An Introduction to the Sciences of Hadith

An Introduction to the Sciences of Hadith
Shaykh Suhayb Hasan hafidhahullaah
Published by Dar-as-Salam

CONTENTS
FOREWORD
SECTION A: INTRODUCTION
A brief history of Mustalah al-Hadith
Mustalah al-Hadith (the Classification of Hadith)
Rijal al-Hadith (the study of the reporters of Hadith)
SECTION B: THE CLASSIFICATION OF HADITH
According to the reference to a particular authority
According to the links in the isnad
According to the number of reporters in each stage of the isnad
According to the manner in which the hadith is reported
According to the nature of the text and isnad
According to a hidden defect found in the isnad or text of a hadith
According to the reliability and memory of the reporters
SECTION C: FURTHER BRANCHES OF MUSTALAH AND RIJAL
APPENDIX: Verdicts on the ahadith mentioned in the Foreword
FOOTNOTES

Click here to read

FOREWORD
All Praise be to Allah, Lord of the Worlds. Peace and blessings of Allah be upon our Prophet Muhammad, and on his family and companions.
"We have undoubtedly sent down the Reminder, and We will truly preserve it." (Al-Qur'an, Surah al-Hijr, 15:9)
The above promise made by Allah is obviously fulfilled in the undisputed purity of the Qur'anic text throughout the fourteen centuries since its revelation. However, what is often forgotten by many Muslims is that the above divine promise also includes, by necessity, the Sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad (may Allah bless him and grant him peace), for it is the practical example of the implementation of the Qur'anic guidance, the Wisdom taught to the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) along with the Scripture, and neither the Qur'an nor the Sunnah can be understood correctly without recourse to the other.
Hence, Allah preserved the Qur'an from being initially lost by the martyrdom of its memorisers, by guiding the Rightly-Guided Caliphs, endorsed by the consensus of the Messenger's Companions (may Allah bless him and grant him peace and may He be pleased with them), to compile the ayat (signs, miracles, "verses") of the Qur'an into one volume, after these had been scattered in writing on various materials and in memory amongst many faithful hearts. He safeguarded it from corruption by its enemies: disbelievers, heretics, and false prophets, by enabling millions of believers to commit it to memory with ease. He protected its teachings by causing thousands of people of knowledge to learn from its deep treasures and convey them to the masses, and by sending renewers of His Deen at the beginning of every century.
Similarly, Allah preserved the Sunnah by enabling the Companions and those after them (may Allah be pleased with them) to memorise, write down and pass on the statements of the Messenger (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) and the descriptions of his Way, as well as to continue the blessings of practising the Sunnah. Later, as the purity of the knowledge of the Sunnah became threatened, Allah caused the Muslim nation to produce outstanding individuals of incredible memory-skills and analytical expertise, who journeyed tirelessly to collect hundreds of thousands of narrations and distinguish the true words of precious wisdom of their Messenger (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) from those corrupted by weak memories, from forgeries by unscrupulous liars, and from the statements of the enormous number of 'ulama', the Companions and those who followed their way, who had taught in various centres of learning and helped to transmit the legacy of Muhammad (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) - all of this achieved through precise attention to the words narrated and detailed familiarity with the biographies of the thousands of reporters of Hadith. Action being the best way to preserve teachings, the renewers of Islam also revived the practice of the blessed authentic Sunnah.
Unfortunately however, statements will continue to be attributed to the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) although the person quoting them may have no idea what the people of knowledge of Hadith have ruled regarding those ahadith, thus ironically being in danger of contravening the Prophet's widely-narrated stern warnings about attributing incorrect/unsound statements to him. For example, here are some very commonly-quoted ahadith, which actually vary tremendously in their degree of authenticity from the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace):
1) "Surah al-Ikhlas is worth a third of the Qur'an."
2) The hadith about the Ninety-Name Names of Allah.
3) Allah says, "I was a hidden treasure, and I wished to be known, so I created a creation (mankind), then made Myself known to them, and they recognised Me."
4) Allah says, "Were it not for you (O Muhammad), I would not have created the universe."
5) When Allah completed creation, He wrote in a Book (which is) with Him, above His Throne, "Verily, My Mercy will prevail over My Wrath."
6) Allah says, "Neither My heaven nor My earth can contain Me, but the heart of My believing slave can contain Me."
7) "He who knows himself, knows his Lord."
8) "Where is Allah?"
9) "Love of one's homeland is part of Faith."
10) "I have left amongst you two things which, if you hold fast to them, you will never stray: the Book of Allah, and my Sunnah."
11) "I have left among you that which if you abide by, you will never go astray: the Book of Allah, and my Family, the Members of my House."
12) The hadith giving ten Companions, by name, the good tidings of Paradise.
13) "If the iman (faith) of Abu Bakr was weighed against the iman of all the people of the earth, the former would outweigh the latter."
14) "I am the City of Knowledge, and 'Ali is its Gate."
15) "My companions are like the stars: whichever of them you follow, you will be guided."
16) "The differing amongst my Ummah is a mercy."
17) "My Ummah will split up into seventy-three sects: seventy-two will be in the Fire, and one in the Garden."
18) Prophecies about the coming of the Mahdi (the guided one), Dajjal (the False Christ, the Anti-Christ) and the return of Jesus Christ son of Mary.
19) Description of punishment and bliss in the grave, for the wicked and pious people respectively.
20) Intercession by the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace), and the believers seeing Allah, on the Day of Judgment.
21) "Paradise is under the feet of mothers."
22) "Paradise is under the shade of swords."
23) "Seeking knowledge is a duty upon every Muslim."
24) "Seek knowledge, even if you have to go to China."
25) "The ink of the scholar is holier than the blood of the martyr."
26) "We have returned from the lesser Jihad to the greater Jihad (i.e. the struggle against the evil of one's soul)."
The methodology of the expert scholars of Hadith in assessing such narrations and sorting out the genuine from the mistaken/fabricated etc., forms the subject-matter of a wealth of material left to us by the muhaddithun (scholars of Hadith, "traditionists"). This short treatise is a humble effort to introduce this extremely wide subject to English readers. The author has derived great benefit from the outstanding scholarly work in this field, Muqaddimah Ibn al-Salah.
A brief explanation of the verdicts from the experts in this field on the above ahadith is given in the Appendix.
We ask Allah to accept this work, and make it beneficial to its readers.
SECTION A : INTRODUCTION
The Muslims are agreed that the Sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) is the second of the two revealed fundamental sources of Islam, after the Glorious Qur'an. The authentic Sunnah is contained within the vast body of Hadith literature. 1
A hadith (pl. ahadith) is composed of two parts: the matn (text) and the isnad (chain of reporters). A text may seem to be logical and reasonable but it needs an authentic isnad with reliable reporters to be acceptable; 'Abdullah b. al-Mubarak (d. 181 AH), one of the illustrious teachers of Imam al-Bukhari, said, "The isnad is part of the religion: had it not been for the isnad, whoever wished to would have said whatever he liked." 2
During the lifetime of the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) and after his death, his Companions (Sahabah) used to refer to him directly, when quoting his sayings. The Successors (Tabi'un) followed suit; some of them used to quote the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) through the Companions while others would omit the intermediate authority - such a hadith was later known as mursal. It was found that the missing link between the Successor and the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) might be one person, i.e. a Companion, or two people, the extra person being an older Successor who heard the hadith from the Companion. This is an example of how the need for the verification of each isnad arose; Imam Malik (d. 179) said, "The first one to utilise the isnad was Ibn Shihab al- Zuhri" (d. 124).3 The other more important reason was the deliberate fabrication of ahadith by various sects which appeared amongst the Muslims, in order to support their views (see later, under discussion of maudu' ahadith). Ibn Sirin (d. 110), a Successor, said, "They would not ask about the isnad. But when the fitnah (trouble, turmoil, esp.civil war) happened, they said: Name to us your men. So the narrations of the Ahl al-Sunnah (Adherents to the Sunnah) would be accepted, while those of the Ahl al-Bid'ah (Adherents to Innovation) would not be accepted."4
A brief history of Mustalah al-Hadith
As time passed, more reporters were involved in each isnad, and so the situation demanded strict discipline in the acceptance of ahadith; the rules regulating this discipline are known as Mustalah al-Hadith (the Classification of Hadith).
Amongst the early traditionists (muhaddithin, scholars of Hadith), the rules and criteria governing their study of Hadith were meticulous but some of their terminology varied from person to person, and their principles began to be systematically written down, but scattered amongst various books, e.g. in Al-Risalah of al-Shafi'i (d. 204), the Introduction to the Sahih of Muslim (d. 261) and the Jami' of al-Tirmidhi (d. 279); many of the criteria of early traditionists, e.g. al-Bukhari, were deduced by later scholars from a careful study of which reporters or isnads were accepted and rejected by them.
One of the earliest writings to attempt to cover Mustalah comprehensively, using standard (i.e. generally-accepted) terminology, was the work by al-Ramahurmuzi (d. 360). The next major contribution was Ma'rifah 'Ulum al-Hadith by al-Hakim (d. 405), which covered fifty classifications of Hadith, but still left some points untouched; Abu Nu'aim al-Isbahani (d. 430) completed some of the missing parts to this work. After that came Al-Kifayah fi 'Ilm al- Riwayah of al-Khatib al-Baghdadi (d. 463) and another work on the manner of teaching and studying Hadith; later scholars were considered to be greatly indebted to al-Khatib's work.
After further contributions by Qadi 'Iyad al-Yahsubi (d. 544) and Abu Hafs al-Mayanji (d.580) among others, came the work which, although modest in size, was so comprehensive in its excellent treatment of the subject that it came to be the standard reference for thousands of scholars and students of Hadith to come, over many centuries until the present day: 'Ulum al-Hadith of Abu 'Amr 'Uthman Ibn al-Salah (d. 643), commonly known as Muqaddimah Ibn al-Salah, compiled while he taught in the Dar al-Hadith of several cities in Syria. Some of the numerous later works based on that of Ibn al-Salah are:
An abridgement of Muqaddimah, Al-Irshad by al- Nawawi (d. 676), which he later summarised in his Taqrib; al-Suyuti (d. 911) compiled a valuable commentary on the latter entitled Tadrib al-Rawi. Ikhtisar 'Ulum al-Hadith of Ibn Kathir (d. 774), Al-Khulasah of al-Tibi (d. 743), Al-Minhal of Badr al-Din b. Jama'ah (d. 733), Al-Muqni' of Ibn al-Mulaqqin (d. 802) and Mahasin al-Istilah of al-Balqini (d. 805), all of which are abridgements of Muqaddimah Ibn al- Salah. Al-Nukat of al-Zarkashi (d. 794), Al-Taqyid wa 'l-Idah of al-'Iraqi (d. 806) and Al-Nukat of Ibn Hajar al-'Asqalani (d. 852), all of which are further notes on the points made by Ibn al-Salah. Alfiyyah al-Hadith of al-'Iraqi, a rewriting of Muqaddimah in the form of a lengthy poem, which became the subject of several commentaries, including two (one long, one short) by the author himself, Fath al-Mughith of al-Sakhawi (d. 903), Qatar al-Durar of al-Suyuti and Fath al-Baqi of Shaykh Zakariyyah al-Ansari (d. 928).
Other notable treatises on Mustalah include:
al-Iqtirah of Ibn Daqiq al-'Id (d. 702). Tanqih al-Anzar of Muhammad b. Ibrahim al- Wazir (d. 840), the subject of a commentary by al-Amir al-San'ani (d. 1182). Nukhbah al-Fikr of Ibn Hajar al-'Asqalani, again the subject of several commentaries, including one by the author himself, one by his son Muhammad,and those of 'Ali al-Qari (d. 1014), 'Abd al-Ra'uf al-Munawi (d. 1031) and Muhammad b. 'Abd al-Hadi al-Sindi (d. 1138). Among those who rephrased the Nukhbah in poetic form are al-Tufi (d. 893) and al- Amir al-San'ani. Alfiyyah al-Hadith of al-Suyuti, the most comprehensive poetic work in the field. Al-Manzumah of al-Baiquni, which was expanded upon by, amongst others, al-Zurqani (d. 1122) and Nawab Siddiq Hasan Khan (d. 1307). Qawa'id al-Tahdith of Jamal al-Din al-Qasimi (d. 1332). Taujih al-Nazar of Tahir al-Jaza'iri (d. 1338), a summary of al-Hakim's Ma'rifah.
Mustalah al-Hadith
Mustalah books speak of a number of classes of hadith in accordance with their status. The following broad classifications can be made, each of which is explained in the later sections:
According to the reference to a particular authority, e.g. the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace), a Companion, or a Successor; such ahadith are called marfu' (elevated), mauquf (stopped) and maqtu' (severed) respectively.
According to the links in the isnad, i.e. whether the chain of reporters is interrupted or uninterrupted, e.g. musnad (supported), muttasil (continuous), munqati' (broken), mu'allaq (hanging), mu'dal (perplexing) and mursal (hurried).
According to the number of reporters involved in each stage of the isnad, e.g. mutawatir (consecutive) and ahad (isolated), the latter being divided into gharib (scarce, strange), 'aziz (rare, strong), and mashhur (famous).
According to the manner in which the hadith has been reported, such as using the words 'an ("on the authority of"), haddathana ("he narrated to us"), akhbarana (- "he informed us") or sami'tu ("I heard"). In this category falls the discussion about mudallas (concealed) and musalsal (uniformly-linked) ahadith.
[Note: In the quotation of isnads in the remainder of this book, the first mode of narration mentioned above will be represented with a single broken line thus: --. The three remaining modes of narration mentioned above, which all strongly indicate a clear, direct transmission of the hadith, are represented by a double line thus:===.]
According to the nature of the matn and isnad, e.g. an addition by a reliable reporter, known as ziyadatu thiqah, or opposition by a lesser authority to a more reliableone, known as shadhdh (irregular). In some cases, a text containing a vulgar expression, unreasonable remark or obviously-erroneous statement is rejected by the traditionists outright without consideration of the isnad: such a hadith is known as munkar (denounced). If an expression or statement is proved to be an addition by a reporter to the text, it is declared as mudraj (interpolated).
According to a hidden defect found in the isnad or text of a hadith. Although this could be included in some of the previous categories, a hadith mu'allal (defective hadith) is worthy to be explained separately. The defect can be caused in many ways; e.g. two types of hadith mu'allal are known as maqlub (overturned) and mudtarib (shaky).
According to the reliability and memory of the reporters; the final judgment on a hadith depends crucially on this factor: verdicts such as sahih (sound), hasan (good), da'if (weak) and maudu' (fabricated, forged) rest mainly upon the nature of the reporters in the isnad.
Rijal al-Hadith
Mustalah al-Hadith is strongly associated with Rijal al-Hadith (the study of the reporters of hadith). In scrutinising the reporters of a hadith, authenticating or disparaging remarks made by recognised experts, from amongst the Successors and those after them, were found to be of great help. Examples of such remarks, in descending order of authentication, are:
"Imam (leader), Hafiz (preserver)."
"Reliable, trustworthy."
"Makes mistakes."
"Weak."
"Abandoned (by the traditionists)."
"Liar, used to fabricate ahadith."5
Reporters who have been unanimously described by statements such as the first two may contribute to a sahih ("sound", see later) isnad. An isnad containing a reporter who is described by the last two statements is likely to be da'if jiddan (very weak) or maudu' (fabricated). Reporters who are the subject of statements such as the middle two above will cause the isnad to be da'if (weak), although several of them relating the same hadith independently will often increase the rank of the hadith to the level of hasan (good). If the remarks about a particular reporter conflict, a careful verdict has to be arrived at after in-depth analysis of e.g. the reason given for any disparagement, the weight of each type of criticism, the relative strictness or leniency of each critic, etc.
The earliest remarks cited in the books of Rijal go back to a host of Successors, followed by those after them until the period of the six canonical traditionists, a period covering the first three centuries of Islam. A list of such names is provided by the author in his thesis, Criticism of Hadith among Muslims with reference to Sunan Ibn Majah, at the end of chapters IV, V and VI.
Among the earliest available works in this field are Tarikh of Ibn Ma'in (d. 233), Tabaqat of Khalifa b. Khayyat (d. 240), Tarikh of al-Bukhari (d. 256), Kitab al-Jarh wa 'l-Ta'dil of Ibn Abi Hatim (d. 327) and Tabaqat of Muhammad b. Sa'd (d. 320).
A number of traditionists made efforts specifically for the gathering of information about the reporters of the five famous collections of hadith, those of al-Bukhari (d. 256), Muslim (d. 261), Abu Dawud (d. 275), al- Tirmidhi (d. 279) and al-Nasa'i (d. 303), giving authenticating and disparaging remarks in detail. The first major such work to include also the reporters of Ibn Majah (d. 273) is the ten-volume collection of al-Hafiz 'Abd al-Ghani al-Maqdisi (d. 600), known as Al-Kamal fi Asma' al-Rijal. Later, Jamal al-Din Abu 'l-Hajjaj Yusuf b. 'Abd al-Rahman al-Mizzi (d. 742) prepared an edited and abridged version of this work, punctuated by places and countries of origin of the reporters; he named it Tahdhib al- Kamal fi Asma' al-Rijal and produced it in twelve volumes. Further, one of al-Mizzi's gifted pupils, Shams al-Din Abu 'Abdullah Muhammad b. Ahmad b. 'Uthman b. Qa'imaz al-Dhahabi (d. 748), summarised his shaikh's work and produced two abridgements: a longer one called Tadhhib al-Tahdhib and a shorter one called Al-Kashif fi Asma' Rijal al-Kutub al- Sittah.
A similar effort with the work of al-Mizzi was made by Ibn Hajar (d. 852), who prepared a lengthy but abridged version, with about one-third of the original omitted, entitled Tahdhib al-Tahdhib in twelve shorter volumes. Later, he abridged this further to a relatively-humble two-volume work called Taqrib al-Tahdhib.
The work of al-Dhahabi was not left unedited; al- Khazraji (Safi al-Din Ahmad b. 'Abdullah, d. after 923) summarised it and also made valuable additions, producing his Khulasah.
A number of similar works deal with either trustworthy reporters only, e.g. Kitab al-Thiqat by al-'Ijli (d. 261) and Tadhkirah al-Huffaz by al-Dhahabi, or with disparaged authorities only, e.g. Kitab al-Du'afa' wa al-Matrukin by al- Nasa'i and Kitab al-Majruhin by Muhammad b. Hibban al-Busti (d. 354).
Two more works in this field which include a large number of reporters, both authenticated and disparaged, are Mizan al-I'tidal of al- Dhahabi and Lisan al-Mizan.
[Continued...]

This is a complete book. Click here for more complete books.