What Is Hadith? How to Read the Report, Chain and Reference

What Is Hadith? How to Read the Report, Chain and Reference

Muslim Post Editorial Desk@muslimpost

Learn what a hadith records, how it relates to the Qur’an and Sunnah, and how to compare narration chains, wording and references in two versions.

A hadith is a transmitted report. In Islamic studies the word often refers to a report about something the Prophet Muhammad said, did or approved. A typical entry records who transmitted it, the isnad, and what they reported, the matn. Sunni and Shia collections preserve different bodies of reports, and important Shia collections also preserve teachings attributed to the Imams.

For a first reading, take one report and open it in its collection. The familiar teaching about deeds and intentions appears near the start of Sahih al-Bukhari, and again in the same work. The two entries share a central teaching, while their wording, routes of transmission and reference numbers give a reader several precise things to compare.

How hadith, the Sunnah and the Qur’an relate

The Qur’an is Islam’s scripture, which Muslims receive as revelation. Its text is cited by surah and verse. Qur’an 33:21, for example, describes the Messenger of God as an example for believers. A hadith is cited by the collection and the location of the report in that collection. The difference remains visible even when both texts appear on the same page or in the same sermon. The word mushaf can refer to a physical copy of the Qur’an. Our guide to the mushaf and its leaves explains that additional distinction.

Sunnah commonly refers to the Prophet’s exemplary way or practice. As the Encyclopaedia Iranica introduction to hadith explains, the reports are a principal record from which scholars learn about that example. The terms can overlap in scholarly use. For a beginner, it helps to ask two separate questions: what does this particular report attribute to Muhammad, and how has a scholarly tradition understood the example it contains? A description of something he did may also call for context before readers can tell whether scholars understood it as guidance for a particular situation or as a more general practice.

Find the isnad and matn in a report about intentions

Open Sahih al-Bukhari 1, in the Book of Revelation. In the Arabic text, the transmission starts with al-Humaydi and then names Sufyan, Yahya ibn Said, Muhammad ibn Ibrahim and Alqama ibn Waqqas before Umar ibn al-Khattab. The report has Umar saying that he heard Muhammad teach that the value of actions depends on intentions. It illustrates the point with migration undertaken for a worldly aim or for marriage. This is a paraphrase of the entry, and the linked page supplies the complete wording.

The names and the way each person says they received the report form the isnad. The saying and its example are the matn. Reading the chain from the compiler’s source back toward Umar gives the order in which the edition presents the transmission. Reading from Umar toward the compiler gives the path of its reported passage forward in time. The page’s English rendering foregrounds Umar and the saying. The Arabic gives the additional names in the displayed chain as well. If a translation begins with just the name of the Companion, check the Arabic or a fuller edition before assuming the underlying entry has only that narrator.

Compare two entries before quoting either one

Sahih al-Bukhari 54 puts a version of the teaching in the Book of Belief. It begins its chain with Abd Allah ibn Maslama and Malik. The two routes meet at Yahya ibn Said and share the path from there through Muhammad ibn Ibrahim, Alqama and Umar. This version also states what it means to migrate for God and His Messenger before turning to worldly motives. The opening entry has the example about worldly motives but omits that positive clause. Keeping each wording beside its own reference makes the difference visible.

A related version in Sahih Muslim 1907a also presents the positive clause. On that site the same record has a second locator, Book 33, Hadith 222, and a deprecated English reference, Book 20, Hadith 4692. These are ways to find one displayed entry. The appearance of a related wording in another collection is evidence that can be compared. In this case the Muslim entry and Bukhari 54 both pass through Malik, so two collection titles alone tell you little about how independent the routes are. The names and the wording help answer that question.

What a hadith grade evaluates

In common Sunni terminology, sahih means sound, hasan means good, and daif means weak. A study of Ibn al-Salah and the term hasan traces how one of these categories was used and defined over time. An assessment can depend on whether the chain is connected, whether narrators are considered trustworthy and accurate, and whether comparison exposes an anomaly or a hidden defect. These words are scholarly evaluations attached to a report or a route of transmission. The standards and application can vary with the scholar, the work and the tradition. A weak grade by itself does not specify that someone invented the report. Fabrication is a more specific judgement that requires its own evidence.

The introduction to Sahih Muslim shows a compiler discussing the use of reports and the conditions for accepting particular forms of transmission. I-Wen Su’s study of al-Juzjani’s evaluation of transmitters examines one critic’s criteria for distinguishing the reliability of people and what they related. Jonathan A. C. Brown’s study of criticism of the wording follows debates over what conclusions critics could draw from a report’s contents. Together the sources illustrate why recognizing the names in a chain is only the beginning of the evaluation.

When an edition supplies a grade, identify who gave it and where it appears. A compiler’s chapter heading, a modern editor’s note and the words attributed to a speaker each have a different author. If a reader finds a different grade for a similar translation, the first useful comparison is the source record and its chain. The two readers may be looking at different versions. If the versions match, differences in the scholars’ assessments can be described with their names and reasons where the sources make those reasons available.

Why collections and scholarly traditions matter

Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim are prominent Sunni collections. Al-Kafi, compiled by al-Kulayni, is a major Twelver Shia collection. Princeton University Library’s manuscript record for al-Kafi identifies its first and third volumes and describes a work encompassing theology and jurisprudence. The name of a collection tells the reader where a report appears. The entry gives more specific information about the person to whom its words or actions are attributed.

In his study of early Shia hadith sources, Kumail Rajani discusses the importance of transmissions attributed to the Imams al-Baqir and al-Sadiq. His case study compares a group of reports in al-Kafi with material in an Ismaili work to investigate earlier written sources. That is an example of comparing defined sets of texts to answer a historical question. A traditional judgement about an individual report asks a different question and should be cited from an evaluation of that report.

Separate the date of a report from the date of a manuscript

The British Library catalogue entry EAP1216/3/1/1 describes a paper volume of Sahih al-Bukhari in the Jerba Libraries Project. The catalogue identifies it as volume 6, records 228 paper folios and assigns the object to the eighteenth or nineteenth century. These facts describe that manuscript volume. They leave open which passages it contains until the volume is examined. A library’s digital file count, the number of physical leaves and the number of a hadith are also three different references.

The Princeton record for al-Kafi gives 1667 for its manuscript date and locates the title in the third volume’s colophon, on folio 339a. A colophon is a note often found near the end of a manuscript that can record information about a copy, such as its title or when it was written. See the guide to colophons and ownership notes for the kinds of statements different notes can support. A copy date helps place that object in a history of reading and copying. To discuss the formation of the collection or the origin of a report, use evidence that addresses that earlier stage.

When reading a scan, use the shelfmark to identify the manuscript and the folio reference to return to the passage. The guide to Arabic manuscript scripts can help identify features of the handwriting. Another kind of manuscript evidence is an ijaza, or authorization to transmit a work. A licence may name a work, a teacher and a recipient. It documents transmission of the work at a particular stage. The isnad in a hadith entry records the route of a particular report. Keep the two sequences separate when a manuscript shows evidence of both.

Write a hadith reference someone else can follow

Start with the collection and the edition or site. Record the book or chapter, the report number and any letters or punctuation that are part of the reference. When an edition lists several numbers, keep the labels with the numbers. The English text on a website may use an older numbering system alongside a newer one. Citing Sahih al-Bukhari 54, Book of Belief, Book 2, Hadith 47, for example, lets readers recognize the entry even if their edition uses the older English number 52 in that book.

If your wording comes from an existing translation, name it when the source identifies the translator. If you condense the passage in your own words, mark it as a paraphrase. Read a line before and after the wording you intend to use, especially when a post contains only one sentence. In the intentions report, the migration example shows how the same outward act can be undertaken for different reasons. Including a reference to that example makes clear which teaching the short phrase summarizes.

For a first comparison, set Bukhari 1 and 54 side by side and note one feature in each of three places: the source names, the wording about migration and the labels beside the reference numbers. You will have identified a shared route, a difference in wording and a way to retrieve each entry. Those are practical starting points for reading other hadiths with a clear sense of what the text and the edition actually say.

Sources for reading the reports and manuscripts