Rules Governing The Criticism Of Hadith - Islam House

prejudice in favour of town, race or a particular imam;
inventions for personal motives;
proverbs turned into ahadith.
Further Branches of Mustalah and Rijal-al-Hadeeth
The above-mentioned classification of ahadith plays a vital role in ascertaining the authenticity of a
particular narration. Ibn al-Salah mentions sixty-five terms in his book, of which twenty-three have
been discussed above. Two further types not included by Ibn al-Salah, mu'allaq and mutawatir, have
been dealt with from other sources. The remaining forty-two types follow in brief, which help further
distinguish between different types of narrations.
1) The knowledge of i'tibar, mutaba'a and shahid. Traditionists are always in search of more witnesses
in favour of a hadith which is reported by one source only; such research is termed i'tibar. If a
supporting narration is not found for a particular hadith, it is declared as fard mutlaq (absolutely
singular) or gharib. For example, if a hadith is reported through the following isnad: Hammad b.
Salama --- Ayyub --- Ibn Sirin --- Abu Huraira --- The Prophet, research would be done to ascertain
whether another trustworthy reporter has narrated it from Ayyub; if so, it will be called mutaba'a
tamma (complete mutaba'a); if not, a reporter other than Ayyub narrating from Ibn Sirin would be
sought: if so, it will be called mutaba'a qasira (incomplete mutaba'a).
2) Afrad (singular narrations).
3) The type of character required in an acceptable reporter.
4) The way a hadith is heard and the different ways of acquiring ahadith.
5) How a hadith is written and how punctuation marks are used.
6) The way a hadith is reported.
7) The manners required in traditionists.
8) The manners required for a student of hadith.
9) The knowledge of a higher or lower isnad (i.e. one with less or more reporters respectively).
10) The knowledge of difficult words.
11) The knowledge of abrogated ahadith.
12) The knowledge of altered words in a text or isnad.
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