Kitab Al Sunna Attributed To Abdullah An Analysis
Author: Not specified
The Attribution, Methodology, and Content of Kitāb al-Sunna
This comprehensive analysis challenges the contemporary circulation of Kitāb al-Sunna, attributed to ʿAbdullāh ibn Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal (d. 290 AH), as an authoritative Sunni creedal source, identifying three fundamental deficiencies: dubious attribution, anthropomorphic theology, and polemical distortion.
Authenticity and Transmission
Multiple manuscript recensions exist without scholarly consensus on textual integrity or stemmatic relationships. Critical examination of the Ẓāhiriyya manuscript—a primary witness utilised by modern editors—exposes fatal problems in its transmission chain (isnād) to ʿAbdullāh ibn Aḥmad. The key transmitters include Abū ʿAbdullāh Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Harawī who remains unidentified in biographical literature, bearing majhūl status that renders the entire transmission epistemologically compromised according to classical ḥadīth methodology.
The transmission through Abū Ismāʿīl ʿAbdullāh al-Anṣārī (d. 481 AH) further compromises reliability, given his documented imprecision in narrating, controversial theological positions, and affirmation of al-Ḥallāj's statements. This transmission instability, combined with interpolations and variant readings across manuscripts, undermines attributive claims and places such works within a broader pattern of pseudepigraphical (the false attribution of authorship to a written work) creedal literature.
Comparative Analysis: Parallel Cases of Misa