1. Continuity of Chain or Sanad: Every transmitter should be joined to the next successive transmitter directly without any missing link between them throughout the whole chain of transmission, in other words it should be Marfu Mutasil, what is also called Musnad.

2. Piousness and Taqwa of transmitter: Every transmitter (Raawy) should be extremely pious, mature with sound mind and an honoured person.

3. Memory power or written documentation: Every narrator should have extraordinary memory power so that it can be assumed that whatever Hadith he has learnt, he remembers it well or he should have got properly written Hadith from reliable sources.

4. Lack of opposition to known authorities of Hadith: No Raawy or transmitter should have opposed the known authorities of Hadith or a Muhaddith superior to him.

5. Lack of reasons which could give rise to any doubt; Raawy should not have any such ailment, apparent or hidden, which can tell upon his health.

1. Mutwatir literally means continuous.
Technically, it means that the number of narrators in the chains of transmission in each generation is plentiful. This gives the hadith a high level of credibility and truthfulness.

Under Mutwatir, there are two sub-categories of Hadiths.
1.1 Mutwaitr Lafdhi
1.2 Mutwatir Ma’nvi

Mutwatir Lafdhi refers to hadiths that have the same wording and its meaning is the same among all the narrators.

Mutwatir Ma’nvi refers to hadiths that have the same wording but the meaning is different among the narrators.

2. Khabre-Wahid literally means “one statement.” And it simply refers to hadiths that do not fall under the category of Mutwatir.

Khabre-Wahid hadiths may be further categorised in two ways. They may be categorized according to either (1) the number of narrators or by (2) acceptability.

When categorized under according to the number of Narrators, the sub-categories are:

1. Mash-hoor
2. Aziz
3. Gareeb

When categorized according to the level of acceptability, the sub-categories are:

1. Maqbool
2. Mardood

A Maqbool hadith is further classified into one of these five types:
1.1 Sahih Lizatihi
1.2 Sahih Ligairihi
1.3 Hasan Lizatihi
1.4 Hasan Ligairihi
1.5 Naasikh & Mansokh

And a Mardood hadith is further classified into one of these types:
2.1 Muallaq
2.2 Mursal
2.3 Munqata
2.4 Mudallas
2.5 Muazzal

The next few posts will deal with these categories and sub-categories in more detail. Till them, here’s a quick Classification Tree as per discussed above.

1. Mutwatir
1.1 Mutwatir Lafdhi
1.2 Mutwatir Ma’nvi

2. Khabre Wahid
2(A) Number of Narrators
2.(A).1 Mash-hoor
2.(A).2 Aziz
2.(A).3 Gareeb

2(B) Acceptability
2.(B).1 Maqbool
2.(B).1.1 Sahih Lizatihi
2.(B).1.2 Sahih Ligairihi
2.(B).1.3 Hasan Lizatihi
2.(B).1.4 Hasan Ligairihi
2.(B).1.5 Naasikh & Mansokh

2.(B).2 Mardood
2.(B).2.1 Muallaq
2.(B).2.2 Mursal
2.(B).2.3 Munqata
2.(B).2.4 Mudallas
2.(B).2.5 Muazzal

There are a total of 15 clips for this lecture. For your convenience, you may click on the following link which will take you to the first part and the other subsequent parts will auto play. Science of Hadith Playlist

Matan refers to the actual text itself whereas Sanad refers to the chain of transmission

So in the following hadith,

Abu Dawud writes: It was narrated to us by Muhammad bin Dawud bin Sufyan: It was narrated to us by Yahya bin Hassan: It was narrated to us by Ja’far bin Sa’d: It was narrated to me by Khubayb Bin Sulayman, from his father, from the companion Samura bin Jundub, who said [in a speech]: “Indeed the Messenger of God, May the peace and blessings of God be upon him, would order us to pay the charity tax on things that we were preparing for sale.”

The first part of the hadith (“It was narrated by…Samura bin Jundub”) is the Sanad. And following that, the part in bold is the Matan.

1. Literal Meanings

The literal meaning of Hadith is “statement” or “talk”¹ that is something “new”². The contrasting term is known as Qadeem which means “old”.

In pre-Islamic Arabia, Hadith has been referred to any piece of news and also stories that are either historical or mythical. With the advent of Islam, the term has since been changed to carry a new technical meaning. Hadith now almost exclusively refers to the report of words and deeds, approval and disapproval of Prophet Muhammad (saw). It is not to be confused with the term Sunnah which literally means “practice”³.

Basically then, Hadith refers to the statements or reports of what Muhammad (saw) has said or done. The actual actions or practices of Muhammad (saw) itself is the Sunnah of the Prophet (saw).

2. Significance

The followers of Muhammad (saw) during his lifetime were highly interested and keen in his guidance. As such, it was natural for them to take note and pass on the sayings and actions of the Prophet (saw) to other people. Even seemingly trivial things like what Muhammad ate or wore were noted down in Sahifas⁴ and followed zealously by the Prophet’s (saw) companions. These were then passed on to the students of the Prophet’s (saw) companions. And these students in turn, passed on their knowledge onto others… and so on and so forth. In any case, the reason for why Muhammad’s (saw) sayings and actions are recorded and that his followers attempt to follow them is perhaps best explained in the following verse in the Qur’an:

قَدْ كَانَ لَكُمْ فِي رَسُولِ اللَّهِ أُسْوَةٌ حَسَنَةٌ

“..you have indeed in the Messenger of Allah an excellent example…”

This being said, a thorough discussion on the historical development of the compilation of hadith will be attempted in the next entry, Insya Allah.

———
¹ Rafiq, p1
² Muhd. Zubayr, p29
³ Dr. G. F. Haddad, The Meaning of Sunnah
⁴ one-page scrolls

It is narrated on the authority of Amirul Mu’minin, Abu Hafs ‘Umar bin al-Khattab, (ra), who said: I heard the Messenger of Allah (saw), say:

“Actions are by intentions (niyyah),  so each man will have what he intended. Thus, he whose migration (hijrah) was to Allah and His Messenger, his migration is to Allah and His Messenger ; but he whose migration was for some worldly thing he might gain, or for a wife he might marry, his migration is to that for which he migrated.”

[Al-Bukhari & Muslim]

And so, let this hadith be a reminder for myself that I have setup this blog as a means for me to devote some time into learning the sciences of hadith, for the sake of Allah swt.  And may I stay away from desiring worldly gains that may or may not come to me.

My main source of reference is the book titled “Introduction to Al-Hadith” by Dr. Rafiq Ahmed (2000), printed by Adam Publishers & Distributors, India. Other sources may be referred to also and in which case, the specific citations will be provided.

Allah swt knows best.