An Introduction to Hadith
By Nadeem Abdul Hamid
Introduction.
The Need for Hadith
The Proof (Hujjat) of Hadith
The Collection of Hadith
The Sihah Sitta
The Definition of Hadith
Types of Hadith
Types of Books of Hadith
Ranks of the Books of Hadith
The Status of Da’eef Hadith
The Assertion of Something as “Not Sahih”
The Difference in Rulings on the Matn and Sanad
The Ruling of Fabricated Hadith
Types of Rulings Established by Hadith
Strengthening the Weak Hadith
Approaches of the Scholars in Dealing with Differing Narrations
Famous Hafiz of Hadith
Conclusion
In
the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful
We
praise Allah, the Exalted and Great, and we send blessings upon His noble
Messenger 
.
As most Muslims are aware, the life example of the Prophet
Muhammad () is the
basis for the beliefs and laws of Islam. His sayings, actions and expressions
are a fountain of guidance for the believers. The Sahabah themselves (
) memorized
each and every page of the life of the Prophet ()- standing
and sitting, traveling and living at home. From the conditions of his household
life to the political and economic laws he established, there is no incident
from the life of the Prophet () except
that the Companions (
) took note
of it and preserved its remembrance- some by pure memory and others by writing
it down. After them, the Taabi’een and
their followers continued this process of memorizing and compiling the Hadith to the point that by the
second century Hijri,
publication of entire books and writings of Hadith was widespread. It is because of those times that Muslims
today have a picture of the entire way of life of the Prophet () laid out
for them.
The great scholars and legislators of the ummah dedicated their entire lives to acquiring the knowledge of Hadith. They used to travel thousands of miles just to learn one Hadith. Nothing would deter or hinder them from their search for Hadith- they would even narrate Hadith from their own students. These scholars memorized and compiled books of Hadith and established an entire science around Hadith and the biography of narrators (‘ilm-ur-rijaal: “the study of men”). In order to fully understand the greatness of their achievement and its value for Islam, one only has to consider what would be the state of the ummah if such narrations had not been collected and preserved- what a great foundation of the deen would have been missing.
The purpose of this small booklet is to provide an overview of the importance, history and study of Hadith. This summary barely touches the surface of the sciences of Hadith. As such it should be kept in mind that understanding of the intricacies and details of Hadith and the rulings derived there from requires intense and extensive study from a reliable Muslim scholar.
Allah
has
summarized in a concise and beautiful way in the Quran the basic foundations of
Islam. Without the explanation and elucidation provided by the Hadith, however, there is no other
way to gain understanding of the details of all such rulings. The prophetic aHadith provide Muslims with the
practical actions necessary for implementing the Quranic injunctions. For
example, words like salah, zakah, tayammum, hajj
and ‘umrah each have a literal
meaning in Arabic which is somewhat different from their meaning as used by the
Shari’ah- without the Hadith of the Prophet (), there
would be no way to tell what the Shar’i
meanings of such words are.
Allah
has
firmly commanded the Muslims to follow the actions and sayings of the Prophet
Muhammad (). Thus, He
has said:
“Follow Allah and follow the Messenger.”
(Surah Nisaa, Ayah 59)
“And what the Messenger gives you, take it. And what he forbids you from, keep away from it.”
(Surah Hashr, Ayah 7)
“Say [to them O Muhammad ()]: If you
love Allah, follow me…”
(Surah Aali ‘Imraan, Ayah 31)
“Surely there is in the Messenger of Allah a most beautiful example for you…”
(Surah Ahzaab, Ayah 21)
From
these blessed verses, it is clear that obeying the rulings of the Prophet () and
following his actions is obligatory on every Muslim up till the Day of
Judgment. The question then is how can people who come after the Prophet () know what
his sayings and actions were. Allah sent the Prophet () as an
example for us- how else is it possible that we model our lives on his life
without the existence of Hadith?
Just as the Prophet () himself
was a direct example for the Sahabah
(), who took
guidance from him in person, in the same way the Hadith provide this guidance to us. For if one does not accept
the guidance given by the Hadith,
the hujjat established by Allah
will be incomplete. Allah not only sent the Quran for guidance- He also sent
with it a Messenger () whose
obedience and following has been made necessary as well, and again, without the
Hadith there is no other way to
know the sayings and actions of the Prophet Muhammad ().
If
one does not accept the Hadith,
then not only is one prevented from acquiring the guidance given by the Prophet
(), but one
will also have an incomplete understanding of the rulings given in the Quran.
Allah establishes
that He has sent the Prophet Muhammad () to explain
the meanings of the Quran and to teach their implementation:
“And We have revealed upon you the dhikr, that you may explain to the people what has been revealed for them.”
(Surah Nahl, Ayah 44)
“And that he (the messenger) may teach them the Book and Wisdom.”
(Surah Baqarah, Ayah 129)
Some
people may argue that the meanings of the verses and the knowledge of the “Book”
and “Wisdom” was only necessary upon the Companions. However, Islam is not only
for the Sahabah (). Rather,
until the Day of Judgment, it is the religion for all the people and thus, the
people need to know the same wisdom that the Sahabah needed to know. Furthermore, just as the Sahabah needed the Prophet () to explain
and elucidate the meanings of the Quran for them, even though they themselves
were of sterling character, those people who come afterwards are lesser in
quality of belief and understanding than the first generation. Thus, they will
be even more needy of such explanation. Thirdly, Allah has said in the Quran:
“He it is Who has sent among the unlettered nations a prophet from among themselves, who recites His signs to them and purifies them, and teaches them the Book and Wisdom, even though they were, before that, in manifest Error. And also to others after them who have not yet joined them…” (Surah Jumu’ah, Ayah 2)
From
this verse it is clear that the Prophet () was sent
not only to teach the Quran to the Sahabah
() but also for those Muslims who would
come after them. Thus, it cannot be argued except that just as the Prophet () was a
guidance and example for the Sahabah,
so he is for all the Muslims up till the Last Day. If this were not the case,
then there is no other way that prophecy of the verse above would be fulfilled.
Just think for yourself, that if one only tried to follow the Quran, then how would one determine that the word salah refers to that procedure that is familiar to all Muslims from the time the adhaan is given until the Imam says the salaam. Similarly, words like Hajj, Zakaat are only mentioned briefly in the Quran to establish their performance. How else, other than the Hadith, can one determine the detailed rulings, procedures and etiquettes of these and all other actions in the life of a Muslim?
The
complete understanding of the rulings of Quran is only gained through the
guidance of the Prophet (). During
the period of revelation, the Sahabah
() obtained such guidance directly from
his blessed tongue. For those Muslims coming later, the Hadith provide the same function.
Just
as the Prophet Muhammad () was sent
to explain the meanings of certain words of the Quran, he was also sent to
teach certain rules of the Shari’ah
which are not even mentioned in the Quran. In this regard, Allah has
said:
“… that he may make lawful for you the good things and make unlawful for you the evil things.”
(Surah A’raaf, Ayah 157)
Some
things that the Messenger of Allah () made halaal or haraam are not otherwise mentioned in the Quran. Only in the Hadith can one find their mention.
Without accepting the proof of Hadith,
we would remain with an incomplete picture of the way of life that Allah has
established for us.
Even
to understand the literal meaning of verses in the Quran, the Hadith are necessary. This is because
certain verses were revealed for a particular situation or in response to some
specific question or statement of the non-believers and hypocrites. Sometimes a
verse referred to an incident that would happen later or some verses came down
to correct or support the actions of the Companions (). Thus,
without the knowledge of the reason for revelation of such verses (asbaab an-nuzool), it is not possible
to understand their meaning correctly. Without accepting the Hadith, it is impossible that
one will be able to practice upon the teachings of the Quran.
Another
argument of those ignorant people who reject the Hadith is that the collection of Hadith only started hundreds of years after the death of the
Prophet (). Thus,
they claim the books of Hadith
are not authentic. However, this claim is entirely baseless because the
memorization and writing down of the Hadith
was begun during the very lifetime of the Prophet Muhammad () and
continued in every generation with no exception.
During
the blessed time of the Prophet () many Sahabah () started to preserve in writing the aHadith. Imam Bukhari (
) mentions a
tradition in his Sahih that at
the time of the liberation of Makkah, the Prophet () gave a
long khutbah. Afterwards, a man
from ) then gave
the order: “Write it for so-and-so.”
In
the same way, Hadrat ‘Abdullah ibn ‘Amr ibn al-‘Aas (
) was given
a general order and permission to write down Hadith:
“On
the authority of ‘Abdullah ibn ‘Amr () who said:
I used to write down everything that I heard from the Messenger of Allah () in order
to preserve it. The Quraysh used to stop me and say: Do you write everything
you hear from him, even though the Messenger of Allah () is a man
and he talks in anger and pleasure? So I stopped my writing and mentioned it to
the Messenger of Allah (). He () indicated
with his finger to his mouth and said: ‘Write it! For by the One in Whose Hand
is my soul, nothing except Truth (Haqq)
comes out from it.’”
Hadrat
Abu Hurairah () also
mentioned the writing down of Hadith
that was done by Hadrat ‘Amr ibn al-‘Aas ():
“There
is no companion of the Prophet () who
related more Hadith than myself
except for that which came from ‘Abdullah ibn ‘Amr, for he used to write it
down and I did not write it down.”
From
these narrations, it is clearly established that ‘Abdullah ibn ‘Amr () maintained
a large written collection of Hadith.
Because of the close proximity that Abu Hurairah () used to
keep with the Prophet (), he
himself was able to memorize Hadith
very easily and thus did not need to write them down. However, he was still in
possession of some written pages of the Hadith
of the Prophet (). ‘Amr ibn
Umayyah reported:
“A
Hadith was narrated to Abu
Hurairah () and so he
took me by the hand to his house and showed us books of Hadith of the Prophet () and he
said: ‘This is what is written down with me.’ ”
Thus,
one can see that even Abu Hurairah () eventually
had all his narrations of Hadith
written down. Hafiz Ibn Hajar ‘Asqalaani () says that
Abu Hurairah () did not
write down any Hadith during
the period of revelation. However after the passing of the Prophet (), he wrote
down the Hadith or had someone
write them all down for him.
Hadrat
Anas () used to
write down Hadith and read them
back to the Prophet () as
mentioned in a narration by Qataadah. Hadrat ‘Abdullah ibn ‘Umar () also used
to write down and keep pages of Hadith:
“It
is related about ‘Abdullah ibn ‘Umar () that as he
used to go out to the market, he would look in his books. And the narrator
confirmed that these books were books of Hadith.”
Besides
these individual examples, there is also evidence that it was common among the Sahabah () to write
down Hadith during the time of
the Prophet (). Thus,
Hadrat ‘Abdullah ibn ‘Amr () said:
“There
used to be with the Messenger of Allah () people
from his companions, and I was the youngest of them. The Prophet () said:
‘Whoever intentionally lies regarding me, then let him prepare to take his seat
in the Fire.’ So, when the people left, I said: ‘How do you people relate so
many Hadith from the Prophet () when you
have heard what he said? – [ie. you should be more cautious.]’ The people heard
this and laughed, saying: ‘O son of our brother, truly everything that we have
heard from him is with us in books.’”
From
the traditions above, then, it is clear that from the time of the Prophet () the Sahabah () used to
write down and preserve his sayings and actions. And those instances in which
the Prophet () did not
allow someone to write down some particular Hadith were because of special circumstances, such as the fear
of confusing a Hadith with the
Quran.
After
the passing of the Prophet (), the Taabi’een began to gather and write
the traditions from the Sahabah in
a similar way. Hadrat Abu Hurairah (), from whom
5,374 Hadith have been
narrated, taught those Hadith
to countless numbers of students, who wrote down and memorized them and taught
them in turn to their students. In Musnad
Daarimi it is mentioned that one such student who wrote down Hadith from Abu Hurairah () and
preserved them was Basheer ibn Naheek. Besides other students, Kareeb wrote
down Hadith from Hadrat
‘Abdullah ibn ‘Abbaas () who
narrated 2,660 Hadith. From
Hadrat Anas (), who also
narrated over 2,000 Hadith, it
is mentioned in Musnad Daarimi
that Abaan used to write down and memorize his Hadith. ‘Urwah ibn Zubayr used to write Hadith from Ummul-Mu’mineen
‘Aa’ishah (
), who
related 2,210 Hadith.
In
general, it was common for people to memorize Hadith from the Sahabah.
From the first century onward, numerous collections of Hadith were assembled. There was no single, combined, organized
collection of Hadith- rather,
the Taabi’een collected and
preserved any Hadith that they
could find. During the khilaafah
of Hadrat ‘Umar ibn ‘Abdul-‘Azeez (), he felt a
great need for a reliable and complete arrangement of Hadith. Thus, he established a committee of well-known scholars
to perform this task, among whom were the great Abu Bakr ibn Muhammad ibn ‘Umar
ibn Hazm, Qaasim ibn Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr and Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Muslim ibn
‘Ubaydallaah ibn ‘Abdullah ibn Shihaab Zuhri (
).
Hadrat
‘Umar ibn ‘Abdul-‘Azeez () arranged
for the gathering of Hadith
from all different places and had them written down. Ibn Shihaab Zuhri arranged
and compiled those Hadith. In
addition to gathering Hadith,
the chains of narrators (sanad)
were also meticulously preserved by az-Zuhri. Thus, he is often known as the
originator of the science of isnaad.
The
students and contemporaries of Zuhri () continued
and carried on this work after him. Thus, in the second century, one of his
students, Imam Malik ibn Anas (), compiled
the first major collection of Hadith
arranged in the order similar to that common today. That book was called the Mu’atta.
Besides
the Mu’atta of Imam Malik, the Imam-e-A’zam Abu Hanifah () also
recorded his narrations in his Kitaab-ul-Aathaar.
Besides these two great works, other collections that were produced in the
realm of Hadith during the
second century were: Sunan Abul-Waleed
(151H) , Jaami’ Sufyaan Thawri (161H), Musannaf Abi Salamah (167H), Musannaf Abi Sufyaan (197H) and Jaami’ Sufyaan ibn ‘Uyainah (198H).
In the third century, additional great compilations were produced by
ash-Shaafi’ () in his Kitaab-ul-Umm (204H), Musnad Ahmad ibn Hanbal (241H), al-Jaami’ as-Sahih of Bukhari (256H),
al-Jaami’ of Muslim (261H), Sunan of Abu Dawood (275H), Jaami’ Tirmidhi (279H) and Sunan Ibn Maajah (273H).
Thus, from the history of the development of the ummah, it is clear that the work of collecting and preserving Hadith in all forms was practiced from the time of revelation itself up through the third century and onward. By the third century, this process had coalesced into an entire branch of study and the Sihah Sitta (six reliable works of Hadith) had been compiled, providing a well-documented and well-arranged collection of the Hadith that had been narrated by the earlier generations of Sahabah and Taabi’een.
The term “Sihah sitta” or “the six sound books,” refers to six collections of Hadith whose reliability is generally agreed upon among the Muslim scholars. These collections are:
Sahih Bukhari
Sahih Muslim
Jaami’ Tirmidhi
Sunan Abi Dawood
Sunan Nisaa’i
Al-Jaami’ as-Sahih li Bukhari:
Imam Abu ‘Abdullah Muhammad ibn Ismaa’eel ibn Ibraaheem ibn al-Mugheerah ibn
Bardizbah al-Bukhari () (194 –
256H) was born in
Al-Jaami’ as-Sahih li Muslim: Next in reliability to Sahih
al-Bukhari is the work of Imam Abul-Husayn Muslim ibn al-Hajjaaj ibn Muslim
al-Qushayriy an-Naisaaburiy (). Born in
202 H. in Nisaabur , Iran
Jaami’ Tirmidhi: Imam Abu ‘Eesa Muhammad ibn ‘Eesa
at-Tirmidhi ()
was born in 209 H. in ). His Jaami’ includes fewer Hadith than the previous two above
(2,028) but is known for his critical remarks concerning the chains of
narrators and the points of differences between the four madhaahib. Among his teachers were
Imams Bukhari, Ahmad ibn Hanbal and Abu Dawood as-Sijistaani (). He also
traveled through Khuraasaan, ‘
Sunan Abi Dawood: Imam Abu Dawood
Sulaymaan ibn al-Ash’ath Sijistaaniy ()
heard Hadith from over three
hundred scholars. He was born in Sijistaan, Khuraasaan, near
Sunan Nisaa’i: This fifth famous collection
of 5,761 Hadith was compiled by
Imam Abu ‘Abdur-Rahmaan Ahmad ibn Shu’ayb ibn ‘Ali Nisaa’i ().
He was born in another town of
Sunan Ibn Maajah: Imam Abu
‘Abdullah Muhammad ibn Yazeed ibn Maajah al-Qazweeniy ()
was born in
Having discussed the importance of Hadith and the brief history of collection, we will now discuss some of the technical details related to the Hadith.
There
are two types of study of Hadith:
one is ‘Ilmul-Hadith riwaayatan
and the other is ‘Ilmul-Hadith
diraayatan. As for the first, it is the study and knowledge of the
sayings, actions, states, conditions and descriptions of the Prophet (). The
second type is the study of narrators and those narrated to, and the conditions
of acceptability or rejection.
The
word Hadith itself, in the
context of Islam, refers to the sayings, actions, tacit approvals, character
and descriptions of the physical features of the Prophet (). A Hadith consists of two parts: the sanad, which is the chain of names of
people who have narrated the Hadith
through the generations, and the matn,
or the actual text and substance of the report. Often the words Hadith and sunnah are used interchangeably. Their meanings are almost the
same except that Hadith is
slightly more general as sunnah
does not refer to such things as the physical features of the Prophet (). There are
other words, such as “khabar”
and “athar”, which are often
used synonymously with “Hadith”
but some scholars also use them to indicate only certain types of Hadith.
Below are listed the different types of Hadith that one may come across:
Marfoo’: That Hadith which is directly attributed
to the Prophet () and tells
of his actions, sayings or speech.
Mawqoof: That which tells of the actions, sayings or speech of a Sahaabi.
Maqtoo’: That in which the actions, sayings or speech of a Taabi’ee is described.
Muttasil or Mawsool: That Hadith whose chain (sanad) is not broken, eg. by missing the name of a narrator.
Mu’allaq: That Hadith from the beginning of whose sanad some or all of the narrators’ names have been dropped.
Mursal: That Hadith whose last narrator in the
chain, ie. the Sahaabi’s name,
is dropped. That is, when a Taabi’ee
directly narrates something about the Prophet ().
Mu’dal: Two consecutive narrators have been dropped from the chain.
Munqati’ (bi ma’nan akhass): More than two narrators are dropped consecutively in one part of the chain, or two narrators are dropped consecutively in multiple parts of the sanad.
Mudtarib: That in whose sanad or matn additions or deletions exist. [That is, a Hadith might be transmitted along many chains and in one particular chain, there may be additions or deletions to some part of the sanad or matn that is found in the other transmissions.]
Mudarraj: That in which the narrator added his own or some other sayings to the matn.
Shaadh: That Hadith of a narrator who has narrated something that is the opposite of what a narrator of more reliability narrated. Its opposite is Mahfooz.
Munkar: That Hadith of a weak narrator who narrates something the opposite of a more authentic tradition.
Mu’allal: That Hadith in which there is a major, hidden defect, such as a mursal Hadith which is narrated as if it is mawsool.
Sahih li dhaatihi: That Hadith whose chain of narrators is unbroken, every narrator is reliable (‘aadil), well-known for memorization and preservation (dabt) of Hadith, and the Hadith falls in neither of the categories of the Shaadh or Mu’allal.
Sahih li ghayrihi: That Hadith which has the same qualities as the previous one except for the dabt of a narrator which may be slightly less reliable but that is compensated for by the fact that the Hadith is narrated from many chains of people. [The word dabt refers to a narrator having a good grasp of what he narrates as well as a sound memory and/or carefully kept books.]
Hasan li dhaatihi: That Hadith which has the qualities of Sahih except that the dabt is not as reliable and there are not enough other chains of narrations to raise it to the status of Sahih li ghayrihi.
Hasan li ghayrihi: That Hadith which is lacking in more than one quality required for the Sahih but this lack is again compensated for by the presence of other chains of transmission of the same Hadith.
Da’eef: That Hadith which is lacking more than one of the qualities of Sahih and there are not enough alternate chains to raise its status to Hasan.
Matrook: That Hadith in whose chain is a narrator known for lying.
Mawdoo’: That Hadith in whose chain is a narrator upon whom it is established that he fabricated Hadith.
Ghareeb: That Hadith whose sanad is such that at some link in the chain, that narrator is alone in narrating the Hadith from the shaykh. [In each generation, many people might have narrated the same Hadith through different chains. A ghareeb Hadith is one in which the number of narrators of that Hadith in one particular generation is only one.]
‘Azeez: That Hadith in which the number of narrators drops to two in one generation and is more than two in the rest of the chain.
Mashhoor: That Hadith which is narrated from more than two chains in every generation. That is, in each generation, at least three people narrated the Hadith. Slightly less than the number of a mutawaatir. This type of Hadith and the previous two are types of aahaad Hadith.
Mutawaatir: That Hadith which is narrated from so many different chains in every generation that it is impossible to suppose that anyone could have conspired to fabricate the Hadith.
There are many different types of compilations of Hadith, each of which has gained a specific name. Some of these type of books of Hadith are:
Sahih: That book whose compiler indicated that he has only included Sahih Hadith. For example, Sahih Bukhari and Sahih Muslim.
Jaami’: That book which includes Hadith categorized under the following eight categories: Siyar, Aadaab, Tafseer, ‘Aqaa’id, Futun, Ahkaam, Ishraat and Manaaqib. For example, Bukhari and Tirmidhi.
Sunan: That book which only includes Hadith that are related to rules (ahkaam). For example, Sunan Abu Dawood and Nisaa’i.
Musnad: That book which is arranged by the order of the name of the Sahabah who narrated the Hadith. For example, Musnad Imam Ahmad.
Mu’jam: That book which is arranged by the order of the shuyookh who narrated the Hadith. For example, Mu’jam Tabaraani.
Mustakhrij: That book in which the compiler brings chains from other shuyookh besides the author of another book to support the Hadith of that author’s book. For example Mustakhraj Abi Nu’aym on Bukhari.
Mustadrik: That book which includes Hadith under various headings which another author has left out of his book. For example, Mustadrik Haakim includes Hadith that are not in the two Sahih but which Imam Haakim has indicated as satisfying the conditions for authenticity that were followed by Bukhari and Muslim.
Risaalah: That book which only contains Hadith under the heading of one of the eight headings mentioned in the Jaami’. For example, Imam Ahmad’s book of Zuhd which falls under aadaab and Ibn Jareer’s book of tafseer.
Juz: That smaller book which only contains Hadith about a particular subject. For example, Imam Bukhari’s Juz Qira’ah Khalf al-Imam.
Arba’een: A collection of 40 Hadith. For example, Arba’een-e-Nawawi.
Shah
Waliyullah ()
has specified four ranks of books of Hadith
with regard to their reliability, fame and acceptability. The first contains
those books whose reliability is strongly agreed upon. For example, Sahih Bukhari, Sahih Muslim, Mu’atta Imam Malik.
The second rank are close in fame and reliability to the first. Most of the Hadith in such books are either Sahih or hasan. Some da’eef Hadith may also be included but they are clearly indicated. For example, Jaami’ Tirmidhi, and the Sunans of Abu Dawood and Nisaa’i.
The
third level are those books whose authors preceded or were contemporaries of
Bukhari ()
and Muslim ().
The competence of these scholars is firmly established but in their collections
they also included da’eef Hadith and even sometimes those which
were known to be fabricated. For example, Musnad Shaafi’i, Sunan Ibn Maajah, Musannaf ‘Abdur-Razzaaq, Musannaf Ibn Abi Shaybah, Sunan Daarimi, Sunan Daaraqutni and Sunan Bayhaqi.
Fourthly, there are those books of the later scholars which include Hadith that are not found to be related by the scholars of the early era. The reason for this might be that either the previous scholars were not aware of those Hadith or they left them alone because of some defect (‘ilal). Some examples of such collections are Daylami, Abu Nu’aym, Ibn ‘Asaa and others.
When the sanad of a Hadith is the subject of dispute or unreliability, it is called mat’oon or majrooh. That are many types of Hadith that fall in this category, discussed above, such as Mudtarib, Munqati’, Mu’allal, Munkar, Matrook and others. All such Hadith are known as da’eef, however they are of different ranks of weakness. In comparison to other types for example, the matrook is one of the most deficient types of Hadith. It is possible that the sanad of one Hadith may contain several types of weaknesses at once, however its status remains da’eef although its weakness increases. The purpose of mentioning this is that just because a Hadith is labeled as da’eef does not at all imply it is fabricated. Only a Hadith for which the chain of narrators contains a fabricator is known as mawdoo’.
The
Assertion of Something as “Not Sahih”
Sometimes, the muhadditheen have written regarding a particular sanad: Laa yasihh (“it is not Sahih”). This phrase is erroneously understood by ignorant people to mean that the Hadith is fabricated or rejected. However, in the terminology of the muhadditheen, Sahih is not the opposite of a fabricated or rejected Hadith. Rather, those Hadith which are not Sahih include Sahih li ghayrihi, Hasan and Da’eef. The meaning of the phrase above is that the Hadith is not Sahih li dhaatihi. In summary, the negation of something being Sahih is not necessarily an indication of its unreliability.