This Hadith (Saying of Prophet Muhammd) is a Mutawatir (genuine....among the very well known ones) one.  This can be verified here: http://hadith.al-islam.com/Fhares/Fhares.asp?Doc=1&Tag=6&st=385&IMAGE.x=27&IMAGE.y=8  (see Hadith #395 on the list).  Now reading the Arabic and English texts above, we clearly see the key words UNTO, UPON or ON (ala in Arabic). 

 

Only a handful of joints are noticeable in the body:

I don't believe that the Prophet of Islam:

 

1-  Thought that the human body had 360 joints since the ones that are visible to us are only a handful (knees, elbows, knuckles, etc...), and medical technology back then did not exist.

2-  Even addressed the human joints in this Narration!

Prophet Muhammad's (peace be upon him) use of the word "ala" (upon or on) 360 mifsals seems to clearly speak about Divine Stages that Allah Almighty made that are perhaps standing between him and Heaven.  Since the Hadith is speaking about good work, helping others, and clearing the roads for pedestrians, all for the cause of Allah Almighty, it seems quite clear to me that MIFSAL and ALSALAMA here are referring to a CHAIN OF STAGES that the person WOULD HAVE TO GO THROUGH before he/she reaches Allah Almighty!  And those stages consist of many things, which several of them have to do with all of the good things for humanity that are narrated in the Hadith.

 

Medical evidence about the 360 joints:

Despite the fact that there is scientific evidence demonstrating that the human body does indeed have 360 joints in it [1] [2], but I still don't think that Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, said or meant to say that the human body consists of 360 joints as I clearly demonstrated in the sub-section above and in the one below as well.  But nonetheless, I felt that it was nice to show that there seems to be scientific proofs about the human body consisting of 360 joints.

 

There is no mention of human joints at all!!

There are some anti-Islamics who are pushing the wrong translation and theory about Prophet Muhammad claiming that the human body consists of 360 joints.  With all sincerity and honesty, even if medicine tomorrow were to prove that humans do indeed have 360 joints in their bodies, I still would not think that the Hadith meant that, because the narration is clearly talking about the humans were created ON/UPON/UNTO 360 CHAINS OF STAGES that require them to do so much Praising of GOD Almighty (through words and prayers) and to do so much good to others.  That Hadith is clearly not talking about the details of the creation of man's body, but rather either metaphorically or literally stating the 360 Divine Stages that are standing between us and Heaven. 

 

In other words, we are so sinful by nature that we have to always be aware of our sins and fight them! 

That's what this Hadith is truly saying.

 

Have the Hadith truly said that humans were created with 360 joints in them, then the word ALA (ON/UPON/UNTO) would not have been used here.  Instead, the words "maa'" (with) or "fi" (in....360 joints were created in the human body) would've been grammatically correct for this meaning.  In fact, the Prophet's statement

"خلق كل إنسان من بني ‏ ‏آدم ‏ ‏على ستين وثلاث مائة ‏ ‏مفصل"

would've said

خلق كل إنسان من بني ‏ ‏آدم

 MAA' (WITH)

 ستين وثلاث مائة ‏ ‏مفصل

And Allah Almighty Knows best.

 

I didn't have the Arabic Hadith available to me in the past:

I myself fell into the error of fully trusting the English translations.  I don't know if this can really be considered an error or not on my part, because, several years ago, I did not have the Arabic Hadith available to me, because the Arabic references in the Arabic sites are different from the translated ones, and I can't type Arabic to do a word search myself.  Plus, I was far too busy with writing literally 100s of Islamic articles on my web site, zealously defending Islam with the utmost zeal, and also meeting my commitments in my personal life.  So I never really had the room to spend the time to seek and find the Arabic Hadith.  So I basically had no choice but to put my trust in the English translations out there.  But the problem that I just recently discovered with the English translations is that they are badly inaccurate for this Hadith!  All of the ones that I saw thus far use the word WITH instead of UNTO, UPON or ON.  Ala in Arabic does not mean WITH, period!  Ask any Arabic Christian (not Muslim) and you'll still get my Muslim answer from him.

Anyway, I am glad that we're making a big progress regarding the issue of the 360 joints, because my foes on the net had made too much noise attacking me personally and Islam.  No one can meet all of the expectations all the time when he is way over committed in his life.  With my web site, which is by far the biggest Islam-defending site on the internet by Allah Almighty's Will, Mercy and Guidance; all praises are due to Him, and with my personal commitments in life, I don't always have the room to do the thorough researches and provide ample bibliography as I would like to.  In other words, I can't always do my homework as I would normally would under the given circumstances.  Most of my readings and research are limited to the Bible and the Noble Quran and some Hadiths, and they are far too big by themselves.  But I am glad that I am at least now able to shut the loud mouths of those anti-Islamics and to produce the evidence that clears Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, from any lie about him making scientific blunders.