Awjuh Naqd al-Matn 'Inda al-Muhaddithīn

Abstract

This research aims to study the scholars of hadith’s approaches of critiquing the text (matan) by tracing and examining their opinions and using the standards they adopted on methodologies of critiquing the text (matan) and citing some examples to it. I have arrived that the scholars of hadith set up guiding principles and establish bases by which the authenticity or otherwise of the chain of transmission (sanad) is known. They are explicitly mentioned in their books. And then the scholars of hadith do not mentioned detailed bases and standards for critiquing the text (matan) in their books, in spite of their deep knowledge and understanding to it. The scholars delay in focusing writing on the styles of critiquing text (matan) compared to their early writings on critiquing chain of transmission (sanad) even though it was discussed in some of their early writings. One of the early writings on text critiquing was the book: “Manar Al-Muneef fis-Sahih wa Ad-Dha‘eef” by Ibn al-Qayyim Al-Jauziyyah. This resulted in countering orientalists’ claims and their followers of weaker belief from Muslims communities in their claims that: the scholars of hadith exerted much of their efforts only on critiquing the chain of transmission (sanad) only and less focused on the text (matan) side. This without a doubt is baseless claim and invalid aiming an attack on text (matan) of hadith after they become hopeless in distorting the chain transmission (sanad), through which they wanted to extend their wishful attack on the second source of the revelation.