Dirayat al-hadith: Difference between revisions

[[Sunni]] scholars of [[hadith]] have not usually examined and criticized the above definitions of dirayat 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).

With regard to the relation between riwaya al-hadith and diraya al-hadith, it should be said that the relation between diraya al-hadith and the texts of hadiths has sometimes been taken to be like the relation between an exegesis and the text that it interprets or that between judgments and events, and sometimes it has been taken to be like the relation between [[usul al-fiqh]] and [[fiqh]] or [[nahw]] (Arabic grammar) and iʾrab (that is, modulation of words and declensions).