Different Classes or Levels of Hadith Books
➊ The first class consists of Sahih al-Bukhari, Sahih Muslim and Muwatta Imam Malik. Muwatta Imam Malik is earlier than the two Sahihs in terms of its date of compilation, but it is placed third in rank and status. According to Imam Malik and those scholars who share his view, all its hadiths are sahih. According to other muhaddithun, its munqati’ or mursal narrations (in various books) are connected through other chains, although mere connection of the chain is not always sufficient for the soundness of a hadith.
➋ The second class consists of the Four Sunan. In the view of some, Musnad Ahmad and Sunan al-Darimi also probably belong to this class. Their compilers were well versed in the science of hadith and were known for trustworthiness, uprightness and precision in memorising hadith. They did not fall short in fulfilling the aims and conditions they had kept in view. Their books received immense acceptance from the muhaddithun and other people of knowledge in every age.
➌ Those musnads, jawami’ and musannafat that were written before the Sihah Sittah, during their time, or after them. Their compilers’ purpose was merely to collect hadiths. That is why all kinds of hadiths are found in them. Although these books are not unknown among the muhaddithun, they are also not especially well known or widely accepted. Therefore, the hadiths that are not found in the books of the first two classes but are found only in books of this class have not been used much by the fuqaha, and the muhaddithun have also not paid much attention to examining their soundness or weakness, their acceptance or rejection, or their explanation and elaboration. For example:
Musannaf Abd al-Razzaq, Musannaf Ibn Abi Shaybah, Musnad al-Tayalisi, al-Bayhaqi, al-Tahawi and al-Tabarani, etc.
➍ Those books whose compilers, after a long period of time, gathered hadiths that were not in the books of the first two classes but were found in collections that had no standing (in the scholarly world). These hadiths mostly consist of the arguments of preachers, the golden sayings of sages, and Israili narrations, which weak narrators mixed with the Prophetic hadiths either inadvertently or deliberately; or they are some probabilities of the Quran and Sunnah which some ignorant Sufis narrated in meaning and which were taken as marfu’ hadiths; or a new hadith was made by selecting phrases from several hadiths, etc. For example:
Ibn Hibban’s “كِتَابُ الضُّعَفَاء“, Ibn Adi’s al-Kamil, and the books of al-Khatib al-Baghdadi, Abu Nu’aym al-Asbahani, Ibn Asakir, al-Jawraqani, Ibn al-Najjar and al-Daylami. Similarly, Musnad al-Khwarizmi, and the “المَوضُوعات” of Ibn al-Jawzi and Mulla Ali Qari, etc., are also included in this class.
➎ The books of this class contain hadiths that were popular on the tongues of jurists, Sufis, historians and experts of various fields, and also include hadiths that irreligious eloquent speakers fabricated from eloquent speech and for which they also invented chains. Such things have been given the linguistic name “hadith” or “ahadith”.
❀ The muhaddithun have complete trust in the books of the first and second classes. They have always been attached to these books.
❀ Using the hadiths of the third class as evidence is the task of those experts in hadith who know the circumstances of narrators and the hidden defects of hadith. Generally such hadiths cannot themselves serve as proof, but they can be presented in support of an accepted hadith.
❀ Collecting and using the hadiths of the fourth class to strengthen the hadiths of the first two classes is merely an artifice of later scholars. People of innovation provide evidence for their respective schools from this type of hadith, but in the view of the muhaddithun, using hadiths of this class as evidence is not valid.
(Summarised from Hujjat Allah al-Balighah)
◈ The Meaning of Masadir and Maraji’:
◈ Masadir:
Books in which authors have narrated hadiths with their own chains. The classification mentioned above among the classes generally refers to masadir.
◈ Maraji’:
Books in which hadiths have been selected and collected from various masadir. They are of three types:
➊ Maraji’ in which only sahih hadiths have been collected, such as:
“al-Lu’lu’ wa al-Marjan fima Ittafaqa ‘alayhi al-Shaykhan” and “عُمدَةُ الأحكام“, etc.
➋ Maraji’ in which hadiths have generally been selected from authentic masadir, but which also contain da’if hadiths, such as “مِشُكَاةُ الْمَصَابِيح، ريَاضُ الصَّالِحِينَ، الترغيب والترهيب بُلُوعُ الْمَرَامِ“, etc.
➌ Maraji’ in which many hadiths from authentic and non-authentic masadir have been taken and collected without any criterion or verification, such as:
“كنز العمال“, etc.
Note:
It is not permissible to use as evidence any hadith mentioned in the second and third types of maraji’ without verification.
❀ Ways of resolving the apparent conflict between two accepted hadiths:
➊ First, a common meaning will be taken that makes it possible to act upon each hadith, and in this regard the meaning that is stated in a third hadith or that the fuqaha-muhaddithun have expounded will be preferred.
➋ If that is not possible, then investigation will be made as to whether either of them has been abrogated. In that case, the abrogating (nasikh) will be acted upon and the abrogated (mansukh) left aside.
➌ If there is no proof of abrogation, then one hadith will be preferred, without regard to any school of thought, solely on the basis of inherent preference (technical merits), and the other hadith will be left aside. For example:
If a hadith has attained a higher degree of authenticity, or is narrated in a book of a higher class, then the hadith of a lower degree or class will be left aside. And so on.
Note:
If there is a conflict between accepted and rejected hadiths, then the rejected hadith will be set aside and only the accepted hadith will be acted upon.
