This book addresses an important topic that has not been adequately studied and considered by Western academia: the “explanation of the Prophetic Hadith.” It approaches it in a manner different from that of modern Arab studies that have addressed this topic. It aims to establish a connection between the explanations of the Hadith and the political, social, and intellectual context in which the authors of these explanations lived, and which was an inevitable and inescapable influence upon them.
The approach he presents is based on studying the commentaries on Sahih al-Bukhari in three different regions and during three distinct historical periods. It also reviews the attention paid by political Islam groups to hadith commentaries in the present time. It also traces the continuities and changes that have occurred in these commentaries, as the tradition of commentary has moved from the era of manuscripts to the era of printing and then the era of video; from eras in which hadith commentators were connected to the ruling elite to eras in which they distanced themselves from political power; and from eras in which certain textual and institutional references were established that were indisputable in reality to eras in which it seemed possible to challenge these same references.