In the name of Allah most
gracious most merciful
Assalaamualaikum wa
rahmatuallahi wa barakatahu
by Professor Mustafa Azamî
The Condition for the Acceptance
of Hadeeth
A Hadith must meet the
following five criteria in order to be accepted in
Islamic law as a source of
legal ordinance:
1. Continuity of the chain of
transmitters (ittisal assanad):
This chain of transmitters has
to be unbroken in order for the Hadith to be acceptable. That is, none of the
transmitters must be missing from the chain
of narrators.Furthermore, each
transmitter must also have heard the Hadith in question directly from the
transmitter before him. Knowledge of this is verified with
the help of the biographical
sciences of the science of Hadith.
2. The integrity ('adalah) of
the transmitters:
The integrity of the
transmitters is established in terms of their out- ward observance of Islam. In
other words, it is ascertained that they practice
what is required of them by Islam and they are not known to engage in the doing of things which are forbidden. Again this precondition is verified
through the biographical
sciences of Hadith.
3. Soundness of memory of the transmitters:
It must be verified through
the biographical sciences of Hadith that each transmitter has a sound memory or
that his books were accurate and that he
only transmitted directly from
his books.
4. Conformity of the Hadith:
It is important that the
Hadith conform with similar Hadiths on the same topics which are stronger than
it. This conformity should be both in the
chain of transmitters and the
text. Non-conformity in the chain of transmitters for example, might be if one
of the transmitters in the chain
is different than in a
stronger version of the same Hadith. Non-conformity in text would imply
divergence in the meaning of this Hadith with one which
is stronger.
5. The absence of defects
('illah) in the Hadith:
A defect ('illah) in Hadith is
defined as a hidden defect in the Hadith which takes away from its
authenticity. A Hadith which has such a defect is
one which appears to be free
from defect at first while after investigation it is discovered that it has a
certain defect which would not be
apparent without
investigation. The defect can be in the chain of transmitters or in text or
both.
Classification of Hadeeth
There are two distinct types
of Hadith:
A. The recurrent Hadith
(al-Hadith al-mutawatir):
This type of Hadith is
decisive in its certainty (qat'i thubut). There is no doubt that it actually
came down from the Prophet (peace be upon him). There
are four conditions which must
be present for a Hadith to be of this category:
At least four different persons
must have narrated the Hadith.It must have been impossible for these four or
more to have concurred on a lie.
They must have narrated the
Hadith from similar people (the first two conditions being applicable) from the
beginning of the chain of transmitters
until the end of it.Their
narration of Hadith must rely on the mind and the senses not the mind only
because the mind might be mistaken (as imagining something to havehappened).
B. The non-recurrent Hadith
(al-Hadith al-ahad):
Any Hadith which is not
recurrent (mutawatir) is called non-recurrent ('ahad). This category is divided
into three sub-groupings according to the
number of narrators of the
Hadith:
The well-known Hadith
(al-Hadith al-mashhur). This is a Hadith which has been narrated by three or
more people in the chain of transmitters but did
not arrive at the rank of
recurrent Hadith.
The strong Hadith (al-Hadith
al-aziz). This is a Hadith in which there are no less than two narrators in
each part of the chain of narrators.
The rare Hadith (al-Hadith
al-gharib). This is a Hadith which is narrated by a single person at one point
in the chain of transmitters.
** The non-recurrent Hadith is
sub-divided into three more classifications regarding the beginning of the
chain of transmitters:
The Elevated Hadith (al-Hadith
al-Marfu). This is a Hadith the chain of narrators for which begins with the
Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him).
The Suspended Hadith
(al-Hadith al-mawquf). This is a Hadith the chain of narrators for which does
not trace back to the Prophet (peace be upon him)
but traces back instead to a
Companion of the Prophet (peace be upon him).
The Cut-off Hadith (al-Hadith
al-maqtu'). This is a Hadith the chain of narrators for which traces back only to
a successor of the Companions of the
Prophet (peace be upon him).
** The non-recurrent Hadith is
broken into three classifications regarding their acceptance as a source of
Islamic Law:
The authentic Hadith
(al-Hadith as-sahih). This is a Hadith which satisfies the five criteria for
accepting a Hadith.
The good Hadith (al-Hadith
al-hasan). This is the Hadith which, like the authentic Hadith, also satisfies
these five criteria except the third
criteria of the soundness of
memory of the transmitters is only slightly satisfied.
The weak Hadith (al-Hadith
ad-da'if). This is a Hadith which does not satisfy all the five criteria for
accep- ting Hadith. The weak Hadith is
classified in different
categories regarding which of these five criteria is not met:
C. Weakness in the Hadith due
to lack continuity in the chain of transmitters.
The continuity is missing at
the end of chain of transmitters the Hadith is called "hanging"
(mu'allaq).
If the continuity is missing
in the middle of the chain of transmitters, the Hadith is known as
"interrupted" (munqati').
If two successive transmitters
or more are missing in the middle of the chain of transmitters, the Hadith is
called "problematic" (mu'dil).
If the first transmitter, a
Companion of the Prophet (peace be upon him), is missing from the chain of
transmitters, the Hadith is called "incompletely
transmitted" (mursal).
D. Weakness in the Hadith due
to lack of integrity ('adalah) in narrators.
A Hadith whhich has been
fabricated is known as "fabricated" (mawdu').
If the Matn (text) of a Hadith
came down through one channel of trans-mission only and the transmitter of that
Hadith does not satisfy the
criteria for integrity or his
memory is not good then the Hadith is said to be "rejected" (munkar).
If a Hadith is transmitted by
somebody who is charged with lying and that Hadith is known only through his
transmission then the Hadith is said to be
"abandoned"
(matruk).
Three subgroupings of weak
Hadith are classified as:
4.1. Mudallas is the chain of
"forged" transmitters.
This is a Hadith which the transmitter has transmitted from some other transmitter whom he has met but under whom he did not study, yet regarding
whom he transmitted the Hadith
in a way implying that he heard from him.
4.2. Forged regarding teachers
(mudallas ash-shuyukh).
This is a Hadith in which the
transmitter calls his teacher (shaikh) bynicknames other than the names by
which he is well known.
4.3. Forged regarding the
naming of transmitters (mudallas at-tasiyah).
This is a Hadith which is
transmitted by a weak transmitter between trustworthy transmitters who met each
other with the weak transmitter
between them having deleted,
so as not to be deleted.
If one of the transmitter of
the Hadith is not named then the Hadith is called "obscure" (mubham).
If something has been added to
a Hadith, then that Hadith is known as "interpolated" (mudraj),
interpolation might be in the chain of narra- tors
or in the text (matn).
E. Weakness due to the
inaccuracy of the memories of the transmitters:
If a Hadith has been
transmitted by different weak channels, non of them being stronger than the
others, then the Hadith is called "shaky" (mud-
tarib).
If there is a change in the
wording of the Hadith then the Hadith is called either "distorted"
(musahhaf) or "interpolated" (muharaf).
If there is inversion in the
words of the chain of narrators (sanad) or text (matn) of the Hadith, then the
Hadith is called "inverted" (maqlub).
F. If the weakness is due to
non-conformity of a Hadith then it is called "odd" (shadhdh).
G. Weakness in a Hadith
because of a "defect" ('illah).
In this case the Hadith is
called "defective" (mu'all).
It has to be stressed that in
Islamic Law only authentic (sahih) and good (hasan) Hadiths are used in deriving
ordinance.