The common link theory in hadith: A comparison between orientalists and Muslim scholars

Abstract

Joseph Schacht’s (d. 1969) Common-link Theory, together with its generalized conclusions, is a key theoretical framework used by most Western and some modern Muslim scholars of Islamic history. The theory proposes that a figure sitting as a common link in the chain of transmitters (isnād) is the one responsible for forging the names from him to the Prophet. In addition, the common link is responsible for bringing the particular hadith text (matn) and its isnād into existence. Thus, names prior to the common link until the Prophet are all fictitious. Muslim hadith critics as far back as the second century of Islam acknowledged the existence of common links in the isnād; however, their attitude towards it and their conclusion concerning it differed from Western hadith scholars’ interpretations.