Ibn al-Jawzi's al-Mawdu'at: When a Sahih Muslim Hadith Landed in the Book of Fabrications
Ibn al-Jawzi wrote Kitab al-Mawdu'at to purge forged hadiths — and swept in a report from Sahih Muslim and thirty-eight chains of Musnad Ahmad. Ibn Hajar wrote a formal defense, al-Suyuti re-tried every entry in al-La'ali al-Masnu'a, and one hadith collected every grade from sahih to forged. The texts of both sides, exactly as the books record them.
By John Shaqi · July 23, 2026 · 15 min read
A Hadith From Sahih Muslim, Filed Under Forgery
Baghdad, the closing years of the sixth Islamic century. Abu al-Faraj Ibn al-Jawzi — Hanbali jurist, historian, exegete, and the most famous preacher of Abbasid Baghdad — is compiling a book whose declared purpose is to protect the Sunna: Kitab al-Mawdu'at, "The Book of Fabrications." When the work is done, the common printed edition holds roughly 1,850 reports.
Among them sits one report that Imam Muslim, some three centuries earlier, had placed in the book the umma came to call simply "al-Sahih" — Sahih Muslim.
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