The process of authentication and citation of hadiths by the Imams of the Four Sunan

Abstract

The researcher aimed to study the conditions for the classification of Hadith by the authors of the four Sunan books – may Allah have mercy on them – and to explain the status of each of their four books in terms of containing authentic and weak hadiths. The research problem lies in the misconception that the contradiction among some texts of the purified Sunnah leads to a deficiency in understanding the meanings of these texts and undermines their reliability. Therefore, it was wise to explore the methods of the nation's leading scholars in addressing this problem, and to state the conditions set by each of the four Imams, and the status of their book among the Hadith books. The researcher adopted an analytical deductive methodology in her study and reached several results and recommendations, among which the most notable were related to the hadiths that are very weak or not very weak, whether they were clarified by the Imams or not, and who commented on the hadiths mentioned and who did not comment. Among the most important recommendations was that scientific bodies must define the conditions that must be met by those who delve into the science of Hadith, and to encourage researchers to study and analyze the conditions set by the Hadith scholars due to the scarcity of sources and references on this topic.