Definitions and terminologies
Understanding the definitions and terminologies of Mustalah al-Hadith
In the Name of Allah, The Most Gracious, The Most Merciful…
Reading a hadith feels deeply personal. These are the words and teachings of our beloved Prophet (ﷺ), preserved for us across generations. And when you pause to think about it, isn’t it remarkable that, more than 1,400 years later, we can still read his words and feel as though we are listening to him directly? The preservation of the Prophet’s (ﷺ) teachings is one of the remarkable blessings of this religion. We have written a book on this topic, Status and Preservation of Hadith.
But when you begin exploring the books of hadith, you encounter terms such as sahih, hasan, and da‘if. You may recognise names like Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim, but what do these terms actually mean? Why are some narrations classified as authentic, others as acceptable, and others as weak? And how did scholars arrive at these judgements?
For readers unfamiliar with Arabic and the terminology of hadith scholarship, these distinctions can feel confusing at first. This article aims to make them easier to understand, beginning with the most fundamental question of all: what exactly is a hadith, and how do we know that it is authentic?
To answer it, we need the words every hadith scholar uses: the sanad and the matn, isnaad, khabar and athar, and the mutawaatir report.
In the first part of this series, on the brief history of Mustalah al-Hadith, we saw where this science came from. Now we begin with its terms.
The story in five steps
Here is the path we are about to walk.
What this science studies
Ilmul Mustalah (definition of Mustalah al-Hadith): the knowledge of the Usool (principles) and Qawaid (rules) by which the state of the isnaad (chain of narration) and the matn (text) is known as with regards to acceptance or rejection. (Min Atyab al-Minah fi Ilm al-Mustalah, p. 8)
Benefits of Ilmul Mustalah: the ability to distinguish, or awareness of, what is to be accepted and what is to be rejected, from the narrations and the narrators. (Min Atyab al-Minah fi Ilm al-Mustalah, )
In simpler terms, this science looks at the chain and the text of a report, and tells us whether it is to be accepted or rejected.
So first, we need to understand what the chain and the text actually are.
One hadith, taken apart
Let's take one hadith from Sahih al-Bukhari as an example. Here are its chain of narrators and its words, in the order they come:
Sanad: the chain
- al-Bukhari
- Sulayman Abu al-Rabi
- Ismail ibn Jafar
- Nafi ibn Malik
- Malik
- Abu Hurayrah
- The Prophet (ﷺ)
Matn: the words
“The signs of a hypocrite are three; whenever he speaks he tells a lie, whenever he makes a promise, he breaks it, whenever trusted with something he proves to be dishonest.”
Note: the Malik in this chain is not Imam Malik. Al-Bukhari's words are "Nafi ibn Malik ibn Abi Amir Abu Suhayl, from his father, from Abu Hurayrah", so this Malik is Malik ibn Abi Amir, the father of Nafi. (Sahih al-Bukhari 33, 1/16)
The names are one part of the hadith, and the words are the other. In the model below, you can take a narrator out of the chain and see what happens to it.
Now, what do we call each part?
1) Sanad
- Linguistically: something depended upon for support.
- Technically: the chain of narrators leading to the matn (text), because the hadith leans on it for support and relies on it for authority. (Min Atyab al-Minah fi Ilm al-Mustalah, p. 10)
2) Matn
- Linguistically: a hard, raised part of the ground.
- Technically: the text at which the sanad ends. (Min Atyab al-Minah fi Ilm al-Mustalah, )
3) Isnaad has two meanings: (Min Atyab al-Minah fi Ilm al-Mustalah, )
- a. Ascribing a report to the one who said it, with the chain.
- b. The chain of individuals leading to the matn (text); same as sanad.
Simply put, the sanad is the chain the hadith leans on, and the matn is the text it ends at.
Who said it?
Now that we know the parts of a narration, the next question is: whose words are they? Here are the types of narration.
1) Al-Hadith
- Linguistically: something new.
- Technically: that which is attributed to the Prophet (ﷺ) as regards to: (Min Atyab al-Minah fi Ilm al-Mustalah, p. 9)
- Statement
- Action
- Silent or tacit approval
- Physical features and characteristics
- Habits
2) Al-Khabar
- Linguistically: news.
- Technically: there are three definitions: (Min Atyab al-Minah fi Ilm al-Mustalah, )
- It is the same as al-hadith.
- That which is related from other than the Prophet (ﷺ).
- Hadith is specific, i.e. only from the Prophet (ﷺ). Khabar is general, i.e. it is that related from the Prophet (ﷺ) or other than him.
Note: every hadith is khabar, but every khabar is not a hadith. (Min Atyab al-Minah fi Ilm al-Mustalah, )
3) Al-Athar
- Linguistically: a remnant.
- Technically: there are two definitions: (Min Atyab al-Minah fi Ilm al-Mustalah, )
- It is the same as al-hadith.
- Statements and actions attributed to the Companions and Taabieen.
Choose a word and one of its definitions, and see which reports it covers.
In simpler terms: hadith is what comes from the Prophet (ﷺ). Athar, in its second meaning, is what comes from the Companions and the Taabieen. And khabar, on the third view, covers all of it.
Hadith al-Qudsi
4) Hadith al-Qudsi is a narration reported by the Prophet (ﷺ) in which he ascribes it to Allah, The Most High. (Min Atyab al-Minah fi Ilm al-Mustalah, p. 10)
An example of this is the saying of the Prophet (ﷺ) concerning Allah, The Most High:
“I am as My servant thinks I am. I am with him when he makes mention of Me. If he makes mention of Me to himself, I make mention of him to Myself; and if he makes mention of Me in an assembly, I make mention of him in an assembly better than it.”
Sahih al-Bukhari 7405, 9/121; Sahih Muslim 2675, 4/2061
There are around 100+ hadith qudsi. (Min Atyab al-Minah fi Ilm al-Mustalah, ) Example: on the authority of Abu Dharr al-Ghifari (may Allah be pleased with him), from the Prophet (ﷺ), among the sayings he relates from his Lord (may He be glorified), is that He said:
“O My servants, I have forbidden oppression for Myself and have made it forbidden amongst you, so do not oppress one another. O My servants, all of you are astray except for those I have guided, so seek guidance of Me and I shall guide you…”
Sahih Muslim 2577, 4/1994, ed. Abdul Baqi
Hadith al-Qudsi is reported in two ways:
- The Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) said that which he narrated from Allah.
- Allah said, a statement which is narrated by His Messenger (ﷺ). (Min Atyab al-Minah fi Ilm al-Mustalah, )
So how is a hadith qudsi different from the Quran? (Min Atyab al-Minah fi Ilm al-Mustalah, )
Point of benefit: the common belief regarding the difference between Hadith Qudsi and the Quran is that the Quran is attributed to Allah in wording and meaning, and Hadith Qudsi is ascribed to Allah in meaning but not in wording. Shaykh Muhaddith Hammad al-Ansari (teacher of Shaykh Abdul Muhsin al-Abbad, Shaykh Rabee and others), as recorded by his son in Al-Majmu fi Tarjamat al-Allamah al-Muhaddith ash-Shaykh Hammad ibn Muhammad al-Ansari of the Shaykh, says that the above belief is the belief of Ahlul Bidah like the Jahmiyyah, Zaidiyyah and Ashairah. (Abdul-Awwal al-Ansari, Al-Majmu fi Tarjamat al-Allamah al-Muhaddith ash-Shaykh Hammad ibn Muhammad al-Ansari, 2/512, no. 214 and 2/539–540, no. 380) This wrong definition got widespread amongst scholars. This view is also supported by the Permanent Committee. (Ibn Baz, Fatawa Nur ala al-Darb, compiled by Muhammad al-Shuway'ir, 1/156, no. 54)
Hadith Qudsi is ascribed to Allah in meaning and wording. (Al-Majmu fi Tarjamat al-Allamah al-Muhaddith ash-Shaykh Hammad ibn Muhammad al-Ansari, 2/512, no. 214 and 2/540) The difference is mentioned above.
The people and the books
Now that we know the parts of a hadith, here are the names for the books that collect them and the people who carry them.
1) Musnad has two meanings: (Min Atyab al-Minah fi Ilm al-Mustalah, p. 10)
- i. Any book in which the narrations of each Sahaabee (Companion) are collected separately, for example Musnad Ahmad ibn Hanbal.
- ii. The marfoo' hadeeth with a muttasil (connected) sanad.
An example of musnad is the famous Musnad Ahmad ibn Hanbal. Here you can see the hadith arranged chapter-wise according to each Sahabi: the hadith of Abu Bakr (radiallahu anhu) collected together (numbers 1 to 81), then the hadith of Umar (radiallahu anhu) collected together (numbers 82 to 390). (Musnad al-Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal, al-Risalah ed.: no. 1, 1/177; end of Musnad Abu Bakr, 1/243; Musnad Umar, no. 82, 1/244; end of Musnad Umar, no. 390, 1/448)
2) Musnid is one who narrates the hadeeth with its chain, regardless of whether he has knowledge about it or not. (Min Atyab al-Minah fi Ilm al-Mustalah, )
3) Muhaddith is one who works extensively in the area of hadeeth, studying its riwaayah (aspects related to the sanad) and diraayah (aspects related to the matn), and is well-acquainted with very many of the narrations, as well as the states of their narrators. (Min Atyab al-Minah fi Ilm al-Mustalah, )
4) Al-Haafiz. There are two opinions: (Min Atyab al-Minah fi Ilm al-Mustalah, )
- a. The same as the muhaddith, according to many scholars of hadeeth.
- b. An even higher degree than the muhaddith, such that what he knows at every tabaqah (level) is more than what he doesn't know.
Press what a narrator does and knows, and see which title it earns.
Simply put: a musnid narrates the chain, a muhaddith studies its riwaayah and diraayah, and on the second opinion the haafiz knows more than he doesn't at every tabaqah.
How many carried it?
Next comes the classification of narrations according to their paths of transmission, that is, by how they reached us. The first kind is the mutawaatir. (Min Atyab al-Minah fi Ilm al-Mustalah, p. 11)
Definition:
- Linguistically: derived from the word tawaatur, meaning to follow one another consecutively.
- Technically: what has been narrated by such a large number that it is impossible that they united to propagate a lie. (Min Atyab al-Minah fi Ilm al-Mustalah, )
Conditions for a hadith to be mutawaatir: (Min Atyab al-Minah fi Ilm al-Mustalah, )
- That a large number of people narrate it; scholars differed about the minimum number required (Tadrib al-Rawi fi Sharh Taqrib al-Nawawi, 2/627).
- This large number is found at all levels of the sanad.
- It is impossible that they could have united to propagate a lie.
- The report is narrated with certainty, such as their saying "we heard" or "we saw".
Press a level of the sanad to thin it, and see which conditions still hold.
Categories: (Min Atyab al-Minah fi Ilm al-Mustalah, )
- Lafthee: mutawaatir in both wording and meaning. Example: "Anyone who deliberately lies about me must take his seat in Hellfire." (Sahih al-Bukhari 110, 1/33; Sahih Muslim, al-Muqaddimah, no. 3, 1/10) This hadeeth was narrated by more than seventy Companions. (Min Atyab al-Minah fi Ilm al-Mustalah, p. 11; al-Iraqi, as quoted by al-Suyuti, Tadrib al-Rawi fi Sharh Taqrib al-Nawawi, 2/628)
- Ma'nawee: mutawaatir in meaning, but not wording. Example: the various narrations about wiping over the khuffayn (whilst making ablution). (Min Atyab al-Minah fi Ilm al-Mustalah, )
Ruling: it conveys ilm daroori (knowledge which is certain), such that one can accept it decisively. (Min Atyab al-Minah fi Ilm al-Mustalah, )
Note: some say that it conveys only ilm nazari (knowledge which is known by research). Shaykh Abdul Muhsin al-Abbad says that this is a baseless statement, because even a common man who does not have the capability to do research will understand ilm zaroori. (Min Atyab al-Minah fi Ilm al-Mustalah, )
Points of benefit:
- Scholars differed about the minimum number required at each level for a hadith to be mutawaatir. (Tadrib al-Rawi fi Sharh Taqrib al-Nawawi, 2/627)
- Based on the correct position, it is not right to give a specific number for each level in a mutawaatir hadith, as related by Imam al-Suyuti in Tadrib ar-Rawi fi Sharh Taqrib an-Nawawi (2/176). (Tadrib al-Rawi fi Sharh Taqrib al-Nawawi, Dar Taybah ed., 2/627)
- When scholars like Ibn Taymiyyah, Ibn Abd al-Barr and Ibn Hazm say a hadith is mutawaatir, they mean that a particular hadith is narrated excessively from the Prophet (ﷺ) on numerous occasions, and narrated by a number of Sahabah and other narrators.
In simpler terms, a mutawaatir report is one carried by so many people, at every level of the chain, and from what they saw and heard themselves, that agreeing on a lie is impossible. The next part of the course takes up the other kind, the ahaad.
Where this division came from
We have just learned the word mutawaatir. Now for something important about how hadith came to be divided into mutawaatir and ahaad at all.
Classifying hadith into mutawaatir and ahaad is from the works of Ahlul Bidah.
Shaykh Muqbil ibn Hadi said in his book Al-Muqtarah fi Ajwibati Ba'd As'ilat al-Mustalah:
“As for dividing hadith into ahaad and mutawaatir, it is an innovated division. The first to innovate this was Abdurrahman ibn Kaysaan al-Asamm, about whom some said: ‘and he is deaf to the truth.’ He was followed in that by his student Ibrahim ibn Ismail ibn Ibrahim, famous as Ibn Ulayyah. His father is the well-known Ibn Ulayyah, that is Ismail, who is among the teachers of Imam Ahmad and among the men of the two Shaykhs; but as for Ibrahim ibn Ismail, he is a hardened Jahmi. … The division of hadith into ahaad and mutawaatir belittles the value of the pure Sunnah in the minds of many researchers, and it is a door of evil that has been opened.”
Muqbil ibn Hadi, Al-Muqtarah fi Ajwibati Ba'd As'ilat al-Mustalah, p. 145
- Imam Uthman ibn Said ad-Darimi wrote a volume in refutation of Bishr al-Marisi. (al-Dhahabi, Siyar A'lam an-Nubala, 10/202) In it, he answers the claim that the authentic reports from the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) are not a proof unless a man could swear by the divorce of his wife on them. He says that with this claim, all the reports narrated from the Prophet (ﷺ) are made void, and that the scholars never stopped choosing these reports and acting on them, choosing the best-preserved of them and the most reliable of their narrators. (al-Darimi, Naqd al-Imam Abi Said Uthman ibn Said ala al-Marisi al-Jahmi al-Anid, ed. al-Alma'i, 2/644–645)
- About Bishr ibn Ghiyath al-Marisi, Imam al-Dhahabi says in Siyar A'lam an-Nubala that he was from the major fuqaha of his time; he studied under Imam Abu Yusuf (who was a student of Abu Haneefa), and he also took ahadith from Sufyan ibn Uyainah and other scholars of hadith. Bishr used to say that the Quran is created and not the speech of Allah, and he became the head of the Jahmiyyah, and was an innovator. (al-Dhahabi, Siyar A'lam an-Nubala, 10/199–200)
- Imam al-Shafi'i opposed this classification in Kitab al-Umm. In this book, the debates of Imam al-Shafi'i are also recorded. (al-Shafi'i, Kitab al-Umm, 7/296–297)
Al-Shafi'i's debate on tawaatur
Imam al-Shafi'i records the debate in Kitab al-Umm without naming the man; later scholars explained that it was Bishr. The man said that the Sunnah is established by the report of the many from the many, and al-Shafi'i asked him to define the tawaatur of reports and give an example. (al-Shafi'i, Kitab al-Umm, 7/296–297)
- The man said: if I find these four narrating, and their narrations agree that the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) forbade something or permitted something, and they are from different cities, and each of them received the knowledge from someone other than the one his companion received it from, then error is not possible in it.
- Al-Shafi'i said: so according to you, a report cannot be tawaatur from four in one city, until the Madani narrates from a Madani, the Makki from a Makki, the Basri from a Basri and the Kufi from a Kufi, until each of them ends his hadith at a man from the Companions of the Prophet (ﷺ) other than the one his companion narrated from, and they all agree on the narration from the Prophet (ﷺ), for the reason you described?
- The man said: Yes, because if they are in one city, it is possible for them to collude on the report, and it is not possible if they are in different cities.
- Al-Shafi'i said: How wretched is what you have charged against the one you made an imam in your religion! Tell me: if you met a man from the people of Badr, who are the foremost and those whom Allah praised in His Book, and he told you a report from the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ), you would not take it as a proof. So are not those after them even less to be accepted, when they fall short of them in every virtue?
And then Imam al-Shafi'i goes on: you reject the report of a single Companion of the Prophet (ﷺ), when the Companions of the Prophet (ﷺ) are better than those after them, and you accept it from those who are not their equal in virtue. (Kitab al-Umm, 7/297) Imam al-Shafi'i goes on to provide an argument to refute the man's claim, and rejects his classification.
Why later scholars used it
- The later scholars of fiqh who were influenced by ilm al-kalaam and the mutakallimeen introduced this in their fiqh and usool books and taught it in their schools, and these terminologies got introduced into the books of hadith too.
- The earlier scholars never classified the hadith into ahaad, mutawaatir, ilm nazari or zaroori and so on.
Scholars who have spoken about how this classification started:
- Imam Abu al-Ashbal Ahmad Shaghif, a scholar of hadith from Pakistan, who has done tahqeeq of Taqreeb at-Tahdheeb by Ibn Hajar, and takhreej of the sharh of Sunan an-Nasai of Shaykh Ataullah Haneef Bhojiani called At-Ta'liqat as-Salafiyyah ala Sunan an-Nasai, speaks about this issue in his book Maqalat Shaghif.
- Shaykh Sanaullah Zahidi. (Thanaullah al-Zahidi, Al-Fusool fi Mustalah Hadith ar-Rasool, the chapter on the kinds of hadith by the number of narrators)
Point of benefit: it is okay to understand these terminologies of classification of hadith into ahaad, mutawaatir, ilm zaroori or nazari and so on for the sake of understanding, but they should not be used to reject any hadith.
Check what you have learned
Eight questions, taken only from what you just read. Every answer comes with the line that explains it.
Conclusion
We started with one hadith and took it apart: the sanad it stands on and the matn it leads to. We named the kinds of narration by who said them (hadith, khabar, athar and hadith qudsi), the books and people of hadith (musnad, musnid, muhaddith and hafiz), and the first kind of narration by how many carried it, the mutawaatir. Then we saw where the division into mutawaatir and ahaad came from, and the one rule to keep: these terms are for understanding, never for rejecting a hadith.
InshaAllah, in the next part we take up the other kind, the ahaad, and how a report is accepted or rejected.
Sources
This lesson follows the course book. Each quotation and report is cited where it appears, and the original works it was checked against are listed here.
- Min Atyab al-Minah fi Ilm al-Mustalah, Shaykh Abdul Muhsin Al-Abbad and Shaykh Abdul Kareem al-Murad, pp. 8–12 (the printed course book).
- Sahih al-Bukhari, al-Sultaniyyah edition: 33 (1/16), 110 (1/33), 7405 (9/121).
- Sahih Muslim, edited by Muhammad Fuad Abdul Baqi: al-Muqaddimah, no. 3 (1/10), 2577 (4/1994), 2675 (4/2061).
- Musnad al-Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal, al-Risalah edition, Musnad Abu Bakr and Musnad Umar, 1/177–244.
- al-Suyuti, Tadrib al-Rawi fi Sharh Taqrib al-Nawawi, ed. al-Faryabi, Dar Taybah, 2/627–628.
- Abdul-Awwal ibn Hammad al-Ansari, Al-Majmu fi Tarjamat al-Allamah al-Muhaddith ash-Shaykh Hammad ibn Muhammad al-Ansari, 2/512 and 2/539–540.
- al-Shafi'i, Kitab al-Umm, Dar al-Fikr, Kitab Jima al-Ilm, 7/296–297.
- al-Dhahabi, Siyar A'lam an-Nubala, Mu'assasat al-Risalah, 10/199–202.
- Uthman ibn Said al-Darimi, Naqd al-Imam Abi Said Uthman ibn Said ala al-Marisi al-Jahmi al-Anid, edited by Rashid al-Alma'i, Maktabat al-Rushd, 2/644–646.
- Muqbil ibn Hadi al-Wadi'i, Al-Muqtarah fi Ajwibati Ba'd As'ilat al-Mustalah, Dar al-Athar, p. 145.
- Ibn Baz, Fatawa Nur ala al-Darb, compiled by Muhammad al-Shuway'ir, 1/156, no. 54.
- Thanaullah al-Zahidi, Al-Fusool fi Mustalah Hadith ar-Rasool, the chapter on the kinds of hadith by the number of narrators.
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