Hey, that reminds me:
Would you be so kind as to give me a glimpse of your understanding of how Muslims usually relate to the Ahadith?
Ahadith seem to exist in a very ambiguous role.
On the one hand, any and all Muslims seem to be essentially free to disregard them as they please, since they are presumably not of divine origin and therefore nonbinding.
On the other hand, they do seem to be deemed necessary to provide specifics to many of the practices of Islaam.
My current impression is that for all practical purposes most Muslims end up adopting a set of Ahadith as their guides for practice, even if they can't really trust them anywhere near the extent that they presumably trust the Qu'ran.
Which Ahadith they choose to trust and which to reject is probably a hot subject that correlates strongly with other matters of controversy, although I expect a lot of less drastic variations to exist as well.
How accurate, if at all, does that sound?
Muslims and Non Muslims alike pick and choose some ahadith for their agenda.
Most Muslims around the world have never really read the ahadith. Mostly they listen to the hazrath or preacher at the mosque on a friday. Thats a fact.
And a lot of Muslims like to call themselves well versed in religion though they have not heard 7000 hadiths from a book that has 7100 ahadith. Do you understand what is happening?
Muslim preachers also pick and choose a few verses from the Quran to start on a topic. e.g. growing the beard. They will quote the Quran "Atiullah Atiul rasool", or follow Allah and follow the messenger. Then they will say ahadith is the way to follow the messenger, the messenger grew his beard and his companions grew the beard so you also must.
He has conveniently ignored a Quranic verse like, "Help a travelling alien or wayfarer" is part of the Muslims creed. What is more important in your eyes? Which verse? Help someone or grow the beard?
There is also a science to authenticate ahadith which is not really used in mosques when preaching. See the most authentic ahadith are called Mutawatir which means narrated by many. What will blow our minds that the most authentic or Mutawatir ahadith contradicts the Quran. The hadith says "I was told by God to fight till everyone says there is no god but God" while the Quran says "There is no compulsion in religion".
Anyway, Muslims dont really pick any ahadith for their faith. They simply follow the imam or preacher. And they dont know otherwise. Even scholars in Islam or Muhaddiths can never come to a proper conclusion on the way or actions of salat or prayer. Because they differ between stories or narrations. Even the preacher has never read through all the ahadiths. Never. He also has learnt from his teachers some particular ahadiths. Thats it.
Thus to answer your question in a nutshell, Muslims dont really pick, they follow those who have already done that.