Exposing Islam

The Chains That Bind: How Fabricated Isnads Retro-Legitimized Islamic Laws and Rituals

💣 Summary Bomb:

The hadith system was reverse-engineered. Instead of transmitting what Muhammad said, it retroactively put words in his mouth to justify evolving doctrines, laws, and rituals. The tool? Fabricated isnads—chains of narration forged to give legitimacy to newly invented rulings.

1. The Problem: Muhammad Didn’t Leave a Legal System

After Muhammad's death (632 CE), there was:

No compiled Qur’an
No recorded Sunnah
No formal legal system
No centralized religious authority

The early Muslim community was politically fractured, doctrinally fluid, and culturally Arabian, not yet “Islamic” in the formal sense. This was a vacuum of authority—a perfect storm for legal innovation under the guise of revelation.

2. The Invention of the Isnād System

By the late 8th century, Islamic identity had crystallized around Sharia. But Sharia needed prophetic endorsement.

The solution? Isnād (chains of narration).

Each hadith began to come with a long list of names:

"X heard from Y, who heard from Z, who heard from the Prophet..."

This gave the illusion of an unbroken chain from Muhammad to the jurist.

But here’s the twist: the isnād came after the content. It was often fabricated to retro-authorize a hadith that served some doctrinal or political function.

🔍 Islamic scholar G.H.A. Juynboll showed that many early isnāds were “back-projected” to anchor evolving ideas in prophetic authority.

3. The Function of Forged Isnads

✅ Invent Law, Then Build a Chain

Want to ban music? Just attribute a condemnation of music to the Prophet.
Need to justify a tax? Create a hadith with a chain leading to Muhammad.
Trying to suppress dissent? Say Muhammad cursed those who disobey rulers.

The isnād was the stamp of divine approval on state policy.

✅ Normalize Rituals

Many rituals—prayer positions, fasting details, funeral rites—were diverse or undefined in the first century. But under Abbasid control, they were:

Standardized
Codified in hadiths
Retro-legitimized with isnāds

The result? Every practice was made to look like it came from Muhammad himself.

4. Massive Evidence of Forgery

🔥 Even Muslim Scholars Admitted It

Al-Bukhari sifted through over 600,000 hadiths—accepting only ~7,000 (many duplicates).
He and Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj admitted that most hadiths were fabrications, even with chains.
Al-Daraqutni and Ibn Hajar later found flaws in “Sahih” isnads themselves.

Why the flood of fakes?

Motives for Fabrication:

Source	Purpose of Fabrication
Abbasid rulers	Enforce loyalty, ban rebellion, centralize power
Legal schools (e.g. Hanafi, Shafi'i)	Justify legal doctrines post hoc
Sufi mystics	Support esoteric practices
Sectarian rivals (Shi’a vs. Sunni)	Each group “proved” their view with hadith
Ascetics	Promote moral behavior through fear/reward hadiths
Cultural conservatives	Outlaw practices like music, chess, or philosophy

5. Examples of Retro-Legislation via Isnads

🔸 Hadith: “He who rebels against the ruler has rebelled against God.”

Used by Abbasid and later Umayyad caliphs
Isnād traced to loyalist companions
Invented to suppress dissent after civil wars (esp. fitnas)

🔸 Hadiths on 5 Daily Prayers

Qur’an mentions three times, not five
Isnād-supported hadiths added two more
Created to standardize practice in the second century

🔸 Hadith: “Whoever innovates in this religion… is cursed.”

Used to freeze the doctrine and criminalize rival interpretations
Yet ironically, the hadith itself was a late innovation

6. The Dead Giveaway: Isnads Got Longer Over Time

In the earliest texts, hadiths had no isnād or just one or two names. But by the 9th century:

Chains became absurdly long
Every narrator was vetted post hoc
This was theological theater—a way to manufacture certainty

The longer the chain, the more suspicious it should have been—but instead, it gave the opposite illusion of authenticity.

7. Why It Worked

Because the audience couldn't verify any narrator. They accepted the chain based on:

Reputation of the compiler (e.g., Bukhari)
Social pressure to obey “God’s Messenger”
Political consequences for questioning canon

It transformed hearsay into divine decree.

🚫 Logical Implosion: This Is Not Transmission—It’s Fabrication

If the content preceded the chain, and the chain was built to retrofit new laws and rituals, then the entire hadith system is:

Not eyewitness testimony
Not prophetic record
A post-prophetic construction to consolidate power

This makes modern Islamic law, ritual, and theology dependent on reverse-engineered fictions.