Contradictions and confusion are always there in the minds of common people like us. But again we have to divide these contradictions in two categories.
Contradictions which directly affect our core beliefs and we are answerable to God about these beliefs. These confusions should be cleared immediately. For example status of Hadees and Sunnah and its authoritativeness in Islam. Secondly, those which are not part of core Islamic beliefs and we will not be asked about these on judgment day. It’s not obligatory to resolve all these contradictions.
First I was not never interested in History never ever, I always believed and still believe Islam ends the day Messenger Muhammad (Peace be upon him) departed this world, after that whatever is associated with Islam, its man written history that can always be wrong. I don't know why I started reading on these books and now I feel that first thing every Muslim needs to do is read Quran with translation, ahadees should be secondary source if there is ever a need for it, but primarily Quran needs to be understood for its message, its purpose, its orders, its simple explanations of issues, its invitation and ahadees need to be read with that knowledge of Quran in mind. The confusion about core beliefs would be like Zulqarnain (A.S) and direction of his wall, do I need to know the exact direction NO I don't, Sahab e Kaaf and their number do I need to know their exact number NO I don't, what I need to know is direction of Qibla and Quran provides me with that. Simple........ religion is simple, why make it difficult with all these huge books of tafaseer and ahadess?