A Study of the Motive and the Chain of Transmission of the Narrations Related on the Prophet's Mistake (in His Ritual Prayer) in the Hadith Corpuses of Sunnis

One of the differences of beliefs between Shi''ites and Sunnis isthe question whether the Prophet made a mistake or not. There have been related some narrations from Shi''ites and Sunnis according to which all Sunni and some Shi''ite scholars consider the narrations on the Prophet''s mistake as sound and genuine hadiths and in consequence، they bring into question the whole infallibility of the Holy Prophet. These narrations are in three subjects: The Prophet''s mistake in ritual prayer، remaining asleep for his morning prayer، and his wrong guidance about thepollination of date trees. In this article، onlythe motive and the chain of transmission of the narrations related by Sunnis on the prophet''s mistake in his ritual prayer are discussed. It is proved that the forgers of such hadiths have had no purpose except to degrade the personality of the Prophet and bring him to the level of the caliphs. For they argue that if the Prophet have made a mistake، it would be easy to justify the mistakes of the caliph. Anyway، we prove that the holy presence of the Prophet is above any mistake and falsehood. Furthermore، all narrations in question، have weakness in their chains of transmission.