An important discipline within hadith studies is Ilm ar-Rijal, biographical evaluation. It relates to the detailed study of the narrators who make up the sanad. Ilm ar-rijal has as its basis certain verses of the Quran.
Shaykh Muhammad Zakariya al-Kandahlawi has mentioned that Imam Bukhari listed the following as criterion for a muhaddith:
- The four things which one must write are:
- The blessed ahadith of the Blessed Prophet r and his rulings
- The sayings of the Sahaba and the status of each sahabi
- The sayings of the Tabieen (i.e., the Salaf-us Salaheen who met the Sahaba, but did not meet the Blessed Prophet). The level of each of the Tabieen. Who amongst them was reliable and who was unreliable
- Knowledge of all the narrators who narrate ahadith and their history
- The history of the narrators must include four things:
- Their Isma-ul-Rijjal (biographies)
- Their kunniyaat (nicknames)
- Their place of settlement
- Their date of birth and date of death (to verify whether this person met the people whom he narrated from)
Read more about this topic: Hadith Studies
Famous quotes containing the words biographical and/or evaluation:
“Biography, in its purer form, confined to the ended lives of the true and brave, may be held the fairest meed of human virtue—one given and received in entire disinterestedness—since neither can the biographer hope for acknowledgment from the subject, not the subject at all avail himself of the biographical distinction conferred.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
“Evaluation is creation: hear it, you creators! Evaluating is itself the most valuable treasure of all that we value. It is only through evaluation that value exists: and without evaluation the nut of existence would be hollow. Hear it, you creators!”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)