How can weak hadith be told apart from strong ones?

Scholars examined every link in the chain of narrators with great care. The surest standard, however, is the Holy Qur’an itself. Whatever contradicts it cannot be right, and an interpretation must stand up to the sense of right and wrong that God has given to all people.

Scholars have taken two approaches. The first is to examine the chain of narrators. For each link one asks how trustworthy the narrator was, what his character was like, what views he held and whether he had motives of his own. The early scholars did this with astonishing care and wrote whole books about the narrators.

This work is difficult. Anyone who searches closely enough will find a weakness somewhere in many chains. This divided the scholars. Some overlook small flaws and follow everything that passes as a hadith. Others go to the opposite extreme. Because some narrators were unreliable, they reject all hadith and want to follow the Holy Qur’an alone.

A simpler and more convincing standard is the one the Holy Qur’an itself provides. God’s word does not contradict itself, as the first verse above says. So a report or interpretation that contradicts the Holy Qur’an cannot be right. The Holy Qur’an must support itself.

And if two sides each appeal to verses? Then a further standard helps. God has given man the ability to tell right from wrong. All people have this gift, whether Muslims, Christians, Jews, Hindus or Sikhs. A correct interpretation must stand up to this deep sense. Where it fails, the fault lies with the interpreter, not with the Holy Qur’an.

This care has a serious reason. The Holy Prophet Muhammad (saw) strongly warned against attributing to him anything he did not say. That is why every report is examined before it is followed.