About this course
Follow the development of hadith from transmission and writing to collection and criticism. The course begins with terminology, isnad and hadith qudsi, then examines debates over recording hadith and the emergence of major Sunni and Shia collections.
The later sections address forgery, authentication and classifications of reports. They also consider why narrations differ, examining audience, context, conditions, changing terminology and dialect. This progression places the language of hadith study alongside the historical and interpretive questions that accompany it.
What you’ll explore
- Hadith terminology, isnad and hadith qudsi
- The history of writing, prohibiting and collecting hadith
- Major Sunni and Shia hadith collections
- Forgery, criticism and classifications of reports
- Contradictions, contextual clues and differences between narrations
- Audience, time, conditions, terminology and dialect
Curriculum
- 01Print-Ready Course Notes
- 02The Definition and Significance of Hadith
- 03The Role of Isnaad in Hadith Authentication
- 04What Defines Hadith Literature?
- 05Defining Hadith Qudsi
- 06The Merits of Narrating Hadith
- 07The Merits of Writing and Memorizing Hadith
- 08The Quran and the Practice of Writing
Show the full curriculum (45)
- 09Conflicting Reports on Writing Hadith of the Prophet
- 10Hadith Prohibition During the Life of the Prophet
- 11Hadith Prohibition on the Prophet's Deathbed
- 12Hadith Prohibition During Abu Bakr's Caliphate
- 13Hadith Prohibition During Umar's Caliphate
- 14Hadith Prohibition During the Umayyad Caliphate
- 15Motivations Behind Hadith Prohibition
- 16Early Hadith Collection
- 17The Emergence of Musannaf Collections
- 18The Musnad Era
- 19The Sahih and Sunan Movement
- 20The Six Authentic Hadith Books in Sunni Islam
- 21Other Sunni Books of Hadith
- 22The Most Comprehensive Sunni Hadith Book
- 23Hadith of the Ahlul Bayt
- 24Hadith Collections of Ahlul Bayt
- 25Shia Resistance Against Hadith Ban
- 26Ancient Books of Hadith
- 27The Four Hundred Usul
- 28The Four Most Reliable Shia Hadith Collections
- 29Other Shia Hadith Collections
- 30The Journalist Analogy
- 31The Problem of Hadith Forgery
- 32The Development of Early Sunni Hadith Criticism
- 33Levels of Hadith in Sunni Islam
- 34Shia Hadith Criticism
- 35Levels of Hadith in Shia Islam
- 36Variances in Hadith
- 37Audiences of Prophetic Hadith
- 38Imam Ali Explains Why Hadiths Differ
- 39Contradictions in Shia Hadith
- 40Personal vs Universal
- 41Time-Bound vs Timeless
- 42Conditional vs Absolute
- 43The Loss of Contextual Clues
- 44Changing Terminology
- 45The Influence of Dialect
Before you begin
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