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TUTORIAL 4

1. As the Sunnah is a primary source of law, the jurist has recourse to it for the
derivation of the hukm.

Discuss the manner in which the Sunnah lays down the hukm.

SUGGESTED ANSWER:

Introduction,

Content: The manner in which Sunnah lays down the hukm :

1. Sunnah re emphasis and reiterated the injunctions of Quran. The Sunnah

sometimes reconfirmed/revalidated the general principle of which hv been
mentioned by the AQ.

Eg : Hadith : “It is unlawful to possess the property of a Muslim without his

express consent”

This hadith emphasis the Quran injunction which says “…do not eat up
property among yourselves unjustly except it be a trade amongst you, by mutual
consent…” (Nisa: 29)

2. Sunnah explains and elaborates the concise injunctions of the Quran. Here,
the sunnah is a commentary of the AQ.

Eg. of this factor can be observed in the injunctions related to the quantity and
amount of zakat (almsgiving) which the Quran is silence about it. “… and
perform your solat and give your zakat…” (Baqarah : 110).

The explanation of it can be seen in a hadith : “…No zakat is imposed on less

than 3 kg. (approximately) of dates…”.

Other explanation of Sunnah on the quranic verses regarding the detail manner
of prayers.

Eg : “…cut off the hand of the thief, male of female…” (Maidah : 38). The verse
does not qualify the amount of stolen property, which is punishable with the
mentioned punishment, however the sunnah clarified the matter i.e. Hadith :”…
the hand of a thief should be cut off for stealing a quarter of dinar..”

3. The sunnah qualified the unqualified verses of Quran and specify the general
injunctions of Quran. This role of the sunnah is obvious in relation to many
unqualified and general verses of Quran. The rulings are often found in the
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AQ in general, undetermined or unelaborated form. The Sunnah restricts,

qualifies or elaborates these rulings.

Example : AL Quran, Chapter 5:3: “…” forbidden to you (for food) are : the
dead animals…”.

This general verse which implicate that all kind of dead animals are forbidden is
specified by the hadith which says about the dead animals :”..its water is pure
and its dead animal is halal (permissible to be eaten)…”.

Eg : restriction of a general meaning is to be found in inheritance law AQ Chap.

4: 11 :”…for the male 2 shares of the female.” The sunnah explains further that
the murderer will not inherit.

4. The sunnah may enact a ruling on which the Quran is silent about it
(Founding Sunnah), in which case the ruling in question originates in the
Sunnah itself. Some jurists are of the opinion that a closer examination
reveals that these rules are an elaboration of the AQ in the sense of
classifying a rule under a principle.

Examples: the prohibition regarding simultaneous marriage to the maternal and

paternal aunt of one's wife (often referred to as 'unlawful conjunction'), the
grandmother's entitlement to a 1/6 share in inheritance, the punishment of
rajm/rejam, that is, death by stoning for adultery when committed by a married
Muslim - all originate in the Sunnah as the Qur'an itself is silent on these
matters.

Conclusion.

2. “Some experts have concluded that not all hadiths are acceptable whereby some of
them have questionable authenticity”

In the light of the above statement, describe the categories that have been devised as a
measure in determining the authenticity of hadith reports.

SUGGESTED ANSWER:

1. Chain of Transmission : Muttasil : Mutawatir, Mashyur, Ahad

MUTAWATIR :

A hadith is said to be mutawatir if it was reported by a significant, though unspecified,

number of narrators at each level in the chain of narration, thus reaching the succeeding
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generation through multiple chains of narration leading back to its source. This provides
confirmation that the hadith is authentically attributed to its source at a level above
reasonable doubt. This is due to its being beyond historical possibility that narrators could
have conspired to forge a narration.

Example :

Rasulullah s.a.w. said:"Whoever intentionally attributes a lie against me, should prepare
his seat in the Fire.“

* This is a mutawatir hadith because it has a minimum of seventy four narrators. In other
words, seventy four companions of Muhammad have reported this hadith at different
occasions, all with the same words.

MASYHUR (FAMOUS)

- A hadith, which is originally reported by one, two or more companions frm the Prophet
or from another companion but has later become well-known & transmitted by an
indefinite number of ppl.

e.g.: "A murderer does not inherit"

HADITH AHAD

Language : ‘singular’ narration

Definition : a hadith narrated by only one narrator. In hadith terminology, it refers to a

hadith not fulfilling all of the conditions necessary to be deemed mutawatir.

Ghair Muttasil : Munqati’/Mursal/Muallaq

Hadith Mu’allaq

- Hadith which one or more links are omitted from the beginning of isnad (chain of
transmission) at the lower end or any other part thereof.

Hadith Mu’dal

- Hadith which the chain of isnad consists of two broken link, one after the other.

Hadith Mursal
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- Hadith with broken link in its isnad at the level of the Companion, thus it links tabiin
directly to the Prophet.

Hadith Munqati’

- Hadith with broken link in the isnad somewhere below the level of the Companion or
that it consists of a link that is ambiguous and vague.

2. Reliability of narrators : Sahih, Hasan, Dhaif

HADITH SAHIH

Literally : authentic, sound

Definition : Hadith which narrated by a trustworthy(‘adl), completely competent

person(dhabit), either in his ability to memorize or to preserve what he wrote, with a
connected chain of narration(isnad) all the way back to the Prophet that contains neither
a serious concealed flaw nor irregularity(‘illal).

Example:

Narrated 'Umar bin Al-Khattab: I heard Allah's Apostle saying, "The reward of deeds
depends upon the intentions and every person will get the reward according to what he
has intended. So whoever emigrated for worldly benefits or for a woman to marry, his
emigration was for what he emigrated for.“ (Sahih Bukhari)

HADITH HASAN

Literally : good, fair

Definition : The same definition a ṣaḥīḥ hadith except that the competence of one of its
narrators is less than complete or not attained the highest degree of reliability and
prominence.

Example :

“Slaughtering an (pregnant) animal at its belly is also her children slaughter”(Narrated by

Imam Darimi)

*in the sanad, one of the narrator, Ubaidillah Bin Abu Ziyad own minor deficiency.

HADITH DHAIF

Literally : weak,
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Definition : A hadith whose narrators do not possess the qualifications required in sahih or
hasan. It is called weak owing to a weakness that exists in its chain or narrators or in its
textual contents. Its narrators is known to had a bad memory or that his integrity & piety
has been subjected to serious doubt.

Example :

“Anyone who said to the poor, rejoice! And should surely (surely) of heaven for him."
(Narrated by Ibn 'Adi) *In the history of this hadith, there is one of the narrators named
'Abdul Malik bin Harun is accused of lying. Thus,this hadith is regarded as da'if.

Definition of Hadith

 Hadith means a narrative, communication or news consisting of the factual account of an

event. 
 Is a narration of the sayings of the Prophet.
 Hadith is carrier of Sunnah
 It is part of Sunnah which is wider in meaning compared to Hadith.

Classification of Hadith

Transmission: Continous Hadith / Discontinued Hadith

 Transmission (chain of transmitters) : 

o Continuous (muttasil) : Mutawatir, Masyhur, Ahad
 A continuous hadith is one which has a complete chain of transmission from
the last narrator all the way back to the Prophet.
 Type of Hadith:
1. Hadith Mutawatir
o Literally means ‘continuously recurrent’.
o A hadith, reported by an indefinite number of people in such a way that
precludes the possibility of their agreement to perpetuate a lie. Such possibility
is inconceivable owing to their large number, diversity of residence &
reliability. 
o The authority of a Mutawatir Hadith is equivalent to that of the Qur'an. 
o Eg. Hadith which reads: “ Whoever lies about me deliberately must prepare
himself for a place in Hell-fire.”
o A report is classified as Mutawatir only when it fulfills the following conditions:
1. Number of reporters in every period must be large enough to preclude their
collusion in propagating falsehood.
Some ulama attempted to specify a minimum number by drawing analogies: the requirement of 4 is
based on the number of witnesses which constitute legal proof; 20 is analogous to Surah al-Anfal
(8:65) ‘If there are twenty steadfast men among you, they will overcome two hundreds…’ Also, 70 is
analogous to Surah al Araf (7:155) ‘Moses chose seventy men among his people for an appointment
with Us’
1. The report must be based on sense perception. 
2. Attainment of certainty is essential.
3. The reporters are not biased in their cause & are not associated with one
another through a political movement.

ii. Hadith Mashyur: 

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 A hadith, which is originally reported by one, two or more

companions from the Prophet or from another companion but has later
become well-known & transmitted by an indefinite number of people.
  It is necessary that the diffusion of the report should have taken
place during the first or the second generation following the demise of the
Prophet, not later. 
  The difference between the Mutawatir and Mashhur lies mainly in
the fact that every link in the chain of transmitters of the Mutawatir consists of
a plurality of reporters, whereas the first link in the case of Mashhur consists
of one or two Companions only. 
 Exp: Hadith 'The killer shall not inherit'; 'No woman shall be married
simultaneously with her paternal or maternal aunt . . .'
iii. Hadith Ahad: 
 A hadith which is reported by a single person or by odd individuals
from the Prophet. 
 It is a Hadith which does not impart positive knowledge on its own
unless it is supported by extraneous or circumstantial evidence.
 Ahad may only form the basis of obligation if it fulfills the following
requirements:
1. That the transmitter is a competent person, which means that reports
communicated by a child or a lunatic of whatever age are unacceptable. 
2. The transmitter of Ahad must be a Muslim, which means that a report by a
non-Muslim is unacceptable. 
3.  The transmitter must be an upright person ('adl) at the time of reporting the
Hadith. The minimum requirement of this condition is that the person has not
committed a major sin and does not persist in committing minor ones; nor is
he known for persistence in degrading profanities 
4. The narrator of Ahad must possess a retentive memory so that his report
may be trusted. If he is known for committing frequent errors and
inconsistencies, his report is unacceptable. 
5. That the narrator is not implicated in any form of distortion (tadlis) either in
the textual contents (matn) of a Hadith or in its chain of transmitters (isnad). 
6. The transmitter of Ahad must, in addition, have met with and heard the
Hadith directly from his immediate source. 

o Discontinued (ghayr muttasil) : Mursal/Munqati’

 A discontinued hadith is a hadith whose chain of transmitters is broken &
incomplete.
 Type of hadith: Hadith Mursal, Muallaq, Mu’dal, Munqati’
 Hadith Mursal
 A hadith whose chain of transmitters does not extend all the way
back to the Prophet. It is a hadith which the successor has directly attributed to
the Prophet without mentioning the last link, namely the companion who might
have narrated it from the Prophet.
 Since the identity of the missing link is not known, it is possible that
he might have been an upright person, or not. 
 Because of these and other similar doubts in its transmission, in
principle, the ulema of Hadith do not accept the Mursal.
 Mursal may be accepted provided that:
 supported by another and more reliable Hadith with a
continuous chain of transmitters.
  supported by another Mursal, and the latter is accepted and
relied upon by the ulema.
  in harmony with the precedent of the Companions
 Mursal has been approved by the ulema.
  the transmitter of Mursal has a reputation not to have
reported weak and doubtful Hadith.
o Hadith Mu’dal
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  two consecutive links are missing in the chain of its

narrators. 
 Unacceptable.
o Hadith Munqati’
 chain of narrators has a single missing link somewhere in the
middle.
 Unacceptable.

Third Categories: Reliability of narrators : Sahih, Hasan, Dhaif 

 the overall acceptability of a Hadith is determined on the weakest element in its proof. Thus
the presence of a single weak narrator in the chain of isnad would result in weakening the Hadith
altogether.
 Hadith Sahih (AUTHENTIC): 
o A hadith with a continuous narration all  the way back to the Prophet consisting of
upright persons who also possess retentive memory & their narration is free of both obvious
& subtle defects.
o Narrated by the Companions, or those who ranked highest in terms of reliability next
to the Companions, or those who are trustworthy.
 Hadis Hasan
o A hadith that falls between sahih & dhaif & although the narrators are known for
truthfulness, they have not attained the highest degree of reliability & prominence.
o Include narrators that are truthful and have not committed serious error, or truthful but
committing errors, or acceptable person where there is no proof that his report is unreliable. 
 Hadis Daif (WEAK) 
o A hadith whose narrators do not possess the qualifications required in sahih or
hasan. 
o It is called weak owing to a weakness that exists in its chain of narrators or in its
textual content. 
o Its narrators is known to have a bad memory or that his integrity & piety has been
subjected to serious doubt.
o A weak or Daif Hadith does not constitute a shar'i proof (hujjah) and is generally
rejected.