A discussion on the science of hadith: its origin, its codification, and its development, along with a mention of the importance of the science of hadith terminology.

The Shaykh : In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and may Allah send prayers and blessings upon our Prophet Muhammad, and upon his family and all his Companions.
As for what follows: To remind you of the principles of hadith, which is the science of terminology, we should know, or at least take in some fragments, that the science of hadith was a later development. I mean, its writing, as a means of preserving it, was a later development in this broad sense. However, the writing of hadith in principle is established from the time of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him and his family). The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) delivered a eloquent sermon in the Year of the Conquest, and a man known as Abu Shah said: This is the origin of the codification of hadith. Similarly, 'Abd Allah ibn 'Amr ibn al-'As (may Allah be pleased with him) used to write down hadith, to the extent that Abu Hurayrah acknowledged this and said: So the origin of the codification of hadith existed in the time of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him and his family). But the expansion of it happened gradually thereafter according to need. This is from the grace of Allah (Mighty and Majestic) and from His preservation of the religion for its people, that Allah provided eminent scholars who preserve hadith by writing and preserve the judgment upon it by establishing the principles and terminology. Then the science of terminology was compiled to serve as a scale for the hadiths narrated from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family). People differed in various ways regarding how to do this: some built it upon chapters, some built it upon musnads, and some built it upon unarranged topics. But in that... there is no doubt. And this continued to develop until it reached great and very advanced stages. Then, the science of hadith based on the principles of terminology did not disappear, as some people claimed. They said: There is no need to know the science of terminology and the science of takhrij (tracing a hadith to its sources) and the like, because the previous scholars have sufficed us in this. But this is not correct, because a later person may come across what the previous person did not come across. As long as the principles are agreed upon and known, it is possible for anyone to whom Allah the Exalted grants knowledge and understanding to apply what is attributed to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) to these principles and judge by it. The first is the statement of the previous scholars, and the second is the statement of the later scholars. But if two statements conflict, one being the statement of the previous scholars and the other the statement of the later scholars, and it becomes clear that one is stronger than the other, then it is obligatory to follow the stronger position, whether it is from the first or the second. And if it does not become clear, then it appears that what the previous scholars preferred is more appropriate, because they are more knowledgeable about hadith and closer in time to the era of Prophethood. And what is closer to the era of Prophethood is more appropriate to follow and closer to the truth. So the statements of the previous scholars are to be adopted, especially those among them who are experts in jurisprudence, meaning those who combined the knowledge of hadith and jurisprudence. Because one who limits himself to the knowledge of hadith only and relies on the chain of narration only may miss something significant, considering the text and the jurisprudence of the texts is a matter of importance. For this reason, one of the conditions for the validity or goodness of a hadith is that it be free from defects and not anomalous. Many people may rely on the apparent chain and judge it valid because it was narrated by al-Bukhari or Muslim or someone else, for example, from those who committed to validity in what they publish. But they did not pay attention to what concerns the text of the hadith and its jurisprudence. And this is a great defect. And that is because the Sunnah is a Shari'ah with important general principles and rules to which one returns in cases of anomalies, and then judges according to the general rules. And that is because hadith relies on transmission, and transmission may contain error from the narrator, or forgetting, or hesitation, or inserting one hadith into another, or the like of these causes. But the general rules in the Shari'ah are rules like mountains that the winds do not shake. It is obligatory to look at this with precision so that a person may have a proof before Allah (Mighty and Majestic). Then the scholars (may Allah have mercy on them) classified hadiths based on their paths and based on their ranks. Based on the paths, they said: They are three, or rather four: mutawatir (mass-transmitted), mashhur (famous), 'aziz (rare), and gharib (strange). And based on the ranks: sahih (valid) in itself, sahih (valid) by other means, hasan (good) in itself, hasan (good) by other means, and da'if (weak). We will postpone the discussion to other lessons, if Allah wills. And it will suffice us to speak about these points in the lesson of the week, or in every lesson? Yes, think about the topic. We are not far from the science of terminology.