The Life & Character of the Seal of Prophets (sa) - Volume I — Page 15
I - Early Sources of Sīrat & Islāmic History 15 multiplies as the number of credible narrators increases. In conformity with the principles of Dirāyat the following terms have been deemed most significant: 1. The narration should not be contradictory to any reliable and authentic historical record. In accordance with this principle any narration which contradicts the Holy Qur’ān, must be disregarded. 2. The narration should not clash with any evidently proven fact. 3. The narration should not be contradictory to any narration of greater authenticity. 4. The narration should not be of an incident which, if true, should have a greater number of people to testify to it, yet only one narrator is existent. 5. The narration should not have such elements as can be negated or considered ambiguous by common sense. 1 Early Examples of Dirāyat Muslim research scholars established these principles in the elementary stages of Islām in order to analytically examine narrations. It is on the basis of these very principles that they would ascertain the authenticity of these narrations and deeply ponder upon their true essence. Any sensible individual can comprehend the fact that in the evaluation of narrations, there can be no methodology of analysis which is more effective than that mentioned above. This statement is not to claim that these matters were necessarily in view of all the Muslim Muḥaddithīn 2 and historians alike. However, there is absolutely no doubt that these principles were devised by the Muslim research scholars, in order to analyse narrations. Generally, they gave regard to these principles throughout their written works. It is quite possible that personal inclinations may lead a research scholar to give greater weight to one element, whereas another may give precedence to the other. Perhaps a writer, in order to produce a more comprehensive collection, may include various weak narrations merely upon the potentiality of their authenticity. Moreover, the possibility also exists 1 For these principles refer to: * Fatḥul-Mugīth, By Ḥāfiẓ Zain-ud-Dīn ‘Abdur-Raḥīm bin Ḥusain Al-‘Irāqī * Al- Mauḍu‘ātul-Kubrā, By Mullā ‘Alī bin Muḥammad Sulṭān Qārī, pp. 291-326, “Al-Umūrul- Kulliyyatillatī. . . . . Al-Ḥadīthu Mauḍu‘an”, Qadīmī Kutub Khānah, Ārām Bāgh, Karachi * Muqaddamah Ibni Ṣalāḥ, An-Nau‘us-Sādisu wa ‘Ishrūn, pp. 83-96, Maṭba‘us-Sa‘ādah Miṣr, First Edition (1326 A. H. ) 2 Scholars of Ḥadīth (Publishers)