Methodology and Terms of Diwan
We present here the approved terms in judging hadiths and our scientific methodology in verification and clarification.
Hadith Terminology — The Basics
Terms recur across the pages of the Diwan without which the ruling on a hadith cannot properly be understood. Gathered here is what a reader needs of them, ordered from the foundation upward.
One: The Basics
A hadith is built from a matn and a sanad: a text that is related, and a path that carries it. This section defines both parts, and those who carry them — the Companions, the Successors, and those after them.
“Actions are but by intentions, and every person shall have only what they intended.”
- The Prophet ﷺ
- Umar b. al-Khattab ﵁
- Alqama
- …and the rest of the chain
- al-BukhariThe compiler
General definitions
- Hadith
- What is attributed to the Prophet ﷺ — a saying, an action, a tacit approval, or a description.
- Khabar (report)
- A transmitted report. Most terminologists hold it broader than hadith: every hadith is a khabar, but not every khabar is a hadith.
- Athar
- What is attributed to someone other than the Prophet ﷺ — the Companions, may Allah be pleased with them, and the Successors. This is the definition in practice; some hold it synonymous with hadith. It covers both mawquf and maqtu'.
- Matn (the text)
- The text of the report itself; what the chain of narration leads to.
- Sanad / Isnad (the chain)
- The path leading to the matn; muhaddithun use isnad in the same sense. Some phrase it as “the chain of men,” but the first is broader: transmission may be by wijada — from a manuscript in its author's own hand, without having heard it from him.
- Rawi (narrator)
- One of the men in the chain, passing the report from the one above him to the one below.
- Sahabi (Companion)
- A Companion: one who met the Prophet ﷺ as a believer and died upon Islam, may Allah be pleased with them.
- Tabi'i (Successor)
- A Successor: one who met a Companion as a believer and died upon Islam.
- Takhrij (sourcing)
- Tracing a report to the sources that narrated it, and stating its grade.
- Illa (hidden defect)
- A hidden defect that undermines a report which outwardly appears sound; only a critic well grounded in this field catches it.
Two: By Whom It Is Attributed To
Every matn ends with whoever spoke it: it may be Allah ﷻ, the Prophet ﷺ, a Companion or a Successor, or something related from the People of the Book. That attribution is what the matn type indicates on each hadith page.
- Qudsi (sacred)
- Allah ﷻ, related by the Prophet ﷺWhat the Prophet ﷺ narrated from his Lord ﷻ — both its wording and its meaning are from Allah ﷻ. It differs from the Qur'an: it is not recited as worship, a prayer is not valid by it, and the challenge was never issued with its wording.
- Marfu' (raised)
- The Prophet ﷺAttributed to the Prophet ﷺ specifically. This is the default across the Diwan.
- Mawquf (halted)
- The Companion's own wordsAttributed to a Companion, may Allah be pleased with them — their own words or action, not something they relate from the Prophet ﷺ.
- Maqtu' (severed)
- The Successor's own wordsAttributed to a Successor — their own saying or action. Not to be confused with munqati': this describes the text, that describes the chain.
- Isra'ili (Israelite report)
- The People of the BookRelated from the People of the Book. Neither affirmed nor denied except by what the Shari'a itself confirms.
Three: By Acceptance and Rejection
A hadith is either accepted, so that an argument may rest on it, or rejected, and not established. Each of the two has ranks of its own, from sahih li-dhatihi down to what has no basis at all — the rank shown on every hadith card.
Accepted
- Sahih li-dhatihi (authentic in itself)
- A connected chain of upright, precise narrators throughout, clear of irregularity and hidden defect.
- Sahih li-ghayrihi (authentic by corroboration)
- A hasan report whose multiple routes together raise it to the level of sahih.
- Hasan li-dhatihi (good in itself)
- As sahih in its conditions, except that one narrator's precision is slightly lighter.
- Hasan li-ghayrihi (good by corroboration)
- A report weak within tolerable limits, whose multiple routes reinforce one another.
Rejected
- Shadh (irregular)
- Narrated by an acceptable narrator who contradicts someone stronger in precision or number.
- Da'if (weak)
- Missing one of the conditions of acceptance — a break in the chain, or a fault in a narrator.
- Shadid al-da'f (very weak)
- Severely weak: multiple routes cannot mend it, and it never rises through them.
- Munkar (denounced)
- Narrated by a weak narrator in contradiction to the reliable ones.
- Mawdu' (fabricated)
- Fabricated and falsely ascribed to the Prophet ﷺ — the worst kind of weak report.
- Makdhub (a deliberate lie)
- A report whose forger is established to have deliberately lied about the Prophet ﷺ.
- Batil (baseless)
- Decisively false, whether for contradicting what is definitively established or for the severity of its objectionability.
- La asla lah (no chain at all)
- No chain of narration is known for it at all.
- Laysa bi-hadith (not a hadith)
- A saying circulated as a hadith which is not the speech of the Prophet ﷺ.
Four: The Conditions of a Sound Hadith
A hadith is not judged sound until five conditions hold together in it: an unbroken chain, upright narrators, precise narrators, clear of shudhudh, and clear of illa. Should one of them fail, it does not reach the rank of sahih.
- Continuity of the chain
- That every narrator took the hadith directly from the one above them, from the start of the chain to its end.
- Uprightness of the narrators
- That every narrator in the chain is sound in religion and bearing.
- Precision of the narrators
- That every narrator retains and masters what they relate, guards their book against alteration if they narrate from one, and does not let their errors outweigh their accuracy.
- Clear of shudhudh
- That it stays clear of an acceptable narrator contradicting someone weightier in precision or number — this is shadh.
- Clear of illa
- That it stays clear of a disqualifying illa, however sound it appears.
The second and third conditions rest on the narrator: adala in their religion, dabt in their memory.
Adala (uprightness)
A settled disposition holding its owner to piety and dignity; it is what restrains them from lying about the Prophet ﷺ.
Its five conditions
- Islam
- Adulthood
- Sound mind
- Clear of the causes of fisq
- Clear of what breaches muru'a
Dabt (precision)
That the narrator holds firmly what they memorised and guards the book they narrate from, from the moment they received it until the moment they pass it on.
Its two kinds
- Dabt of memory: accuracy retained in the mind
- Dabt of the book: guarding the written copy against alteration and loss
Five: The Main Causes of Rejection
When one of the conditions above fails, the report falls below acceptance. The causes are many; the two best known are discontinuity in the chain and a fault in a narrator.
One: discontinuity in the chain
- Munqati' (broken)
- A chain with a break in it, of whatever kind. Its kinds, by where the break falls and how much is missing:
- Mu'allaq (suspended)
- One or more consecutive narrators are dropped from the beginning of the chain.
- Mu'dal (doubly broken)
- Two or more consecutive narrators are missing from the chain. Every mu'dal is munqati', but not every munqati' is mu'dal.
- Mursal (sent)
- A Successor raises a report directly to the Prophet ﷺ without naming the Companion he heard it from. Not to be confused with al-mursal al-khafi below.
- Hidden discontinuity
- A break the outward form of the chain does not show; it is known only by examining who heard from whom, and only a critic well grounded in this field catches it. Of its kinds:
- Mursal khafi (hidden irsal)
- Relating from a contemporary the narrator is not established to have met, in wording that implies hearing. What separates it from tadlis is the meeting: the mudallis relates from someone he did meet and hear from, this from someone he is not established to have met at all.
- Tadlis (concealment)
- Concealing a fault in the chain to improve how it looks: the mudallis leaves the listener thinking the chain is connected when it is not, relating from a contemporary they did not hear this from in wording that implies they did — “from”, “he said”. From a narrator known to do it often, nothing is accepted until they state the hearing plainly: “he narrated to us”, “I heard”.
Two: a fault in the narrator
One of the two conditions above has failed in them: adala or dabt. It is named by terms such as these:
- Majhul (unknown)
- A narrator whose identity is unknown, or whose identity is known but whose uprightness and precision are not.
- Sayyi' al-hifz (poor memory)
- A narrator whose errors outweigh his accuracy, so what he alone reports is not relied upon.
- Matruk (abandoned)
- Accused of lying, or so grossly mistaken that his hadith is abandoned.
- Muttaham bil-kadhib (accused of lying)
- Known to lie in ordinary speech, though lying in hadith was never established against him.
- Kadhdhab (a liar)
- One who deliberately lied about the Prophet ﷺ and forged reports.
Diwan's Terms in Judging Hadiths
Some scholars may explicitly state the ruling on a hadith, while others adopt a specific methodology. We have adopted their methodologies as follows:
Indicates the authenticity of the hadith. What has been discussed, we have clarified.
We mean what Abu Dawud remained silent about, which is suitable for argumentation or consideration, including weak hadiths that can be strengthened.
Means it is an authentic or good hadith.
We mean its authenticity according to him, as he committed to mentioning the defect if found.
Evidence of its authenticity as he selected only authentic chains.
Evidence of its authenticity according to his statement: If there is no defect in it, my silence about it is evidence of its authenticity.
His condition is to mention only authentic or good hadiths, and if he mentions a weak one, he alerts to it.
If he starts with (from) it is authentic or good, and if he starts with (narrated) it is weak.
He said: What I remain silent about its clarification is good.
We mean that the hadith is among what is rejected from the narrator, indicating its inauthenticity.
What he attributed alone to al-Uqayli, Ibn Adi, al-Khatib, Ibn Asakir, al-Hakim al-Tirmidhi, al-Hakim in al-Tarikh, Ibn al-Najjar, or al-Daylami is weak.
Our Methodology in Diwan
We follow a precise and simplified scientific methodology for all Muslims:
Accepted and Rejected
We divided hadiths into accepted (green) which are authentic and good, and rejected (red) which are weak and fabricated, to facilitate for non-specialists.
Clarity of Ruling
We mentioned the hadith ruling clearly, with alerting if it is weak in one context and authentic in another.
Presentation of Opinions
We started with those who argued with the hadith, then followed with those who rejected it, separating the two groups with (but).
Verification
We verified the hadith scientifically in a way that fulfills the purpose and suffices the researcher and student.
Clarifying the Problematic
We clarified the problematic aspects of the hadith and responded to doubts in case of apparent contradiction.
Companions' Narrations
We may go beyond the elevated to rule on the stopped (narrations of companions and followers) for a good reason, and we indicate this with (the report).