Did Muhammad Really Say That?

Over the centuries, however, weak classifications have not stopped some Muslims from invoking some sayings for political purposes. Others have interpreted sound hadith in ways that many Muslims find inconsistent with other Islamic teachings. Such practices continue today.

Consider the dispute around a hadith that says, "A woman may not lead a man in prayer, nor may a Bedouin lead Muhammad's followers or a corrupt person lead a committed Muslim in prayer."

Sheikh Muhammad Nur Abdullah, president of the Indianapolis-based Islamic Society of North America, last year cited the first third of that hadith in a paper arguing against women as prayer leaders in mixed-gender congregations.

Taylor of the Progressive Muslim Union, who supports women-led prayer, argued that the hadith suffers from a weak chain of narrators and is a racist text out of step with Islam's racial egalitarianism. It was "hypocritical," she said, to use a hadith knowing it was weak.

Abdullah acknowledged that the hadith is "weak," but said he used it only to support other hadith to make his case. He also denied it was racist.

Sound narrations that some see as inconsistent with the Koran, or that don't fit Muhammad's image as fair and compassionate, can be even more problematic.

For example, in several hadith collected by Bukhari, Muhammad orders adulterers to be stoned to death, although the Koran prescribes a punishment of up to 100 lashes. In recent years, Islamic courts in Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Nigeria have handed down death sentences in some adultery cases, although it is unclear how many have been carried out.

"There are some that show him merciful and there are some that show him otherwise," said Shahed Amanullah, editor of the online magazine altmuslim.com. "People are asking, 'How can you have these contradictions?' So something is wrong, and someone needs to resolve that."

Saida Malik, a retired federal worker, took matters into her own hands 40 years ago as a young woman in Pakistan when she picked up an Islamic magazine that advocated rejecting any hadith that seemed inconsistent with the Koran or Muhammad's character.

Malik, who immigrated to Hyattsville almost 30 years ago, said she's still skeptical about the hadith, partly because they were collected by men.

"It's my iman ," Malik, 66, said, using the Arabic word for faith, "that he would not have given unreasonable, idiotic advice, which the hadith books are full of."

Some scholars, however, warn against simply dismissing troubling sayings and suggest a better response is to reinterpret the texts.