Reposte!

Hola,
The senior thesis I read in its entirety was a textual analysis of
Islamic religious texts, namely the plethora of Hadith attributed to
the Prophet Muhammed. Hadith essentially means "sayings of" and this
paper was basically a refutation of the Hadith in terms of its validity
to the Muslim faith.
The author, Shannon Capezzali, is of the mind that the Hadith
compilations, of which there are six "authoritative" versions, are in
fact not a legitimate supplement to the Quran, the revelatory book of
Islam. Rather, she claims that they are a disparate mishmash of dubious
sayings attributed to Mohammed that in fact have little grounding when
compared to the actual teachings of the Quran. She states that the
Quran itself was "revealed" to Muhammed, and from that revelation there
were to be no others. It is complete in and of itself, and needs no
outside assistance to clarify its teachings, and certainly needs
nothing that would actually refute the claims within it.
Capezzali's textual analysis of the Hadith centers on the myraid and
contradictory Hadiths in circulation within the Muslim faith, as she
deconstructs the supposedly scientific manner in which they were
accumulated (often decades or centuries after the Prophets death).
Hadith science itself was based upon the honesty, integrity and sound
memory(or lack thereof) of the sources from which the sayings were
derived, and not on the internal consistency between sayings and
external consistency with the Quran, the only message by which Mohammed
is absolutely assured of delivering. She goes on to say that the very
reification of Mohammed's Hadiths goes against the most powerful
injunction in Islam, that of worshipping other sources other than the
Quran. She argues that the Hadiths (like any text) can justify whatever
the person viewing them wants to hear, and have been used to legitimize
violent, ridiculous, and un-Islamic beliefs and actions.
I chose this thesis because I intend to delve into religious studies in
the course of my career, and it is useful to read previous research on
the subject. I have a basic understanding of Muslim faith, and am
trying to see further into the controversies surrounding the world's
second largest religion. During the reign of the Abbasd Empire in the
Middle Ages,the Middle East was at the pinnacle of its military,
scientific, and cultural prowess. During that time, it is claimed that
the doors of ijtihad (interpretation) of religious texts such as the
Quran, Hadith, or Sunna, were closed, ie. religious scholars had
already cannonized and codified every single text for every peice of
information possible and there was no need for the layperson to inquire
further. This is obviously a) wrong, and b) an oversimplification, but
it is an important aspect to know as to why Islam is where it is.
Capezzali's thesis continues in the spirit of modern scholars who
reject the end of interpretation and are actively trying to present
their faith in an interesting new light.
Anthony