I have a hard time believing in some Hadiths

[mclinkin94]

Hello everyone, I am a new convert to Islam (its been 6 months, my faith is still not 100%) and I love the miraculous Quran and believe it 100%. I also believe in what the prophet said 100%, but I do not believe Hadiths in general are authentic. It is human nature to exaggerate certain things and put your own interpretations into a book. And the Hadiths are not preserved like the Quran, so is it necessary to fully trust Hadiths.

I know everything the prophet said is perfect, but I am sure they were exaggerated in the Hadiths.

I hate it when non-muslims use the Hadith to make criticisms. I feel like the hadiths are so elementary and the writters of the hadiths used some of their own knowledge to interpret what the prophet says and the hadiths honestly feel not-divine inspired (I know they aren't divine, but you can see that in the Hadiths).

I'm on a quest to increase my faith, I pray everyday that I find some more proof. Before I was a Muslim, I used to always go to answering-islam/answering-muslims because I really really wanted to prove Islam wrong and I wanted to read things that go against Islam. I was a really strong atheist and I was a Catholic Christian before that. I thank God every day that he has guided me, but I need more of a push-and its up to me to discover my faith. So I constantly browse the web (including Answering-Christianity). I don't know if I am entirely Muslim just yet, but I really want to believe. I feel like of all religions, Islam makes the most sense.  But I do have uncertainty in my heart and I pray that God would guide me. This uncertainty I am sure arises from Answering-Islam and people like David Wood. I am happy (thank God) that I found Answering-Christianity and I am grateful for brother Osama's work. 

But my current question is, should we really trust Hadiths? I trust in what the prophet said, but not the Hadiths. I know humans exaggerate and add information they think is right. The authors may also unintentionally put some of their false perceptions in the Hadiths (like their own interpretations, exaggerations, what they falsely know about science etc.).

[Tanveer]

How would you find out about how to pray without the hadith describing how the Prophet PBUH prayed? And really, I really dont see why people keep repeating it over and over again. We know not all hadiths are authentic. Thats why people like Bukhari memorised over 600, 000 sayings yet only authenticated 7200. The entire reason we had hadith scholars was to find the authentic sayings from the weak and fabricated sayings because the hadiths arent preserved by Allah. Whenever anyone quotes a hadith in an article I straight away go and check its authenticity if its not already given. We know some people are fond of using weak and fabricated hadith but does that mean we should throw away all the hard work done by people such as Imam Bukhari and Imam Muslim?

[zulfiqarchucknorris]

hadiths are a big contraversy in islam.
aurthentic hadiths, although second to the quran, should be followed, but look at this key word, AUTHENTIC, any hadith that cannot prove its authenticity, or is proven falso or even has a chance of being false would be considered weak or rejeted. They have a chain of transmitions, person A told person b who told person c... who heard the prohet say "....
if the chain of transmition doesnt reach the prophet it is cosiered broken, or if 2 cosecutive narrators didnt see each other, living in different places, and or different time, etc. the hadith is considered broken
if there is no chain of transmissions, the hadith is rejected
the hadith is also rejected if one of the people in the chain of transmissions is weak, people say that he is unreliable or that he is a liar, or not good at memorization etc.

in conclusion, hadiths are a good source of faith and should be studied and, if authentic, followed, however, we should do thid CAREFULLY, because there is that possibility that it could be forged and not authentic, in this case its rejected, only if it is proven authentic through detailed analysis then it could, and should, be followed.

a good strategy of the enemies of islam is to bring up a weak or fabricated hadith, to confuse muslims.
Also remember, event the best of hadith books, bukhar, muslims, etc. have some forged hadith, although less thaan the others, but still contain them, and even if some schoalrs say that they are 100% authentic, we should still be careful, only the quran is 100% authentic.

hoped i helped bro, and good luck
peace

[Sama]

Assalam alaikum

First of all let me congratulate you for becoming muslim despite visiting such sites 

They KNOW that they spread lies, but their intention is to misguide, so yes they do their job well.
Example: I'll keep my lies:
http://www.answering-christianity.com/quran/jochen_admitting_to_be_liar.htm

You are right of course "It is human nature to exaggerate certain things and put your own interpretations into a book. And the Hadiths are not preserved like the Quran"
That's the reason for development of a science to filter austhentic hadeeth as much as we can.

To be a source or authority of Islamic law, a hadith must be from the categories of sahih (authentic) or hasan (good). In order for a hadith to be authentic or good it must meet the following criteria:

1) The chain of narration must be unbroken. In other words, each source must have received the hadith directly from the one whose authority he is relating it all the way back to the Prophet peace be upon him. If there is any missing authority, the chain would be considered broken and unacceptable.

2) Every narrator in the chain must be of acceptable righteousness and character; in other words, each narrator must be morally fit. Impious people are not accepted, for their impiety is a sign that they don’t fear Allah and, hence, they can’t be trusted to take extreme care in narrating the statements of the Prophet peace be upon him. If just one narrator in the chain does not meet these criteria the hadith will have to be rejected.

3) Moral characteristics are not sufficient. Each narrator must be proficient and exact when it comes to narrating hadith. If a person is known to make lots of mistakes when narrating hadith either from his memory or from his writing, his hadith will not be acceptable.

4) Both the chain and the text of the hadith must be such that they don’t contradict what has been narrated through stronger means.

5) Upon inspection of the different ways a hadith is narrated, it must be the case that no mistake or defect is spotted in either the chain or the text of the hadith

If any of these conditions are not met, the hadith will be rejected as weak or very weak depending on the magnitude of the weakness.
Hadith which are graded weak or very weak are not considered authorities in Islamic law.

http://www.kalamullah.com/importance-of-the-sunnah.html

This topic may be confusing at first but with going to your local masjid, asking questions, reading books given in the link, this will be clear, inshhaaAllah.

[Tanveer]

Looking back on my reply, it looks quite rude. I apologise.