How a hadith is graded sahih ? [Thread]
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1. Continuity of the chain of narrators
It is essential that every narrator should have received the hadith from the previous person in the chain directly, and not just heard about it from someone else.
It is essential that every narrator should have received the hadith from the previous person in the chain directly, and not just heard about it from someone else.
The people in the chain of narrators are the most important part in the process of determining an authentic hadith. The character of the narrator lets us know if he is superior to others or not – in terms of his honesty and integrity.
2. The narrators should be righteous
Eman was the hallmark of a Muslim in the days of the Prophet ﷺ. A man should be known to be righteous, trustworthy, truthful, and not sinful.
Eman was the hallmark of a Muslim in the days of the Prophet ﷺ. A man should be known to be righteous, trustworthy, truthful, and not sinful.
Imam Al-Bukhari, may Allah have mercy on him, would travel far and wide to locate the narrators in the chains of hadith,
To see for himself their character and trustworthiness. It did not seem in vain to him if days, or even months, of journeying were rendered useless if the narrator proved to lack the qualities he required.
He once travelled a long way to get a hadith from a man, whom he happened to observe before he actually met him, calling his horse forth with the promise of fodder only to give him none once the horse approached.
Imam Al- Bukhari left without meeting the man – if he couldn’t even keep his promise to his horse, how could he be trusted to pass on the words of the Prophet ﷺ?
3. The narrators should be preservers
What this means is that they should have perfected the art of memorisation, and if their memory was failing them, they should have written down the hadith when it was perfect.
What this means is that they should have perfected the art of memorisation, and if their memory was failing them, they should have written down the hadith when it was perfect.
When our memorisation becomes weak, it is usually a sign that we should be seeking forgiveness for our sins – for the ability to retain comes only from Allah and our sins can block that.
4. There Should Be No Irregularities
If a superior narrator contradicted a hadith, even if it had all the above qualities, the hadith would not be considered, since what is at stake is a 5 star grading, there could be no room for doubt.
If a superior narrator contradicted a hadith, even if it had all the above qualities, the hadith would not be considered, since what is at stake is a 5 star grading, there could be no room for doubt.
An example for this would be: Abdul Wahid bin Ziyad has narrated from A’mash and he from Abu Saleh, and Abu Saleh from Abu Hurairah that the Prophet ﷺ said, “When any of you offers the Fajr prayer, he should lie down on his right side for some time.”
Imam Bayhaqi says that in this hadith, Abdul Wahid bin Ziyad has opposed a number of trustworthy narrations that state that the Prophet ﷺ did this action himself, but did not order anyone to do so; and so this hadith is irregular.
This is an important mistake to rectify because the Prophet ﷺ telling us something would make it almost mandatory on us to do, while him doing it himself makes it an act that we just get extra reward for doing (nawafil).
5. There Should Be No Hidden Defect
Speaking of no room for doubt, this implies that the hadith cannot have defects that a normal person wouldn’t even be able to know existed.
Speaking of no room for doubt, this implies that the hadith cannot have defects that a normal person wouldn’t even be able to know existed.
This is where things get juicy, and is so mindblowing in the way that the muhadditheen strove to eliminate all possible doubt, so that a sahih hadith could be quoted blindly by the layman with no cost.
There are a few things that come under this:
It should be proven that the narrator was the student of that particular Sheikh or preceding narrator in the specific time that the hadith was narrated.
It should be proven that the narrator was the student of that particular Sheikh or preceding narrator in the specific time that the hadith was narrated.
For example: Sheikh Muhammad taught at the Islamic Centre from 2012-2014, and Abdullah is a student of the Islamic Centre, but was it at the same time that Sheikh Muhammad was there?
And was he even in his class or did Abdullah hear a statement of Sheikh Muhammad from one of the other students?
There is no room for human error. The general chain of narrators goes as follows: Starting with the Prophet ﷺ, who narrated a hadith to the Companions (sahabah), who passed it on to those who came after them (the tabi’een),
who in turn passed it on to their students (the taba’ tabi’een), until it reached the narrator.
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