The Life & Character of the Seal of Prophets (sa) - Volume I — Page 32
Seal of the Prophets - Volume I 32 well. Phraseology of Ḥadīth In the art of the principles of Ḥadīth or ‘Ilm-e-Riwāyat , 1 two ancillary fields of knowledge are particularly worthy of mention. These two fields are known as ‘Ilm-e-Muṣṭaliḥāt-e- Ḥadīth 2 , and ‘Ilm-e-Asmā’-ur-Rijāl 3. The science mentioned first deals with the phraseology of Ḥadīth , which expounds the basis upon which various Aḥādīth are sorted by category. It mentions the titles under which Aḥādīth are categorized, and outlines the weight of one category over another. According to this science, various categories of Ḥadīth have been established from many perspectives. Among them, the most prominent are: Mutawātir, Mashhūr, ‘Azīz, Gharīb, Shādh, Munkar, Ṣaḥīḥ, Ḥasan, Ḍa‘īf, Matrūk, Mauḍū‘, Marfū‘, Mauqūf, Maqtū‘, Muttaṣil, Munqaṭi‘, Mursal, Mu‘aḍal, Mu‘allal, Mudallas, Muḍṭarib, Mudarraj, Qaulī, Fi‘lī, Taqrīrī, Qudsī, etc. 4 Numerous books have been written about this field of knowledge, however, the most familiar and commonly utilised are as follows: 1. Nuzhatun-Naẓar fī Tauḍīḥi Nukhbatil-Fikr, by Abul-Faḍl Aḥmad bin Ḥajar ‘Asqalānī, who died in 852 A. H. 2. Al-Yawāqītu wad-Durar, by Sheikh ‘Abdur-Rau’ūf Al-Munādī, who died in 1031 A. H Asmā’-ur-Rijāl The field of study known as Asm ā ’-ur-Rijāl refers to a science in which the biographies of the narrators of Ḥadīth and Sīrat , have been gathered in one place by critique, in order to assess the quality of the chain of narrators whenever a narration is brought before us. It is evident that this science is very broad and extensive, to such extent as based on the statement of Sir William Muir, the particulars of 40,000 narrators have been preserved 1 The Science of Narration (Publishers) 2 The Science of the Phraseology of Ḥadīth (Publishers) 3 The Science of the Names of Prominent Men (Publishers) 4 Refer to the ‘Alphabetical Glossary of Terms’ for details (Publishers)