The Critical Review of Robson's article "criticism of Hadith" in the Encyclopedia of Islam

The entry criticism of hadith is one of the most important and principal articles that contains rich information and has been placed in the third volume of the encyclopedia of Islam.The author has been partly successful in dealing with the main issue of hadith. However, he has provided issues with regard to the genesis of hadith, collection of hadith, assemblage of hadith texts, criticism of hadith, level and stage of authenticity of an authentic hadith, and information concerning the science of hadith and science of studying hadith text that need to examine critically. In particular, the section on “criticism of hadith” in Robson’s paper contains faults that cannot be ignored easily. The present paper attempts to explain those issues and to point out those that are in need of further explanations.