What are sanad and isnad? · Islam Museum

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Scripture and its sciences

Overview

The sanad is the chain of narrators of a hadith back to the Prophet ﷺ. Muslims built on it the science of verifying transmitted reports, which is unique in the history of human transmission. ¹

People and things also explored

The abjad letters named for Madyan's kings· The seven ahruf· Hadith· Shama'il Muhammadiyya· The Prophetic sira· Command, prohibition and capacity· Bid'a (religious innovation)· Sacred hadith (hadith qudsi)

Sources

Wikidata

Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “What are sanad and isnad?”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/questions/what-is-sanad/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Accessed 2026-10-18.

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The abjad letters named for Madyan's kings

al-Mas'udi's etymology of the abjad numeral letters — the 29 letters of the abjad order named after six kings of Shu'ayb's people: Abjad of Mecca and the Hijaz, Hawwaz and Hutti of Wajj (the Ta'if and Najd lands), and Kalamn, Sa'fas and Qursht of Madyan or Egypt.