Ḥadīth, according to the muḥaddithūn, is everything transmitted concerning the Prophet ﷺ, without restriction.1
Ḥadīth, according to the fuqahāʾ and the uṣūliyyūn, is the sayings and actions of the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ after his prophethood.2
Whether word, action, tacit approval, ethical attribute, or physical attribute, including motions and stillness, in waking and in sleep, and whether before the prophetic mission (baʿtha) or after it. Nawādir al-Ḥadīth, 1/63–65. ↩
As for tacit approval (taqrīr), it falls under the first category, since it is in effect a statement; or under the second category, since the abstention from speaking is itself an act. So it is stated in Taqrīr al-Mishkāt by Shaykh Muḥammad Salmān al-Sahāranpūrī, p. 3, citing al-Awjaz. The reason for the difference between the two technical definitions is that the aim of the fuqahāʾ is to derive rulings, so they do not investigate non-volitional states or what occurred prior to prophethood; the muḥaddithūn, by contrast, investigate everything attributed to him ﷺ. So it is stated in Nawādir al-Ḥadīth, 1/63–68; al-Durr al-Manḍūd, 1/8; and al-ʿUrf al-Fāʾiḥ. ↩
Al-maqṭūʿ (literally, severed) consists of the sayings and actions of the tābiʿūn and those after them.
Scholars differ on the precise definition of al-munqaṭiʿ; Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr makes it the broadest category, while for the mutaqaddimūn and the fuqahāʾ it is identical with al-mursal.
The Ḥanafīs treat al-mashhūr as a third tier alongside al-mutawātir and khabar al-wāḥid, defined by what was āḥād in the first generation but tawātur thereafter.
Al-mawqūf (literally, halted) consists of the sayings and actions of the Companions, may Allāh be pleased with them.
