Dirayat al-hadith: Difference between revisions

{{unreferenced}}

==Literal Meaning==

==In Shiite Hadiths==

It is obvious that for [[Shi'a|Shiite]] scholars, unlike [[Sunni]] scholars, dirayat al-hadith and the [[science of rijal]] are not identical; they are completely independent. Thus Shiite scholars did not take the science of rijal to be part of dirayat al-hadith and took discussions about the chains of narrators of hadiths in the science of rijal and dirayat al-ahdith to be of totally different characters: in the latter, the general principles governing such chains are discussed, and in the former, individual instances of the narrators are considered as to, say, whether they are reliable or not. In practice, however, since dirayat al-hadith draws upon the results of the science of rijal, it is common for some issues of the science of rijal to be discussed in dirayat al-hadith, such as [[al-jarh wa al-ta'dil]] (that is, taking a narrator as reliable or unreliable), introduction of trustworthy books of the science of rijal, and contradictions in reports about a narrator of hadiths.

This discipline has also been called "'ulum al-hadith" (sciences of [[hadith]]), "mustalah al-hadith" (terminologies of hadith), and "usul al-hadith" (principles of hadith). Among [[Shiite]] scholars, however, the term "dirayat al-hadith", or sometimes "diraya" for short, is most commonly used. And for Shiite scholars, the term, "usul al-hadith", has come to refer to the main books of hadith, such as [[Al-Kutub al-Arba'a]] (The Four Books).

The formation of dirayat al-hadith should be taken to be a result of extensive interactions between scholars of [[hadith]], scholars of [[fiqh]], and those of [[kalam]]. The path has sometimes been different for [[Shiite]] and [[Sunni]] scholars. For Sunnis, some issues of dirayat al-hadith came under focus since the period of [[sahaba]] ([[the Prophet (s)]]'s immediate companions). There are cases of works written about some issues of dirayat al-hadith which date back to the late second century/early 9th century. [[Shafi'i]] is the first to have written about this in his ''al-Risala''.

Some terminologies of [[hadith]]-related disciplines are formed in the 3rd/9th century. In this period, scholars of hadith and the [[science of Rijal]] discussed some issues of dirayat al-hadith in the introduction of their books; issues such as the manners of hearing a hadith and delivering it to others, types of acceptable and unacceptable hadiths, and classes of [[:category:narrators of hadith|narrators of hadiths]]. According to Nur al-Din 'Itr, ''al-'Ilal'' by al-Tirmidhi (d. 279/ 892), which is published at the end of his collection of Hadith, known as ''Jami' al-tirmidhi'', is distinguished for its definitions of some terms in dirayat al-hadith.

* The material for writing this article has been mainly taken from [http://fa.wikishia.net/view/درایة_الحدیث درایة الحدیث] in Farsi wikishia.

{{Seminary}}

[[fa:درایة الحدیث]]

[[Category:Hadith]]