Categories of Hadith
Encyclopedia
Different categories of hadith
(sayings attributed to the Islamic prophet Muhammad
) have been used by various scholars. The muhaddithun (experts in the science of hadith criticism) generally use two terms - taqrīr for tacit approvals, and khabar for sayings and acts ascribed to Muhammad.
The term taqrir implies that that, in the presence of Muhammad, a believer did something, which Muhammad noticed but did not disapprove or condemn. Thus, the act done by a believer acquired tacit approval from Muhammad. It is commonly acknowledged that a khabar can be true or false. The scholars of the science of hadith criticism hold that a khabar and, therefore, a hadith can be a true report or a concoction. It is on the basis of this premise that the Muslim
scholars hold that a hadith offers a zannī (inconclusive/probably true) evidence. It is as though a hadith may have many possibilities on the plane of reliability.
has divided the individual narratives in the
following categories, according to their epistemic value:
Hadith
The term Hadīth is used to denote a saying or an act or tacit approval or criticism ascribed either validly or invalidly to the Islamic prophet Muhammad....
(sayings attributed to the Islamic prophet Muhammad
Muhammad
Muhammad |ligature]] at U+FDF4 ;Arabic pronunciation varies regionally; the first vowel ranges from ~~; the second and the last vowel: ~~~. There are dialects which have no stress. In Egypt, it is pronounced not in religious contexts...
) have been used by various scholars. The muhaddithun (experts in the science of hadith criticism) generally use two terms - taqrīr for tacit approvals, and khabar for sayings and acts ascribed to Muhammad.
The term taqrir implies that that, in the presence of Muhammad, a believer did something, which Muhammad noticed but did not disapprove or condemn. Thus, the act done by a believer acquired tacit approval from Muhammad. It is commonly acknowledged that a khabar can be true or false. The scholars of the science of hadith criticism hold that a khabar and, therefore, a hadith can be a true report or a concoction. It is on the basis of this premise that the Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
scholars hold that a hadith offers a zannī (inconclusive/probably true) evidence. It is as though a hadith may have many possibilities on the plane of reliability.
Categorization based on reliability
- Ṣaḥīḥ - transmitted through an unbroken chain of narrators all of whom are of sound character and memory. Such a hadith should not clash with a more reliable report and must not suffer from any other hidden defect.
- Ḥasan - transmitted through an unbroken chain of narrators all of whom are of sound character but weak memory. This hadith should not clash with a more reliable report and must not suffer from any other hidden defect.
- Ḍaʻīf - which cannot gain the status of hasan because it lacks one or more elements of a hasan hadith. (For example, if the narrator is not of sound memory and sound character, or if there is a hidden fault in the narrative or if the chain of narrators is broken).
- Mawḍūʻ - fabricated and wrongly ascribed to Muhammad.
- Maqlūb - It is that hadith, in two different narrations of which the names of narrators have been changed.
Categorization based on number of narrators
- Khabar-i mutawatir (also called khabar-i mashhur) - A mutawatir hadith is reported by such a large number of narrators that cannot be perceived to have jointly forged and narrated a tradition about an issue without a compelling force. Sometimes a hadith is believed to be khabar-i mashhur. But a little research reveals that it has been transmitted by a single narrator in each of first three layers in the isnād. Such narratives are reported by a large number of reporters in the third or fourth layer. In the opinion of Amin Ahsan IslahiAmin Ahsan IslahiAmin Ahsan Islahi was a Pakistani Muslim scholar, famous for his Urdu exegeses of Qur'an, Tadabbur-i-Qur’an—an exegesis that he based on Hamiduddin Farahi's idea of thematic and structural coherence in the Qur'an.-Early life:...
, all such narratives which are usually termed as khabar-i mutawatir should be thoroughly investigated. - Khabar-i wāhid (pl.: akhbār-i āhād)- signifies a historical narrative that falls short of yielding certain knowledge. Even if more than one person reports the narrative, that does not make it certain and conclusive truth except when the number of narrators reporting it grows to the level that the possibility of their consensus on forging a lie is perfectly removed. Most of the hadith literature consists of individual isolated narratives.
Classification by epistemic value
In one of the major works in the science of hadith, Al-Khatib al-BaghdadiAl-Khatib al-Baghdadi
Abu Bakr Ahmad ibn `Ali ibn Thabit ibn Ahmad ibn Mahdi al-Shafi`i, commonly known as al-Khatib al-Baghdadi or the lecturer from Baghdad , was a Sunni Muslim scholar and historian.-Early life:...
has divided the individual narratives in the
following categories, according to their epistemic value:
- Ahadith which are clearly genuine and acceptable
-
- The narratives that contain reports testified by the "human intellect" (mimmā tadullu al-‘uqūl ‘alā mūjabihī) and that which are aligned with common sense.
- The narratives that are a corollary of the Quranic text and the SunnahSunnahThe word literally means a clear, well trodden, busy and plain surfaced road. In the discussion of the sources of religion, Sunnah denotes the practice of Prophet Muhammad that he taught and practically instituted as a teacher of the sharī‘ah and the best exemplar...
. - The narratives that have been received as acceptable by the ummahUmmahUmmah is an Arabic word meaning "community" or "nation." It is commonly used to mean either the collective nation of states, or the whole Arab world...
as a whole.- Ahadith which are clear fabrications
- The narratives that offend reason.
- The narratives that contradict the Quran and the Sunnah.
- The narratives that discuss issues of prime importance in the religion which require absolute certainty.
- The individual narratives regarding issues which, by their very nature, demand that they should have been reported by a large number of people are also not acceptable.
- According to the HanafiHanafiThe Hanafi school is one of the four Madhhab in jurisprudence within Sunni Islam. The Hanafi madhhab is named after the Persian scholar Abu Hanifa an-Nu‘man ibn Thābit , a Tabi‘i whose legal views were preserved primarily by his two most important disciples, Abu Yusuf and Muhammad al-Shaybani...
jurists, in the issues of ‘umūm-i balwā (issues which by nature attract attention of the entire community. For example, the number and form of the Prayer by its position in the religion requires that it should be received, practiced and communicated by the entire generation. Such issues are not left on the choice of few individuals.), the individual narratives carry no weight. In such issues they prefer qiyasQiyasIn Islamic jurisprudence, qiyās is the process of deductive analogy in which the teachings of the Hadith are compared and contrasted with those of the Qur'an, in order to apply a known injunction to a new circumstance and create a new injunction...
and ijtihadIjtihadIjtihad is the making of a decision in Islamic law by personal effort , independently of any school of jurisprudence . as opposed to taqlid, copying or obeying without question....
over these type of individual narratives.- Ahadith whose status is not clear
- Narratives that give contradicting directives on a single issue and make it difficult to determine the final command in that regard form the third category. While deciding on the applicability of the directives contained in these type of ahadith, only such narratives should be accepted as valid which correspond to and accord with the wording of the collated narratives, textual evidence from the Quran and the Sunnah.