Hadith Hermeneutics of Ṣalāḥuddīn bin Aḥmad al-Idlibī about Ᾱisyah’s Criticism for Abu Hurairah’s Narration

Abstract

Hermeneutics is an interpretive methodology used to understand a text, both the Qur'an and hadith. To some extent, it can also be functioned to analyze a person's understanding pattern. In this article, it is applied to evaluate the thoughts of a contemporary hadith scholar, namely Ṣalāḥuddīn bin Aḥmad al-Idlibī. He criticized Abu Hurairah by quoting a hadith from 'A'ishah about a corpse tortured because of her or his family's crying, and a hadith about matters that could invalidate prayers in the form of women, donkey and dogs. This research is library research with a descriptive-analytical and critical analysis approach. The theory used is Hans George Gadamer's Hermeneutic theory. This article concludes: first, the al-Idlibī’s hadith hermeneutics is influenced by the hadith development both in the past and present. Second, al-Idlibī's academic background was shaped by later orientalists who criticized Abu Hurairah's hadiths. Third, the criticism of al-Idlibī has a positive influence on the development of hadith scholarship, which has not been discussed too much by classical hadith scholars because they place more emphasis on the study of hadith sanad criticism.

Keywords

• Hermenutics of hadith
• criticism of Aisyah
• Abu Hurairah
• Ṣalāḥuddīn bin Aḥmad al-Idlibi