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How should al-Hakim's authentications in the Mustadrak be treated?

Ideas Words

كيف يُعامَل تصحيح الحاكم في «المستدرك»؟

Al-Hakim presented the Mustadrak as hadiths with chains of the kind the two masters relied on 1; later hadith critics agreed that he was lax in authentication but differed on how far, and on what to do with hadiths only he declared sound: Ibn al-Salah took a middle course, al-Dhahabi estimated proportions, Ibn Hajar divided the book into classes, and Ibn Taymiyya held that his authentication alone is not relied on 2.

Depth

At a glance

Contested: This record includes matters on which scholars differ. The speaker's views are labelled as his, and other views are marked where no cited source yet exists.

Scripture and its sciences

The question

Al-Hakim described his [[work/al-mustadrak-ala-al-sahihayn|al-Mustadrak 'ala al-Sahihayn]] as a collection of hadiths whose narrators are trustworthy, of the kind the two masters or one of them relied on, and he followed each hadith with a verdict: on their condition, on the condition of one of them, or sound in chain. 1

Hadith critics after him agreed that he was lax in these verdicts; Muqbil al-Wadi'i goes so far as to say that scholars objected to nothing in him but his laxity in the Mustadrak. 3 The question remained: when al-Hakim alone declares a hadith sound, what is to be done with it?

The positions

What the critics point to

The critics cite examples that al-Wadi'i gathers. Al-Hakim listed 'Abd al-Rahman ibn Zayd ibn Aslam in his book of weak narrators, stating that he transmitted fabricated hadiths from his father, and then authenticated a hadith of his in the Mustadrak. 8 He added hadiths that are in fact in the two Sahihs or one of them; al-Wadi'i reports that Salih ibn Qa'id al-Wadi'i collected more than three hundred and fifty of them. 9 And, as al-Zayla'i notes, he graded on the two masters' condition chains in which some men were al-Bukhari's and others Muslim's. 10

What is said in his defence

Ibn Hajar writes in Lisan al-Mizan that al-Hakim stands too high to be listed among weak narrators, and passes on the excuse that he compiled the Mustadrak late in life, when some decline and inattention had come over him. 11 Al-Wadi'i adds that his errors outside the Mustadrak do not lessen his standing. 12

Opinions on the question

The question: Is al-Hakim's verdict that a hadith is 'sound on the two masters' condition' or 'sound in chain' enough to rely on it without independent examination?

First opinion · Sunni tradition (the museum's frame) · Sunni: al-Hakim himselfMain reference

these are hadiths with chains of the same kind as the two masters' chains; additions by trustworthy narrators are accepted; and the two masters never confined the sound to their two books. 4
More opinions (3)

Sunni tradition (the museum's frame) · Sunni: Ibn al-Salah, as Ibn Kathir quotes himMain reference

a middle course; what al-Hakim alone authenticated is, if not sound, then hasan and usable as proof, unless a defect appears in it that makes it weak. 5

Sunni tradition (the museum's frame) · Sunni: al-Dhahabi, Ibn Kathir and Ibn HajarMain reference

each hadith must be examined on its own. Al-Dhahabi put what meets their condition at about a third in one version and about half in another, and noted some hundred fabricated hadiths in it; Ibn Kathir listed the sound, the good, the weak and the fabricated in it; Ibn Hajar classified it by whether the two masters relied on its narrators, and placed its mainstay in narrators they used for corroboration. 6

Sunni tradition (the museum's frame) · Sunni: Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn al-QayyimMain reference

al-Hakim's authentication on its own is not relied on. For Ibn Taymiyya he is like a trustworthy narrator who errs often, even though most of what he declares sound is sound; for Ibn al-Qayyim his authentication does not even show a hadith to be hasan. 7

People and things also explored

Hadith· Shama'il Muhammadiyya· Ghanima (spoils of war)· Sacred hadith (hadith qudsi)· Seeking knowledge· Isnad· Criticism and vindication of narrators (jarh wa-ta'dil)· The Six Books

Sources

  1. al-Mustadrak 'ala al-Sahihayn of al-Hakim — with al-Dhahabi's critique and Muqbil al-Wadi'i's Tatabbu' awham al-Hakim, Dar al-Haramayn, Cairo 1417 AH/1997 CE, vol. 1 , p. 40
  2. al-Mustadrak 'ala al-Sahihayn of al-Hakim — with al-Dhahabi's critique and Muqbil al-Wadi'i's Tatabbu' awham al-Hakim, Dar al-Haramayn, Cairo 1417 AH/1997 CE, vol. 1 , p. 9-16
  3. al-Mustadrak 'ala al-Sahihayn of al-Hakim — with al-Dhahabi's critique and Muqbil al-Wadi'i's Tatabbu' awham al-Hakim, Dar al-Haramayn, Cairo 1417 AH/1997 CE, vol. 1 , p. 8
  4. al-Mustadrak 'ala al-Sahihayn of al-Hakim — with al-Dhahabi's critique and Muqbil al-Wadi'i's Tatabbu' awham al-Hakim, Dar al-Haramayn, Cairo 1417 AH/1997 CE, vol. 1 , p. 39-40
  5. al-Mustadrak 'ala al-Sahihayn of al-Hakim — with al-Dhahabi's critique and Muqbil al-Wadi'i's Tatabbu' awham al-Hakim, Dar al-Haramayn, Cairo 1417 AH/1997 CE, vol. 1 , p. 15
  6. al-Mustadrak 'ala al-Sahihayn of al-Hakim — with al-Dhahabi's critique and Muqbil al-Wadi'i's Tatabbu' awham al-Hakim, Dar al-Haramayn, Cairo 1417 AH/1997 CE, vol. 1 , p. 9-12, 15
  7. al-Mustadrak 'ala al-Sahihayn of al-Hakim — with al-Dhahabi's critique and Muqbil al-Wadi'i's Tatabbu' awham al-Hakim, Dar al-Haramayn, Cairo 1417 AH/1997 CE, vol. 1 , p. 16
  8. al-Mustadrak 'ala al-Sahihayn of al-Hakim — with al-Dhahabi's critique and Muqbil al-Wadi'i's Tatabbu' awham al-Hakim, Dar al-Haramayn, Cairo 1417 AH/1997 CE, vol. 1 , p. 12
  9. al-Mustadrak 'ala al-Sahihayn of al-Hakim — with al-Dhahabi's critique and Muqbil al-Wadi'i's Tatabbu' awham al-Hakim, Dar al-Haramayn, Cairo 1417 AH/1997 CE, vol. 1 , p. 27
  10. al-Mustadrak 'ala al-Sahihayn of al-Hakim — with al-Dhahabi's critique and Muqbil al-Wadi'i's Tatabbu' awham al-Hakim, Dar al-Haramayn, Cairo 1417 AH/1997 CE, vol. 1 , p. 17-18
  11. al-Mustadrak 'ala al-Sahihayn of al-Hakim — with al-Dhahabi's critique and Muqbil al-Wadi'i's Tatabbu' awham al-Hakim, Dar al-Haramayn, Cairo 1417 AH/1997 CE, vol. 1 , p. 14
  12. al-Mustadrak 'ala al-Sahihayn of al-Hakim — with al-Dhahabi's critique and Muqbil al-Wadi'i's Tatabbu' awham al-Hakim, Dar al-Haramayn, Cairo 1417 AH/1997 CE, vol. 1 , p. 29
Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “How should al-Hakim's authentications in the Mustadrak be treated?”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/questions/tasahul-al-hakim-fi-al-mustadrak/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-11-04.

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Hadith

Hadith is what is transmitted of the Prophet's words, deeds, tacit approvals and descriptions, reaching us through a chain of narrators ending at him; it is Islam's second source after the Qur'an, expounding its generals and fixing the details of worship, dealings, biography and conduct. It was gathered into works arranged by legal chapter or by narrator's musnad, most famously the six books.