I was just reading JRR Tolkien saying in another context (Beowulf) about how our forebears may not have had the breadth of cultural resource or comparative faculty that we do, but they meditated long and hard on what they did have and everything was full of mysteries. This book contains a classical text on the hadith that is good because it's a Shi'a take and their whole deal is way healthier and more sensible than the "everything ended in the 10th century; let's go on being dicks" that (if my sources can be trusted) is the main stream of Sunni jurisprudence; for all that, though, the endless lists of reputable reporters and classes of invalid hadith and criteria upon which they may be judged - you know, like you could just say "consistency" or "utility" and leave it at that, but dude has to break it all down, down down. Obsessives like this built civilization and all, but we're too civilized to need civilization now, amirite? Also, you can't really tell the difference between the old text and the modern one at a glance, and okay, they were translated by the same person, but that's still never a great sign. ( )