I wrote this and just put it on arXiv, sharing for the discussion. When statements spread through long chains of people — some reliable, some not — you can't trust a claim just because it sounds right. Islamic scholars faced this centuries ago and built one of history's most rigorous systems for verifying transmitted knowledge: every claim carries its full chain of transmitters (isnād), every transmitter is graded on integrity and precision (rijāl), the chain is only as strong as its weakest l...