
Hadith studies
Hadith studies are a number of
religious disciplines used in the study and evaluation of the Islamic hadith by
Muslim scholars. It has been described by one hadith specialist, Jalal al-Din
al-Suyuti, as the science of the principles by which the conditions of both the
sanad, the chain of narration, and the matn, the text of the hadith, are known.
This science is concerned with the sanad and the matn with its objective being
distinguishing the sahih, authentic, from other than it. Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani
said the preferred definition is: knowledge of the principles by which the
condition of the narrator and the narrated are determined.