Categories of Hadith

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 taqrīr implies 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 ẓannī (inconclusive/probably true) evidence. It is as though a hadith may have many possibilities on the plane of reliability.[1]

Categorization based on reliability

Categorization based on number of narrators

Classification by epistemic value

In one of the major works in the science of hadith, Al-Khatib al-Baghdadi has divided the individual narratives in the following categories, according to their epistemic value:[7]

  1. The narratives that contain reports testified by the "human intellect" (mimmā tadullu al-‘uqūl ‘alā mūjabihī) and that which are aligned with common sense.
  2. The narratives that are a corollary of the Quranic text and the Sunnah.
  3. The narratives that have been received as acceptable by the ummah as a whole.
  1. The narratives that offend reason.
  2. The narratives that contradict the Quran and the Sunnah.
  3. The narratives that discuss issues of prime importance in the religion which require absolute certainty.
  4. 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 Hanafi 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 qiyas and ijtihad over these type of individual narratives.
  1. 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.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Islahi, Amin Ahsan (2009) [original Urdu edition: 1989]. Mabadi Tadabbur-i-Hadith (translated as: Fundamentals of Hadith Intrepretation). Lahore: Al-Mawrid. Retrieved 27 January 2015.
  2. Mahmūd Tahhān, Taysīr Mustalih al-Hadīth, (Lahore: Islamic Publishing House, n.d.), 33.
  3. Mahmūd Tahhān, Taysīr Mustalih al-Hadīth, (Lahore: Islamic Publishing House, n.d.), 45.
  4. Mahmūd Tahhān, Taysīr Mustalih al-Hadīth, (Lahore: Islamic Publishing House, n.d.), 62.
  5. Mahmūd Tahhān, Taysīr Mustalih al-Hadīth, (Lahore: Islamic Publishing House, n.d.), 89.
  6. al-Kifāyah fī ‘ilm al-Riwāyah,[Al-Khatib al-Baghdadi
  7. al-Kifāyah fī ‘ilm al-Riwāyah, Al-Khatib al-Baghdadi
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