerned, but it may suffer from a defect or an oddity. Some of the Hadiths included in Al-Bukhari and Muslim may fall in this category. In this case, they are authentically reported but have defects which make a scholar of Fiqh put them aside. I will give you an example to explain how this could happen.

It is authentically reported that after the battle of Badr resulted in a spectacular victory for the Muslims, the Prophet ordered that those who were killed from the hostile army of Quraish be buried in a single grave. When this was done, he stood near the grave and addressed them by name and asked them whether they had realized that Allah's promises came true. His companions asked the Prophet how could he speak to people who were dead. His answer, as reported by more than one of his companions, was: "You cannot hear me any better than they do, but they cannot answer me."

When this was told to Aisha, the Prophet's wife, she rejected it altogether, although she was not present. The basis of her rejection was the Qur'anic verse which says to the Prophet: "You cannot make the dead hear." To Aisha, the reported statement contradicted a clear statement of the Qur'an. Therefore, she rejected it. She said that the Prophet said on that occasion to his companions referring to the dead of Quraish: "They now know that what I used to tell them is the truth."