A recorded account or tradition reporting the words and deeds of the Prophet Muhammad, used in Islamic law and theology.
From Arabic 'hadīth' meaning 'something new' or 'narrative.' These accounts were initially oral, then systematically collected and authenticated by scholars in the 8th-9th centuries.
Imagine a game of telephone played for 200+ years but then scholars decided which versions were most accurate—that's basically the hadith system, and Islamic scholars developed sophisticated methods to authenticate them.
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