Question:

I have read one of your recent articles and I wanted to know, what is the legal requirement for someone to be considered a knowledgeable scholar whom we can take knowledge from? Is Isnad (chain of transmission) one of the requirements and is there any evidence for this deduced from the sources?

Also, I have noticed that Isnad is not usually mentioned by the scholars as a prerequisite for someone to be considered a Mujtahid. Can one therefore be self taught?

This write-up is based on the treatise of Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Ḥajar rahimahullah.

Mishkāt al-Maṣābīh (lit. the niche of lanterns) is a hadith collection originally compiled as Maṣābīḥ as-Sunnah (lit. the lamps of Sunnah) by Imām Muḥy as-Sunnah Abū Muḥammad Ḥusayn ibn Masʿūd al-Farrāḥ al-Baghawī (d.1122) rahimahullah, a famous Tatar muḥaddith and mufassir from the senior Shawāfiʿ scholars. It was later refined and expanded by Imām Walī ad-Dīn Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Khaṭīb at-Tibrīzī (d.1248) rahimahullah, who named the revised compilation Mishkāt al-Maṣābīḥ, as we know it today.

Based on Shaykh Mufti Taqi Usmani’s notes in the introduction to Dars Tirmidhi (1/80-86), compiled by Shaykh Waqar Gulam Dastaguir and checked & edited by Mufti Muhammad ibn Adam.

Sunan Ibn Mājah is a collection of ḥadīth compiled by Imam Muḥammad bin Yazīd Ibn Mājah al-Qazvīnī (Allah have mercy on him).

Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī is a ḥadīth collection from the Kutub al-Sittah (six canonical ḥadīth collections), authored by Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl al-Bukhārī رحمه الله (d. 256).