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Reporters of Hadīth
Mustalah al-Hadīth is strongly associated with
Rijāl al-Hadīth (the study of the reporters of hadīth).
In scrutinising the reporters of a hadīth,
authenticating or disparaging remarks made by recognised
experts, from amongst the Successors and those after
them, were found to be of great help. Examples of such
remarks, in descending order of authentication,
are:
- "Imām (leader), Hāfiz
(preserver)."
- "Reliable, trustworthy."
- "Reliable, trustworthy."
- "Weak."
- "Abandoned (by the
traditionists)."
- "Liar, used to fabricate
ahādīth."
Reporters who have been unanimously described
by statements such as the first two may contribute to a
Sahīh ("sound", see later) isnād. An isnād containing a
reporter who is described by the last two statements is
likely to be Dacif jiddan (very weak) or
Maudūc (fabricated). Reporters who are the
subject of statements such as the middle two above will
cause the isnād to be Dacif (weak), although
several of them relating the same hadīth independently
will often increase the rank of the hadīth to the level
of Hasan (good). If the remarks about a
particular reporter conflict, a careful verdict has to
be arrived at after in-depth analysis of e.g., the
reason given for any disparagement, the weight of each
type of criticism, the relative strictness or leniency
of each critic, etc.
The earliest remarks cited
in the books of Rijāl go back to a host of
Successors, followed by those after them until the
period of the six canonical traditionists, a period
covering the first three centuries of Islam. A list of
such names is provided by the author in his thesis,
Criticism Of Hadīth Among Muslims With Reference To
Sunan Ibn Majah, at the end of chapters IV, V and
VI.
Among the earliest available works in this
field are Ta'rīkh of Ibn Macin (d. 233),
Tabaqat of Khalīfa b. Khayyāt (d. 240),
Ta'rīkh of al-Bukhārī (d. 256), Kitāb al-Jarh
wa 'l-Ta'dil of Ibn Abī Hātim (d. 327) and
Tabaqat of Muhammad b. Sa'd (d. 320).
A number
of traditionists made efforts specifically for the
gathering of information about the reporters of the five
famous collections of hadīth, those of al-Bukhārī
(d. 256), Muslim (d. 261), Abū Dāwūd (d.
275), al-Tirmidhī (d. 279) and al-Nasā'ī
(d. 303), giving authenticating and disparaging remarks
in detail. The first major such work to include also the
reporters of Ibn Majah (d. 273) is the ten-volume
collection of al-Hāfiz Abd al-Ghani al-Maqdisī
(d. 600), known as Al-Kamal fi Asma'
al-Rijāl. Later, Jamāl al-Dīn Abū 'l-Hajjāj Yūsuf
b. Abd al-Rahmān al-Mizzī (d. 742) prepared an
edited and abridged version of this work, punctuated by
places and countries of origin of the reporters; he
named it Tahdhīb al-Kamal fi Asma' al-Rijāl and
produced it in twelve volumes. Further, one of
al-Mizzī's gifted pupils, Shams al-Dīn Abū
Abdullāh Muhammad b. Ahmad b. Uthmān b. Qa'imaz
al-Dhahabī (d. 748), summarised his Shaikh's work
and produced two abridgements: a longer one called
Tahdhīb al-Tahdhīb and a shorter one called
Al-Kashif fi Asma' Rijāl al-Kutub
al-Sittah.
A similar effort with the work of
al-Mizzī was made by Ibn Hajar (d. 852), who
prepared a lengthy but abridged version, with about
one-third of the original omitted, entitled Tahdhīb
al-Tahdhīb in twelve shorter volumes. Later, he
abridged this further to a relatively-humble two- volume
work called Taqrīb al-Tahdhīb.
The work of
al-Dhahabī was not left unedited; al-Khazrajī
(Safi al-Dīn Ahmad b. cAbdullah, d. after 923)
summarised it and also made valuable additions,
producing his Khulasah.
A number of
similar works deal with either trustworthy reporters
only, e.g. Kitāb al-Thiqat by al-cIjlī (d. 261)
and Tadhkirah al-Huffāz by al-Dhahabī, or
with disparaged authorities only, e.g. Kitāb
al-Ducāfā' wa al-Matrukīn by al-Nasā'ī and Kitāb
al-Majruhin by Muhammad b. Hibban al-Bustī (d.
354).
Two more works in this field which include
a large number of reporters, both authenticated and
disparaged, are Mīzān al-I'tidal of al-Dhahabī and
Lisān al-Mīzān of Ibn Hajar.
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