In the Name of Allāh, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
All praise belongs to Allāh, Lord of all the worlds; and may peace and blessings be upon His Noble Messenger, and upon his family and his Companions, all together.
To proceed: the science of ḥadīth is among the noblest of sciences, for the understanding of the Noble Qurʾān depends on it. Allāh, the Exalted, says: "That you may make clear to the people what was sent down to them." [Sūrat al-Naḥl 16:44] This makes plain the importance of ʿilm uṣūl al-ḥadīth, since by it the accepted and the rejected among ḥadīth are known. How can someone who does not know it be guided to what is true and correct in the meaning of the Qurʾān and the ḥadīth? It is for this purpose that I have compiled this concise treatise.
From early times the study of ḥadīth has been pursued in three ways:
The first: the narration and transmission of ḥadīth alone, without understanding.
The second: the understanding of its meaning, and the derivation of legal questions from it.
The third: its verification (taḥqīq) with respect to whether it is established or not.1
Thus the first is ʿilm riwāyat al-ḥadīth; the second is ʿilm dirāyat al-ḥadīth; and the third is ʿilm uṣūl al-ḥadīth or muṣṭalaḥ al-ḥadīth. It is this third that we are concerned with explaining in this treatise.
Its definition, subject and goal are as ʿAllāmah al-Suyūṭī said in his Alfiyya2:
All of this pertains to ʿilm muṣṭalaḥ al-ḥadīth; it has no bearing upon the science of riwāyat al-ḥadīth or dirāyat al-ḥadīth.6 And Allāh knows best.
As is understood from the words of al-Ḥāfiẓ Abū Shāma, Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Ḥajar, Shaykh al-Kāndhlawī and others. See: Nukat Ibn Ḥajar, pp. 35 to 37; Tadrīb al-Rāwī, 1/44 to 45; Awjaz al-Masālik, p. 3; Taqrīr al-Mishkāt by Shaykh Muḥammad Salmān, Rector of Jāmiʿat Maẓāhir ʿUlūm, 1/10; al-Muḥaddith al-Fāṣil, pp. 238 to 263. ↩
The two verses are the sixth and seventh of the poem, opening its chapter on the definition of ḥadīth: Naẓm al-Durar fī ʿIlm al-Athar, ed. ʿAbd al-Muḥsin ibn Muḥammad al-Qāsim, first edition, 1442/2021, p. 53. ʿAllāmah al-Suyūṭī sets out the same three propositions in prose at the head of the chapter on ʿilm al-ḥadīth in his Itmām al-Dirāya li-Qurrāʾ al-Niqāya (ed. Ibrāhīm al-ʿAjūz, Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 1405/1985), p. 46. [tr.] ↩
Matn: literally, the hard, raised part of the ground. In technical usage, the text of the ḥadīth at which the sanad ends. [tr.] ↩
Sanad: literally, that which is depended upon for support. In technical usage, the chain of narrators leading to the matn. [tr.] ↩
It is thus known that its definition is: a science of rules by which the conditions of the sanad and the matn are known. Its subject is the sanad and the matn. Its goal is the knowledge of the accepted (maqbūl) and the rejected (mardūd). ↩
See the introduction to Awjaz al-Masālik (p. 3), where it is stated: "Be aware that, since the science of ḥadīth in former times comprised the narration of ḥadīth, its understanding and the scrutiny of its narrators and their grades, the scholars' statements on its definition became conflated. Some defined it in terms applicable to uṣūl al-ḥadīth; others in terms applicable to dirāyat al-ḥadīth. Al-Zurqānī, in his commentary on al-Bayqūniyyah, even defined ʿilm al-ḥadīth as a science of laws, that is, of rules, by which the conditions of the sanad and the matn are known with regard to soundness and goodness; and you are aware that this is the definition of muṣṭalaḥ al-ḥadīth, which is also called uṣūl al-ḥadīth. So too what al-Suyūṭī said in his Alfiyya: 'A science of ḥadīth, with laws defined, by which the states of matn and sanad are known'; and the other definitions of the shaykhs: every one of them is the definition of a particular kind of the science of ḥadīth." The Shaykh's words continue; the passage should certainly be consulted in full. I (the author) say: the definition of ʿilm riwāyat al-ḥadīth is: a science comprising the sayings of the Prophet ﷺ, his actions, [his states], their narration, their precise retention and the establishing of their wordings, as Ibn al-Akfānī said, with the addition of "and his states" from Qawāʿid fī ʿUlūm al-Ḥadīth. Its subject is the ḥadīths of the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ in respect of transmission and narration only. Its purpose is the unbroken chain from us to the Prophet ﷺ by ḥaddathanā and akhbaranā, with which this umma alone has been distinguished. And the definition of ʿilm dirāyat al-ḥadīth is: a science that investigates the meaning of the ḥadīth and what is intended by it, as Ṭāshkubrīzāda said. Its subject is the ḥadīths of the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ in respect of their indication of the meaning understood and intended, as Ṭāshkubrīzāda said. Its purpose is to adorn oneself with the prophetic manners and to divest oneself of what he disliked and forbade, as Ṭāshkubrīzāda said. I shall devote a separate treatise to the details of this question, if Allāh Most High wills. See: Tadrīb al-Rāwī, 1/40; Kashf al-Ẓunūn, 1/435; Qawāʿid fī ʿUlūm al-Ḥadīth, p. 22; Miftāḥ al-Saʿāda, 2/113. ↩
The science of jarḥ and taʿdīl: its two grounds, ʿadāla and ḍabṭ, when jarḥ must be explained, when it overrides taʿdīl and who needs tazkiya.
A survey of the foundational works on ḥadīth terminology from al-Rāmahurmuzī to Ibn al-Ḥanbalī's Qafw al-Athar, and the author's reasons for composing al-Mulakhkhaṣ
Al-shādhdh is what a single narrator transmits alone, raising doubt in the mind of the critic; this is also al-munkar, and the muḥaddithūn treat the two as one.
Qurʾānic verses and prophetic narrations establishing the authority of ḥadīth and the need to verify the Sunnah, with Ibn ʿAdiyy on scrutinising its transmission.
