Hadith methodology (mustalah al-hadith)
علم مصطلح الحديث
Mustalah al-hadith is the science of the states of chain and text — sahih, hasan, da'if; mawquf, marfu', maqtu'; muttasil, munqati', mu'dal, mursal — and the reconciliation and hidden defects of transmissions. It began in the early muhaddithun's obiter dicta, then gained its own manuals; the earliest surviving systematic statement is Muslim's introduction to his Sahih, later epitomised in works like Ibn al-Salah's Muqaddima.
At a glance
- Era
- The Umayyad Period · The Early Abbasid Caliphate · Abbasid Fragmentation
- Region
- Arabia
- Review
- Draft Completeness 1/5 · Help complete it
Overview
The science of the terminology of hadith comprises the rules for knowing the states of the chain and the text: the sound, the good, and the weak; the mawquf, the marfu', and the maqtu'; the connected, the disconnected, the mu'dal, and the mursal. 1
It arose in the service of the Prophetic hadith, and its relation to the chain of transmission is close. Its origin lies in the observations of the early hadith scholars, and afterwards books were composed on it. 1
Among the oldest foundational texts that survive is Muslim's introduction to his Sahih. The summary of the school in books such as the introduction of Ibn al-Salah needs a further source.
Connections
People and things also explored
Hadith· Isnad· Shama'il Muhammadiyya· The Prophetic sira· Connectedness of the isnad and proven hearing· Muslim's prologue — the isnad is part of the religion· Muhammad· The abjad letters named for Madyan's kings
Sources
- Sahih Muslim
Cite this page
islam.museum contributors. “Hadith methodology (mustalah al-hadith)”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/concept/mustalah-al-hadith/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Accessed 2026-10-17.