The “Good Tradition” and its Authoritativeness
By Dr. ‘Abdul’ Azeez ‘al Jaasim
This paper aims at defining the two types of the “Good Tradition” (‘al-Hadith ‘al hassan), through discussing objectively the definitions offered by scholars for that category of, Tradition” and its two types.
The paper dealt, also, with the “Weakness” that can be supported, particularly the types of weakness that are supportable according to ‘Imam ‘at-Tirmidhi and other Hadithists.
Another point studied here is defining those whose narrations of Traditions are neither acceptable, qualified to support others, nor supportable themselves, as well as offering some evaluation of the narrators in regard to Accuracy (dubt).
How authoritative the two types of the “Good Tradition”, and what are the levels of self-supported “Good Tradition” (Hassan lidhatih), were also investigated in this paper which came to the conclusion that the two types of the “Good Tradition” are authoritative and must be accepted as a source for Islamic legislation as confirmed by many statements of scholars.
The writer clarified, as well, that the term ‘al-Hassan” was used by some scholars before ‘imam ‘at Tirmidhi, but that ‘imam was the first scholar to classify Traditions into the three conventional categories. ‘At Tirmidhi’s predecessors’ usage of that term was not so academic like his; hence, they, sometimes, used it to mean the “Weak Tradition” (‘ad-Da’eef) and sometimes to mean the “Authentic” (‘as-Saheeh). Allah knows best.