Editing Isnad (section)

== Reliability ==
In contemporary [[hadith studies]], isnads have been subjected to a heightened level of scrutiny, and virtually all authorities believe that isnads have been afflicted with higher levels of partial or complete forgery than had been commonly presumed. Complete forgeries would constitute a wholesale invention of an isnad, whereas partial forgery typically involves fabricating a list of early transmitters of a tradition to connect it with a figure of higher prestige, such as [[Muhammad]] himself or one of his reputable [[Companions of the Prophet|followers]]. One of the most skeptical instances of modern views on isnads comes from the influential writings of [[Joseph Schacht]] (d. 1969), who, in his ''[[Origins of Muhammadan Jurisprudence]]'' (1950), argued that isnads were sweepingly fabricated towards the end of the second [[Islamic calendar|Islamic century]]. For Schacht, isnads "grew backwards", meaning that over time, the tradition was attributed to earlier and earlier authorities until they reached back to Muhammad.{{Sfn|Ahmed|2015|p=17–19}} According to this view, as the [[hadith sciences]] developed and increasingly prioritized complete Prophetic isnads (without any missing links and going back to Muhammad) in the post-150 AH period, there was a growing incentive to modify or forge isnads to meet these criteria. Isnads recorded in this era but do not meet this criteria are therefore more likely to be real, as they had not been furnished and shaped according to the emerging editorial standards of hadith scholars (''muhaddithin'').{{Sfn|Ahmed|2015|p=32–33}} This view has materialized in Schacht's oft-quoted maxim: "the more perfect the isnad, the later the tradition".<ref>No God ''But God : The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam'' by Reza Aslan, (Random House, 2005) p.163</ref>

Today, isnads are thought to have entered usage three-quarters of a century after Muhammad's death, before which hadith were transmitted haphazardly and anonymously. Once they began to be used, the names of authorities, popular figures, and sometimes even fictitious figures would be supplied.{{Sfn|Juynboll|1983|p=72–73}}<ref name="IROoI2000:118">[[Criticism of hadith#IROoI2000|Ibn Rawandi, "Origins of Islam", 2000]]: p.118</ref> Over time, isnads would be polished to meet stricter standards.<ref>Patricia Crone, ''Roman, Provincial and Islamic Law'' (1987/2002 paperback), pp. 23–34, paperback edition</ref> Additional concerns are raised by the substantial percentages of hadith that traditional critics are reported to have dismissed and difficulties in parsing out historical hadith from the vast pool of ahistorical ones.<ref name="62-crone">Crone, P., ''Roman, Provincial, and Islamic Law'', p.33</ref><ref name="IROoI2000:119-120">[[Criticism of hadith#IROoI2000|Ibn Rawandi, "Origins of Islam", 2000]]: p.119-120</ref> This perspective casts doubt on traditional methods of hadith verification, given their presupposition that the isnad of a report offers a sufficiently accurate history of its transmission to be able to verify or nullify it{{Sfn|Schacht|1950|p=162–175, esp. 163}} and the prioritization of isnads over other criteria like the presence of anachronisms in a hadith which might have an isnad that passes traditional standards of verification.<ref name="Goldziher_53">Goldziher, I., ''Muslim Studies'', v.2, London, 1966, 1971, pp.140-141, quoted in [[Criticism of hadith#IROoI2000|Ibn Rawandi, "Origins of Islam", 2000]]: p.117</ref>