On the Authenticity of the Sirah

Most of the sirah is not found in the books of Hadith. The strictest works, Bukhari, Muslim, Abu Dawud, Tirmidhi, Nasaʾi, Ibn Majah, the Musnad of Ahmad, and the Muwattaʾ of Malik, are the foundation of creed and law. The books of sirah, such as those of Ibn Ishaq (d. 150 AH) and Ibn Saʿd (d. 230 AH), the two earliest we still possess, stand a degree below them in the rigour of their chains. There is no harm in relating a slightly weak report of a mere historical detail; but harm comes when a doubtful tale carries a false idea.

So it is with the story of the monk Baḥīrā. The discerning scholars, adh-Dhahabī above all, tested it and found it wanting, and warned against repeating it as fact. For across the centuries some people, even well-meaning ones, fabricated reports: one confessed to inventing a virtue for every Surah of the Qurʾan, hoping thereby to turn people back to the Book. From this danger grew the whole science of Hadith, the sifting of the sound (ṣaḥīḥ) from the weak (ḍaʿīf) from the fabricated (mawḍūʿ).

The lesson is the one the Prophet's ﷺ life teaches at every turn: we have no need to embellish. He is the best of creation, and the truth about him, that he was born as other children are, orphaned young, raised in the desert, unlettered yet given revelation, is more than enough. To add fables only dishonours what needs no adorning, and gives the religion a name it does not deserve.