Applied Usul al-Hadith

Introduction

Purpose

In the name of Allah, with the praise of Allah, and after salawaat on the Messenger of Allah.

This is a time when the Sunnah of the Prophet (SAW) is under attack from both non-Muslims and people who claim to be Muslims. They cast doubt on the reliability of hadith and the traditional methodology of Usul al-Hadith.

There is no way to repel these objections to hadith except by truly understanding the theory of traditonal hadith sciences properly.

There are many books and articles on the subject of Mustalah ul-Hadith from the perspective of terminology and from the perspective of Usul without many practical examples. A lot of works (even in Arabic) are also not written to explain epistemology and why different methods and sources are used in evaluating hadith.

This article, In sha Allah, fills that gap by discussing the important topics of Usul al-Hadith from the perspective of theory with the use of examples that help explain the concepts and methods of evaluating hadith.

The purpose is not to focus on terminology or differences of opinion, although each of those may be lightly touched upon in different sections. The purpose is to explain the underlying concepts.

Sources

The concepts in this article are taken from a diverse set of sources including the Muqizah of Dhahabi, the Muqaddimah of Ibn al-Salah, and Tahreer Ulum al-Hadith of Abdullah al-Judai’.

However, the organization of the article is mostly original. A lot of its ideas are original in being written this way (like the Principles of Preference in Ilal) despite having basis in the methodology of the early scholars. The examples given for the different concepts are also mostly original. Sometimes, examples are paired with explanation and sometimes not.

I organized the topics in this way and wrote new formulations of old ideas to make them easier to digest. There is no innovation in subjects like Usul al-Hadith except in methods of teaching. So, all of this is only meant to make teaching the same concepts easier, not to introduce new concepts.

Prerequisites

This article is meant for an intermediate student of hadith, not a complete beginner. That is because it does not spend much time explaining common terms in hadith. Someone who reads this article should generally be familiar with them already.

The article is suitable for someone who has studied Nukhbat ul-Fikr or Muqizah or another introductory work on Mustalah ul-Hadith. It may be even more beneficial after having studied Nuzhat ul-Nazr or another more detailed book on Usul al-Hadith.

I have written an article for beginners called Introduction to Hadith.

Organization

There are two ultimate questions about any hadith:

1. Attribution: Who is it attributed to?
2. Authenticity: Is it authentic?

The second requires four prerequisite discussions:

1. Narrators: Are the transmittors of the hadith reliable?
2. Connectedness: Are all the transmittors mentioned?
3. Gharabah: Is the hadith unreasonably solitary?
4. Ilal: Are there subtle reasons for the hadith to be weak?

As a result, this article will discuss attribution (Section 1), then the prerequisites to authenticity (Sections 2-5), then authenticity itself (Section 6).

1. Attribution

The first thing to identify in any report is whether the report is from the Prophet or someone else. As a result, the scholars of hadith divided a hadith according to the end of its chain into three:

1. Marfū’: The doer or speaker at the end of the chain is the Prophet (SAW).
2. Mawqūf: The doer or speaker at the end of the chain is a companion, and he does not attribute it to the Prophet (SAW).
3. Maqtū’: The doer or speaker at the end of the chain is someone lower than a companion.

1.1 Marfū’

Marfū’ includes five things from the Prophet:

1. Speech
2. Actions
3. Tacit Approval
4. Manners
5. Description

If the Prophet (SAW) attributes some speech or action to Allah, that is called a Hadith Qudsi.

Ibn Umar (RA) said: The Prophet (SAW) said, “Islam is built on five: 1) testimony that there is no god except Allah and that Muhammad (SAW) is His messenger, 2) establishing prayer, 3) giving Zakah, 4) Hajj, and 5) fasting Ramadan.” (Sahih Bukhari)

Anas ibn Malik (RA) said: When the Prophet (SAW) intended to write a letter to the Romans, people said to him, “They only read letters that have seals.” So, the Prophet got a silver ring with the engraving, “Muhammad Messenger of Allah.” (Sahih Bukhari)

Thabit ibn Yazid (RA) said: A lizard was brought to the Prophet (SAW), but he neither ate it nor did he forbid people from it. (Sunan Ibn Majah)

Anas (RA) said: Whenever the Prophet (SAW) said something, he would repeat it three times, so that it would be understood. And when he came to a house, he would greet them (seeking permission to enter) three times. (Sahih Bukhari)

Anas (RA) said: The Prophet (SAW) was neither tall nor short. (Sahih Bukhari)

Abu Hurairah (RA) said: The Prophet (SAW) said: Our Lord descends every night to the lowest heaven when the last third of the night is left and says, “Who will call me so that I can respond to him? Who will ask me so that I can give to him? Who will seek forgiveness from me so that I can forgive him?” (Sahih Bukhari)

1.2 Quasi-Marfū’

Not all attribution to the Prophet (SAW) is explicit. Some examples of implicit attributions to the Prophet (SAW), in order of strength:

1. “The sunnah is…”
2. Some Sahabi “did raf’ of it”
3. “We were commanded to do this in the time of the Prophet” or “we did this in the time of the Prophet”
4. “We were commanded to do this” or “we used to do this”

Knowing this is important in preferring narrations over each other.

Salim ibn Abdullah ibn Umar said to Hajjaj ibn Yusuf while his father was nearby during Hajj, “If you wish to follow the sunnah, shorten the khutbah (at Mina) and hasten to the standing (at Arafah).” Abdullah ibn Umar said, “He is correct.” (Sahih Bukhari)

Sufyan narrated from Ibn Juraij from Ibn Abu Mulaikah from Aisha, who did raf’: The worst of men in the sight of Allah are the most argumentative. (Sahih Bukhari)

Abdullah ibn Umar (RA) said: I saw those who bought wheat with estimation (instead of proper measurement) being lashed in the time of the Prophet (SAW) if they tried to sell it without taking it home. (Sahih Bukhari)

Abu Hazim said: Sahl ibn Sa’d (RA) said: People used to be commanded to place their right hand on their left forearm in prayer. (Sahih Bukhari) Abu Hazim commented something like: I don’t know how this could be anything but from the Prophet (SAW).

Abu Hurairah (RA) said: We were told not to keep our hands on our hips in Salah. (Sahih Bukhari)

1.3 Marfū’ in Hukm

Mawquf narrations can be considered Marfu’ in Hukm if they fulfill two conditions:

1. There is no possibility of ijtihad
2. There is no possibility of coming from other sources (like Judeo-Christian traditions)

The strength of the narration being Marfū’ depends on the strength of these conditions being fulfilled. Generally, Sahih clearly Marfu’ narrations are preferred over narrations that are only Marfu’ in Hukm.

Tafsir and Fatawa are not considered Marfū’ in Hukm because of the possibility of ijtihad. But, statements about the unseen or about acts of worship may be considered Marfū’ in Hukm on a case-by-case basis.

Act of Worship

Abdurrahman ibn Abdul-Qari (RA) said he heard Umar (RA) on the minbar teaching people tashahhud, saying: You should say, “التَّحِيَّاتُ لِلَّهِ الزَّاكِيَاتُ لِلَّهِ الطَّيِّبَاتُ الصَّلَوَاتُ لِلَّهِ السَّلاَمُ عَلَيْكَ أَيُّهَا النَّبِيُّ وَرَحْمَةُ اللَّهِ وَبَرَكَاتُهُ السَّلاَمُ عَلَيْنَا وَعَلَى عِبَادِ اللَّهِ الصَّالِحِينَ أَشْهَدُ أَنْ لاَ إِلَهَ إِلاَّ اللَّهُ وَأَشْهَدُ أَنَّ مُحَمَّدًا عَبْدُهُ وَرَسُولُهُ.” (Muwatta Malik)

This is strongly Marfu’ in Hukm, however it is not as strong as something explicitly Marfu’.

Compare to: Ibn Masud (RA) said: The Prophet (SAW) taught me tashahhud like he taught me Surahs of the Quran, with his hand in my hands, “التَّحِيَّاتُ لِلَّهِ وَالصَّلَوَاتُ وَالطَّيِّبَاتُ، السَّلاَمُ عَلَيْكَ أَيُّهَا النَّبِيُّ وَرَحْمَةُ اللَّهِ وَبَرَكَاتُهُ، السَّلاَمُ عَلَيْنَا وَعَلَى عِبَادِ اللَّهِ الصَّالِحِينَ، أَشْهَدُ أَنْ لاَ إِلَهَ إِلاَّ اللَّهُ وَأَشْهَدُ أَنَّ مُحَمَّدًا عَبْدُهُ وَرَسُولُهُ‏” (Sahih Bukhari)

Unseen

Abu Hurairah (RA) said about the signs of the Day of Judgement: A woman will be taken and her stomach will be ripped open, then the content of her womb will be taken out and thrown in fear of giving birth. (Musannaf Ibn Abu Shaibah)

This is likely Marfu’ in Hukm since it cannot come from ijtihad and there is no indication of it coming from other sources.

Abu Hurairah (RA) said: The most difficult people [to deal with] for a man on the Day of Judgement will be his slaves. (Musannaf Abdurrazzaq)

This can come from ijtihad.

Tafsir

Ibn Abbas said about ⟪And there is none of you except he will come to [Hell] (وَارِدُهَا).⟫ (19:71): Everyone will enter it.

This can come from itjihad.

Ibn Abbas said about ⟪They (Yusuf’s brothers) brought false blood on his shirt⟫ (12:18): It was the blood of a lamb.

This can come from other sources.

Fatawa

Abdurrahman ibn Harith ibn Hisham said (summarized): Abu Hurairah (RA) said, “Whoever wakes up in a state of junub has broken his fast for the day.” We went to Aisha (RA) to ask her, and she said, “It is not like Abu Hurairah said Abdurrahman. Do you want to leave what the Prophet used to do? I am a witness that the Prophet used to wake up in a state of junub from intercourse, not a wet dream, and he would fast that day.” Umm Salamah confirmed Aisha (RA)’s statement. Then, we went to Abu Hurairah, and he said, “I don’t have knowledge about that. Someone just told me.”

Abu Hurairah (RA) said: Wash thoroughly in wudhu because the Prophet (SAW) said, “Woe to the heels from the fire.” (Sahih Bukhari)

Although the quotation is Marfu’, the statement before it is Mawquf. However, this is a scenario where the Mawquf statement is strongly supported by the fact that Abu Hurairah knew the context of the hadith best.

1.4 Asbab al-Nuzul

Asbab al-Nuzul are a category of Marfū’, but some argued they are a category of Mawquf that is Marfū’ in Hukm. There is an implicit attribution to the Prophet (SAW) since revelation only happens to him.

Ibn Abbas said: Ukkaz, Majannah, and Dhul-Majaz were markets in Jahiliyyah, so Muslims considered it a sin to trade there during Hajj time. As a result, Allah revealed ⟪There is no blame on you if you seek the bounty of your Lord⟫ (2:198) in Hajj time. (Sahih Bukhari)

Asbab al-Nuzul can also come from ijtihad.

1.5 Ijtihad in Marfu’ Narrations

When a Sahabi describes the actions of the Prophet (SAW), he describes it from his perspective. So, the description can have ijtihad in it even though the actions themselves are attributed to the Prophet (SAW).

The Khawarij were mentioned in front of Ibn Abi Awfa (RA). He said, “The Prophet (SAW) called them the dogs of Hell.” (Musnad Ahmad)

This does not entail the Prophet (SAW) specifically used the word “Khawarij.”

Anas (RA) said: Whenever the Prophet (SAW) said something, he would repeat it three times, so that it would be understood. And when he came to a house, he would greet them (seeking permission to enter) three times. (Sahih Bukhari)

Anas (RA) collected a pattern he probably saw several times into a description using his ijtihad.

Aisha (RA) said, “The Prophet (SAW) sent sacrifice to Makkah but did not avoid the things the Muhrim avoids.” (Sahih Muslim)

However, Umm Salamah narrated, “If the ten days of Dhul-Hijjah enter and any of you intends to sacrifice, he should avoid cutting his nails or his hair until the sacrifice.” (Sahih Muslim)

Aisha (RA) probably saw the Prophet (SAW) break one of the requirements of the muhrim and assumed he was not following any of them. On the other hand, since Umm Salamah’s narration specified that cutting nails and hair should be avoided, her information is preferred.

2. Narrators of the Chain

To trust a narration or report, we need to know that the narrator or reporter is 1) honest, and 2) remembers well. These two are called ‘adalah and dabt.

All companions are considered reliable by default unless proven otherwise in a particular hadith. As for other narrators, they need to be studied and classified.

2.1 Companions

Someone being a companion is proven in two ways:

1. History
2. Hadith

A companion can be:

1. Prolific in Hadith
2. Not Prolific
3. Somewhere in Between

Historically proven companions were Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, Ali, Aisha, Umm Salamah, Abu Hurairah, Ibn Umar, and many others.

Abu Hurairah, Aisha, and Ibn Umar and others were prolific in hadith. Abu Bakr and others were not prolific in hadith. Umm Salamah and others were in between.

Some people are not proven historically and only narrated a few hadith from the Prophet (SAW) so there can be doubt about their status as companions.

Another type of doubt is doubt in the identity of a companion. It is of two types:

1. Doubt Between Names
2. Unnamed

The second type is generally avoided by Bukhari and Muslim.

Abd al-Rahman ibn Ghanam al-Ashari said: Abu Amir or Abu Malik al-Ashari said he heard the Prophet (SAW) say: There will be people from my ummah who legalize zina, silk, wine, and musical instruments. (Sahih Bukhari)

Sulaim ibn al-Aswad narrated from a man from Banu Yarbu who said: I came to the Prophet (SAW) and heard him speaking to people and saying: The giving hand is higher. Your mother and father, then your brother and sister, then lower then lower. (Musnad Ahmad)

Yahya ibn Ya’mar said: A man from among the companions of the Prophet (SAW) said: The Prophet (SAW) said: The first thing a person will be accounted for will be his prayer. If he fulfilled them, they will be written for him fully. If he did not fulfill them, Allah will say, “See if you can find optional prayers from my servant that can complete his obligations.” Then, Zakah will be in the same way. Then, all deeds will be taken like this. (Musnad Ahmad)

Some versions say Yahya ibn Ya’mar narrated it from Abu Hurairah (RA). (Sunan Nasai)

Yahya ibn Watthab > a man from the companions of the Prophet (SAW) > Prophet (SAW): When a Muslim mixes with people and stays patient from their harms, he is better than a Muslim that does not mix with people and does not stay patient from their harms. (Sunan Tirmidhi)

2.2 Narrators

2.2.1 Theory

The way we know the reliability and honesty of narrators can be divided into primary, secondary, and tertiary ways.

The primary way the scholars found the reliability and honesty of narrators is:

1. Their reputation among their people. This would be for major narrators like Malik ibn Anas and Shu’bah ibn al-Hajjaj.
2. Reports about their life and times. This is common for many narrators.
3. Comparing their narrations to the narrations of other (stronger or well-known) narrators. This would be used for most narrators.
   • Do they usually match other narrators? That indicates they have good memory.
   • Do they usually have slight mistakes? That indicates deficiency in memory.
   • Do they have huge deviations? That indicates large deficiency in memory or problems in honesty.
   • Are they rarely corroborated? That places doubt in their honesty or shows huge problems in memory.
   • All of these are used to decide the reliability of that narrator.
4. Testing them directly and seeing if they have good memory in hadith. This is rare.

Many early scholars of hadith specialized in the field of narrator-classification (Jarh wat-Ta’deel i.e. “praise and criticism”) by studying narrators and making judgements about them. The judgements of these major scholars like Imam Ahmad, Yahya ibn Maeen, Bukhari, and Abu Hatim ar-Razi are the secondary source of determining the reliability of a narrator.

Then, tertiary sources like the book Tahzeeb ul-Kamal by al-Mizzi collect the views of the early scholars along with primary sources about their lives and character. Tahzeeb ul-Kamal and books like it are what we would first refer to when determining the strength of a narrator. Taqreeb ul-Tahzeeb by Ibn Hajr is one summary of Tahzeeb.

2.2.2 Unknown Narrators

Narrators are either known or unknown. Unknown narrators, those who only appear in one hadith or one chain and the scholars of hadith do not know anything about them, are called majhul. If the scholars know who he is but do not know his status in hadith, he is called majhul al-haal.

Salim ibn Abi Ja’d narrated from Yazid ibn Bishr: Ibn Umar said, “Islam is built on five: 1) testimony that there is no god except Allah, 2) establishing prayer, 3) giving Zakah, 4) Hajj, and 5) fasting Ramadan.” A man asked, “What about Jihad in the path of Allah?” He said, “Jihad is good, but this is what the Prophet (SAW) told us.” (Musnad Ahmad)

Yazid ibn Bishr is only known for this hadith of the Prophet (SAW). Salim ibn Abi Ja’d was the only person to narrate from him, and Salim narrated one non-hadith narration from him. Ibn Abi Hatim said: I heard my father say, “He is majhul.” (Jarh wal-Ta’deel)

Walid ibn Jamee’ narrated from his grandmother from Umm Waraqah: When the Prophet (SAW) was about to go for Badr, I said to him, “Allow me to come with you so that I can treat the sick. Perhaps Allah will grant me shahadah.” He said, “Stay in your home. Allah will grant you shahadah.” (Sunan Abu Dawud)

This is the only narration by Walid’s grandmother. Ibn Hajr said, “His grandmother was Laila bint Malik who is not known.” (Taqreeb)

2.2.3 Known Narrators

Known narrators are classified into many categories and given many descriptions. However, we can summarize these into three levels.

2.2.3.1 Level 1

The highest level can be two types:

1. Thiqah Hujjah: Extremely trustworthy and reliable. Like Imam Malik.
2. Thiqah: Trustworthy and reliable. Most narrators of the Sahihayn.

In the absence of other problems, a hadith of this level of narrators is called Sahih (authentic).

A person rises to the level of Thiqah Hujjah if he is famous in his reliability or his narrations match his peers very closely. He is known to be Thiqah Hujjah if he is described to that level by the scholars.

A person is known to be Thiqah if he was considered reliable by the major scholars while not being weakened by anyone important. Making a few mistakes does not disqualify someone from being Thiqah or even Thiqah Hujjah. No one is free of mistakes.

Abd al-Rahman ibn Mahdi said, “The imams of our time are four: 1) Sufyan al-Thawri in Kufa, 2) Malik in Hijaz, 3) Awza’i in Sham, and 4) Hammad ibn Zaid in Basrah.” (Jarh wal-Ta’deel)

Hadith: Hanzalah ibn Abi Sufyan > Ikrimah ibn Khalid > Ibn Umar: The Prophet (SAW) said, “Islam is built on five (pillars).”

Hazalah ibn Abi Sufyan: Ahmad ibn Hanbal said, “Whenever Wakee’ came to a hadith of Hanzalah, he would say, ‘Hazalah ibn Abi Sufyan narrated, and he was thiqah thiqah.'” Ibn Maeen said, “He was thiqah hujjah.” (Tahzeeb ul-Kamal)

Ikrimah ibn Khalid: According to Tahzeeb, Ishaq ibn Mansur, Ibn Maeen, Abu Zur’ah, and Nasa’i considered him thiqah. No one accused him of mistakes. (Tahzeeb ul-Kamal)

2.2.3.2 Level 2

The middle level can be three types:

1. Saduq Hasan ul-Hadith: Trustworthy but not as reliable in his memory as the first level.
2. Saduq Mukhti’: Honest but known to make many mistakes.
3. Maqbul: Narrated only a few hadith and there is no reason to reject them.

In the absence of other problems, a hadith of this level of narrators is called Hasan (fair).

There are different kinds of narrators in the middle level. Some are directly described as honest or hasan ul-hadith by the scholars. Some are strengthened by a group and weakened by a group. The numbers on each side decide the narrator’s classification. Some are only strengthened by a few scholars that do not allow them to rise to the first level.

Hadith: Su’air ibn al-Khims > Habib ibn Abi Thabit > Ibn Umar: The Prophet (SAW) said, “Islam is built on five (pillars).”

Su’air ibn al-Khims: Ali ibn al-Madini said, “He had roughly 10 narrations.” Ibn Maeen said, “He was thiqah.” Abu Hatim said, “He was salih ul-hadith. His hadith are written, but he is not used as (independent) evidence.” (Tahzeeb ul-Kamal)

Habib ibn Abi Thabit: Ali ibn al-Madini said, “He had roughly 200 hadith.” Ibn Maeen said, “He is thiqah hujjah.” Someone asked, “Is he thabt?” Ibn Maeen said, “Yes, he only narrated two mistaken hadith.” Sufyan al-Thawri said, “Habib narrated to us, and he was a pillar.” (Tahzeeb ul-Kamal)

Hadith: A’mash > Abu Sa’d > Abdullah ibn Amr: The Prophet (SAW) said, “The Muslim is the one from whose tongue and hands (other) Muslims are safe.”

Abu Sa’d al-Azdi: Ibn Hibban mentioned him in Thiqaat. But, no one else praised or criticized him. Ibn Hajr called him Maqbul. (Tahzeeb ul-Kamal)

Sulaiman al-A’mash: Ibn Uyaynah said, “A’mash surpassed his companions in four qualities: he was the most proficient of them in reciting the Qur’an, the most memorizing of hadith, the most knowledgeable of them regarding the laws of inheritance,” and he mentioned one other trait. Al-Mawsuli said, “None of the muhadditheen were more reliable than A’mash.” (Tahzeeb ul-Kamal)

Musayyab ibn Wadhih: Ibn Hibban mentioned him in Thiqaat and said, “He used to make mistakes.” (Thiqaat) Ibn Abi Hatim said, “My father and Abu Zur’ah used to narrate from him.” Abu Hatim was asked about him and said, “He was saduq, but he used to make a lot of mistakes and would not accept correction.” (Jarh wal-Ta’deel) Ibn Adi listed many narrations where Musayyab made a mistake and said, “Musayyab had many hadith from his teachers, and most of the narrations he opposed people in are what I mentioned to you and he did not do it intentionally. Rather, he got confused in them. So, there’s no harm in using him.” (Al-Kamil)

2.2.3.3 Level 3

The last level can be three types:

1. Daeef (Weak): Makes too many mistakes to be reliable, even if he is honest. Can be used for corroboration.
2. Matruk (Abandoned): Makes too many mistakes to be used at all.
3. Kazzab (Liar): Proven to fabricate or accused of fabricating hadith.

In the absence of other problems, a hadith of this level of narrators is called Daeef (weak) or Matruh (very weak) or Mawdhu’ (fabricated).

There are many descriptions given to weak narrators, including “weak in hadith” or “munkar in hadith” or “not used as evidence.” Weakness is also derived from the decision of major scholars to leave the hadith of a narrator. The severity of the descriptions decides a narrator’s level.

A weak narrator can be pious or honest. As a result, Daeef narrators can be used for corroboration. But, Matruk narrators are generally not used even for corroboration.

The reason for a narrator’s weakness can range from his bad memory to his dishonesty to his skipping of weak narrators.

Ibn Lahee’ah: Humaidi said, “Yahya ibn Saeed did not use to think he was anything (reliable).” Muhammad ibn al-Muthanna said, “I never heard Abd al-Rahman ibn Mahdi narrate anything from Ibn Lahee’ah.” Imam Ahmad said, “The hadith of Ibn Lahee’ah are not hujjah. But, I write a lot of what I write so that I can use them for corroboration. Some of them strengthen others.” Sufyan al-Thawri said “I went on many pilgrimages just to meet Ibn Lahee’ah.” Ibn Wahb said, “Ibn Lahee’ah narrated to me, and he was by Allah pious and honest.” (Tahzeeb ul-Kamal)

Kharijah ibn Mus’ab: Abdullah ibn Ahmad ibn Hanbal said, “My father forbade me from writing down any hadith from Kharijah ibn Mus’ab.” Ibn Maeen said, “He is not thiqah.” Once, he said, “He is a liar.” Once, he said, “He is weak.” Bukhari said, “Ibn al-Mubarak and Wakee’ abandoned him.” Nasa’i said, “Matruk in hadith.” Yahya ibn Yahya said, “Kharijah according to us is sound in hadith. We only criticized the hadith he narrated from Ghiyath with tadlees (not mentioning Ghiyath).” (Tahzeeb ul-Kamal)

2.3 Important Narrators

2.3.1 Narrators of Hadith

In the early period, narrators had a few primary teachers and a few primary students. However, in the late period of the second generation (tabi’oon), a few exceptional scholars arose who gathered the hadith of their localities. Some even travelled to different cities. These scholars then taught hadith to many students.

As a result, isnad revolves around six people:

1. Al-Zuhri Ibn Shihab in Madinah (d. 124 AH)
2. Amr ibn Dinar in Makkah (d. 126 AH)
3. Qatadah ibn Diamah in Basrah (d. 117 AH)
4. Yahya ibn Abi Kathir in Yamamah (d. 132 AH)
5. Abu Ishaq al-Sabee’i in Kufa (d. 129 AH)
6. Al-A’mash Sulaiman ibn Mihran in Kufa (d. 148 AH)

Then, the knowledge of these people went to major scholars and writers of the next generation:

1. Malik ibn Anas in Madinah (d. 179 AH)
   • Learned from Zuhri
2. Muhammad ibn Ishaq in Madinah (d. 152 AH)
   • Learned from Zuhri and A’mash
3. Ibn Juraij in Makkah (d. 151 AH)
4. Sufyan ibn Uyaynah in Makkah (d. 198 AH)
   • Learned from Zuhri, Amr ibn Dinar, Abu Ishaq, and A’mash
5. Saeed ibn Abi Arubah in Basrah (d. 159 AH)
6. Hammad ibn Salamah in Basrah (d. 168 AH)
7. Abu Awanah in Basrah (d. 175 AH)
8. Shu’bah ibn al-Hajjaj in Basrah (d. 160 AH)
   • One of the imams of Hadith in addition to narration.
9. Ma’mar ibn Rashid in Basrah (d. 154 AH)
   • Learned from Zuhri, Amr ibn Dinar, Qatadah, Yahya ibn Abi Kathir, and Abu Ishaq
10. Sufyan al-Thawri in Kufa (d. 161 AH)
11. Al-Awza’i Abd al-Rahman ibn Amr in Sham (d. 151 AH)
12. Hushaim ibn Bashir in Wasit (d. 183 AH)

Then, the knowledge of these twelve spread but was concentrated heavily in six:

1. Yahya ibn Saeed al-Qattan (d. 198 AH)
   • One of the imams of Hadith in addition to narration.
2. Yahya ibn Zakariyyah ibn Abi Zaa’idah (d. 182 AH)
3. Wakee’ ibn Jarrah (d. 199 AH)
4. Abdullah ibn Mubarak (d. 181 AH)
   • One of the imams of Hadith in addition to narration.
5. Abd al-Rahman ibn Mahdi (d. 198 AH)
   • One of the imams of Hadith in addition to narration.
6. Yahya ibn Adam (d. 203 AH)

Most hadith in Sahih Bukhari and Sahih Muslim contain at least one person from the above lists.

2.3.2 Scholars of Fiqh

There were six major judges among the Sahabah:

1. Umar ibn al-Khattab
2. Ali ibn Abi Talib
3. Abdullah ibn Masud
4. Zaid ibn Thabit
5. Abu Musa al-Ashari
6. Ubay ibn Ka’b

Three of the companions had many students around them who followed their methodology: 1) Ibn Masud, 2) Zaid ibn Thabit, and 3) Ibn Abbas.

Ibn Masud settled in Kufa, and his major students were: 1) Ubaidah, 2) Harith, 3) Masruq, 4) Alqamah, and 5) Shuraih. Ibrahim al-Nakha’i was the most learned from them. A’mash and Abu Ishaq were the most learned after his generation. Sufyan al-Thawri was the most learned in the generation after them.

Ibn Abbas settled in Makkah, and his major students were: 1) Ata, 2) Tawus, 3) Mujahid, 4) Jabir ibn Zaid, 5) Ikrimah, and 6) Saeed ibn Jubair. Amr ibn Dinar was the most learned from them. Ibn Uyaynah and Ibn Juraij were from the generation after them.

Zaid ibn Thabit settled in Madinah, and the scholars who followed his methodology were many: 1) Saeed ibn al-Musayyab, 2) Urwah ibn Zubair, 3) Qabisah, 4) Kharijah ibn Zaid ibn Thabit, 5) Sulaiman ibn Yasar, 6) Aban ibn Uthman, 7) Ubaidullah ibn Abdullah, 8) Qasim ibn Muhammad, 9) Salim ibn Abdullah ibn Umar, 10) Abu Bakr ibn Abd al-Rahman, 11) Abu Salamah ibn Abd al-Rahman ibn Awf, and 12) Talhah ibn Abdullah. Only Saeed, Urwah, Qabisah, Kharijah, Aban, and Sulaiman met Zaid, but the rest followed his methodology. After them, no one was more knowledgeable in Madinah than Zuhri, Yahya ibn Saeed al-Ansari, Abu al-Zinad, and Bukair ibn Abdullah. After them, no one was more knowledgeable than Malik ibn Anas.

2.4 Scholars of Narrator Classification

The scholars of Jarh and Ta’deel were around the generation of Imam Ahmad. Some were before him, and many were after him.

2.4.1 Difference of Classification

When the scholars differ about the grading of a narrator, that can be for three reasons:

1. Difference in Information
2. Difference in Methodology or Judgement
3. Difference in Wording

The first is when a scholar has some information about a narrator that another scholar does not. As a result, the one who has more information is preferred in his judgement.

The second is when two scholars had the same information but came to different conclusions based on that information.

For example, if a narrator is known to make some mistakes, one might consider him still reliable because the mistakes are few and another might consider him weakened. Some scholars were known to be strict, some were known to be moderate, and some were known to be lenient.

Sometimes, a scholar weakened a narrator for something that is not a reason for weakness in reality, like mild bidah.

The third is when two scholars agree about the actual status of a narrator but word it differently.

For a reliable narrator, one might say, “He is thiqah,” and another might say, “There’s no problem with him.” For a hasan narrator, one might say, “He is not strong,” and one might say, “He is honest.” For a weak narrator, one might say, “He is weak,” and another might say, “He is honest.”

The same terms can apply to narrators of entirely different levels. As a result, it is important to understand how different scholars used terms and to compare multiple gradings of the same narrator instead of relying on one person.

Some of the strict scholars were (in general order of strictest to least strict):

1. Abu Hatim
2. Ibn Maeen
3. Yahya al-Qattan
4. Ibn Kharrash

Some of the moderate scholars were (in general order of strictest to least strict):

1. Ahmad
2. Abu Zur’ah
3. Bukhari
4. Ali ibn al-Madini
5. Tirmidhi

Some of the lenient scholars were:

1. Daruqutni
2. Hakim in the Mustadrak

Gradings are also derived from whether major scholars like Shu’bah, Malik, or Sufyan al-Thawri avoided narrating from a narrator or chose to narrate from him.

Moderate scholars are generally preferred over strict or lenient ones in their grading. But, when there is widespread difference about the grading of a narrator, that indicates he is of the second level.

A good book to understand the wordings of the different scholars is Tahreer Ulum al-Hadith by Abdullah al-Judai’.

2.4.2 Sources of Narrator Criticism

The secondary sources of narrator criticism are divided into many books by different authors.

The early scholars like Yahya al-Qattan, Ahmad, Ibn Main, and Ali ibn al-Madini did not author books on the subject of narrators. However, their views are found by referring to the narrations of their students. Some of those have been turned into books.

One of the earliest works on the subject is Ibn Sa’d’s Tabaqat. However, Ibn Sa’d was not an expert in the subject.

Tarikh al-Kabir by Bukhari contains a list of narrators and brief notes about their teachers and students. Occasionally, Bukhari mentions grades. Bukhari also has the books Tarikh al-Awsat and Du’afa al-Sagheer. In the latter, he mentions weak narrators.

Ibn Hibban wrote two books: 1) Thiqaat and 2) Majruhin. He listed narrators of the first and second levels in Thiqaat in addition to majhul narrators that had no criticism against them. He listed narrators of the third category (weak and unusable) in Majruhin. Sometimes, he adds details on their reliability.

Jarh wal-Ta’deel by Ibn Abi Hatim contains Ibn Abi Hatim’s questions to his father Abu Hatim and Abu Zur’ah about many different narrators. It is the earliest work that attempts to be somewhat comprehensive. It is an extremely important resource.

There are other books in this genre including Du’afa of Ibn Adi and Thiqaat by al-Ijli.

There are also implicit secondary sources.

If Bukhari or Muslim use a narrator as evidence (rather than as corroboration), that is evidence they consider that narrator reliable. The same applies to Nasa’i.

If Tirmidhi declares a hadith with a narrator Hasan Sahih, that is evidence he considers him at least honest. If he declares a hadith Hasan, that is evidence he does not consider him Matruk. If he considers a hadith Ghareeb because of a narrator, that is evidence he considers him weak.

If Bukhari or Muslim stay away from using a narrator, that may indicate the narrator does not meet their standards of reliability.

Similar applies to scholars like Ibn Khuzaymah and Ibn Hibban that wrote Sahihs, but their judgement is weaker than the judgement of Bukhari and Muslim.

The tertiary sources are also divided into a few books.

The most important book on this subject is Tahzeeb ul-Kamal by al-Mizzi. It is largely limited to the narrators of the six books. Many people wrote books adding to or summarizing Tahzeeb ul-Kamal. Al-Mizzi’s student wrote Ikmal al-Tahzeeb to add information that al-Mizzi missed in his book. Ibn Hajr also wrote Tahzeeb ul-Tahzeeb which added information that al-Mizzi missed. He also wrote the extremely summarized Taqreeb ul-Tahzeeb which included only brief information about every narrator’s grade, generation, and year of death. Another useful summary is Khulasat Tazheeb Tahzeeb ul-Kamal.

Another important book is Mizan ul-Itidal by Dhahabi. In this book, Dhahabi discussed narrators that were criticized in some way and compared the statements of different scholars about them.

3. Connectedness of the Chain

Since the authenticity of a hadith depends on the narrators of the hadith, we need to know every narrator who brought the hadith from the Prophet (SAW).

If there is any break in the chain where a narrator is skipped or not mentioned or not named, that hurts the authenticity of the hadith, because we cannot determine whether the missing source was strong or weak.

As a result, the scholars divided a hadith according to the connectedness of its chain into some types:

1. Mawsūl or Muttasil: The chain is connected with no breaks in it.
2. Munqati’: The chain is broken with some people missing in the middle.

Mursal: When someone from the second generation (that did not meet the Prophet but met his companions) reports something about the Prophet without mentioning a source.

3.1 Mursal Hadith

3.1.1 Mursal of the Companions

If a companion narrates from the Prophet (SAW) indirectly, the missing person in the middle is almost certainly another companion. Since the person in the middle is resolved to be someone reliable, the hadith remains authentic. However, its level of authenticity is lower than a hadith that is completely connected.

A hadith in terms of its connectivity at the level of the companion can be divided into three types:

1. Clearly connected
2. Unclear
3. Clearly disconnected

An example of clearly connected is when the companion is explicit with his direct hearing of the hadith.

Aisha (RA) reported that: The Prophet entered her house when a woman was there. He asked, “Who is this?” She said, “This is fulan” and talked about how much this woman prayed. The Prophet said (disapprovingly), “Do things that are within your capacity. Allah does not tire (from giving reward) until you tire (of doing good deeds).” (Sahih Bukhari)

An example of clearly disconnected is when it is impossible for the companion to have been a witness.

Anas ibn Malik (RA) said: Abu Jahl said, “⟪If this is truth from you, send down a shower of stones upon us from the sky or bring a painful punishment⟫,” then Allah revealed ⟪Allah would never punish them while you (O Prophet) are among them, and Allah would never punish them while they seek forgiveness.⟫ (8:33)

Anas ibn Malik (RA) was an Ansari and was a young boy when the Prophet migrated to Madinah, and no one could have reported this to Anas other than a companion.

In the unclear category are narrations where the companion only narrates from the Prophet (SAW) without specifying anything that indicates direct connection. This is the majority of narrations, and being unclear in their connection does not stop them from being Sahih.

Ibn Umar (RA) said: The Prophet (SAW) said: “Islam is built on five (pillars).” (Sahih Bukhari)

However, narrations in this category can be stronger or weaker in terms of their connectivity depending on the age of the companion (or when he accepted Islam), the wording of the narration, and other context. So, a hadith from Umar (RA) or Aisha (RA) is often stronger in connectivity than one from younger companions like Ibn Abbas (RA) or Anas (RA).

This information is useful when preferring between narrations, but all narrations from the companions achieve the status of Sahih.

Example of Connected Being Preferred Over Disconnected

Ibn Abbas (RA) said: The Quraish said to the Jews, “Give us something that we can ask this man about.” They said, “Ask him about the Ruh.” When they asked him about the Ruh, Allah revealed ⟪And they ask you, [O Muhammad], about the soul. Say, “The soul is of the affair of my Lord. And mankind have not been given of knowledge except a little.”⟫ (17:85) (Sunan Tirmidhi)

Ibn Abbas (RA) was too young to witness this event in Makkah.

Ibn Masud (RA) said: When I was with the Prophet (SAW) in a field, while he was leaning on a palm tree stalk, some Jews passed by. They said to each other, “Ask him about the Ruh.” [..] They asked him and the Prophet (SAW) stayed quiet and did not reply, and I realized he was receiving revelation, so I stood up. When the verse was revealed, he said ⟪And they ask you, [O Muhammad], about the soul. Say, “The soul is of the affair of my Lord. And mankind have not been given of knowledge except a little.”⟫ (17:85) (Sahih Bukhari)

Ibn Masud (RA) was a direct witness, so his narration is preferred in this clash.

Example of Two Unclears

Ibn Umar (RA) said: The Prophet (SAW) stood at the well of Badr and said, “Have you found what Allah promised you to be true?” Then, he said, “They can hear what I am saying right now.”

Aisha (RA) heard of this narration from Ibn Umar and said: The Prophet (SAW) only said, “They know now that what I am saying was true.” She recited: ⟪You cannot make the dead hear.⟫ (27:80) (Sahih Bukhari)

3.1.2 Mursal of the Tabi’oon

Mursal more generally refers to any disconnected narration, however, it has been technically defined as: When a Tabi’i narrates from the Prophet (SAW).

The second generation of Muslims can be divided into senior, intermediate, and junior. There is debate over the authenticity of all Mursal narrations, but the narrations of the senior Tabi’oon are more likely to be authentic than the later Tabi’oon.

The reason they are not authentic is that the person in the middle could be another Tabi’i who is weak. However, the Mursal of the senior Tabi’oon is more likely to be authentic because the person in the middle is more likely to be a companion.

Senior Tabi’oon whose Mursal narrations tend to be authentic include:

1. Saeed ibn al-Musayyab
2. Masruq
3. Ata ibn Yasar

Senior Tabi’oon whose Mursal narrations are criticized include Mujahid, Sha’bi, and Hasan al-Basri.

Ata ibn Yasar said: The Prophet (SAW) forbade preparing nabidh (fermented juice) from ripe and unripe dates together or dates and raisins together. (Muwatta Malik)

This is narrated from several companions including Abu Qatadah: The Prophet forbade the mixing of ripe and unripe dates and dates and raisins, and nabidh should be prepared from them separately. (Sahih Bukhari)

Saeed ibn al-Musayyab said: The Prophet (SAW) said: People will remain on good as long as they hasten to break their fast. (Muwatta Malik)

This has also been narrated from Sahl ibn Sa’d (RA) with the same words. (Sahih Bukhari)

Mujahid said: The Prophet (SAW) said: The one who commits zina with his mahram will not enter Jannah. (Musannaf Abd al-Razzaq)

This hadith is not confirmed by any Sahih narration.

However, there are accurate Mursal narrations from them as well.

Mujahid said: The Prophet (SAW) forbade sales with uncertainty. (Musannaf Abd al-Razzaq)

This has been narrated from Saeed ibn al-Musayyab also Mursal and has been narrated from Abu Hurairah (RA) in some narrations. (Sahih Muslim)

Intermediate Tabi’oon include Ibrahim al-Nakha’i.

Ibrahim al-Nakha’i said: I have been told the Prophet was never seen just fasting the 10th (of Dhul-Hijjah). (Musannaf Abd al-Razzaq)

Imam Ahmad said: The mursalāt of Sa’eed ibn al-Musayyab are the most authentic mursalāt. The mursalāt of Ibrahim al-Nakha’i are ok (لا بأس بها). But, no mursalāt are weaker than the mursalāt of Hasan al-Basri and Ata ibn Abi Rabah. They used to take from everyone!

Yahya ibn Saeed al-Qattan said: Saeed ibn al-Musayyab from Abu Bakr is like the air (in weight).

Junior Tabi’oon include Qatadah, Zuhri, and Humaid al-Taweel. They often have two people between them and the Prophet (SAW), so their Mursal narrations are the weakest.

3.2 Muttasil Hadith

3.2.1 Theory of Ittisal

There are four concepts to understand:

1. Actual Ittisal of the Narrators
2. Actual Ittisal of the Hadith
3. Assumed Ittisal of the Narrators
4. Assumed Ittisal of the Hadith

Actual Ittisal of the Narrators means one narrator actually met or learned from the one above him. This is proven in several ways:

1. Fame and Reputation. E.g. Malik > Nafi
2. Historical Reports of Meeting
3. A Hadith Where Actual Ittisal of the Hadith Is Mentioned

Actual Ittisal is disproven by reports or by the time and place being too far to allow the possibility of ittisal.

Actual Ittisal of the Hadith is a higher level and means one narrator received the particular hadith in question directly from the one above him. This is proven only if a narrator directly says “my teacher narrated to me” or something similar.

Assumed Ittisal of the Narrators refers to the different pieces of evidence that indicate actual ittisal:

1. Narrating from Other Teachers of the Same Time and Place
2. Being Prolific in Narrating from that Teacher
3. Student and Teacher Being in Similar Time and Place

Assumed Ittisal of the Hadith comes from two pieces of evidence:

1. Actual Ittisal of the Narrators
2. Assumed Ittisal of the Narrators

3.2.2 Reception

3.2.2.1 Types of Reception

A narrator can receive a hadith from his source either 1) directly or 2) indirectly.

Receiving a hadith directly would include: hearing it directly, reading out the teacher’s book to him while he approves, or hearing it being read out to the teacher.

Receiving a hadith indirectly would include: hearing someone else tell you what the teacher said or reading notes (supposedly) written by the teacher.

For a hadith to be muttasil, every narrator must have received the hadith from his teacher directly. Any break in the chain or indirect reception would cause the hadith to be munqati’.

3.2.2.2 Words of Reception

A narrator can use different words to describe reception. Words like haddathanā (he narrated to us), sami’tu (I heard), akhbarakanā (he informed us), and qaala lī (he said to me) all explicitly indicate direct reception.

If an honest narrator uses any of these words of reception, that proves direct reception of the hadith. If someone uses one of these words and it is proven he did not actually hear the hadith from his source, that narrator would be a liar.

Words like ‘an (according to) and qaala (he said) imply direct reception in some contexts but do not explicitly state it. This type of wording to describe reception is called ‘an’anah.

When the one being quoted is a teacher that the speaker heard other hadith from, these words strongly imply direct reception.

3.2.3 Tadlees

Some narrators were not careful (despite being honest) and would use words that imply direct reception even when they did not directly hear a hadith from that source. Someone who did this a lot is known as a mudallis (misleading narrator) and this action is called tadlees. Careful narrators would make it clear they received that information indirectly.

There are different levels of Mudallis narrators.

• Some narrators were known to do some tadlees but most of their narrations are accepted as reliable.
  • Bukhari said: “I don’t know Sufyan al-Thawri doing tadlees from Habib ibn Abi Thabit or Salamah ibn Kuhail or Mansur (he mentioned more narrators). How little is his tadlees.”
  • In this case, unless there is evidence to prove tadlees in a specific case, the hadith remains Sahih due to likelihood being on the side of connection.

• Some narrators did tadlees but were reliable if the ittisal between them and their teachers was known.
  • Hasan al-Basri was known to narrate from a lot of people he did not meet. However, when he narrated from someone he did meet, he was considered reliable. Those hadith are included in the Sahihayn.

• Some narrators were known for so much tadlees they became unreliable.
  • Abu Hatim said: “I analyzed Ibn Laheeah’s narrations and realized that he used to do tadlees by narrating from weak narrators [without naming them] from reliable narrators he saw.” As a result, Ibn Laheeah, despite being honest, is considered a weak narrator, and his narrations are often mistaken.

Even if the hadith of a mudallis remains reliable, the risk of tadlees is one factor that makes a link weaker than another link. As a result, if a hadith of a mudallis contradicts a hadith of a non-mudallis when they are both reliable, the non-mudallis would be preferred.

Baqiyyah ibn Waleed: Abu Zur’ah said, “Baqiyyah is strange. When he narrates from thiqaat, he is thiqah. But, as for majhuleen, he narrates from people that are not known and are not reliable.” He also said, “His only flaw is narrating too much from majhuleen. As for honesty, he is not criticized for that.” Nasai said, “When he says ⟪حَدَّثَنَا⟫ or ⟪أَخْبَرَنَا⟫, he is thiqah. But, when he says ⟪عَنْ⟫, he is not taken from, because he does not know whom he took it from.” (Tahzeeb ul-Kamal)

3.2.4 How to Know Ittisal

Ittisal and Inqita’ are also derived from the scholars of Jarh and Ta’deel.

Maraseel of Ibn Abi Hatim is an important source, especially for early scholars. Tahzeeb ul-Kamal and other sources of Jarh also include information about ittisal or inqita’.

Hadith: Habib ibn Abi Thabit > Ibn Umar: The Prophet (SAW) said, “Islam is built on five (pillars).” (Sunan Tirmidhi)

This hadith only uses عَنْ between the narrators.

Habib ibn Abi Thabit (d. 120 AH) was from Kufa, and Ibn Umar (d. 73 AH) was from Madinah. Madinah was a hub, so this is not a problem.

Yazid ibn Abi al-Ja’d > Habib ibn Abi Thabit: I heard Ibn Umar say… (Sunan Nasai) Ata narrates the same from Habib with عن. (Sunan Nasai) Yazid was a hasan narrator, while Ata was thiqah hujjah.

Habib only narrated four or five narrations from Ibn Umar, all of them supported by other people, including this hadith of the five pillars.

Habib > Tawus > Ibn Umar: The Prophet (SAW) was asked about prayer at night. He said, “Two by two. When you think the dawn is about to come, then pray one.”

Ibn Maeen said, “Habib heard from Ibn Umar and Ibn Abbas.” (Tarikh Ibn Maeen) Ibn Hibban said, “He narrated from Ibn Umar and Ibn Abbas.” (Thiqaat by Ibn Hibban) Al-Ijli said, “He heard from Ibn Umar several things, and also heard from Ibn Abbas.” (Thiqaat by Ijli)

Ali ibn al-Madini said, “Habib ibn Abi Thabit met Ibn Abbas and heard from Aisha, but he did not hear from any other companion of the Prophet (SAW).” (Ilal Ibn al-Madini)

Habib narrated a hadith from the Madinan Urwah ibn al-Zubair (d. 94), and it was severely mistaken. As a result, Bukhari said, “Habib ibn Abi Thabit did not hear from Urwah ibn al-Zubair.” (Ilal Kabeer by Tirmidhi) Ibn Maeen and Ahmad also said Habib did not hear from Urwah. (Maraseel by Ibn Abi Hatim)

Hadith: Mujahid > Aisha: The Prophet (SAW) said, “Don’t curse the dead. They have reached what they put forward.” (Sahih Bukhari)

This hadith only uses عَنْ between the narrators.

Mujahid was born in 19 AH and died in 102 AH. Aisha (RA) died in 57 AH.

Yahya ibn Maeen said, “Mujahid never heard from Aisha (RA).” Abdullah ibn Ahmad ibn Hanbal said, “I heard my father say: Shubah used to deny Mujahid hearing from Aisha (RA).” Yahya al-Qattan said, “I told Shubah about the narration of Musa al-Juhani that Mujahid said ⟪Aisha came to us⟫ or ⟪Aisha narrated to me⟫ but he denied it.” (Maraseel by Ibn Abi Hatim)

Ali ibn al-Madini said, “I don’t deny that Mujahid met many companions and he also heard from Aisha (RA).” (Tahzeeb ul-Tahzeeb by Ibn Hajr)

Tahzeeb ul-Kamal mentions that the connection of Mujahid to Aisha (RA) is included by both Bukhari and Muslim: “رَوَى عَن: […] عائشة زوج النَّبِيّ ﷺ (خ م د س ق).” (Tahzeeb ul-Kamal)

Mansur ibn al-Mu’tamir > Mujahid said: Urwah ibn al-Zubair and I entered the masjid and saw Abdullah ibn Umar sitting against the wall of Aisha (RA)’s room. Urwah asked, “Abu Abdurrahman, how many times did the Prophet do umrah?” He said, “Four umrahs with one in Rajab.” We did not want to say he made a mistake or respond to him. Then, we heard Aisha (RA) brushing her teeth in her room. Urwah said, “Don’t you hear what he said Umm al-Mumineen?” She said, “What did he say?” He said, “He says the Prophet did umrah four times with one in Rajab.” She said, “May Allah have mercy on Abu Abdurrahman, the Prophet never did umrah except that he was with him, but he never did umrah in Rajab.” (Sahih Bukhari, Sahih Muslim)

Mansur was thiqah hujjah. A’mash narrated the same hadith, summarized, from Mujahid without the explicit ittisal.

3.3 Strength of Connection

3.3.1 Theory of Connection Strength

A particular connection or chain can be stronger or weaker than other connections or chains.

This is for two reasons:

1. The amount of certainty in the narrator meeting his teacher
2. The reliability of a narrator from his teacher

The first depends on how the connection of the two narrators is proven. A famous, well-known student-teacher relationship is not comparable to one that is only circumstantially proven because they lived in the same time and place.

The second depends on the comparison of the student’s narrations to other students and also depends on other factors like whether he used memory or writing from that teacher.

Books of Jarh wal-Ta’deel include the scholars’ discussions about which narrator was preferred over which narrator.

Example: Ali ibn al-Madini was asked about the highest students of Abu Hurairah. He began with Saeed ibn al-Musayyab, then said, “After him, Abu Salamah ibn Abdurrahman, Abu Salih al-Siman, and Ibn Sireen.” Then, Ali ibn al-Madini was asked, “What about al-A’raj?” He said, “He was reliable but below them.” Then, he was asked, “What about Abdurrahman ibn Yaqub?” He said, “He was reliable but below them.”

Ali ibn al-Madini also said: The students of Abu Hurairah are these six: Saeed ibn al-Musayyab, Abu Salamah, al-A’raj, Abu Salih, Muhammad ibn Sirin, and Tawus. And Hammam’s hadith resembled theirs except a bit.

Based on this, a possible ranking of Abu Hurairah’s students might be:

1. Saeed ibn al-Musayyab
2. Abu Salamah, Abu Salih, and Ibn Sireen
3. Tawus
4. Al-A’raj
5. Hammam and Abdurrahman ibn Yaqub

Then, even lower than students would be those who only narrate sparse narrations from Abu Hurairah or even only one. All of them might be authentic narrations if there is connection and reliability, but knowing the strength of the connection is important when preferring one over another.

Example: Imam Muslim records the following three narrations side-by-side to compare.

Abu Salamah > Abu Hurairah > the Prophet: Tasbeeh is for men and clapping is for women. (Sahih Bukhari)

Abu Salih > Abu Hurairah > the Prophet: Tasbeeh is for men and clapping is for women. (Sunan Tirmidhi)

Hammam ibn Munabbih > Abu Hurairah > the Prophet: Tasbeeh is for men and clapping is for women in Salah. (Sahih Muslim)

You can see that Hammam’s addition of “in Salah” is probably not correct in words although it is correct in meaning. The difference in this case is trivial, but there are examples where the difference becomes important.

This example is more complicated in reality because other versions have this addition, but it is simplified for demonstration.

Example: Utbah ibn Muslim > Ubaid ibn Hunain > Abu Hurairah: When a fly falls into a drink, then dip it in then take it out, because one wing has disease and the other has cure. (Sahih Bukhari)

There are the only two narrations of Ubaid ibn Hunain from Abu Hurairah.

The other is: Malik > Ubaidullah ibn Abdurrahman > Ubaid ibn Hunain > Abu Hurairah: I was walking with the Prophet (SAW) and he heard a man recite Surah Ikhlas. So, he said, “It became obligatory.” I said, “What became obligatory?” He said, “Jannah.” (Sunan Tirmidhi)

The narrations of Ubaid ibn Hunain are not considered as authentic as the narrations of the major students of Abu Hurairah like Abu Salamah or Abu Salih. Bukhari included the first hadith in his Sahih because it has corroboration.

3.3.2 Golden Chains

Based on the levels of connections, scholars offered views on the best chains of hadith.

Some of the best chains are:

• Malik > Nafi > (his former master) Ibn Umar
• Zuhri > Salim > (his father) Ibn Umar
• Mansur > Ibrahim al-Nakhai > (his uncle) Alqamah > Abdullah ibn Masud
• Sufyan > A’mash > Abu Wail > Ibn Masud
• Zuhri > Saeed ibn al-Musayyab > Abu Hurairah
• Abu al-Zinad > al-A’raj > Abu Hurairah
• Zuhri > Urwah > (his aunt) Aisha
• Hisham > (his father) Urwah > (his aunt) Aisha
• Ibn Abi Arubah or Shu’bah > Qatadah > Anas

However, that does not mean other chains cannot be preferred over these in specific narrations according to the context.

3.3.3 Contextual Weakness

Some narrators were known to be weaker from specific teachers despite being strong in general. This is usually due to how they received hadith from that teacher.

Hadith: Ibn Ajlan > Nafi > Abu Salamah > Abu Saeed al-Khudri > Prophet: When three leave on a journey, they should appoint one to be their leader. (Sunan Abu Dawud)

Nafi and Abu Salamah were thiqah hujjah.

Other students of Nafi narrated this hadith from Nafi from Abu Salamah from the Prophet (SAW) without mentioning the companion Abu Saeed al-Khudri.

Ahmad, Abu Hatim, Nasa’i, and Ibn Ma’in and others called Ibn Ajlan thiqah. Abu Zur’ah said, “Ibn Ajlan was honest and average (وسط).” (Tahzeeb ul-Kamal)

Yahya al-Qattan said, “Ibn Ajlan was mudhtarib in the hadith of Nafi. He did not have that value when narrating from him.” (Dhu’afa by Uqayli)

Hadith: Ibn Abi Zi’b > Zuhri > Urwah > Aisha: The Prophet (SAW) used to fast Ashura and tell people to fast it. (Sunan Ibn Majah)

Others > Zuhri > Urwah > Aisha: They used to fast Ashura before Ramadan was obligated. When Allah obligated Ramadan, the Prophet (SAW) said, “Whoever wants to fast (Ashura) can fast, and whoever wants to leave it can leave it.” (Sahih Bukhari)

Others > Zuhri > Humaid ibn Abd al-Rahman > Muawiyah ibn Abi Sufyan: I heard the Prophet (SAW0 say, “This is the day of Ashura, but Allah did not obligate you to fast it. I am fasting. Whoever wants can fast. Whoever wants can choose not to fast.” (Sahih Bukhari)

Ibn Abi Zi’b apparently combined the two narrations.

Imam Ahmad said, “Ibn Abi Zi’b was thiqah, honest, and better than Malik ibn Anas, except that Malik was more careful with narrators. Ibn Abi Zi’b did not care whom he narrated from.”

Yaqub ibn Shaibah said, “Ibn Abi Zi’b was thiqah and honest, except that his narrations from Zuhri specifically were criticized by people. People said there was idthirab in them. Some mentioned that his reception from Zuhri was only presentation (the narrations were read to Zuhri). But, presentation is authentic according to every scholar I met.”

Yaqub asked Ali about Ibn Abi Zi’b’s reception from Zuhri. Ali ibn al-Madini said, “It was presentation.” I asked, “Even if it was reception, how is it?” He said, “It is mutaqarib (ok).”

Abu Bakr al-Marwazi said: I asked Ahmad about Ibn Abi Zi’b. He said, “He was thiqah.” I asked, “And from Zuhri?” He said, “He narrated some hadith in which he was opposed.”

Yahya ibn Maeen was asked, “What’s Ibn Abi Zi’b’s status in Zuhri?” He said, “Ibn Abi Zi’b is thiqah.”

Ibn Maeen said, “Yahya al-Qattan did not approve of the hadith of Ibn Abi Zi’b from Zuhri.” (Tahzeeb ul-Kamal)

4. Gharabah

4.1 Types of Gharabah

Gharabah is of two types: 1) Nisbi (contextual) or 2) Mutlaq (complete). The first is to a specific narrator while the second is to the Prophet (SAW).

If a hadith is attributed to someone (e.g. someone says Imam Malik narrated from Nafi from Ibn Umar from the Prophet something), there are three possibilities:

1. Only one person narrates the hadith from him. This is called Ghareeb (to Malik).
2. Two people narrate the hadith from him. This is called Azeez (to Malik).
3. Three or more people narrate the hadith from him. This is called Mashhur (to Malik).

Similarly, if a hadith is attributed to the Prophet (SAW), there are three possibilities:

1. There is only one chain to him or the chain goes through one person at any point. This is also called Ghareeb (Mutlaq).
2. Two chains narrate the hadith from him or the chain goes through at least two people the whole chain. This is also called Azeez (Mutlaq).
3. Three or more chains narrate the hadith from him or the chain goes through three or more people the whole way. This is also called Mashhur (Mutlaq).

4.2 Justification of Gharabah

Gharabah can be 1) justified or 2) unjustified.

4.2.1 Justification of Gharabah Mutlaqah

In the early generation, there were no classes or gatherings specifically for hadith. People taught hadith in personal situations or when giving fatwa or when questions were asked.

This was the situation in the time of the companions and early successors. That is why most narrators in this generation had a close personal connection with their teacher. For example, Urwah ibn Zubair narrated from his aunt Aisha.

Then, slowly the science of hadith grew. Some people became prolific teachers like Zuhri and then Imam Malik. Then, the science of hadith grew even more.

If the chain of a hadith is solitary in the early generations, like the companions, their successors, and their successors, the Gharabah is usually justified. That is the majority of hadith, and the authenticity is not affected.

If the hadith is solitary too late in time without corroboration, the Gharabah would be unjustified.

Most hadith are solitary till the period of 120-160 AH. However, even solitary narrations till the death of Imam Malik (~180 AH) are acceptable. When a hadith is solitary till after Imam Malik, it becomes suspicious.

4.2.2 Justification of Gharabah Nisbiyyah

Narrators were of different kinds. Some were simple transmitters who learned from people and had a few students who learned from them. Others were major teachers of hadith who had hundreds of students.

The more prolific a narrator, the more unjustified it is if only one student narrates a hadith from him. This becomes a larger concern later in time, because prolific teachers in the generation of Imam Malik and after could have up to a thousand students. As a result, the weakness caused by the Gharabah increases.

If only one student narrates a hadith from a prolific teacher with many students, the hadith would be accepted or justified if the student is reliable enough to match the weakness caused by the Gharabah. It becomes easier to justify if there are corroborations of the hadith from other sources.

4.3 Takhreej

Takhreej, collecting the chains of different versions of a hadith from their sources, is the first step in determining Gharabah and finding Ilal. After Takhreej, it is useful to draw the chains of the hadith to visualize them.

4.3.1 Madars and Roots

After Takhreej, there can be up to a hundred narrators in a diagram. However, not all those narrators are important to the analysis of the hadith. That is why we identify the Madar(s) and root(s) of the hadith.

A Madar is someone who popularized a particular version of the hadith with a particular chain. A root is that Madar’s chain for the hadith back to the Prophet (SAW). Determining the Madar is not an exact science. It depends on what you are trying to analyze or show.

Sometimes, if a chain is only found in one book, you can assume the Madar to be the teacher of the writer or the teacher of the teacher depending on your purpose.

The purpose of identifying the roots is that the authenticity of the hadith depends on the narrators in the roots, not the narrators below the roots. The narrators below them are corroborated enough not to matter.

Hadith: Urwah ibn al-Zubair > Aisha: The Prophet (SAW) married me when I was six and consummated the marriage when I was nine.

The full chains of the hadith are as follows:

You can choose to identify the Madars as Hisham ibn Urwah and Ma’mar. You can also choose to identify the Madar as Urwah ibn al-Zubair himself.

The root of Hisham would be: Hisham > Urwah > Aisha. The root of Ma’mar would be: Ma’mar > Zuhri > Urwah > Aisha.

Hadith: Qatadah > Anas > Prophet: None of you believes until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself. (Sahih Bukhari)

You can choose to identify the Madars as Shu’bah, Husain, and Hammam. You can also choose to identify the Madar as Qatadah.

4.3.2 Sources of Takhreej

The primary sources of Takhreej are the books of hadith that collect hadith with chains. Sahih Muslim in particular is useful because Muslim lists different major routes of the same hadith one after another. Sunan Nasai also does the same sometimes.

The secondary sources include:

1. Books of Atraaf
   • Main book in this genre is Tuhfat ul-Atraaf by al-Mizzi. It is organized by companion and notes different routes of each hadith. This information can be used to find the routes in the primary sources.
2. Books of Ilal
   • Books like the Ilal of Daruqutni and Ilal of Ibn Abi Hatim discuss different routes when describing the ilal of a hadith.
   • These are especially important because they sometimes include chains that have been lost to time.
3. Takhreej by the Editors of Different Books
   • The Takhreej of Musnad Ahmad by al-Arnaut in the footnotes is extremely useful. He mentions the different routes of a hadith and where they are found.

4.3.3 Method of Takhreej

Drawing isnads by hand is tedious but can be done and is still done by many scholars and students of hadith. I have created the tool Sanadi to make drawing isnads much faster and easier.

Finding different versions of the same hadith requires work because not all versions are worded or phrased in the same way. As a result, just searching the text of a hadith on a site like shamela or turath can miss wordings you do not know.

So, it is first important to use the secondary sources to get familiarity with the different wordings of a hadith.

Then, you should choose search phrases based on those wordings that fulfill two conditions: 1) they are unique enough to exclude unrelated hadith or texts as much as possible, and 2) they are as small or simple as possible to include as many versions of the desired hadith as possible.

Choosing a search prompt that is too long or specific will exclude slightly different wordings of the same hadith.

Choosing a search prompt that is too short or generic will include too many unrelated results to sift through.

4.4 Sources of Gharabah

The primary way of determining that a hadith only comes from a particular narrator or route is to do Takhreej yourself.

The secondary way is to refer to some of the following sources:

1. Hadith Collections that Have Commentary
   • Sunan Tirmidhi since he often comments on Gharabah
   • Musnad Bazzar and Mu’jam of Tabarani also commonly note Gharabah
2. Books of Ilal
   • Ilal of Daruqutni
   • Ilal of Ibn Abi Hatim
   • Ilal of Tirmidhi

4.5 Corroboration

A hadith can be corroborated in three ways:

1. Corroboration of the same hadith from the same Sahabi
2. Corroboration of the same hadith from a different Sahabi
3. Corroboration of the same words from a different Sahabi
4. Corroboration of the message but not the hadith

The first is called a Mutaba’ah. The second, third, and fourth are called Shawahid.

4.5.1 Mutaba’aat

Corroboration of the same hadith from the same Sahabi is the strongest type of corroboration for a hadith since it confirms the authenticity of the same account of the same event.

A hadith being corroborated to someone is not the same as that person being the Madar. A Madar is someone who popularized the hadith, but corroborations are more singular. The line between the two is not exact, but the distinction is useful. Every Madar has the hadith corroborated to him by multiple people but not every corroboration makes someone a Madar.

Hadith: The Prophet was asked, “Which deed is best?” He said, “Iman in Allah and His Messenger.” He was asked, “Then what?” He said, “Jihad in the path of Allah.” He was asked, “Then what?” He said, “An accepted Hajj.” (Sahih Bukhari)

The hadith has the following roots/routes:

It is corroborated to Abu Hurairah with three routes. The first route is Sahih in itself, and the second two routes are Hasan by themselves. However, when combined, the hadith becomes strongly Sahih.

4.5.2 Shawahid

Shawahid are of three types:

1. Same Hadith, Different Sahabi
2. Same Wording, Different Sahabi
3. Same Message, Different Hadith

The first is the rarest. It is when two companions narrate the same event from different perspectives.

The second is more common but still rare. It is when two companions narrate the same words from the Prophet (SAW). It is possible they are narrating the exact same statement of the Prophet (SAW) or the Prophet (SAW) repeated himself.

The third is the most common. It is when two companions narrate the same message from the Prophet (SAW) but with different words.

4.5.3 Useful vs. Non-Useful Corroboration

It is not uncommon for narrations to develop shawahid or mutaba’aat over time due to the mistakes of narrators. As a result, useful corroboration is only when a route is reliable enough and the Madars are close in time enough that the two routes provide genuine corroboration.

If a route is unreliable or a narrator is known to mix up chains and the two Madars are far enough apart that it is likely one actually received the hadith from the other (directly or indirectly), the corroboration is not useful.

4.6 Terminology

The terms munkar and shaaz were used by some hadith scholars to refer to unjustifiably ghareeb hadith.

However, the common later usage of munkar and shaaz was in the context of ilal as will be discussed in the next section.

5. Ilal, Ikhtilaf, and Idhtirab

5.1 Definition of Illah

Ilal are subtle defects in a hadith.

They are of four types:

1. Internal Ilal
2. Gharabah Ilal
3. Disagreement Ilal
4. Contradiction Ilal

Some ilal are signs of a problem in the hadith while other ilal tell you the cause of the problem. A hadith contradicting the clear Quran or being Ghareeb too late in time can be signs of a problem in the hadith, but a narrator being unreliable from a particular teacher would be the cause of a hadith’s mistake.

5.1.1 Internal Ilal

Internal Ilal are subtle problems in the reliability of a narrator or the connection of the hadith. The details of uncovering these were discussed in their respective sections.

For example, Ibn Ajlan was weak in the hadith of Nafi but generally a good narrator.

5.1.2 Gharabah Ilal

Gharabah Ilal are problems caused to the reliability of a hadith due to its unjustified Gharabah. The details were discussed in the section of Gharabah.

If someone after the generation of Imam Malik is alone in narrating a hadith while not being reliable enough to justify acceptance, like Nuaim ibn Hammad, that hadith is weakened due to the gharabah.

5.1.3 Disagreement Ilal

Disagreement Ilal are the problems in a hadith uncovered by the disagreement of two routes or narrators of the hadith. The problem can be in either the isnad or the matn.

Narrators can disagree about either the isnad or the matn.

In the isnad, the common topics of disagreement are:

1. Marfu’ vs. Mawquf
2. Muttasil vs. Mursal
3. Narrators
4. Chain

In the matn, the common types of disagreement are:

1. Elaborate vs. Summarized
2. Addition vs. Subtraction
3. Different Contexts
4. Different Content

5.1.4 Contradiction Ilal

Contradiction Ilal are the problems in a hadith indicated by it contradicting the Quran or famous Sunnah.

This cannot be used arbitrarily. Contradiction Ilal should be paired with other ilal before they are used to weaken a hadith.

So, if a hadith is unreasonably ghareeb and seems to contradict the apparent of the Quran, it is weakened.

5.2 Types of Hadith Mistakes

There are four ways a hadith can be mistaken:

1. Mistakes in Isnad
2. Mistakes in Matn
3. Complete Fabrication
4. Misattribution

Mistakes in Isnad and Matn are smaller mistakes in the two which do not involve completely new chains or entirely fabricated content. This is the most important category analyzed from the methodology of ilal.

Misattribution is when an existing statement or hadith is given an incorrect chain. A statement of a companion might be incorrectly attributed to the Prophet (SAW). Or a hadith of the Prophet (SAW) may be incorrectly given a new chain that does not belong to that hadith. This can also be intentional or unintentional.

Complete Fabrication is when a completely made-up statement is attributed to the Prophet (SAW) with a false isnad. It could be intentional or unintentional.

Misattribution and Complete Fabrication are the most difficult to catch from the methodology of ilal. Usually, they are caught by problems in narrators or chains as the scholars of Jarh would weaken narrators that were known to fabricate narrations or misattribute statements.

5.3 Principles of Preference

In addition to using internal ilal or ilal of gharabah and contradiction, there are six principles used in tandem to prefer one side of a disagreement or illah over the other:

1. Principle of Numbers: The version with more narrators is preferred.
2. Principle of Strength: The version with more reliable narrators is preferred.
3. Principle of Commonality: The version that is less common (in terms of isnad or matn) is preferred.
4. Principle of Easier Change: The version that is harder to change into from the other version is preferred.
5. Principle of Addition: The addition of a reliable narrator is preferred over the silence of others.
6. Principle of Preservation: Versions that are less likely to be preserved are preferred over those that are more likely to be preserved.

5.3.1 Principle of Numbers

The Principle of Numbers is more important than the principle of strength unless the numbers come from weak narrators.

If multiple weak narrators narrate a hadith in a certain way, that is not valuable information because they could have gotten it from each other.

If multiple reliable narrators transmit a hadith in a certain way, you would need strong evidence from the other principles to argue the version of multiple narrators is inaccurate.

For example, when one narrator transmits a hadith as Mursal and another transmits it Muttasil, that casts doubt on the hadith being Muttasil.

If two narrators transmit it as Mursal and one narrator transmits it Muttasil, the principle of numbers leads us to accept the Mursal version.

If two narrators transmit it Mursal and three narrators transmit it Muttasil, the fact that two separate students narrated it Mursal and three narrated it Muttasil means you need strong evidence to choose between the two. It is not enough to prefer Muttasil because three is larger than two.

5.3.2 Principle of Strength

The Principle of Strength depends on the judgement of the scholars of Jarh and Ta’deel about the relative reliability of different scholars. This is where Strength of the Connection becomes useful to analyze.

If Imam Malik narrates a hadith one way and Ibn Abi Zi’b (who was thiqah) narrates it another way, the hadith of Imam Malik would be preferred because he is thiqah hujjah.

5.3.4 Principle of Commonality

The Principle of Commonality indicates that common isnads are less preferred over unique isnads because it is hard to explain why a narrator transmitted a unique isnad instead of a common one.

It is common for Zuhri to narrate from Salim from Ibn Umar.

So, if one person narrates from Zuhri from Salim from Ibn Umar and another narrates from Zuhri from Khalid ibn Aslam (who is hasan) from Ibn Umar, the narration of Khalid would be preferred. That is because it is easy for someone to misremember the chain into Zuhri > Salim > Ibn Umar but comparatively difficult to misremember it as Zuhri > Khalid ibn Aslam > Ibn Umar.

Similarly, if one person narrates a hadith from Zuhri from Ibn Umar directly (i.e. disconnected) and another person narrates it from Zuhri from Salim from Ibn Umar, the disconnected version is preferred.

This principle is a subset of the coming Principle of Easier Change.

5.3.4 Principle of Easier Change

The Principle of Easier Change indicates that when there are two matns where one is easier for a narrator to turn into the other in his memory, the one that is not easy is preferred.

For example, if there are two narrations where one says “He rode his Ferrari to the mosque” and one says “He rode his car to the mosque,” the former is preferred because it is hard for “car” to turn into “Ferrari” in transmission but easy for “Ferrari” to turn into “car.”

Similarly, if one version of a hadith is cryptic or uses rare words and another version uses simpler words with clear meanings, the cryptic version is preferred. People are more likely to use simpler words and misremember a hadith in those words.

5.3.5 Principle of Addition

The Principle of Addition indicates we generally accept the addition of reliable narrators, since another narrator not mentioning something does not mean he denies or contradicts it.

However, this acceptance has limits and does not extend to when the other principles strongly indicate the addition to be a mistake.

If one reliable narrator mentions two statements in a hadith and one reliable narrator only mentions one statements, the addition is accepted.

However, if five people do not mention an important part of a hadith and only one person does, that is cause for concern.

5.3.6 Principle of Preservation

The Principle of Preservation indicates that some types of narrations are more likely to be preserved in extant books than other types. The main consequence is that Mursal and Mawquf narrations are less likely to be preserved because most of the major collections we have today intend to record Muttasil Marfu’ hadith. As a result, those that are less likely to be preserved are given more weight.

If the writers of the Sunan (through one reliable student of Zuhri) record Zuhri narrating a hadith from Urwah from Aisha from the Prophet (SAW) but the Musannaf of Abd al-Razzaq records Zuhri narrating the same hadith from the Prophet (SAW) directly (i.e. disconnected), the disconnected version is preferred. The only reason the Sunan did not record it is their purpose was to record connected narrations.

5.5 Sources of Resolving Ilal

The primary method of resolving ilal is using the principles of preference and other factors.

The secondary way is to refer to the statements of the hadith scholars. This includes:

1. Books of Ilal
   • Ilal of Daruqutni
   • Ilal of Ibn Abi Hatim
   • Ilal of Tirmidhi
2. Comments by the Authors of Collections
   • Abu Dawud
   • Tirmidhi
   • Bayhaqi
3. Indications by the Authors of the Sahihs
   • Bukhari and Muslim’s choices indicate their preferred side of a particular disagreement.

Most early Ilal books concentrate on the mistakes of isnad rather than matn. The Ilal of Daruqutni is probably the most comprehensive classical book on ilal.

The tertiary way is to refer to books like Al-Musnad al-Musannaf al-Mu’allal which collects ilal discussions on every hadith.

5.6 Riwayah bil-Maana

Riwayah bil-Maana (Narration by Meaning) is when a narrator transmits a hadith according to its meaning without sticking to the exact words he received.

Although transmitting exact words is the ideal, Riwayah bil-Maana happened for two reasons:

1. Meaning is easier to remember and transmit than exact words
2. A narrator may wish to shorten a long hadith

However, narrators can mess up when narrating by meaning. Mistakes in this are discovered with ilal.

Riwayah bil-Maana became less common in the later generation when people started writing down hadith more extensively.

5.7 Examples

5.7.1 Ilal in Isnad

5.7.1.1 Marfu’ vs. Mawquf

Hadith: Muawiyah ibn Abi Sufyan: The Prophet (SAW) said, “Laylat ul-Qadr is the 27th night.”

Abu Dawud al-Sijistani: Ubaidullah ibn Muaz > Muaz > Shu’bah > Qatadah > Mutarraf > Muawiyah ibn Abi Sufyan > Prophet (SAW).

Abu Dawud al-Tayalisi: Shu’bah > Qatadah > Mutarraf > Muawiyah, Mawquf.

Ibn Abi Shaibah: Affan > Shu’bah > Qatadah > Mutarraf > Muawiyah, Mawquf.

Daruqutni said:

Muaz ibn Muaz narrated it > Shu’bah > Qatadah > Mutarraf > Muawiyah Marfu’.

This is how Fahd ibn Sulaiman narrated it > Amr ibn Marzuq & Abbad ibn Ziyad > Uthman ibn Umar > Shu’bah.

It is not authentic from Shu’bah as Marfu’.

Ilal of Daruqutni

Reasons Marfu’ version is weak:

• Principle of Numbers
• Principle of Preservation
• Too Ghareeb
• Contradicts many narrations where the Prophet (SAW) does not know Laylat ul-Qadr.

Hadith: Ibn Umar: The Prophet (SAW) said, “Islam is built on five pillars.”

Hanzalah ibn Abi Sufyan > Ikrimah ibn Khalid > Ibn Umar > Prophet.

Saad ibn Tariq > Saad ibn Ubaidah > Ibn Umar > Prophet.

Aasim ibn Muhammad > Muhammad ibn Zaid > Ibn Umar > Prophet.

Salim ibn Abi Ja’d > Yazid ibn Bishr > Ibn Umar > Prophet.

Su’air ibn al-Khims > Habib ibn Abi Thabit > Ibn Umar > Prophet.

Musannaf Abd al-Razzaq: Abd al-Malik ibn Umair > Hawari ibn Ziyad > Ibn Umar, Mawquf.

Abd al-Malik is Hasan. Hawari is Majhul.

Reasons Mawquf version is weak:

1. Principle of Numbers
2. Principle of Strength
3. Principle of Addition

5.7.1.2 Muttasil vs. Mursal

Hadith: Hasan al-Basri > Samurah ibn Jundub (RA): The Prophet (SAW) said, “Every prophet has a fountain on the Day of Judgement, and they will compete about who gets the most visitors. I hope I will get the most.” (Sunan Tirmidhi)

Tirmidhi and Ibn Majah: Saeed ibn Bishr > Qatadah > Hasan al-Basri > Samurah > Prophet (SAW)

Ibn al-Mubarak: Hisham ibn al-Hassan > Hasan al-Basri > Prophet (SAW)

Saeed ibn Bishr is weak. Hisham is Thiqah Hujjah.

Tirmidhi said after narrating the Muttasil version:

This (the hadith of Saeed ibn Bishr) is a Gharib hadith. Ash’ath ibn Abd al-Malik narrated this hadith from Hasan al-Basri from the Prophet (SAW) Mursal and did not mention Samurah. That is more correct.

Sunan Tirmidhi

Reasons the Muttasil version is weak:

1. Ghareeb from Qatadah (who is a famous teacher)
2. Principle of Strength
3. Principle of Preservation
4. Principle of Commonality (Hasan al-Basri > Samurah > Prophet is a common chain)

Hadith: Abu Salamah > Abu Saeed al-Khudri (RA): The Prophet (SAW) said, “When three people leave on a journey, they should make one their leader.” (Sunan Abu Dawud)

Abu Dawud and others: Hatim ibn Ismail > Ibn Ajlan > Nafi > Abu Salamah > Abu Saeed al-Khudri > Prophet (SAW)

Muwatta Ibn Wahb:
– Usamah ibn Zaid > Nafi > Abu Salamah > Prophet (SAW)
– Makhramah ibn Bukair > Bukair ibn Abdullah > Nafi > Abu Salamah > Prophet (SAW)

Musannaf Ibn Abi Shaibah: Thawr ibn Yazid > Muhasir ibn Habib > Abu Salamah > Prophet (SAW)

Muhasir ibn Habib is Hasan. Thawr ibn Yazid is Thiqah Hujjah.

Yahya al-Qattan said, “Ibn Ajlan was mudhtarib ul-hadith in the hadith of Nafi. He did not have that much strength in his hadith.” (Du’afa of al-Uqayli)

Ibn Abi Hatim said:

I asked my father and Abu Zur’ah about the hadith of Hatim ibn Ismail from Muhammad ibn Ajlan from Nafi from Abu Salamah from the Prophet (SAW), “When three leave on a journey, they should appoint one as their leader.”

They said, “It has been narrated from Hatim with two chains.”

“Some narrated it from Hatim as Ibn Ajlan > Nafi > Abu Salamah > Abu Saeed > Prophet, and others narrated it with Abu Hurairah (instead of Abu Saeed. But, the correct version according to us is Abu Salamah > Prophet (SAW), Mursal.”

My father said, “Yahya ibn Ayyub narrated it from Ibn Ajlan > Nafi > Abu Salamah > Prophet (SAW), and that is correct.”

“What also makes our opinion stronger is that Muawiyah ibn Salih, Thawr ibn Yazid, and Farj ibn Fadhalah narrated it from Muhasir ibn Habib > Abu Salamah > Prophet (SAW) the same thing.”

Abu Zur’ah said, “And the [other] students of Ibn Ajlan narrated this hadith from Abu Salamah Mursal.”

I asked, “Who?”

He said, “Laith or someone else.”

Ilal of Ibn Abi Hatim

Daruqutni said:

There is ikhtilaf in the hadith at Abu Salamah. Muhasir ibn Habib narrated it from Abu Salamah from Abu Hurairah from the Prophet (SAW). Thawr ibn Yazid narrated that from him.

Ibn Ajlan narrated it from Nafi, and people differed from him.

Hatim ibn Ismail narrated it from Ibn Ajlan > Nafi > Abu Salamah > Abu Hurairah & Abu Saeed > Prophet (SAW). And some said from Hatim: From Abu Salamah > Abu Hurairah > Prophet (SAW).

Yahya al-Qattan opposed him and narrated it from Ibn Ajlan > Nafi > Abu Salamah > Prophet (SAW), as a Mursal hadith, and that is correct.

Ilal of Daruqutni

The scholars of Ilal are not always working with full or perfect information. Daruqutni perhaps did not know that several people narrate the hadith from Thawr ibn Yazid from Muhasir ibn Habib Mursal. He only knew one chain which mentioned Abu Hurairah.

Similarly, perhaps he did not know that many narrated the hadith from Hatim with Abu Saeed al-Khudri alone.

Reasons the Muttasil version is weak:

1. Ibn Ajlan is known to be weak from Nafi
2. Principle of Numbers
3. Principle of Strength
4. Principle of Commonality (Abu Salamah > Abu Hurairah and Abu Salamah > Abu Saeed are very common chains)
5. Principle of Preservation

5.7.1.3 Narrators

Hadith: Saeed al-Maqbiri > Abu Salamah > Aisha (RA): The Prophet (SAW) said, “Take upon actions you can bear, because Allah does not bore until you bore. The most beloved action to Allah is the most consistent action, even if it is little.” (Sahih Bukhari)

Bukhari: Ibn Abi Zi’b & Ubaidullah ibn Umar > Saeed al-Maqbiri > Abu Salamah > Aisha > Prophet (SAW).

Nasai: Ibn Ajlan > Saeed > Abu Salamah > Aisha > Prophet (SAW).

Abu al-Shaikh al-Asbahani: Ibn Abi Ma’shar > Abu Ma’shar > Saeed al-Maqbiri > Abu Hurairah > Prophet (SAW).

Abu Ma’shar is weak in hadith.

Daruqutni said:

Saeed al-Maqbiri narrated it, and narrators differed from him.

Ibn Ajlan and Ubaidullah ibn Umar narrated it from Saeed al-Maqbiri > Abu Salamah > Aisha.

Abdullah ibn Umar and Abu Ma’shar opposed them by narrating it from Saeed al-Maqbiri > Abu Hurairah.

The hadith of Abu Salamah > Aisha is the correct one.

Ilal of Daruqutni

Reasons the version of Abu Hurairah is weak:

1. Abu Ma’shar is weak in hadith.
2. Principle of Numbers
3. Principle of Strength
4. Principle of Commonality (Saeed al-Maqbiri > Abu Hurairah is much more common than Saeed > Abu Salamah > Aisha)

Hadith: Abu Ishaq > Aswad > Abu Musa al-Ashari: When my brother and I came from Yemen, there was a period of time we thought Ibn Masud and his mother were from the family of the Prophet (SAW) because of how much they used to be with them. (Sahih Bukhari)

Bukhari:
– Ibrahim ibn Yusuf ibn Abi Ishaq > Yusuf > Abu Ishaq > Aswad > Abu Musa al-Ashari
– Ibn Abi Za’idah > Zakariyyah > Abu Ishaq > Aswad > Abu Musa al-Ashari

Muslim:
– Abd al-Rahman ibn Mahdi > Sufyan al-Thawri > Abu Ishaq > Aswad > Abu Musa al-Ashari

Tayalisi:
– Shubah > Abu Ishaq > Abu Musa al-Ashari

Daruqutni said:

Abu Ishaq narrated it, but people differed from him.

Thawri, Shubah, and Yusuf ibn Abi Ishaq, and Zakariyyah ibn Abi Za’idah narrated it from Abu Ishaq > Aswad > Abu Musa.

Someone narrated it from Abu Ishaq > Abd al-Rahman ibn Yazid > Abu Musa.

The narration of Thawri is the correct one.

It has been narrated: From Shu’bah from Abu Ishaq from Abu al-Ahwas from Abu Musa. Affan narrated that from him. It has also been narrated from Affan from Shubah that Shubah said, “I am not sure whether it is from Abu al-Ahwas or not.” Yaqub al-Hadhrami narrated that from Affan from Shubah.

Ilal of Daruqutni

Both the versions of Abd al-Rahman ibn Yazid and Abu al-Ahwas are weak for many reasons.

5.7.1.4 Chains

Hadith: Abu Ishaq > Harith > Ali (RA): The Prophet (SAW) said, “Islam is eight shares. Shahadah is a share, Salah is a share, Zakah is a share, Hajj is a share, inviting to good is a share, warning against evil is a share, and struggling in the path of Allah is a share. The one who has no share is in loss.”

Shubah and Thawri narrated from Abu Ishaq > Silah > Hudhaifah (RA), Mawquf.

Abu Yala: Habib ibn Habib narrated it from Abu Ishaq > Harith > Ali ibn Abi Talib > Prophet (SAW).

Habib ibn Habib was weak in hadith. Harith was also weak.

١٩٣٤ – وسألتُ أَبِي وَأَبَا زُرْعَةَ عَنْ حديثٍ رَوَاهُ حَبِيبُ بنُ حَبِيبٍ أَخُو حمزةَ بنِ حَبِيب، عَنْ أَبِي إِسْحَاقَ (٤)، عَنِ الحارِثِ (٥)، عن عليٍّ، عن النبيِّ (ص) قال: الإِيمَانُ ثَمَانِيَةُ أَسْهُمٍ …؟

فَقَالا: هَذَا خطأٌ؛ إِنَّمَا هُوَ: أَبُو إِسْحَاق (١)، عَنْ صِلَةَ (٢)، عَنْ حُذَيْفة، فقط (٣) .

Ilal of Ibn Abi Hatim

٣٣٧- وَسُئِلَ عَنْ حَدِيثِ الْحَارِثِ، عَنْ عَلِيٍّ، عَنِ النَّبِيِّ ﷺ: الْإِسْلَامُ ثَمَانِيَةُ أَسْهُمٍ: الصَّلَاةُ وَالزَّكَاةُ وَالْجِهَادُ الْحَدِيثَ، وَفِي آخِرِهِ: وَقَدْ خَابَ مَنْ لَا سَهْمَ لَهُ.
فَقَالَ: تَفَرَّدَ بِهِ حَبِيبُ بْنُ حَبِيبٍ أَخُو حَمْزَةَ بْنِ حَبِيبٍ الزَّيَّاتُ، عَنْ أَبِي إِسْحَاقَ، عَنِ الْحَارِثِ، عَنْ عَلِيٍّ، عَنِ النَّبِيِّ ﷺ.
وَخَالَفَهُ أَصْحَابُ أَبِي إِسْحَاقَ، فَرَوَوْهُ عَنْ أَبِي إِسْحَاقَ، عَنْ صِلَةَ بْنِ زُفَرَ، عَنْ حُذَيْفَةَ قَوْلِهِ.
وَهُوَ الصَّوَابُ.
قِيلَ لِلشَّيْخِ أَبِي الْحَسَنِ سَمِعَهُ مِنَ ابْنِ مَنِيعٍ، فَإِنَّهُ كَانَ يَرْوِيهِ عَنْ سُوَيْدِ بِنْ سَعِيدٍ، عَنْ حبيب بن حبيب.
فقال: حدثنا ابن منيع، حدثنا سويد، قال: حدثنا حَبِيبُ بْنُ حَبِيبٍ أَخُو حَمْزَةَ، عَنْ أَبِي إِسْحَاقَ … الْحَدِيثَ.
وَرَفَعَهُ بَعْضُهُمْ عَنْ أَبِي إِسْحَاقَ، عَنْ صِلَةَ، عَنْ حُذَيْفَةَ، عَنِ النَّبِيِّ ﷺ … الْحَدِيثَ.
قَالَ: وَمَنْ قَالَ: عَنْ حَبِيبِ بْنِ حَبِيبٍ، عَنْ أَخِيهِ فَقَدْ وَهِمَ وَهْمًا قَبِيحًا.

Ilal of Daruqutni

Hadith: Abu Tuwalah > Saeed ibn Yasar > Abu Hurairah: The Prophet (SAW) said, “If someone seeks knowledge that should be sought for the pleasure of Allah intending nothing but payment in the world, he will never smell the fragrance of Jannah on the Day of Judgement.” (Sunan Abu Dawud)

This is how Fulayh narrated the hadith.

Ibn al-Mubarak: Zaaidah > Abu Tuwalah > Muhammad ibn Yahya ibn Hibban: A group from Iraq told me that they came by Abu Dharr (RA) and asked him to teach them hadith. He said to them, “Don’t you know? These ahadith that are sought for the pleasure of Allah, if anyone learns them seeking some payment in the world, he will never smell the fragrance of Jannah ever.” (Zuhd of Ibn al-Mubarak)

وسمعتُ أَبَا زُرْعَةَ وَذَكَرَ حَدِيثًا حدَّثنا بِهِ عَنْ سعيد بن منصور (٦)، عن فُلَيح ابن (١) سُلَيمان، عَنْ أَبِي طُوالَة (٢)، عَنْ سعيد ابن يَسار، عَنْ أَبِي هُرَيْرَةَ، عَنِ النبيِّ (ص) قَالَ (٣): مَنْ تَعلَّمَ عِلْمًا مِمَّا يُبْتَغَى بِهِ وَجْهُ اللهِ لا يَتَعَلَّمُهُ إِلاَّ لِيُصِيبَ بِهِ عَرَضًا مِنَ الدُّنْيَا (٤)؛ لَمْ يَجِدْ عَرْفَ الجَنَّةِ؛ يَعْنِي: ريحَها.

فسمعتُ أَبَا زُرْعَةَ يَقُولُ: هَكَذَا رَوَاهُ (٥) ! وَرَوَاهُ زَائِدَةُ (٦)، عَنْ أَبِي طُوالَة، عَنْ محمَّد ابن يَحْيَى بْنِ حَبَّان، عَنْ رَهْطٍ مِنْ أَهْلِ الْعِرَاقِ، عَنْ أَبِي ذَرٍّ، موقوفً (٧)، ولم يرفَعْه (٨)

Ilal of Ibn Abi Hatim

وَسُئِلَ عَنْ حَدِيثِ سَعِيدِ بْنِ يَسَارٍ أَبِي الْحُبَابِ، عَنْ أَبِي هُرَيْرَةَ، قَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ ﷺ: مَنْ تَعَلَّمَ عِلْمًا يَبْتَغِي بِهِ وَجْهَ اللَّهِ عز وجل لَا يَتَعَلَّمُهُ إِلَّا لِيُصِيبَ بِهِ عَرَضًا مِنَ الدُّنْيَا، لَمْ يَجِدْ عَرْفَ الْجَنَّةِ.
فَقَالَ: يَرْوِيهِ أَبُو طَوَالَةَ عَبْدُ اللَّهِ بْنُ عَبْدِ الرحمن بن مَعْمَرٍ، وَاخْتُلِفَ عَنْهُ؛
فَرَوَاهُ فُلَيْحُ بْنُ سُلَيْمَانَ أَبُو يَحْيَى، عَنْ أَبِي طُوَالَةَ، عَنْ سَعِيدِ بْنِ يَسَارٍ، عَنْ أَبِي هُرَيْرَةَ، عَنِ النَّبِيِّ ﷺ.
وَخَالَفَهُ مُحَمَّدُ بْنُ عُمَارَةَ بْنِ عَمْرِو بْنِ حَزْمٍ الْحَزْمِيُّ؛
فَرَوَاهُ عَنْ أَبِي طُوَالَةَ، عَنْ رَجُلٍ مِنْ بَنِي سَالِمٍ مُرْسَلًا، عَنِ النَّبِيِّ ﷺ، وَالْمُرْسَلُ أَشْبَهُ بِالصَّوَابِ.

Ilal of Daruqutni

5.7.2 Ilal in Matn

5.7.2.1 Elaborate vs. Summarized

Hadith: Jabir ibn Abdullah: The Prophet (SAW) said, “Between a man and shirk/kufr is abandoning Salah.” (Sahih Muslim)

Blue: Abu al-Zubair & Abu Sufyan > Jabir ibn Abdullah > Prophet: Between a man and shirk/kufr is abandoning Salah. (Sahih Muslim)

Red: Abd al-Razzaq > Sufyan al-Thawri > Abu al-Zubair > Jabir > Prophet (SAW): Abandoning Salah is shirk. (Sunan Tirmidhi)

Purple: Qatadah narrates it (disconnected) from Jabir from the Prophet as: There is nothing between one of you and disbelieving except that he leaves an obligatory Salah. (Musannaf Abd al-Razzaq)

Both the red and purple versions are weak and narration by meaning of the blue version.

5.7.2.2 Addition vs. Subtraction

The default in additions where there is no reason for doubt is acceptance.

Hadith: Anas > Prophet (SAW): Among the signs of the hour are […]

Blue: From Qatadah > Anas > Prophet: Among the signs of the hour are that 1) knowledge will reduce, 2) ignorance will become rampant, 3) zina will become rampant, and 4) women will become the majority and men will become the minority until there will be fifty women for one caretaker. (Sahih Bukhari)

Black: From Abu Tayyah > Anas > Prophet: Among the signs of the hour are that 1) knowledge will be lifted, 2) ignorance will be established, 3) wine will be drunk, and 4) zina will become rampant. (Sahih Bukhari)

The hadith of Qatadah and Abu Tayyah agree on three signs but differ about one. Qatadah mentions women becoming the majority and Abu Tayyah mentions wine being drunk.

Both are authentic narrations, so there is no harm in accepting that all five are signs of the Day of Judgement. Qatadah and Abu Tayyah each narrated the parts they remembered.

5.7.2.3 Different Contexts

Hadith: Aisha (RA): The Prophet (SAW) said, “Take actions that you can handle, because Allah does not tire (from rewarding) until you tire (from worshiping him).” (Sahih Bukhari)

This hadith is corroborated from two students of Aisha (RA): Urwah and Abu Salamah. However, the two of them differ about the context of the hadith.

Red: Urwah ibn Zubair gives the following context: A woman was sitting with Aisha (RA), and the Prophet (SAW) saw her. He asked Aisha (RA) who she was, and Aisha (RA) talked about how pious she was and how she used to worship all night. At this, the Prophet (SAW) encouraged only taking up actions you can handle and said the hadith. (Sahih Bukhari)

Blue: Abu Salamah (according two of his students) gives the following context: The Prophet (SAW) used to pray at night, and people started gathering behind him to pray. But, the Prophet discouraged them from doing that by saying the hadith. (Sahih Bukhari)

Yahya ibn Abi Katheer narrates another context from Abu Salamah which we will not discuss.

There are two possibilities:

1. The same statement was said in multiple situations and Aisha (RA) narrated those multiple instances
2. Both events happened (since they are narrated by reliable sources), but this specific statement was only said during one event. So, one of the narrations is wrong in being the context but true in having happened.

In the second scenario, Urwah would likely be preferred over Abu Salamah as providing the correct context for the statement.

It would not be correct to claim one of the versions is false because of the clash. The clash only leads us to weaken one version being the correct context.

5.7.2.4 Different Content

Hadith: Abu Dharr: The Prophet asked me at sunset, “Where does the sun go?” I said, “Allah and His messenger know best.” The Prophet (SAW) said, “It goes to its place (mustaqarr) under the throne, prostrates, and seeks permission to rise, and Allah gives it permission. Soon, it will be told to rise from its setting place (i.e. the West), and it will do so.” (Sahih Muslim ver. a)

Yunus and A’mash narrate the hadith from Ibrahim ibn Yazid > Yazid al-Taymi > Abu Dharr > Prophet (SAW) with slightly different wordings. However, they agree on the sun going “under the throne.”

Yazid ibn Haroon > Sufyan ibn Hussain > Hakam ibn Utaibah > Ibrahim ibn Yazid (with the same isnad to Abu Dharr): I was sitting behind the Prophet on a donkey and the sun was setting. He asked, “Do you know where it sets?” I said, “Allah and His messenger know best.” He said, “It sets in a warm spring.” (Sunan Abu Dawud)

Ibn Sa’d said about Sufyan ibn Hussain, “He was thiqah, but he made a lost of mistakes in his hadith.” (Tahzeeb ul-Kamal)

The version of setting in a warm spring is a mistake.

5.8 Terminology

If the hadith of a weak narrator is mu’allal, the hadith is called Munkar (according to the famous view). The correct version of the hadith is called Ma’ruf.

If the hadith of a strong narrator is mu’allal, the hadith is called Shaaz (according to the famous view). The correct version of the hadith is called Mahfuz.

Munkar and Shaaz are also used to refer to unjustified gharabah according to some scholars.

When discussing ilal, scholars may say “this is the sahih” or “this is ashbah (more likely).” Phrases like this do not necessarily endorse the authenticity of the hadith in itself. They just mean one version of the hadith (even if it may be inauthentic) is the correct one between multiple opposing versions.

6. Authenticity

The hadith scholars divided a hadith in terms of its authenticity into three overarching categories: sahih (authentic), hasan (fair), and da’eef (weak).

6.1 Sources

6.1.1 Overview

The primary method of determining authenticity is using the conditions of Sahih as will be detailed in section 6.2.

The secondary method is to refer to the implicit and explicit expressions of the hadith scholars.

To determine a hadith to be Sahih, you can look at its inclusion in books that collect Sahih:

1. Sahih Bukhari
2. Sahih Muslim
3. Sunan Nasai
4. Sahih Ibn Khuzaymah
5. Sahih Ibn Hibban
6. Mustadrak al-Hakim

Or to determine it is not Sahih, you can look at the implication of the hadith not being included in these books.

You can also look at the explicit statements of the hadith scholars about hadith. Some important categories in this are:

1. Comments of Collection Writers, Especially Tirmidhi
2. Comments of Scholars like Ahmad, Ibn Maeen, Ali ibn al-Madini, and others
   • Found in books of Su’alat or quoted in other books
3. Comments in Books of Ilal

The exclusion of the hadith from major collections can be implicit evidence the hadith is weak.

The secondary sources are useful when there is a lack of information or time to properly research with the primary method. However, primary judgements should generally be preferred when convincing over secondary sources.

So, if Ibn Hibban or Ibn Khuzaymah grade a hadith Sahih but you find clear evidence it is mistaken, you should prefer the evidence.

6.1.2 Books of Sahih

6.1.2.1 Sahih Bukhari

1. Sahih Bukhari is the strongest Sahih collection according to the majority of scholars.
2. The hadith in Bukhari can be divided into Usul (primary narrations) and Shawahid (corroborating narrations). The Usul of Bukhari are intended to be highly Sahih while the Shawahid might sometimes lower to the level of Hasan.
3. The explicitly mu’allaq or munqati’ (unconnected) narrations of Bukhari are not claimed by Bukhari to be Sahih.
4. The majority view is Bukhari did not intend to include every Sahih hadith in his collection.

6.1.2.2 Sahih Muslim

1. Sahih Muslim is stronger than Sahih Bukhari according to a minority of scholars.
2. The majority view is that Bukhari had stricter conditions than Muslim, especially with regard to connection. However, the best view is that they had the same conditions. They differ only in application.
3. Imam Muslim usually brings many routes and versions of the same hadith. The first one is usually intended to be the most reliable version. The last one is sometimes Sahih, sometimes Hasan, and sometimes Mu’allal and weak (especially if it has an uncorroborated addition or contradicts the earlier narrations). He includes the latter to show its weakness to students of knowledge.
4. There are more narrations criticized in Sahih Muslim than in Sahih Bukhari, but usually they are the last routes of Muslim.
5. The majority view is Muslim did not intend to include every Sahih hadith in his collection.

6.1.2.3 Sunan Nasai

1. Although Sunan Nasai is not usually labelled a Sahih, any hadith Nasai is silent about is usually Sahih.
2. Nasai often quotes multiple routes and versions of the same hadith so keep in mind that not every version he quotes is intended to be Sahih.
3. There is a Sunan Sughra and Sunan Kubra attributed to Nasai. There is no difference in quality between them. The difference is only that one is shorter and includes less hadith. It is most likely because of how the students of Nasai transmitted the book rather than something from Nasai himself.

6.1.2.4 Sahih Ibn Khuzaymah

1. Ibn Khuzaymah is the best after Bukhari and Muslim (among Sahih writers) in his conditions of Sahih.
2. Any hadith in Sahih Ibn Khuzaymah is Hasan or Sahih

6.1.2.5 Sahih Ibn Hibban

1. Ibn Hibban was a student of Ibn Khuzaymah and less strict than him.
2. Hadith in Sahih Ibn Hibban can go as low as Hasan. Sometimes, there are mu’allal narrations where Ibn Hibban may not have known the illah.

6.1.2.6 Mustadrak al-Hakim

1. The Mustadrak was written to list Sahih hadith that were not included by Bukhari or Muslim.
2. There are four categories of hadith in the Mustadrak: 1) Hadith al-Hakim claims fulfill the conditions of both Bukhari and Muslim, 2) Hadith al-Hakim claims fulfill the conditions of Bukhari, 3) Hadith al-Hakim claims fulfill the conditions of Muslim, and 4) Hadith that are Sahih without fulfilling their conditions.
3. When al-Hakim says “conditions of Bukhari” or “conditions of Muslim,” he means the isnad only contains narrators used by them in their respective Sahihs. However, al-Hakim was not careful with ilal and contextual weakness and strength. So, even if Bukhari only used a narrator from one teacher, al-Hakim would claim his narration from another teacher fulfills the conditions of Bukhari.
4. There are a significant amount of incorrect narrations in the Mustadrak. As a result, al-Hakim’s grading is the weakest of all the classical hadith collectors, and it is almost useless without further research.

6.1.3 Non-Sahih Collections

6.1.3.1 Jami Tirmidhi

1. Tirmidhi was the student of Bukhari.
2. In the Jami, Tirmidhi grades most narrations with the following phrases: 1) Hasan Sahih, 2) Sahih, 3) Hasan Sahih Ghareeb, 4) Sahih Ghareeb, 5) Hasan, 6) Hasan Ghareeb, and 7) Ghareeb.
3. The best view is that Sahih and Hasan Sahih were the same to Tirmidhi and there is no difference between the two in his usage.
4. The grades Hasan Sahih and Hasan Sahih Ghareeb encompass what we would consider Sahih and Hasan narrations. The one that includes the label Ghareeb is lower in level.
5. The grades Hasan and Hasan Ghareeb encompass what we would consider low Hasan and weak narrations. Tirmidhi only required 3 things for Hasan: 1) No one suspected of lying in the chain, 2) Not shaaz, and 3) Similar message has been narrated by others. Hadith that Tirmidhi labelled Hasan or Hasan Ghareeb are often weak and sometimes Hasan (in our definition).
6. The grade Ghareeb encompasses what we would consider Daeef, Matruh, and Mawdhu.

6.1.3.2 Sunan Abu Dawud

1. Abu Dawud tried to avoid Matruh or Mawdhu narrations in his Sunan. But, there are still Daeef narrations in it.

6.1.3.3 Musnad Ahmad

1. Imam Ahmad included almost all viable hadith.
2. He avoided clearly fabricated narrations, similar to Abu Dawud.
3. Anything not in Musnad Ahmad in any capacity (not even a version or similar narration) is quite weak.

6.1.3.4 Sunan Ibn Majah

1. Sunan Ibn Majah is the weakest of the 6 books.
2. Although the majority of his narrations are Sahih or Hasan, there are several munkar or fabricated hadith in the Sunan.

6.1.4 Grading of Early Scholars

In the early period, there was not much differentiation between Sahih and Hasan. The scholars largely used a binary classification: Sahih or Daeef.

As a result, when Ibn Maeen or others call a hadith Sahih or Hasan, that should not be understood as the Sahih or Hasan of our times. Instead, it should usually be understood in the broad sense of “authentic” which includes Sahih and Hasan.

The same applies to the Sahihs of Ibn Khuzaymah and Ibn Hibban. They included hasan hadith in their definition of Sahih. Bukhari and Muslim were unique in keeping a particularly high standard for their Sahihs.

The first to make Hasan its own category was Tirmidhi. He defined it with 3 conditions: 1) No one suspected of lying in the chain, 2) Not shaaz, and 3) Similar message has been narrated by others.

This definition is different from the definition we use today. So, when Tirmidhi considers something Hasan, that can include even what we consider weak hadith.

6.1.5 Maxims of Secondary Grading

1. If a hadith is in Sahih Bukhari or Muslim, it is Sahih.
2. If a hadith is in Sunan Nasai without criticism, it is at least a low level of Sahih or high Hasan.
3. If a hadith is in Sahih Ibn Khuzaymah or Sahih Ibn Hibban or graded Hasan Sahih by Tirmidhi, it is Hasan or above.
4. If a hadith is not in the five books (Bukhari, Muslim, Nasai, Tirmidhi, and Abu Dawud), it is weak or below.
5. If a hadith is in Musnad Ahmad or Abu Dawud, it is not to the level of Mawdhu.
6. If a hadith is not in Musnad Ahmad or the five books, it is Matruh (extremely weak) or below.

6.2 Detailed Categories

6.2.1 Sahih

6.2.1.1 Sahih li-Dhatihi

A Sahih hadith li-Dhatihi (in itself) is a Muttasil hadith of Thiqah narrators that is not Shaaz and has no Ilal that weaken it from the level of Sahih.

Muttasil means “fully connected.” Thiqah means narrators of the first level who have adalah (honesty) and dabt (reliability in narration). Not being Shaaz means not being unjustifiably Ghareeb (solitary) or contradicting stronger narrators. Not having Ilal means there are no defects in the hadith that hurt the authenticity.

So, a Sahih hadith is popularly said to have five conditions:

1. Being fully connected
2. Every narrator in the chain having adalah
3. Every narrator in the chain having dabt
4. Not being Shaaz
5. Not having Ilal Qadihah

Hadith: Hanzalah ibn Abi Sufyan > Ikrimah ibn Khalid > Ibn Umar: The Prophet (SAW) said, “Islam is built on five (pillars).”

Hanzalah and Ikrimah are connected.

They were both reliable and thiqah.

The gharabah of the hadith ends at Hanzalah (d. 150 AH) because multiple students narrated it from him, so it was well-before Imam Malik.

There are no significant ilal that hurt the authenticity of the hadith. There is an illah, but it is resolved. See 5.7.1.1.

This hadith is strongly Sahih and included by both Bukhari and Muslim.

6.2.1.2 Sahih li-Ghairihi

When multiple chains that do not reach the level of Sahih in themselves support each other to the point that they reach the same level of strength as a Sahih hadith, the hadith is called Sahih li-Ghairihi.

There are three categories of Sahih li-Ghayrihi:

1. When a hadith is Sahih li-Ghayrihi to a particular narrator, then that narrator’s chain is Sahih to the Prophet (SAW)
2. When a hadith is Sahih li-Ghayrihi to a companion (multiple mediocre chains to a companion)
3. When a hadith is Sahih li-Ghayrihi to the Prophet (SAW)

Bukhari and Muslim generally do not include the 2nd and 3rd types in their Sahihs.

Example: Shu’bah > Waqid ibn Muhammad > Muhammad ibn Zaid > Ibn Umar: The Prophet (SAW) said, “I have been commanded to fight the people until they testify that there is no god except Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah and establish prayer and give Zakah. When they do, they save their blood and wealth from me except when justified, and their judgement will be with Allah.”

The chain Shu’bah > Waqid ibn Muhammad > Muhammad ibn Zaid > Ibn Umar is reliable.

However, this hadith is only narrated by two routes from Shu’bah.

Harami ibn Umarah, Abd al-Malik ibn Sabbah, and Malik ibn Abd al-Wahid were hasan narrators known for making mistakes.

This hadith is included by Bukhari and Ibn Hibban and also included by Muslim as a corroborating narration.

The more authentic versions of this hadith from Abu Hurairah and others do not mention “establish prayer and give Zakah.”

Example: Abu Hurairah (RA): The Prophet (SAW) said, “The Muslims that are most complete in faith are those that have the best manners.” (Sunan Abu Dawud)

This is narrated from Abu Hurairah by two chains:

1. Muhammad ibn Amr > Abu Salamah > Abu Hurairah
2. Ibn Ajlan > Qa’qa’ > Abu Salih > Abu Hurairah

Muhammad ibn Amr and Ibn Ajlan were both hasan narrators.

This hadith is included by Ibn Hibban, Nasai in Sunan Kubra, Tirmidhi who called it Hasan Sahih, and al-Hakim who called it “Sahih on the conditions of Muslim.”

Example: The Prophet (SAW) said, “Suffering sticks to a person until he meets Allah with no sin on him (because suffering erases sin).” (Sunan Tirmidhi)

This is narrated from the Prophet (SAW) from two chains:

1. Aasim ibn Bahdalah > Mus’ab ibn Sa’d > Sa’d ibn Abi Waqqas > Prophet (SAW), as part of a longer hadith
2. Muhammad ibn Amr > Abu Salamah > Abu Hurairah > Prophet (SAW)

Aasim and Muhammad were both hasan narrators.

This hadith is included by Ibn Hibban in the Sahih, Tirmidhi who called it Hasan Sahih, and al-Hakim who called it “Sahih on the conditions of Muslim.”

6.2.1.3 Hasan Supported by Sahih

When a version of a hadith is only Hasan but is supported in part by a Sahih hadith, the addition or wording of the Hasan hadith may become Sahih li-Ghayrihi as well. This depends on whether the confidence of the hadith is raised by the supporting hadith.

This has the same categories as normal Sahih li-Ghayrihi.

Example: Saeed al-Maqbiri > Abu Hurairah: The Prophet (SAW) said, “Religion is easy. No one makes the religion difficult on himself except that he will be overwhelmed. So, be moderate, do your best, expect good, and seek help in the mornings, evenings, and parts of the night.” (Sahih Bukhari)

This was narrated by Ma’n ibn Muhammad from Saeed. Ma’n was only a Hasan narrator.

Ibn Abi Zi’b > Saeed al-Maqbiri > Abu Hurairah: The Prophet (SAW) said, “None of you will be saved by his actions.” They asked, “Not even you, Messenger of Allah?” He said, “Not even me, until Allah envelops me with mercy. Be moderate, do your best, pray in the mornings and evenings, and you will reach your target.” (Sahih Bukhari)

The message of being moderate and doing your best has been narrated from other routes to Abu Hurairah.

Even though the first part of the hadith “Religion is easy. No one makes the religion difficult on himself except that he will be overwhelmed,” is only narrated by Ma’n, it is Sahih li-Ghairihi.

The hadith is in Sahih Ibn Hibban and Sunan Nasai in addition to Sahih Bukhari.

6.2.2 Hasan

6.2.2.1 Hasan li-Dhatihi

When one of the five conditions of Sahih is not fulfilled perfectly but only in a mediocre way, the hadith lowers to the level of Hasan. This includes four possibilities:

1. A narrator is only of the second tier and does not reach the tier of Sahih
2. A chain or connection is not well-proven and has the possibility of being disconnected
3. The hadith is neither completely reasonable or unreasonable in its gharabah
4. The hadith has an illah which may or may not weaken the hadith

In all of these cases, a hadith is lowered to the level of Hasan. Since Hasan is between the two categories of Sahih and Weak, which are each more well-defined, defining the exact borders between the category of Hasan and the other two is difficult.

In all of these cases, the requirement of being hasan is that neither of the conditions is completely broken.

Hadith: Muhammad ibn Amr > Abu Salamah > Abu Hurairah: The Prophet (SAW) said, “Poor Muslims will enter Jannah before wealthy Muslims by 500 years.” (Sunan Tirmidhi)

Muhammad ibn Amr was hasan in hadith.

This hadith is in Sahih Ibn Hibban and Sunan Kubra of Nasai. Tirmidhi called it Hasan Sahih.

Hadith: Yahya ibn Harith > Abu Asma > Thawban: The Prophet (SAW) said, “Fasting Ramadan is like fasting 10 months. Fasting 6 days after that is like fasting 2 months. That adds up to a year.”

It is unclear whether Yazid ibn Harith met Abu Asma. They were both from Damascus, but it is possible Abu Asma died when Yahya was young.

Yahya ibn Harith was generally considered thiqah or hasan.

As a result, this hadith is lowered to the level of hasan.

The hadith is in Sahih Ibn Khuzaymah, Sahih Ibn Hibban, and Sunan Kubra of Nasai.

6.2.2.2 Hasan li-Ghairihi

When multiple narrations do not reach the level of Hasan but corroborate each other to the point of giving the same confidence that a Hasan li-Dhatihi narration gives, they are considered Hasan li-Ghairihi.

This, however, is difficult to justify in contrast to Sahih li-Ghairihi because weak narrators are more likely to have taken a hadith from each other while mixing up (or fabricating) the chains than to have corroborated each other’s narrations.

The condition of Hasan li-Ghairihi is that it is not more likely that one of the narrations is taken from the other. So, the Madars should not be too far apart in time.

Hadith: Anas ibn Malik: The Prophet (SAW) said, “Seeking knowledge is obligatory on every Muslim.” (Sunan Ibn Majah)

This hadith has many weak chains to Anas ibn Malik.

It is narrated from Tarif ibn Salman from Anas and Ziyad ibn Abdullah from Anas. Tarif and Ziyad were weak narrators from the same generation.

It has also been narrated from “a man from Syria” from Qatadah from Anas. This narration is Ghareeb from Qatadah and the weakness is a generation below the previous chains.

It has also been narrated from Hafs ibn Abi Dawud from Kathir ibn Shinzir from Ibn Sirin from Anas. Hafs was matruk, and the narration is Ghareeb. The weakness is one more generation below.

Combining these chains, it is plausible to argue the hadith is Hasan li-Ghairihi from Anas ibn Malik (RA).

However, the better conclusion is that it remains weak because each of these chains may have derived from one of the others.

Imam Ahmad said, “This is a fabricated hadith.” (Jami li-Ulum Imam Ahmad)

Ishaq ibn Rahawayh said, “The narration is not authentic.” (Jami li-Ulum Imam Ahmad)

Only Ibn Majah included the hadith.

6.2.2.3 Weak Supported by Hasan

When a weak hadith is generally supported in its content by a Hasan or Sahih hadith, it is possible for the additions of the weak hadith to be called Hasan li-Ghairihi.

This is extremely difficult to justify because it is very likely the weak narrator simply made mistakes in the hadith while the more authentic version is the correct and original wording.

6.1.3 Weak

6.2.3.1 Daeef

If one of the conditions of Sahih is truly broken, the hadith falls to the level of Daeef. This can be in four cases:

1. One of the narrators is unreliable
2. The chain is disconnected
3. The hadith is unreasonably ghareeb
4. The hadith has a problematic (but not conclusive) illah

Additionally, if there is doubt in multiple conditions of Sahih (instead of one like in Hasan), the hadith may be lowered to Daeef.

Examples of weak hadith have been given in their respective sections.

6.2.3.2 Matruh

A hadith falls to the level of Matruh when it is close to certainty it is fabricated without actual certainty.

This includes when the hadith relies on a Matruk narrator or the chain is extremely disconnected or the gharabah is extreme or there is a conclusive illah.

6.2.3.3 Mawdhu’

A hadith falls to the level of Mawdhu’ when there is reasonable certainty that the hadith was fabricated. This can be due to many reasons, including but not limited to only having been narrated by a known fabricator.

6.3 Levels of Sahih

6.3.1 Primary Method

A hadith is stronger than another hadith even when both are Sahih if it outranks the other in one of three characteristics:

1. Strength of the Narrators and Chains
2. Height of the Madar(s) (the earlier the better)
3. Number of Corroborations

6.3.2 Secondary Method

Sahih hadith can be ranked based on where they are found in the following way:

1. In each of Sahih Bukhari, Muslim, and Nasai
2. In each of Bukhari and Muslim
3. In each of Muslim and Nasai
4. In Bukhari
5. In Muslim
6. In Nasai
7. In Sahih Ibn Khuzaymah
8. In Sahih Ibn Hibban
9. In the Mustadrak

When Bukhari and Muslim agree on a hadith, the hadith is called Muttafaqun Alayh. If the wording differs, Bukhari’s wording is usually more precise.

6.4 Differences in Grading

Sometimes, scholars differ about the grading or category of a hadith. This can be for three reasons:

1. Difference in terminology or conditions
2. Difference in application or judgement
3. Difference in information

6.4.1 Difference in Terminology and Conditions

Different scholars had different standards for what they would include in their Sahihs or under the label of Sahih or under the label of Hasan or under other labels.

So, what Ibn Hibban would consider Sahih may not be considered Sahih by Bukhari or Muslim.

6.4.2 Difference in Application

Two scholars that agree on terminology and conditions in a general sense might disagree about how they apply to a particular hadith. This can be because they differ about a narrator’s rank, about the strength of a connection, or whether an illah harms the hadith.

Later scholars were often much laxer with evaluating ilal compared to earlier scholars like Bukhari and Muslim.

6.4.3 Difference in Information

One scholar might grade a hadith based on the apparent conclusion of the information he has but another scholar might know a reason to prove the hadith weak.

This often happens with ilal. Many hadith in the likes of Sahih Ibn Hibban and Mustadrak have ilal that the authors did not notice.

Conclusion

Further Studies

To complete your understanding of Mustalah (Terminology), read books like Tahreer Ulum al-Hadith and the Muqaddimah of Ibn al-Salah along with Alfiyyah of Suyuti or Iraqi.

To complete your understanding of theory, you must practice takhreej and classification of hadith. This should be done primarily to understand the grades of earlier scholars rather than making up original gradings without precedence.

It is only practice looking up narrators, determining connection, searching for ilal, and then classifying hadith that will truly make you understand the theory of hadith.

Modern Criticism

Modern criticism of hadith is of different levels. Some accuse collectors like Bukhari and Muslim of fabricating hadith themselves. Some accuse the Madars of hadith as fabricating hadith even if corroborated. Some accuse specifically Ghareeb hadith of being fabricated by the Madar. There are many levels in between.

The critics base their views on different amounts of knowledge and give theories that have different levels of plausibility. This is not the place to elaborate on the flaws of different arguments, but anyone with practice classifying hadith will be able to realize them.

Final Words

The Sunnah is an essential part of Islam. Hadith is an essential part of knowing the Sunnah. Since hadith are under attack in this era, it is obligatory for people to understand the theory of hadith enough to respond to arguments against that undermine the Sunnah.