How is the study of hadith terminology conducted? What books do you recommend reading in this field, and a brief overview of how takhrij (tracing hadiths to their sources) is performed.

The questioner : In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. There are questions I will begin with: How is the study of hadith terminology conducted? What books do you recommend reading in this field, and a brief overview of how takhrij (tracing hadiths to their sources) is performed?

The Shaykh : Regarding takhrij (tracing hadiths to their sources), it is not possible to provide a method for it. As for terminology, we recommend the book *Al-Ba'ith al-Hathith Sharh Ikhtisar 'Ulum al-Hadith*. *Ikhtisar 'Ulum al-Hadith* is by al-Hafiz Ibn Kathir, and the commentary titled *Al-Ba'ith al-Hathith* is by Shaykh Ahmad al-Qadi al-Misri, who produced a rare critical edition of the first part of Imam Ahmad's Musnad. He wrote a commentary on this book, *Ikhtisar 'Ulum al-Hadith*, which is what one who wishes to begin studying the science of hadith terminology should read. There is also a treatise by the true last of the hadith scholars, al-Hafiz Ahmad ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, titled *Sharh al-Nukhba*. It is a comprehensive treatise on hadith science, but it is dense. Due to its density and concise phrasing, some of its objectives may be obscure to some students. If the one who wishes to study this science first has a general Islamic culture and secondly a good knowledge of Arabic language etiquette, he can study this treatise after studying the first book. Otherwise, this treatise needs to be taught by a knowledgeable scholar who explains to the students around him what may be obscure in its meanings. I said that this treatise, because its meanings are dense and its words few, needs a man well-versed in hadith science and terminology to explain it to students of knowledge. Then, after that, he ascends to the books that are considered the references and basic sources of this science. On this occasion, I advise that the student of knowledge not be occupied with contemporary or modern works in this field, because everything we have looked at, at least, and by which we judge what we have not looked at, is the work of authors who did not study this science practically, but theoretically first. Then they are quotations, a little from this and a little from that, and they formed a book or booklet. Rather, we advise referring in this science, and indeed in every science, to the early scholars, because they were truly scholars in their science, whereas the later scholars are mostly characterized by rigidity and taqlid (following a scholar without knowing his evidence). For example, *Ikhtisar 'Ulum al-Hadith* by al-Hafiz Ibn Kathir: if a person finishes this book and wants some expansion, he moves to the original of this book, which is *'Ulum al-Hadith* by al-Hafiz al-Subki. This book of his, *'Ulum al-Hadith*, has been printed in several editions, some of which have comments, marginal notes, and commentaries by al-Hafiz al-'Iraqi, and these are very useful. If he can obtain this edition, it means he has gathered a lot of knowledge. And so, if he finishes this book, he ascends to the sources relied upon by al-Hafiz al-Subki. Among them, for example, is the book *Ma'rifat 'Ulum al-Hadith* by al-Hakim Abu 'Abd Allah, and the book *Al-Kufiyyah fi 'Ulum al-Riwayah* by al-Khatib al-Baghdadi, and similar ancient and old sources written by scholars of this discipline. If the student of knowledge does not follow this path, which will undoubtedly be long-term, paths will open up before him, some leading to others, and to references that we are not in need of listing more than what I mentioned earlier. If the student of knowledge masters this hadith, then the field of discussing the science of takhrij (tracing hadiths to their sources) comes. Before speaking about what is facilitated regarding this field, the field of takhrij, I want to remind you that hadith science recorded in the books mentioned earlier and others related to this science is divided into two sections. The first section is necessary for the student of knowledge who wants to learn the method of authenticating and weakening hadiths; he must study and understand these books well, because without that, he cannot reach mastery of the authentication and weakening mentioned. The other section is not necessary to study, but it is good to do so, because the larger part of it is related to the way of narrating hadiths by chains of transmission, and this narration is broken. Therefore, there is no significant importance in studying the second section of these works. But the student of knowledge should at least go through the index of this second section of terminology and choose chapters from it that he feels he needs, and study and understand them.
I return now to the topic of takhrij (tracing hadiths to their sources). Takhrij is a science that cannot be taught to people; rather, it opens up before the researcher who takes the first step, and it has no end. But regarding what we said about studying the first section of the science of terminology, if he wants to achieve the desired goal of this study, which I indicated earlier by saying authentication and weakening, he must take any book from the four books of Sunan, let alone the two Sahihs, and take a chain of transmission and write it on a paper he has. Then he practices takhrij: first, he exercises his memory to know where, for example, this hadith can be found in other books. He gathers these sources and lists them up to the first source. For example, let's say Sunan Abu Dawud. But today, Allah has blessed students of knowledge with books that are considered very close to the distant and easy for the difficult, and these are books of indexes in various types and forms. For example, I passed through an era when these indexes did not exist. I used to search for a hadith in Imam Ahmad's Musnad. Imam Ahmad's Musnad is six volumes containing about forty thousand hadiths, and it is not arranged according to fiqh chapters, but its hadiths are arranged according to the names of their narrators from the Companions, and the most memorized of them, by consensus of scholars, is Abu Hurayrah.
Abu Hurayrah has half of the second volume; the entire Musnad of Abu Hurayrah is without any arrangement at all. So if I saw a hadith in, for example, *Al-Jami' al-Saghir* or others, attributed to Imam Ahmad from Abu Hurayrah, I was forced to read about three hundred pages with a print where the hadiths are intertwined and intermingled, not as you see it today with spacing between lines and each hadith starting at the beginning of the line with a number. Not every page is all black; you must read the whole page, perhaps you will find the desired hadith in three hundred pages, and you and your luck: the hadith might be at the beginning of the Musnad, it might be in the middle, it might be at the end. So for one hadith, I read these pages of the Musnad of Abu Hurayrah repeatedly and over and over, let alone the other Musnads. But now, the student of knowledge relies on the effort of others. You find before you, today, the book *Makarim al-Akhlaq*. Give me here, by Allah, the first or second part, it doesn't matter, up, up, up, yes, and I want to ask you about this footnote. Do you know Dr. Su'ad? Sulayman al-Khanduqawi, have you heard this name?

The questioner : Where is it located?

The Shaykh : I don't know, I thought she was Iraqi. The point is, look now, this whole page of its takhrij (tracing hadiths to their sources) is not from her effort, but from the indexes that Allah created in this time. Look, for example, here the attribution is to *Al-Jarh wa al-Ta'dil*, page so-and-so, and *Al-Tahdhib*, page so-and-so, and al-Tirmidhi, page so-and-so, and with the same chain, Musnad Ahmad, volume six, and so on. So takhrij today does not require much knowledge, because it is merely transfer, aided by the indexes prepared for almost all the books circulating today. But the benefit from the science of terminology in this takhrij is the greatest goal. If you take a hadith from any book, as we said, and place it before you, you can with these existing indexes trace it from perhaps five sources or ten sources, depending on its fame. Then you study the men one by one, also relying on the indexes of books of men, which are naturally indexed, and some need indexing, and indexing has been found, for example, for the book *Al-Thiqat* by Ibn Hibban and the book *Al-Jarh wa al-Ta'dil* by Ibn Abi Hatim, and similar. Then you try to apply your solid, or supposed to be solid, knowledge in that. Then you say, after the translation and studying all the men, for example, "From that it becomes clear that the hadith is authentic in its chain, good in its chain, or weak in its chain."
What pertains to one aspect of the science of hadith is what is called supporting chains (mutaba'at) and corroborating narrations (shawahid). The result of studying the chain of a hadith might be that you say, "This is a weak chain." However, the terminology states that the weakness of a hadith's chain does not necessitate saying, "This is a weak hadith"; rather, you say, "This is a weak chain." Why? Because saying "this hadith is weak" is a judgment of weakness on the hadith itself, whereas saying "its chain is weak" is a judgment of weakness on the chain. And what is the difference? The difference is that this hadith, with this weak chain, may have another chain that is authentic, good, or weak that supports the first. Therefore, it is not correct, even in this last case, to say that the hadith is weak, because it has a corroborating narration that strengthens it, elevating it to the rank of good for its own sake or to the rank of authentic for its own sake. In this manner, a person can progress to learn the science of authenticating and weakening hadith, not the science of tracing hadith to their sources (takhrij), because takhrij does not imply authenticating or weakening. If you take al-Suyuti's *al-Jami' al-Saghir* and *al-Jami' al-Kabir*, they are two books attributed to the science of takhrij, but they contain no science of authenticating or weakening. Authenticating and weakening is reviewing the chain of every hadith you encounter, studying every man in that chain, and giving a result for that chain after scientific study, as we mentioned earlier: authentic, good, or weak, with or without corroborating narrations, with or without supporting chains for any of the narrators. This is the science of authenticating and weakening, not the science of takhrij. This is what can be mentioned regarding that question.

The questioner : May Allah reward you with the best reward.

The Shaykh : And you as well.