Principles of Hadith

Background and Methodology of the Deoband Seminary

By 'Allamah Anwar Shah Kashmiri
June 13, 2011
Background and Methodology of the Deoband Seminary

This humble servant offers the greeting of Islam before this esteemed audience. Allah – Exalted is He – preserve you. We have sensed from you signs of nobility and interest in our condition. We feel an Islamic uprising turning towards us and you, and indeed we are needier of you than you are of us. These are my teachers, my elders and my treasures before Allah in my day and my morrow. They asked me to extend gratitude to you for your generosity and for...
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Imam Abu Hanifah and Hadith

By Shaykh ‘Abd al-Hafiz al-Makki
April 13, 2011
Imam Abu Hanifah and Hadith

The Islamic Ummah is united that Imam A‘zam Abu Hanifah Nu‘man ibn Thabit (may Allah mercy him) is one of the four followed imams -- Malik, al-Shafi‘i, Ahmad and Abu Hanifah (may Allah mercy them all and be pleased with them). Among those issues upon which all of the people of knowledge from both the early and latter times are agreed is that these four jurists, and their likes from among the mujtahid imams whose followers have gradually died out, only derived fiqh issues (masa’il)...
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Ranks of the Books on Hadith

By Shah Waliullah al-Muhaddith al-Dahlawi
September 15, 2010
Ranks of the Books on Hadith

Be informed that there it no way for us to knowledge of the divine laws and the rulings except through the report of the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace), in contrast to the case of the beneficial purposes, for these may be understood through experience, true reflection, surmisal, and so on. There is also no way for us to have knowledge of the sayings of the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) except by receiving reports which go...
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The Severity of Narrating Fabricated Reports on the Praise of the Prophet (Allah bless him and grant him peace)

By 'Allamah 'Abd al-Hayy al-Lakhnawi
August 22, 2010
The Severity of Narrating Fabricated Reports on the Praise of the Prophet (Allah bless him and grant him peace)

Know that the fuqaha and the muhaddithun in their entirety have clarified in their books that it is prohibited to narrate, cite and transmit fabricated (mawdu') , and act upon its purport while believing it to be established, except with a warning that it is fabricated. Leniency (tasahul) in this is prohibited, whether in regards to laws (ahkam), stories (qisas), inducing hope and fear (al-targhib wa l-tarhib) or anything else. Imitating (taqlid) in mentioning and transmitting it is...
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Reprimanding Men for Denying the Athar of Ibn ‘Abbas

By 'Allamah 'Abd al-Hayy al-Lakhnawi
August 3, 2010
Reprimanding Men for Denying the Athar of Ibn ‘Abbas

The one whose only manual work is the acquisition of sins, and only profession is the perpetuation of misdeeds, the one hopeful of the pardon of his Lord, Possessor of Grace and Bestowals, Abu 'l-Hasanat Muhammad 'Abd al-Hayy, the Lucknawi by homeland, the Hanafi by madhhab, the Ansari and Ayyubi by lineage, the son of the ocean, full of treasures, and the rain, pouring forth, Mawlana Hafiz Muhammad 'Abd al-Halim (Allah admit him into the Abode of Bliss), says: This is a beneficial treatise and...
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Unacceptable Narrator Criticism in the Science of Hadith

By 'Allamah 'Abd al-Hayy al-Lakhnawi
July 24, 2010
Unacceptable Narrator Criticism in the Science of Hadith

If jarh (narrator criticism) is issued due to partisanship, enmity, loathing, or the likes, then it is rejected, and only he who is rejected relies on it. In light of this, the statement of Imam Malik regarding Muhammad ibn Ishaq, the author of Al-Maghazi, that he is a dajjal from amongst the dajjals, was not accepted, since it is known that it stemmed from clear animosity. Rather, they (the imams of jarh wa ta'dil) affirmed that he was hasan al-hadith (an acceptable narrator),...
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Hadiths reported by Sufis

By Shaykh al-Hadith Mawlana Yunus Jaunpuri
April 4, 2010
Hadiths reported by Sufis

Scholars have not given credence to the reports of Sufis, as these respected people, due to their preoccupation with acts of devotion ('ibadat), are unable to fully dedicate themselves to knowledge. This is why their reports are littered with errors and confusions. Likewise, their husn al-zann (good opinions regarding others) is to such a degree that they do not even make critical analysis and, consequently, accept any spoken word without investigation. This is why their reports contain weak, rejected and...
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