Isra'iliyyat

Israʾiliyyat are reports transmitted in exegesis and in stories from the People of the Book, Jews and Christians. Muhammad Rashid Rida holds that most of what entered the transmitted material of exegesis came through this channel. He reports rules for accepting, rejecting or suspending judgement on them from Ibn Taymiyya and Ahmad ibn Hanbal ¹.

Rida quotes Ibn Taymiyya that what cannot be distinguished as sound or weak is largely of no benefit and not needed, such as people's disagreement over the colour of the dog of the People of the Cave or the name of the boy whom al-Khidr killed. He says that what is reported as sound from the Prophet ﷺ is accepted, and that what is reported from the People of the Book whose origin is not known is suspended, neither affirmed nor denied, since it may have been altered or may have been preserved ².

Rida quotes Imam Ahmad's statement that exegesis, the epic battles and the campaigns have no basis. He explains it as meaning that reports in these fields are mostly incomplete chains, and holds that this does not mean nothing sound is found in them ².

Rida holds that most of the transmitted material in exegesis is a veil over the aims of the Qur'an, and that useful reports should be collected in separate books with their chains of transmission, and that only what is sound should be cited in the exegesis. This is his own view ^{2 3}.

The academic study of how the Israʾiliyyat arose and spread has not yet been added, nor the views of other exegetes on how to classify them.