Editing Muhammad (section)

===Hadith===
{{Main|Hadith}}
[[File:PERF No. 732.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|Early manuscript of the ''[[Muwatta Imam Malik|Muwatta]]'' of [[Malik ibn Anas]], dated within his lifetime {{circa|780|lk=no}}.<ref name=":0" />{{Reference page|page=114}}]]
Other important sources include the [[hadith]] collections, accounts of verbal and physical teachings and traditions attributed to Muhammad. Hadiths were compiled several generations after his death by Muslims including [[Muhammad al-Bukhari]], [[Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj]], [[Muhammad ibn Isa at-Tirmidhi]], [[Al-Nasa'i|Abd ar-Rahman al-Nasai]], [[Abu Dawood]], [[Ibn Majah]], [[Malik ibn Anas]], [[al-Daraqutni]].<ref name="Lewis1993">{{Cite book |last=Lewis |first=Bernard |author-link=Bernard Lewis |title=Islam and the West |title-link=Islam and the West |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=1993 |isbn=978-0195090611 |pages=33–34}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Jonathan |first=A. C. Brown |author-link=Jonathan A. C. Brown |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nyMKDEAb4GsC&pg=PA9 |title=The Canonization of al-Bukhārī and Muslim: The Formation and Function of the Sunnī Ḥadīth Canon |publisher=Brill |year=2007 |isbn=978-90-04-15839-9 |page=9 |quote=We can discern three strata of the Sunni ḥadīth canon. The perennial core has been the ''Ṣaḥīḥayn''. Beyond these two foundational classics, some fourth-/tenth-century scholars refer to a four-book selection that adds the two ''Sunans'' of Abū Dāwūd (d. 275/889) and al-Nāsaʾī (d. 303/915). The Five Book canon, which is first noted in the sixth/twelfth century, incorporates the ''Jāmiʿ'' of al-Tirmidhī (d. 279/892). Finally, the Six Book canon, which hails from the same period, adds either the ''Sunan'' of Ibn Mājah (d. 273/887), the ''Sunan'' of al-Dāraquṭnī (d. 385/995) or the ''Muwaṭṭaʾ'' of Mālik b. Anas (d. 179/796). Later ḥadīth compendia often included other collections as well. None of these books, however, has enjoyed the esteem of al-Bukhārīʼs and Muslimʼs works.}}</ref>

Muslim scholars have typically placed a greater emphasis on the hadith instead of the biographical literature, since hadith maintain a traditional chain of transmission ({{tlit|ar|[[isnad]]}}); the lack of such a chain for the biographical literature makes it unverifiable in their eyes.{{sfn|Ardic|2012|p=99}} The hadiths generally present an idealized view of Muhammad.<ref name="Görke2020">{{Cite encyclopedia |year=2020 |title=The Wiley Blackwell Concise Companion to the Hadith |publisher=Wiley |last=Görke |first=Andreas |editor-last=Brown |editor-first=Daniel W. |pages=75–90 |doi=10.1002/9781118638477.ch4 |isbn=978-1-118-63851-4}}</ref> Western scholars have expressed skepticism regarding the verifiability of these chains of transmission. It is widely believed by Western scholars that there was widespread fabrication of hadith during the early centuries of Islam to support certain theological and legal positions,<ref name="Brown2020" /><ref name="Görke2020" /> and it has been suggested that it is "very likely that a considerable number of {{tlitn|ar|hadiths}} that can be found in the {{tlitn|ar|hadith}} collections did not actually originate with the Prophet".<ref name="Görke2020" /> In addition, the meaning of a hadith may have drifted from its original telling to when it was finally written down, even if the chain of transmission is authentic.<ref name="Hoyland2007">{{Cite journal |last=Hoyland |first=Robert |year=2007 |title=Writing the Biography of the Prophet Muhammad: Problems and Solutions |journal=History Compass |volume=5 |issue=2 |pages=581–602 |doi=10.1111/j.1478-0542.2007.00395.x |issn=1478-0542}}</ref> Overall, some Western academics have cautiously viewed the hadith collections as accurate historical sources,<ref name="Lewis1993" /> while the "dominant paradigm" in Western scholarship is to consider their reliability suspect.<ref name="Brown2020">{{Cite encyclopedia |year=2020 |title=The Wiley Blackwell Concise Companion to the Hadith |publisher=Wiley |last=Brown |first=Daniel W. |editor-last=Brown |editor-first=Daniel W. |pages=39–56 |doi=10.1002/9781118638477.ch2 |isbn=978-1-118-63851-4 |chapter=Western Hadith Studies}}</ref> Scholars such as [[Wilferd Madelung]] do not reject the hadith which have been compiled in later periods, but judge them in their historical context.{{sfn|Madelung|1997|pp=xi, 19–20}}