A critic's view of judging the hadith

Abstract

Since the dawn of Islam, the Noble Prophetic Sunnah (Sunnah) has been the cradle of Muslims' hearts and the focus of their scholars' attention, as it is the primary interpreter of the Holy Quran, the clarifier of its rulings, and the complement to its laws. Preserving and compiling the Sunnah, and distinguishing its authentic from its weak versions, constituted the primary concern of critical scholars and one of the greatest tasks undertaken by the early Muslims. They innovated in establishing a unique science unknown to previous or subsequent civilizations: the science of Hadith (Hadith). Numerous other branches of knowledge have branched out from it, the most prominent of which are: the science of rijal (narrators' hadiths), criticism and validation (jarh wa ta'dil), hadith terminology, ilal (cause defects), and other subtle branches.