The Philologist's Use of Prophetic Traditions as Evidence

The Muslim scholars, philologists and rhetoricians are unanimous that the eloquence of the holy Prophet, peace be upon him and his household, is unparalleled and there is nothing like his style and discourse. To put it in other words, the speech of the Prophet is beneath the speech of God but above that of people in that it gathers the most comprehensive discourses and wonders of eloquence and rhetoric. These are many and abounding and, therefore, the excellences of the Prophet’s speech can neither be confined nor numbered. However, some scholars in Arabic philology are uncertain whether it is possible or not to turn to the holy Prophetic traditions for evidence.
This article is an attempt to study the views of those who show doubts concerning this issue and those who do not and discusses in detail the stand of the philologists on using the holy Prophet’s words as evidence indicating at the same time the many traditions they have included in their compositions, though due to the limited space of this article only some of them have been citied. The research comprises an introduction, two arguments and a conclusion.