What is the correct methodology for seeking knowledge of hadith?
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The questioner : Well, please give us some guidance, O Shaykh. How, I mean, do we study the science of hadith? We don’t have any shaykhs here to study under, incidentally. But some people, praise be to Allah, have books in their homes, for example, books of Sunan and books on the men (narrators). So, what guidance might benefit a person from the books?
The Shaykh : It is difficult to set a methodology for the general public in a science that is one of the most difficult of the sciences. In my opinion, whoever follows the path will arrive. People’s abilities, capacities, and sustenance differ. One might set something very approximate, and I think what can be mentioned will be implemented by the nature of reality that imposes itself on students of knowledge. But perhaps there is a reminder. The easiest book with which a student of hadith can begin is *Ikhtisar 'Ulum al-Hadith* (Summary of the Sciences of Hadith) by al-Hafiz Ibn Kathir, along with its commentary *al-Ba'ith al-Hathith* by Ahmad Shakir al-Misri. This is because both the author of the text and the commentator are imams in this field. Ibn Kathir is too famous to need mention, and Ahmad Shakir was likewise one of the rare scholars who excelled and appeared in the field of authorship, verification, authentication, and weakening in the present era. Therefore, when he explains this concise book, he explains it while being well-versed in this science, unlike many of the doctors of today who author some summaries. They author on a science they have not digested or known except theoretically, and have not applied it practically, unlike Ahmad Shakir (may Allah have mercy on him). So this book is the starting point in studying the terminology of hadith. Then one moves on to the book *Sharh al-Nukhba* (Commentary on al-Nukhba) by al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar. *Al-Nukhba* is very condensed, while the commentary has some expansion and explanation, but it combines the science of hadith with the smallness of its size. Therefore, it is very beneficial in this regard. Then the student of knowledge should ascend from there and return to the mothers and the sources from which these summaries were derived, such as the book *'Ulum al-Hadith* by Ibn al-Salah, al-Hakim ibn 'Abd Allah al-Nisaburi, and *al-Kafiyah* by al-Khatib al-Baghdadi. Then *Sharh al-Hafiz al-'Iraqi* on the introduction to *'Ulum al-Hadith* by Ibn al-Salah, and *al-Nukat* by al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar. And so on, expanding gradually until his horizon of knowledge in the science of terminology expands. And that will not benefit him at all unless he adds to it his independent reasoning (ijtihad) by studying the books of the men (narrators). I specifically mention two books: one is *Mizan al-I'tidal fi Naqd al-Rijal* (The Scale of Balance in the Critique of Men) by al-Hafiz al-Dhahabi, and the other is *Taqrib al-Tahdhib* by Ibn Hajar al-'Asqalani. So the student’s study of these two books gives him an image of how to distinguish the author and prefer one opinion over the various opinions regarding the biographee or the single hadith scholar. He will find there some biographees with many contradictory opinions: one says he is *thiqah* (trustworthy), another says there is no harm in him, and a third might say he is weak, or that he narrates *munkar* (denounced) reports from famous scholars, or that he is a denouncer of hadith, or similar phrases in which the novice in this science is perplexed as to which of these opinions he should rely on and how he should authenticate the hadiths containing such a narrator. So the two mentioned books place before him the path of weighing the opinions. Then after that...
The Shaykh : It is difficult to set a methodology for the general public in a science that is one of the most difficult of the sciences. In my opinion, whoever follows the path will arrive. People’s abilities, capacities, and sustenance differ. One might set something very approximate, and I think what can be mentioned will be implemented by the nature of reality that imposes itself on students of knowledge. But perhaps there is a reminder. The easiest book with which a student of hadith can begin is *Ikhtisar 'Ulum al-Hadith* (Summary of the Sciences of Hadith) by al-Hafiz Ibn Kathir, along with its commentary *al-Ba'ith al-Hathith* by Ahmad Shakir al-Misri. This is because both the author of the text and the commentator are imams in this field. Ibn Kathir is too famous to need mention, and Ahmad Shakir was likewise one of the rare scholars who excelled and appeared in the field of authorship, verification, authentication, and weakening in the present era. Therefore, when he explains this concise book, he explains it while being well-versed in this science, unlike many of the doctors of today who author some summaries. They author on a science they have not digested or known except theoretically, and have not applied it practically, unlike Ahmad Shakir (may Allah have mercy on him). So this book is the starting point in studying the terminology of hadith. Then one moves on to the book *Sharh al-Nukhba* (Commentary on al-Nukhba) by al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar. *Al-Nukhba* is very condensed, while the commentary has some expansion and explanation, but it combines the science of hadith with the smallness of its size. Therefore, it is very beneficial in this regard. Then the student of knowledge should ascend from there and return to the mothers and the sources from which these summaries were derived, such as the book *'Ulum al-Hadith* by Ibn al-Salah, al-Hakim ibn 'Abd Allah al-Nisaburi, and *al-Kafiyah* by al-Khatib al-Baghdadi. Then *Sharh al-Hafiz al-'Iraqi* on the introduction to *'Ulum al-Hadith* by Ibn al-Salah, and *al-Nukat* by al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar. And so on, expanding gradually until his horizon of knowledge in the science of terminology expands. And that will not benefit him at all unless he adds to it his independent reasoning (ijtihad) by studying the books of the men (narrators). I specifically mention two books: one is *Mizan al-I'tidal fi Naqd al-Rijal* (The Scale of Balance in the Critique of Men) by al-Hafiz al-Dhahabi, and the other is *Taqrib al-Tahdhib* by Ibn Hajar al-'Asqalani. So the student’s study of these two books gives him an image of how to distinguish the author and prefer one opinion over the various opinions regarding the biographee or the single hadith scholar. He will find there some biographees with many contradictory opinions: one says he is *thiqah* (trustworthy), another says there is no harm in him, and a third might say he is weak, or that he narrates *munkar* (denounced) reports from famous scholars, or that he is a denouncer of hadith, or similar phrases in which the novice in this science is perplexed as to which of these opinions he should rely on and how he should authenticate the hadiths containing such a narrator. So the two mentioned books place before him the path of weighing the opinions. Then after that...