Debating Authority and Authenticity in Modern South Asian Hadith Commentaries: Muḥammad Zakariyyā Kāndhalawī’s Awjaz al-masālik

This chapter addresses modern South Asian debates on authority, authenticity and the question of unity and diversity. It examines modern DeobandÄ« ḤanafÄ« commentators, and notes that they do not follow the lead of the twelfth-/eighteenth-century reformer and hadith scholar, ShÄh WalÄ« AllÄh of Delhi (1114–1176/1703–1762), to reconcile legal differences in the service of a unified, ecumenical approach to the normative order. Rather, DeobandÄ« ḤanafÄ« scholars used both ‘content based’ (matn) and ‘transmission-based’ (isnÄd) forms of criticism to display their interpretive excellences and to defend the ḤanafÄ« tradition against criticism from SalafÄ« detractors.