SiblingsOfIlm Guest ContributionMany Dār al-ʿUlūm seminaries will soon be commencing their study year (many have already begun after Ramaḍān), and many students worldwide will be starting their final year: the Dawrat al-Ḥadīth. This is the year that every student looks forward to; it is the golden seal that adorns the student’s previous studies. This is the one year that the student dedicates to the study of the “Six Books” of Ḥadīth (along with one or two others), spending a year in the presence of the Messenger (ṣallā Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam).
I have long been meaning to write a series of posts that would serve as a guide for the confused student (and most are, unfortunately) on how to optimally benefit from these few months that they spend with the Prophet (ṣallā Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam). Despite the timing being quite late for most students, I am hopeful that Allāh taʿālā makes this a means of benefit nonetheless.
I will begin with the most important topic: the goal with which a student should enter the year. This is the point that usually judges the success or failure of the student in their benefiting from their Dawrah experience, or from studying anything in general.
Without a goal that is clear, delineated, practical, and sensible, the endeavour will not be efficient or fruitful. Clear goals, through their corollaries and underpinnings, allow us to work backwards to craft a roadmap. The goal is a destination; make sure your plan gets you there.
Here are some goals that a student should keep in mind:
1. Gaining a deep familiarity with the Sunnah of the Prophet (ṣallā Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam).
Familiarity is a practical goal. Many have a foggy objective like “intimately understanding the Sunnah”; this is both vague and impractical.
Familiarity is to have a strong recollection of the various Aḥādīth of the Prophet (ṣallā Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) on the various topics. This includes having an idea of the reports themselves, as well as where they would be located in the Six Books. This goal would be reason enough to do the Dawrat al-Ḥadīth, but most students miss out on this because they are busy with impractical projects.
This istiḥdhār will help the student for the rest of their life, both in their life as a Muslim and in their capacity as a student of the Islamic sciences; it gives one an idea of where to begin your search. Indexes and programs do not suffice, as many Aḥādīth may be related to your topic outside of the relevant chapters, and maybe your topic has no chapter in the first place! If you are looking for “The Messenger’s (ṣallā Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) empathy”, Shāmela and other tools may not be your best bet.
2. Gaining familiarity with how the world of isnād works.
This is not the same as mastering the sciences surrounding the isnād. Familiarity with the world of isnād is to understand in practical terms how chains of narrations work. Chains of narration are just links of humans. These are real people. The Dawrah should teach you how these people work. al-Bukhārī needs Shuʿbah’s Aḥādīth; from whom does he get them? ʿĀdam b. Abī Iyās? Muḥammad b. Bashshār from Ghundar? How about the students of al-Zuhrī? Who does al-Bukhārī usually use to get him to Shuʿayb from al-Zuhrī? What about ʿUqayl? Mālik? Are Mālik’s narrations from his al-Muwaṭṭaʾ? What about Ḥumaydī from Sufyān? Can you find any of those narrations in Ḥumaydī’s (now printed) Muṣnad?
When you understand how these networks function, and how the blessed words and actions of the Prophet (ṣallā Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) travelled through these circuits, the study of isnād becomes enjoyable. It ceases to be a set of judgements on narrators and narrations; it becomes a new world to explore.
This is the background needed for deeper studies in ʿilāl (how information sometimes gets altered as it travels through the circuit) and jarḥ and taʿdīl (how often a given person makes these errors, and how that reflects on their general reliability), but the first step to understand all of this is familiarity. These people are real; get to know them.
3. Understand how the Sunnah is understood.
You will not understand all of what you study, as mentioned above. You may not even deeply understand most of it; this is, after all, revelation from Allāh taʿālā that has many layers to it. What you should come away with, however, is a good understanding of how that understanding is acquired. How is a Ḥadīth understood? Which sciences are applied in that process? How do various commentaries and authors differ in their treatment of the subject matter? This process should help you develop your internal software that allows you to explore the Sunnah and its meanings. It will also inevitably expose your weaknesses in the Arabic sciences, usūl studies, or anything else that is needed.
4. Understand how Ḥadīth criticism works.
The Six Books have just under 9,000 narrators and around 28,000 narrations (according to some counts). Studying all of those narrations and isnāds is a lifetime’s work. However, this year should expose you to how the Ḥadīth scholars appraised the data in front of them. What factors did they use to assess whether or not a narrator made a mistake? How did they conclude that a narrator was reliable or unreliable? When al-Nasāʾī is commenting on the multiple transmissions of a report, to what is he drawing your attention? What about al-Tirmidhī’s comments? Does Muslim’s arrangement of reports show you anything?
A student who works hard to understand this methodology will have a foundation in the science of Ḥadīth that would rival, in some elements, many (perhaps most) graduates of programs dedicated to Ḥadīth studies. There is no substitute for application and practical engagement, and the Dawrah year is a treasure trove in that regard.
These are four goals that are practical and clear. Steps to achieve these things will, bi-idhni Allāh, be discussed further.
Before I continue with some practical guidances, it would be beneficial to give some examples of things that students attempt that don’t represent a very clear or practical goal for a ten‑month time frame.
The most common mistake that I have seen in some fervent students is to attempt to complete the whole of Fatḥ al‑Bārī:
If you finish the book, you probably won’t have digested most of it. If you finish it by skimming through it, perhaps taking notes on where you can locate discussions, then it may have been useful for the long term, but all of that time was better spent on things that would have made your Dawrah experience fruitful. Skimming through the Fatḥ can be done at any time in your life after this year. On the other hand, doing what was highlighted in the post above is not as easy after the chance misses you.
Let’s imagine that you finish the book and understand it well; the Fatḥ, despite its benefits, has many gaps (naturally). Anyone who has compared between Ṣaḥīḥ al‑Bukhārī’s commentaries will know that not all important discussions surrounding the aḥādīth are given their due in the Fatḥ. Some topics are not addressed. Sometimes, important elements of a Ḥadīth are not commented on at the first instance of its mention in the Ṣaḥīḥ, with the promise that al‑Ḥāfiẓ will discuss those angles in the appropriate chapter when the Ḥadīth comes again. That promise, though often fulfilled, is sometimes forgotten. These are not criticisms of the book as much as they are realities that a student must be aware of. Bearing this in mind, it would have been better to use a shorter and more accessible sharḥ (like this one) and instead utilise the remaining time on more fruitful, goal‑oriented projects.
Let’s be honest, though: you will not finish the book. You’ll read a few volumes in the first four months (if you are lucky) and then classes will catch up to you. You won’t finish the book and you will also miss out on a world of benefit unique to the Dawrah year, and Shayṭān will be happy that he deprived you. Harsh? Maybe. Realistic? Definitely.
زادك الله حرصا ولا تعد
Another example of misplaced priorities is the obsession with reading some commentaries in full without having a clear goal behind the reading. For example, insisting on Fayd al‑Bārī because it has Imām Kashmīrī’s lecture notes. Fayd is, in many ways, irreplaceable, but not as a “darsī” commentary. You, a Dawrah student, are trying to understand Ḥadīth; Kashmīrī’s (very unique) takes on the taʿrīf of īmān, the details of ʿĀlam al‑Mithāl, and answering Mullā Ḥasan’s objection on the definition of ʿilm in his commentary on Bihārī’s Sullam al‑ʿUlūm is not what you need right now.
Moreover, as is characteristic of many Dawrah settings (possibly a trend started by the Imām himself), the commentary is long and detailed in the beginning (with a fair share of tangents) and as the book progresses, the book begins to taper off. The final chapters like Tawḥīd, Akhbār al‑Aḥād, Aḥkām, and others sometimes go pages without commentary, or with just a few short two‑line comments for the whole bāb.
In any case, Kashmīrī’s Ḥadīth‑related commentary and the various amālī works we have from him deserve another post (soon, in shāʾ Allāh).
The point is, as emphasized before: goals. Have an objective and use that target to filter out what isn’t productive.
Anyway, I will stop here; I think the average Dawrah or Mishkaat student understands from these examples what I am trying to get across.
Since we have discussed the goals, the coming posts will contain some ideas on how to go about achieving the above goals. Bear in mind that they are suggestions, and one may find success in other methods. At the end of the day, most graduates have only done the Dawrah year once, so advice will always contain limitations. Even teachers of the Dawrah will not always find it easy to give advice while putting themselves in the shoes of the Dawrah student they once were. See what works for you, but make sure you are trying your best to figure out your game plan early.
For the first goal (gaining familiarity with the Sunnah):
1. Take short notes on the Ḥadīth in the book. Ideally, your book should only have jot notes for quick explanations of the Ḥadīth’s meaning; that can be gharīb words, difficult sentences, or an apparent problem in the Ḥadīth that makes it difficult to understand. Longer notes can be in a notebook or a separate binder, but the notes in the book should be enough for you to read the Ḥadīth and understand what it means. Different views on the implication, evidences, possible objections, and apparent problems in the text are all a level further than the primary meaning of the Ḥadīth.
The problem with long notes in the Ḥadīth book is that they end up distracting many students from the actual text, and most of their study/review becomes focused on the notes instead of the Ḥadīth itself.
2. Be deliberate in the short notes that you write in the book. Perhaps you have the meaning of the Ḥadīth present in your mind right now, but in three years, much of that istiḥdhār will vanish; to help your future self, write a short note beside each Ḥadīth if you can.
3. Prepare ahead of class, either on the weekend or daily, with a quick scan of the coming chapters. Do not read any commentary or research this time (you won’t cover much content if you do); this is just to familiarise yourself with the content, and to sift what you understand from what you do not. This will prepare you for class and make it easier to retain information. It will also allow you to have a clearer view of the aḥādīth themselves before they get lost in the whirlwind of commentary that often obfuscates them.
4. When referring to commentaries for this goal, you need to be clear on which ones serve that goal of basic familiarity. Besides the ḥawāshī on each book, use simple and efficient commentaries. All you need, for this goal, is to understand the Ḥadīth; if the ḥashiyah and/or the dars did that for you, then move on.
5. Try to review the narrations quickly daily or weekly. Dawrah students usually do not review the aḥādīth that they study because they become overwhelmed with the notes, which become a barrier between them and review of the aḥādīth themselves. Perhaps sit down daily for thirty minutes to read through all of the narrations that you did that day. Only look at your notes or the commentary if you did not understand the general meaning of the Ḥadīth when reviewing.
6. For detailed sharḥ, focus on one book, or two (at most), as your base for the year. As a subjective personal take, I would proffer that the best book for this goal is Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, followed by Abū Dāwūd’s Sunan. Muslim will give you the lion’s share of foundational authentic narrations in the Sunnah, and Abū Dāwūd will cover most of the aḥādīth of aḥkām. The best commentary to read in full for the meanings of the aḥādīth (not the asānīd) is (another personal take) al‑Mufhim of Abū al‑ʿAbbās al‑Qurṭubī, a true masterpiece. It is clearly explained and profoundly beneficial. One hour a day is enough to finish the book in a year.
Good short commentaries on Abū Dāwūd are Mawlānā Fakhr al‑Ḥasan al‑Gangohī’s ḥashiyah (on the margins of most prints now) and Abū al‑Ḥasan al‑Sindhī’s Fatḥ al‑Wadūd.
If you decide to use al‑Tirmidhī, or need a quick sharḥ to refer to, Muftī Muḥammad Farīd al‑Ḥaqqānī’s Minhāj al‑Sunan (in two volumes) is quite useful, though what is published only covers the first half of the book.
The second goal was to gain familiarity with the world of asānīd. Before mentioning any suggestions, I felt it prudent to forward a perspective that would help position one’s mindset to optimally benefit:
As mentioned before, asānīd are just networks of people. You, as you see these names, should be asking the same questions that you ask in real life.
For example, when discussing anything with friends or family, the first time that you hear an unfamiliar name being quoted or discussed, you ask yourself who that person is. If the person is a focal point of the discussion, you are even more intrigued, as they are now a central component of the conversation, and thus, knowing who they are is integral to your apprehension of the discussion. You may ignore this question in your mind the first or second time, but eventually you will feel the need to inquire about this person and who they are. Are they a family member, a friend of your father, or another sort of acquaintance?
This is exactly how you should look at asānīd. You will see important names. The way they are mentioned, the frequency with which you see them, and (when you become familiar) the personalities narrating from them (among other factors) should make you interested in learning about who they are and what role they play in the transmission of these narrations. Do not be short-sighted, looking only for a short judgement like thiqqah or ṣadūq. That is a judgement, wa’l-ḥukmu ʿalā al-shayʾi farʿun ʿan taṣawwurihi; familiarity is building taṣawwur.
Here are a few ideas on how to go about this; some are to do with pre-Dawrah preparation and others address study methodology during the year:
1. Before the year, go through Tuḥfat al-Ashrāf of al-Mizzī to make your own list of the Ṣaḥābah that are the most prolific narrators of ḥadīth. The fahāris at the end of each volume have the number of narrations in the Six Books from each companion listed, followed by how many of those narrations are from each of their students, and how many of those are from the students of a given student, and so on.
Your parameters for who is “prolific” (mukthir) may be a bit relative; perhaps keep 1000 narrations as a minimum for the Ṣaḥābah, and then use your discretion after that.
Keep this list with you, and make sure it is organized well, according to students. This exercise itself will have you memorize a number of asānīd, especially if you write it out by hand. Check their biographies in Tahdhīb al-Kamāl and Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ (if you are pressed, then at least check al-Kāshif of al-Dhahabī).
Credit where credit is due: this is not at all my idea. It was the advice of my teacher before the year started, may Allah preserve and reward him.
2. For asānīd, use a commentary that makes it easy for you. The best one for this particular goal is probably al-Talqīḥ of Sibt ibn al-ʿAjamī. It is also the best general commentary on Bukhārī a student can use (another relative personal opinion). For the goal of working the asānīd, you can just read his comments on the chains of narration. He provides background on the narrators as they come, and despite doing this the first time that they are mentioned, he does not ignore them after that. Throughout the book, he makes sure to give some information so the student does not remain in the dark. He will tell you who Abū Fulān is and what his real name is even after he has been mentioned twenty times (adding kamā dhakarnā mirāran, to make you feel useless for not remembering).
3. Keep a one-volume copy of Taqrīb al-Tahdhīb (ideally Shaykh Muḥammad ʿAwwāmah’s edition) with you. Treat it like you did your Hans Wehr dictionary as a beginner Arabic student; use it to check unfamiliar names, and write down the important details, and follow it up with more detailed research in your free time if you can manage that.
A copy of al-Kāshif of al-Dhahabī alongside the Taqrīb would be ideal, but between the five-volume edition that we have and the older edition published in two thick volumes (both editions by Shaykh Muḥammad ʿAwwāmah), it really isn’t convenient. The benefit of this over the Taqrīb is:
– Every entry has the 1–2 primary students and teachers of each narrator mentioned.
– Al-Dhahabī often mentions a comment from an early master critic of the ḥadīth tradition, whereas Ibn Ḥajar mentions his own conclusion.
However, an excellent alternative to al-Kāshif is al-Khazrajī’s Khulāṣat Tadhhīb Tahdhīb al-Kamāl, which has a one-volume edition (published by Shaykh Abū Ghuddah with his introduction), though some (weak and pampered) students may not like the writing.
4. Write, write, write, and then write more. Keep loose paper with you and make charts of asānīd, notes on narrators, important points, etc. Write the loose notes into a dedicated notebook when you can.
5. As mentioned in the first post, realize that these are all people like myself and you; ask questions and get to know them. Who does Mālik usually narrate from? How often does he narrate from others? Which narrators of his Muwaṭṭaʾ do the various authors of the Six Books rely on primarily? Which students of al-Zuhrī feature most prominently? Do you see differences in the personalities with whom you cross paths in the two ṣaḥīḥ collections compared to the sunan? Keep asking these questions and things will continue to open themselves up.
You may review some contemporary works that try to do this for you. This is NOT a replacement for doing it yourself, though; reading someone else’s project will not give you the clear picture that your own work will, and some of the works I will mention have some mistakes. These works are to help you review your work and refine it.
Here are some works (all shared below):
– al-Mashhūr min Asānīd al-Ḥadīth
– Ṭabaqāt al-Mukthirīn (both by ʿĀdil al-Zuraqī)
– Maʿrifat al-Ruwāt al-Mukthirīn by Fahd al-ʿAmmār (with a short introduction by Shaykh ʿAbd Allāh al-Saʿd)
– Madāris al-Ruwāh wa Mashāhīr Asātidhatihā maʿa Ṭalāmidhatihim wa Ṭabaqātihim by al-ʿAllāmah Niʿmat Allāh al-Aʿẓamī
– The second half of Sharḥ ʿIlal al-Tirmidhī by Ibn Rajab has a useful section on major mukthirun and their students. Shaykh Taha Karan (may Allah have mercy on him) said that these few pages of Ibn Rajab are very important to understand the world of isnād.
As for the third goal, which is to learn how the Sunnah is understood:
This goal is a bit more difficult to approach because it is a qualitative goal. The idea is to get an idea of how the various ancillary sciences (ʿulūm ʿāliyyah) are used in understanding the meaning of a ḥadīth.
The lion’s share of this process is dependent on one science: Uṣūl al-Fiqh. The faster you understand this, the more efficient your study will be. Fancy concepts like qawāʿid al-taʿāruḍ bayn al-aḥādīth or uṣūl sharḥ al-Ḥadīth are just a repackaging of uṣūlī mechanisms with a different name. The same can be said about uṣūl al-tafsīr, for that matter. Let nobody tell you otherwise; the judge, jury, and executioner of textual analysis is uṣūl.
Alongside uṣūl, the sciences of the Arabic language are of paramount importance. Most people understand the importance of naḥw and ṣarf, but an area that very few students ever emphasize is literature; Jāhilī poetry serves as a very useful aid in understanding the aḥādīth, both in a lexical/philological sense, but also in terms of understanding the context of the Messenger (صلى الله عليه وسلّم).
If you are reading this post a year or two before your Dawrah year, then you have some time to work on these sciences (which will, in shāʾ Allāh, be covered in another post). However, someone who is beginning their Dawrah, or who has already commenced, may not be given this chance. For them, here are some useful practices:
1. Go through a short uṣūl work to familiarize (or re-familiarize) yourself with the main masāʾil of uṣūl. An ideal work for this purpose is Taqrīb al-Wuṣūl by Ibn Juzayy (d. 741). The goal is to understand and retain the main issues of the subject. The most important chapters will be those related to the texts themselves: dalālāt al-alfāẓ, taʿāruḍ (crucial), masālik al-ʿillah (especially mastering takhrīj/tanqīḥ/taḥqīq al-manāṭ), etc. This is not to study uṣūl in depth; just read, understand, and memorize. Make it a priority to do this before the main lessons start.
2. Go through the table of contents of a reference work in uṣūl (a teacher’s idea, Allāh preserve him). The ideal work is al-Zarkashī’s al-Baḥr al-Muḥīṭ. This will not take longer than a few hours. The goal behind this is to familiarize yourself with the various discussions across the breadth of the uṣūl tradition. Many students (most, in fact) research things through ḥadīth commentaries, attempting to analyze what they can, not realizing that some pivotal underpinnings of the discussion are, in fact, uṣūlī discussions that have been extensively detailed by the scholars of uṣūl. When you go through the fahāris, you will at least have an idea of these issues for you to then research them when encountering applicable cases in the ḥadīth books. I will try to share some examples after the remaining posts, in shāʾ Allāh.
3. Use works that apply uṣūl well. The undefeated champion of this arena is Ibn Daqīq al-ʿĪd (d. 702). His two works, Iḥkām al-Aḥkām (a collection of his amālī on ʿUmdat al-Aḥkām), and Sharḥ al-Ilmām, should both be consulted. Iḥkām al-Aḥkām can be consulted for each chapter that you are studying; though somewhat dense, it is relatively short (my copy is in one volume) and it is a major source of all commentaries after. If you can read it with the relevant chapters in Abū Dāwūd and/or Muslim (or whichever book you decide to make your base), it will be of great help.
Sharḥ al-Ilmām, on the other hand, can be read separately. It is published in five volumes, and it only covers 25 aḥādīth of the text that it is commenting on, Ibn Daqīq al-ʿĪd’s very own al-Ilmām. The benefit of the work is not to read it alongside the aḥādīth that you are studying; its benefit is in reading it independently (in a way that doesn’t disrupt your schedule) to understand how to deconstruct a ḥadīth, its underlying meanings, the uṣūl that apply, how they apply to analogous narrations, and more. Whenever you read it, make sure you have a pen and paper with you to take notes (as you should anyway).
Another work that is useful is Ṭarḥ al-Tathrīb of Zayn al-Dīn al-ʿIrāqī (d. 806) and his son Abū Zurʿah (d. 826). It is not as meticulous as Ibn Daqīq al-ʿĪd’s works (a difficult benchmark for anyone), but it makes up for that with a more accessible layout and extremely clear presentation. If these three works (mainly Iḥkām al-Aḥkām and Ṭarḥ al-Tathrīb) are your references for studying aḥādīth of aḥkām, then you will gain, biʾidhniLlāh, a solid grounding in understanding the different elements behind ḥadīth commentary and analysis.
4. Look for questions as you read the aḥādīth. If a ṣīghah seems curious, research the ṣarf behind it. If a certain grammatical phenomenon seems hard to put a finger on, research it. Check some dictionaries to research words that seem to have significance. If a ḥadīth or opinion seems to go against an aṣl that you learned, research it.
Useful works that are accessible (either a commentary on one of the Six Books or follow a similar order of chapters) for all things luġah-related include:
– al-Tanqīḥ by al-Zarkashī (d. 793)
– Maṣābīḥ al-Jāmiʿ (heavily reliant on al-Tanqīḥ) by al-Damāminī (d. 827)
– al-Naẓīr al-Ṣaḥīḥ (review here) of Sibt ibn al-ʿAjāmī (d. 884)
– al-Iqtiḍāb fī Gharīb al-Muwaṭṭaʾ wa Iʿrābih ʿalā al-Abwāb by al-Yafrunī al-Tilimsānī (d. 625)
– al-ʿUddah fī Iʿrāb al-ʿUmdah by Badr al-Dīn ibn Farḥūn (d. 769)
5. Have a few narrations or case studies, even if only two or three, that you exhaustively research. Collect all of the aḥādīth of the chapter, see their asānīd, understand the taʿāruḍ, and then try to identify which uṣūlī (or other) elements are at play. Treat it like algebra: you have a set of opinions on the issue at hand; how would you get to those opinions from the data that you have? Does one school make takhṣīṣ to get to their opinion? Does the other opt for a tarjīḥ instead? If they are both using the same text, how does the tanqīḥ al-manāṭ vary for either side?
Make sure that this independent analysis is done before checking the commentaries and reference works, so that those works can act as references that realign or correct certain misunderstandings you have and confirm other deductions that you made. This will help you develop your understanding more than if you were to rely on the commentaries first.
6. When reading commentaries, ideally, read them in chronological order. This will allow you to see who influences whom, which commentators take from which, and which commentators go out of their way to be transparent on their sources, as opposed to mentioning the material without mentioning a reference.
7. Use this year to realize your mistakes. As much as you learn while researching, let all of these exercises expose you to what you need to work on when the year is done. Far too many students get distracted by the enjoyment of discovery in the Dawrah year, which gives them a sense of overconfidence. This year’s research is for you to develop your software, not to develop concrete opinions. For that, you will need to notice your weaknesses and begin a very long journey after the year is over.
8. Do not lose your progress. Take good notes on all that you research. Those few chapters that you researched? Collect the notes and continue to work on them throughout your life. This is just an appetizer for further study.
For the fourth goal, to understand how ḥadīth criticism happens, here are some ideas (better late than never):
1. Ḥadīth criticism is ʿilal studies. ʿIlal is the heart of ḥadīth studies, and far too many students forgo its study under the false premise that it can only be understood at an advanced stage. One who does not understand ʿilal does not understand ḥadīth; it is that simple. Alternatively phrased: one only understands the science of ḥadīth as well as they understand ʿilal. Before the year, or even during the year (if you have time and you are not forced to sacrifice more important duties, like some of those mentioned above), read something to introduce you to the science of ʿilal.
A good introduction to the various types of ʿilal is the section dealing with this topic in the editors’ introduction to Ibn Abī Ḥātim’s ʿIlal, pages 57–156. Especially important is sulūk al-jaddah (page 118). Do not spend too much time on this. Try to understand each cause, and as soon as you’ve read enough examples, move on. A rough idea is enough.
After this, read Muslim’s al-Tamyīz. It is a unique work in its lucid presentation and clarity of thought. Imām Muslim masterfully explains how the ḥadīth scholars engaged in ḥadīth authentication in response to objections that they were only engaging in unprovable conjecture. It is a work that a ḥadīth student should read early and repeat often. If you are busy and cannot finish it, then at least go through as much as you can.
The important thing here is to understand how making a mistake is a very normal phenomenon, so the way in which it happens will be rational, and at times, intuitive. When you see an example, try to imagine how that mistake happened, and place yourself in the place of the narrator that erred. Trying to internalize the mechanics behind ʿilal in this way is the best way to learn how the science works.
2. Throughout the year, choose a ḥadīth or two to research exhaustively. Make sure you choose a well-known narration (outside of the Ṣaḥīḥayn) that is well-discussed. Aḥādīth in the chapters of prayer and purity are convenient to use for this idea. For example, Ḥadīth al-Baḥr, or the narrations on istiqbāl and istidbār at the time of istinjāʾ, are excellent cases to use for this project.
Try to collect all of the variations of the ḥadīth, make a chart, note down the discrepancies, and see how scholars have dealt with the various features and/or problems of the ḥadīth and its chains. If the ḥadīth refers to a single issue that has various aḥādīth (like the second example which I offered above), collect them and read what has been said about them and their narrators. Use books of takhrīj, ʿilal, and try to find any independent treatises on the narration(s) that you have chosen (al-Muʿallimī’s short work on the issue of istiqbāl and istidbār of the qiblah in istinjāʾ, for example). You can make these notes into a file that you can work on over the years. Who knows, maybe you can make a book out of it!
3. Pay attention to what the authors of the Sunan works write about various narrations, especially Abū Dāwūd and al-Nasāʾī. Try to make charts or diagrams to make sure that you understand the ʿillah that they are pointing out. Both have interesting elements that are not found outside of them. For example, Abū Dāwūd’s Sunan has some examples where he weakens a report due to its content contradicting the known opinion of the narrator, a concept that is employed by both the fuqahāʾ and muḥaddithūn (though many are not as aware of this as they should be).
4. Do not obsess over coming to a final conclusion on any narrator or ḥadīth; just try to understand what is happening. The ability to produce independent gradings takes years, and rushing will only cause you to overlook some details. You may not understand what al-Bukhārī means when he says “fīhi naẓar” or what another scholar means when he says “lā baʾs bihi”; that is fine. It will take thousands of hours to come to a conclusion on some points. This is not the time for that.
Avoid the habit of needing to pronounce a concrete judgment, and instead try to understand how the scholars think: why are some people arguing that a certain ḥadīth is authentic, and why do others disagree? Why are some saying that the munqaṭiʿ version is correct, while others opine that the muttasil version is more accurately transmitted? If you do this, then the Dawrah year will accord you a wealth of practical experience that you can build on for the rest of your life; this is more than can be said for even many students of postgraduate takhassus programs.
The year is priceless, so make the most of it.
One thing to add:
The case studies that you use for this goal can also be the same case studies that you chose for fiqh. This may even prove to be more beneficial as it saves time and allows the student to see how both sciences intersect. Pay special attention to earlier scholars when researching and how they discuss the fiqhī and ḥadīthī issues compared to later commentators.
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This will suffice for the Directions for Dawrah series, as it has already gotten somewhat lengthy. May Allāh accept one and all to serve His Dīn and the Sunnah of His beloved Prophet (صلى الله تعالى عليه وسلّم).
– Written by Ustadh Waleed Sulaiman via Telegram.
Siddiqa al-Farsiyyah
