In a frank and insightful discussion Professor Brown lays out the contemporary context Muslims face when we read the hadith collections and the Quran. A must watch!
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Blogging Theology 
I heard the whole thing.
Very good talk….insightful…and hits the mark on many issues.
One point that needs to be cleared up….sunnah and hadith should not be conflated….but I know that he did not have the time to elaborate.
There is some overlap but the two are not identical as most Muslims, including scholars, unfortunately think.
Regarding the example of prayer…even it there was no hadith books in mosques of the Muslim world as there weren’t for a thousand years or so after the Prophet, people would still know in general how to pray because of the Sunnah.
Sunnah is the regular act of the Prophet that his contemporaries and all subsequent generations have been doing.
The hadith are very helpful as a cross check on the sunnah….on this (Sunnah) form of prayer that has been passed down from parents to their children and so on down the generations and what each generation will see in action on display at the Kaaba and mosques they go to.
However, even there were no hadith books and no hadith scholars, people would still in good measure know the form of the Prophet’s prayer.
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very good points Omer.
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Thanks for the compliment Paul. 🙂
Jonathan Brown is mashallah brilliant. I did not read his Misquoting Muhammad book but I have read his Hadith: Muhammad’s Legacy in the Medieval and Modern and I read a few chapters several times.
I hope everyone reads all his books…it should be translated in all major languages of the Muslim world and be required reading in the Muslim seminary schools.
But I don’t know if even Professor Brown has reflected on the distinction between Sunnah and Hadith…he does not explain the distinction and on multiple occasions, he says (wrongly as explained above) that we need hadith to know how to pray.
But I am greatly indebted to him for increasing my understanding of the discipline of hadith in many ways….and reading his books is just plain fun…he is blessed to write clearly.
By the way, a very helpful series of very brief articles (or answers to questions) on distinction between hadith and sunnah can be seen at
http://www.exploring-islam.com/difference-between-sunnah-and-hadith.html
It is from Abdur Raheem, a scholar based in the UK.
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