Hadith Transmission is not like Chinese Whispers / the Telephone Game
بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
There is a popular attack given on hadith as well as orally transmitted history in general (even outside of Islamic civilization) that it is unreliable because it is like the telephone game (also known as Chinese whispers). For those unfamiliar, the telephone game is when a group (usually of children) sit in a circle. Then, someone starts off with a message and whispers it into the ear of the next person. That person then whispers it into the ear of the next person, and so on until the circle is complete and the last person says the message out loud. It is then compared to the original message, and usually totally off. This supposedly proves how oral transmission is unreliable.