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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books The Qur'an and Hadith How To Test a Hadith? AHADITH have been collected by SUNNIS and SHI'AS alike indifferent books. But all those books are a collection of every kind of traditions. It must be clearly understood that there never was in Islam any system of canonization of the books. There was never any system of authorization by state or church for the publication of books.

It helped tremendously in the advancement of knowledge, because scholars were free to write whatever they liked. But so far as traditions were concerned it corrupted the authenticity of the traditions. Forgery and corruption of HADITH became a common disease. Soon devices had to be developed to test the authenticity or otherwise of traditions. The First Device was provided by the Holy Prophet himself. He told the Muslims to test any tradition with the QUR'AN.

It has been mentioned earlier that every word of the Prophet was based upon revelation. And QUR'AN also was revelation. And truth from the same source of knowledge cannot differ. Therefore, if a HADITH was not against QUR'AN, it was to be regarded as genuine one; if, on the other hand, it was against QUR'AN, the Holy Prophet ordered the Muslims to reject it outright as fabrication.

The Second Device was to check the character and life of those who narrated that tradition right from the person who claimed to have heard it from the Prophet to the last man in the chain. If the chain was broken or one or more links were weak or unreliable, then the HADITH lost its value. The subject which deals with the categories of the narrators is named '''ILMU 'R-RIJAL-KNOWLEDGE about men'''. It is an objective critique of every person in the field of tradition.

As it has direct bearing on the value of AHADITH, which is a part of revelation, this is one of the most important subjects of Islamic Theology. Thus, it will appear that though the books of AHADITH have not been purged from fabricated narrations, still we have full records by which every tradition may be tested, and accordingly accepted or rejected. The Third Device is of AD-DIRAYAH: It literally means "knowledge". In Islamic terminology it means verifying a HADITH with "known" factors.

For example, if a HADITH attributed to the Holy Prophet contains a word, which was not in use in his days, it will be a proof that that HADITH was forged.