Reframing Hadith Authority in Contemporary Muslim Societies: Between Classical Transmission and Public Religious Interpretation

Abstract

The transformation of religious authority has become a central concern in contemporary Islamic studies, particularly as classical forms of scholarly legitimacy encounter new interpretive environments shaped by hermeneutical developments and digital public spheres. This article examines how hadith authority is constructed, negotiated, and transformed between classical systems of transmission and contemporary forms of religious interpretation. Employing a qualitative historical-hermeneutical and textual analysis approach, this study examines classical hadith epistemology, modern Islamic hermeneutical approaches, and contemporary discussions on religious authority to analyze the interaction between transmission, interpretation, and public recognition. The findings demonstrate that classical hadith authority was not established solely through textual preservation but through interconnected processes of isnād-based transmission, epistemic validation, scholarly recognition, and interpretive communities. The study further reveals that contemporary transformations have shifted the basis of legitimacy from transmission-centered authority toward a more complex configuration involving contextual interpretation, ethical reasoning, digital accessibility, and public negotiation. Rather than replacing classical authority, contemporary developments reconfigure the mechanisms through which hadith becomes recognized as authoritative. This article contributes theoretically by proposing the concept of reframed hadith authority, which conceptualizes religious authority as a dynamic process involving the continuous interaction between inherited epistemological traditions, hermeneutical engagement, and social legitimacy. The study advances hadith studies and Islamic hermeneutics by moving beyond the binary opposition between preservation and modernization, demonstrating that contemporary hadith authority emerges through ongoing negotiation between tradition and changing social contexts.