By Shaykh Muhammad bin Salih Al-Uthaymin
About the Book:
Allah Subhana ta’ala has sent Prophet Muhammad (Sallallahu Alehe wassalam) with the guidance and religion of truth that it may prevail over all falsehood. Furthermore, he has been commanded to present all of the religion of Islam to mankind. So Allah Azza wa Jal revealed to him the Book (Al-Qur’an) and the Wisdom (the Sunnah) and commanded him to explain to the people what has been sent down to them, in order for them to ponder over, act upon and benefit from. Thus the Qur’an and the Sunnah are the two sources by which Allaah Tabarak Wa ta’ala has provided and establish the Hujja (proof) against His slaves and upon these two sources is built the ruling of belief and action (i.e. what beliefs and actions constitute the Shari’ah – the Divine Law).
So whoever uses Qur’anic text a source of proof, he only has to check the validity of the tafseer (explanation) of that text and does not need to check the authenticity of it’s isnad (chain of narrators). This is because the whole text of Qur’an was transmitted amongst the people in Mutawatir (multiple) form, therefore there is no doubt whatsoever regarding it’s authenticity. Furthermore, the Qur’an is set or fixed in both it’s text and it’s meanings, so no one can change or alter it.
However anyone who wishes to use the Sunnah as a source of proof has to be certain that it fulfills two important conditions:
1) The Sunnah been transmitted is truly connected to the Messenger of Allaah (Sallallahu Alehe wassalam) (i.e. the hadeeth is authentic)
2) The tafseer (explanation) of the hadeeth points to the proof, which is been established by the hadeeth.
So due to the first point, it was necessary to formulate a set of rules and principles as guidelines to differentiate between narrations which were authentically transmitted from the Prophet (Sallallahu Alehe wassalam) and those which had been falsely attributed to him. The Scholars of the past have under taken this enormous task and responsibility in collecting the various rules and principles regarding this subject, under the title “Mustalah Al Hadeeth” (the study/science of narrations).
Shaykh al-Uthaymeen gives readers a concise work, affordable and educational, on the rules and terminologies of hadeeth.
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