Dirayat al-hadith: Difference between revisions

'''Diraya al-hadith''' (Arabic: درایة الحدیث, comprehension of hadith) is a branch of hadith-related Islamic disciplines. This discipline is concerned with the narration and comprehension of hadiths. There are differences between Shiite and Sunni definitions of diraya al-hadith. Many works have been authored concerning diraya al-hadith.

The word "diraya" and its cognates have been used in Sunni hadiths narrated from the Prophet (s), though sometimes with different words, such as "knowledgeable people are concerned with 'riʾaya' (observation) and unwise people are concerned with 'riwaya' (narration)". In another hadith from the Prophet (s), the person who knows and understands hadiths has been preferred to one who just narrates them.

In his classification of sciences and disciplines, Ibn Kafani has, for the first time, divided the discipline of hadith into two branches concerning riwaya (narration) and diraya (comprehension) of hadiths, giving definitions for each. He takes the discipline of riwaya al-hadith to study quotations of the Prophet (s)'s words and acts, an accurate report thereof, and a correction of words in hadiths. Diraya al-hadith, he says, is a discipline concerning the nature of narrating a hadith, conditions and types of such narration and the verdicts concerning them, the condition of the narrator of hadiths, and everything related to this.

He takes riwaya al-hadith to be a discipline that considers the meanings of the words appearing in hadiths, in accordance with the grammar of the Arabic language, evaluating hadiths with respect to the status of the Prophet (s).

[[al-Shahid al-Thani]]'s definition: a discipline in which the text of hadith and its attributes, such as correctness and illness, are discussed in order to tell acceptable hadiths apart from the unacceptable ones.

[[al-Shaykh al-Baha'i]]'s definition: with some changes into al-Shahid al-Thani's definition, he takes diraya al-hadith to be a discipline in which the narrative chain (sanad) of hadiths, its text, the manners of receiving and narrating a hadith are discussed.

Sunni scholars of hadith have not usually examined and criticized the above definitions of diraya al-hadith, but it might come under consideration in two respects: first, from the viewpoint of the relation between diraya al-hadith and its sub-disciplines, such as [[ilm al-rijal]]; and second, from the viewpoint of the relation between diraya al-hadith and riwaya al-hadith. Given the above definitions, all disciplines of hadith may be included within these two classes.

Some contemporary scholars of diraya al-hadith take all disciplines of hadith (6 such disciplines as they have listed) to be sub-disciplines of diraya al-hadith. But early scholars took all issues discussed in diraya al-hadith to be an independent discipline, without making any demarcations between them. For instance, one important branch of diraya al-hadith is ilm al-rijal (knowledge of the narrators of hadiths, especially with respect to their reliability), many issues of which, such as issues concerning the classes and names of narrators, are separate from, and additional to, issues of diraya al-hadith. The indeterminacy of the boundary between diraya al-hadith and other disciplines of hadith has led to confusions about the date when the first work in diraya al-hadith has been written. Whereas some independent works concerning some sub-disciplines of diraya al-hadith date back to sometime before the fourth century A.H. (tenth century), the first independent work in diraya al-hadith is taken to be that of Ramhurmuzi which is written in 360 A.H. (970).