The Science of Hadith
We have, Without doubt, sent down the message: and we will assuredly guard it (from corruption).
(Qur'an 15:9)
The promise made by Allah (SWT)
in Qur'an 15:9 is obviously fulfilled in the
undisputed purity of the Qur'anic text
throughout the fourteen centuries
since its revelation. However,
what is often forgotten by many Muslims
is that the divine promise also includes,
by necessity, the Sunnah of
the Prophet (saws),
because the Sunnah is the practical
example of the implementation of
the Qur'anic guidance,
the wisdom taught to the Prophet (saws)
along with the scripture,
and neither the Qur'an nor the Sunnah
can be understood correctly without the other.
Allah (SWT) preserved the Sunnah by
enabling the companions and those
after them to memorize,
write down and pass on the statements
of the Prophet (saws),
and the descriptions of his way,
as well as to continue the blessings
of practicing the Sunnah.
Later, as the purity of the knowledge
of the Sunnah became threatened,
Allah (SWT) caused the Muslim Ummah
to produce individuals with exceptional
memory skills and analytical expertise,
who travelled tirelessly to collect
thousands of narrations and distinguish
the true words of prophetic wisdom
from those corrupted by weak memories,
from forgeries by unscrupulous liars,
and from the statements of the
large number of Ulama (scholars),
the companions and those who followed
their way.
All of this was achieved through precise
attention to the words narrated,
and detailed familiarity with
the biographies of the thousands
of reporters of hadith.
The methodology of the expert scholars
of hadith in assessing the narrations
and sorting out the genuine from the
mistaken and fabricated, for ms the
subject matter of the science of hadith.
In this article a brief discussion is
given of the terminology and
classifications of hadith.
Components of Hadith
A hadith is composed of three parts
(see the figure [below]):
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Matn (text), isnad (chain of reporters),
and taraf (the part, or the beginning sentence,
of the text which refers to the sayings,
actions or characteristics of
the Prophet (saws),
or his concurrence with others action).
The authenticity of the hadith depends on
the reliability of its reporters,
and the linkage among them.
Classifications of HadithA number of classifications of
hadith have been made.
Five of these classifications are shown
in the figure [below],
and are briefly described subsequently.
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