Introduction to mustalah Alhadith (the terminology of Hadith)

Today we will tackle the principle and the most basic and simple one of them and for those of you who read Arabic to read regarding hadith terminology which can be accessed via http://waqfeya.com/index.php

Hadith and Athir ألأثر Main division

You probably already know what Hadith is but for the sake of argument, Hadith is whatever narrated words that are attributed to the prophet of words or saying or action, however, Athir literally means trace is whatever narration that was attributed to any of the companions or sahabah rather than the prophet himself

Sanad and matin متن

By this point you probably already know aswell what sanad is, but most of you are probably unaware of what Matin is

Sanad is the chain of narrators connected to Matin

Matin متن is the body text of the hadith

Qawa’id: are the rules in which sanad and matin are based upon, which we will deal with later

Mutawater and Ahad

Hadith is divided in authenticity in two parts, Mutawater متوتر, and Mufrad مفرد 
Mutawater : what has been narrated by large quantity of narrators that it’s impossible for them to lie.

As the definition state, it’s nearly impossible for the narrators of mutawater to lie, as it’s the highest form of authenticity among sahih catagories

Mutawater has two types however

Mutawater Laphthi لفضي, and mutawater ma’nawi معنوي

1-     Mutawater Laphthi: is what it’s meaning and spelling have been considered mutawater

2-     Mutawater ma’nawi: is what had it’s meaning considered mutawater without spelling

Ahad الأحاد

Ahad is divided into two categories Maqbol مقبول  (accepted), Mardud (da’if weak) and mushtarak bain maqbul wa mardud (shared between accepted and weak)

And it’s divided based on it's type to three types:

‘aziz precious: it’s narrators are not less than two people

Gharib Strange: it’s the hadith that has one narrator

Mashhor Famous: what has been narrated by more than three but never reach the level of Mutawater Greatness

It’s divided into two subcategories

1.      based on its rank

2.      based on an act or not based on it

1.       based on it’s rank :Sahih, Hasan

Sahih: what had its sanad connected with no abnormality no doubt and it has two types

Sahih for its own

Sahih Based on another: and it’s hasan based on its own merit if it was narrated by another stronger than it

Hasan it’s sahih but with less strength
it has two types aswell

Hasan based on it’s own
hasan based on another: it’s the weak hadith based on weakness not on narrators nature to lie and deceive, but was authenticated by another Hadith based on the same matin

 Based on an act or not based on it

and it’s subdivided into three categories:

1.      Hadith Muhkam

2.      Mukhtalaf alhadith

3.      Nasikh and mansukh

Hadith Muhkam accepted: the accepted hadith that is cleared from any flaw

Mukhtalaf alhadith differentiated: accepted hadith but has differentiated opinion about it, but can be gathered together

Nasikh and Mansukh abrogated: what the ruling have been lifted off, the hadith that is revealed earlier is abrogated by the one that is revealed later

Mardod (Da’if weak) is one of the Ahad subcategories and contain many subcategories dedicated to be divided based on either hadith alone or narrator weakness

Da’if: what has lost one of the conditions of acceptance in hadith

And it’s subdivided to two categories

1-     What is considered Weak duo to Sanadand it’s subdivided to two:

·         Saqat thahir (what is unhidden in it’s weakness)

And it’s subdivided to 4 categories

1-      Mu’alaq hanged: what fallen from it’s isnad a narrator or more on parallel

2-      Mursal disconnected: what had one of it’s narrators disconnected

3-      Mu’thal problematic: what had two of it’s narrators fallen

4-      Munqati’ disconnected from the rest: what it’s sanad didn’t connect to the rest

·         What has been considered weak due to hidden failure

And it’s divided to 4 subcategories aswell:

AlMudalas deceptive: what appear to be hasan but has a hidden flaw
Almursal Alkhifi hidden disconnected: what narrated from other narrators who he never heard of

Almuanan by : when a narrator says “we were told by someone that someone”

Almu’anan from: when a narrator says “from this narrator and this narrator”

2-     what has been considered weak due to a flaw with the narrator

and it’s has 10 different classifications

Mawtho’ falsely inserted: what has been falsely attributed to the prophet

Matruk lefted: what had one narrator fall to criticism

Munkar denied: what has been narrated by someone considered Da’if , and had a narrator exposed as weak and bad at memorization

Alm’alal: what had been considered flawed but is not apparent to do so

Almudraj: what had part of it’s narration inserted in it without any good

Ma wothif lil sanad almutasil (what has been added to sanad that is connected): an extra narrator in a chain of narration that appears to be valid

Shath abnormal: what has been narrated by someone who is trustworthy in contrast to what the rest of trusted narrators cite

Mushaf inserted to the text: what had words in it changed in contrast to what trustworthy stated either by saying or meaning

Muthtardib unbalanced: what has  been narrated by many trusted forms but are different to one another that makes you feel the narrator is not will be coordinated

Maqlub fliped: what had a narrator or matin replaced it by another either forward or backward

mushtarak bain maqbul wa mardud (shared between accepted and weak)

this category basicly makes the claim that some defintions and terms of Ahad can be shared between weak and accepted, merely as catagories and not as difinate scale of authenticity

there are two types for it

·         based on what has been narrated to it:

1-     Alhadith Alqudsi (the prophetic hadith) : what has ben narrated to us from prophet Muhammad by isnad chain for god

2-     Almawquf held: what has been added to a sahabi companion of a saying or act or such

3-     Marfu’ attributed to: what has been inserted to the prophet from act or saying or attributes

4-     Almaqtu’ disconnected: what has been attributed to a tabi’I follower from act or saying without him saying it

·         Other types:

1-     Almusnad attributed to the prophet: what had it’s chain of narration attributed to the prophet as connected

2-     mutabi’ followed: the hadith that is in agreement to what the follower said

3-     Shahid witnessed: a hadith that is in agreement with the singular narrator  but with a difference of companion

4-     Mutasil connected: what had it chain connected regardless if it was Marfu’ or Mauqof

5-     Ziada ila al thiqat extra trust: what it’s trust worth have been increased due to other trusted sources mentioning it

Credit to doctor Abdul Qadir Ja’far for his works have aided me in my studies