Hasan Hanafi

From the Criticism of Document to the Criticism of Text (pt.۴)

The author of this research work tries to represent a method for utilizing social and human sciences in hadith crticism and text analysis of Prophetic hadiths from tree perspectives: sociological, historical and literary criticisms. He then represents the models or genres of the hadith to display how to apply each type of criticism.
In the previous parts, Dr Hanafi gave a definition of hadith criticism as well as the value and necessity for this criticism and he also verified the Sahih of al-Bukhari as a whole. He indicated the relation of the hadith with the Qur'an and elucidated their interdependence, moreover, he made explicit various genres(direct quotation, narration, questioning and answers, and the use of the sign language) in the Prophetic hadiths.
He cited the historiocty of the form and content of the hadith so as to prove that the form (structure and mode of addressings) in the hadith is a function of the laws and rules of oral report, the content (subject) of the hadith is in the line with its synchronic conditions , customs, practices and the characteristics of those days.
In the present part , the author demonstrates the social, cultural, polical and religious conditions of the age of the Prophet throughout the Prophetic hadiths.
The Sahih of al-Bukhari is the reference of all his studies.

Iftikhar Zaman

The Science of Rijal as a Method in the Study of Hadith(pt.۱).

The substance of this paper consists of the variant versions of a single hadith: a hadith regarding the Prophet visiting Sa‘d ibn Abi Waqqas While the latter was ill. The purpose of the exercise, however, is not to look at the hadith but to look beyond it and behind it. He argues for the possibility of a science of rijal: a science of evaluating the qualities of narrators of hadiths in their transmission of hadiths
Iftikhar Zaman in his paper says, With a hadith which has over a hundred variants, I make no attempt at all to evaluate the soundness of the hadith, or to date it, or to separate fact' from embellishment' in the hadith. I don’t even wish to suggest that because there are so many versions of this hadith one should think it is a sound hadith. This is because the hadith itself is not the subject of this paper, I am only interested in showing that by gathering together many variant versions of a hadith it is possible to come to conclusions about the qualities of hadith