Assessing the Documentation Validity and Performing a Content Analysis on the Hadith “There Is no Pretense in Fasting

There is a hadith narrated from the Prophet (pbuh) with different wordings but with a single focus, based on which the risk of pretense for fasting is nullified. This hadith comes from a number of hadith books from Sunni sources; however, it has been mentioned in some Shiite hadith sources as well. The evaluation of the documentation behind this hadith encounters challenges in its genealogy, as well as problems with regards to the trustworthiness of some of the narrators of this hadith, causing this hadith to be considered among those with weak documentation. However, the point that is more important than the documentation of this hadith is the content and text of the hadith. Besides the weakness in this hadith due to the fact that it is somewhat in contradiction to the Holy Quran, the formation of the family of this hadith challenges its validity to a large extent. There are numerous valid hadiths which emphasize the risk of pretense in doing various religious rituals of Islam including fasting in order to warn the believers not to fall into the trap of this sin. The current study utilizes an analytical - descriptive method based on library studies and available documents to shed some light on some of the suspicions with regards to the documentation and content validity of this hadith.