Prophetic affirmative Reported Statements Difference from his Sayings or Actions from the Perspective of Contradiction and Likelihood Weighting Approach

Abstract

This study addresses the issue of affirmative statements of Prophet Mohammed peace and blessings of Allah be upon him which differ from what he said or did in light of the contradiction and weighting approach, suggesting that such apparently few may exceed one hundred and fifty, as mentioned by Al-Hafiz Al-Ala’i. The study deals with affirmative Prophet's reported statements types,, authoritativeness, generality, specificity, Prophet's companions' sayings and Prophet's sayings and actions. The study also explains contradiction evidence, definition and occasions. It also discusses how such reported affirmative statements contradict with Prophet's sayings Sunnah, actions Sunnah and the way of dealing with it using examples. The study concluded that the topic of Prophetic reported statements was and is till under-researched. It was also revealed that instances of contradictory reported statements with Prophet's sayings and actions were abundant, over one hundred and fifty, as mentioned by Al-Hafiz Al-Ala’I, contrary to commonly held presumptions. Some scholars unjustifiably jumped to the conclusion of considering such contradictory statements as abrogated sayings of the Prophet peace be upon him.