With the emergence of unreliable hadith students in the second half of the first (VIIth) century, the need to evaluate the narrators and narrations with certain terms in terms of their nature and content in terms of whether they were reliable or not arose, and the studies on this subject continued to develop in the next two centuries. It is possible to categorise these terms under several groups:

1-According to the Source of Hadith. When the Prophet said some hadiths with his own expression and style, it was taken into consideration that the meaning of these words was inspired to his heart by Allah and they were called sacred hadiths. Since these narrations, which are also called divine hadiths and rabbinic hadiths, may contain sahih, weak, and even mawḍū, the criteria of criticism have also been applied to the sacred hadiths. Those who accept that the other hadiths of the Messenger of Allah do not have this quality have found it appropriate to call them “prophetic hadith” as the opposite of “sacred hadith”. From the Sahaba to the present day, any sahih, weak, or even fabricated word, deed, or statement that anyone, with or without a hadith, attributes directly to the Messenger of Allah by saying, “The Prophet said this” or “the Prophet did this” is called merfū hadith (hadith that reached the Prophet). This is not a term of evaluation, but refers to the attribution of the word to the Prophet. Likewise, the word, act, or statement that is attributed to one of the Companions, with or without a sened, as “So and so said this” or “did that” is called mawkuf hadith because it did not reach the Prophet but remained in the generation of the Companions, and those attributed to a scholar from the generation of the tâbiîn or taba’t-tâbiîn are called maktû hadith.

2-According to the Number of Narrators. Some hadiths are narrated by one or more than one narrator. According to the number of narrators, hadiths are divided into two as mutawâtir and âhâd. Mutawâtir hadîths are hadîths related to an event that was seen or heard and narrated by a group of narrators who are so numerous that the mind cannot accept that they are united in narrating a false report from a group like themselves. Unlike other narrations, mutawâtir hadiths are not subject to criticism because they are solid news that give certain information. Among these narrations that are necessary to be acted upon, those whose words are the same are called “verbal mutawâtir” and their number is very few. Although there is a difference between the words, the narrations whose contents are the same are called “spiritual mutawâtir”. The number of mutawâtir hadiths varies between 100 and 300.

    The narrations that do not reach the degree of mutawâtir in terms of the number of the narrators are considered as âhâd hadith (bk. HABER-i VâHİD). The narrations that do not reach the degree of mutawâtir, but have a kind of spiritual tawâtura due to their spread among muhaddithis, jurists, even other scholars and Muslims, are called famous hadith. Even if the narrators in the periods of the Ashâb and the tâbiîn were one or two people, these hadiths, which were narrated by more than two narrators in each generation afterwards, were called müstafîz by the scholars of fiqh, taking into account their widespread use. Since the fact that a hadith is famous does not exclude it from criticism, such hadiths are divided into sections such as sahih, hasan, weak, and mawḍū in terms of reliability. Hadiths with at least two narrators in each layer from beginning to end were called azīz. There are some who do not adopt this definition and call the hadiths narrated by two or three people from one teacher as azīz. Hadiths in which the number of narrators is reduced to one in any part of the script are called strange. If the single narrator is on the side of the Companion, these narrations are called absolute gharīb (absolute ferd), and in other parts, they are called relative gharīb (relative ferd).

    3-According to the degree of authenticity. The value of hadiths as evidence depends on their degree of authenticity (soundness). Hadiths that are suitable to be evidence due to the soundness of their scripts and texts are called acceptable in general terms, and those that are not so are called merdud. On the other hand, hadiths are divided into three categories according to whether they are reliable or not. A sahih hadith is a hadith narrated by a narrator who fulfils the divine commands and avoids sins (âdil) and preserves the hadith as he received it from his teacher until he narrates it to someone else (zabt), provided that it does not contradict the narrations of reliable narrators (shâz) and does not have a hidden defect (illet) in its script and text. The highest of the sahih hadiths are the mutawâtir narrations. Although there are many sahih hadiths in other books of hadith, the most reliable hadiths are gathered in al-Jāmiʿu’ṣ-ṣaḥīḥ of al-Bukhārī and Muslim. A hasan hadīth, which is one grade lower than a sahīh, is a hadīth whose narrator is slightly defective in terms of zabt. These hadiths were used as evidence by scholars of fiqh. Tirmidhī’s al-Jāmiʿ al-ṣaḥīḥ and the sunnas of Abū Dāwūd, al-Nasāʾī, and Ibn Mājah are among the sources where hasan hadiths are found in large numbers. In order to express that sahih and hasan hadiths are acceptable and suitable for evidence, terms such as “jayyid, mujawwad, stable, qawī, qawī, mahfūz, ma’rūf, sālih” were also used. The narrations that do not meet the conditions of sahih and hasan hadith are considered weak. A significant number of scholars have said that weak hadiths can be used in matters where there is no sahih or hasan hadith, provided that they are not too defective. Weak hadith is referred to by different names according to the fact that it does not have one or more of the characteristics that should be present in a sahih hadith.

    4-According to the absence of a break in the script. The hadiths that do not have a break in the chain of isnad from the first to the last narrator in the hadith’s senad, whether they are merfoo, mawquf or maqtû, are called muttasıl and mawsul. These narrations are also called mursnad based on the fact that there are no breaks in their scripts. However, generally, the hadiths that are mursnad are the narrations that reached the Prophet without any breaks in the script. When the Messenger of Allah (saw) repeats a gesture (e.g. holding the hand of a Companion) or a word (e.g. beginning the hadith with an oath), or both the gesture and the word are repeated by each of the narrators while narrating the hadith, the hadith is called mursal. The muttaasıl nature of hadiths does not indicate their soundness. If the narrators in the hadith’s senad narrate the hadith with the syllable “an” instead of “semi’tü, haddesenâ, ahberenâ”, which clearly shows that they heard it from each other, the hadith is called muan’an, and if they narrate it with the syllable “enna”, it is called mu’an. In order for muan’an and mu’an’an hadiths to be accepted as muttasıl, it must be known that the narrators in their senedas are just, that they do not use “tedlîs” (see below), and that they narrate the hadiths in a reliable way by talking to each other.

    5-According to the presence of a discontinuity in the script. The hadiths with a discontinuity in the script were considered weak and were called by different names according to the place of the discontinuity and the number of missing narrators. Among these, the mursal ones are the hadiths that a tâbiîn attributed to the Prophet by omitting the name of the Companion from whom he received the hadith. However, contrary to the later muhaddithis, the muhaddithis of the mutaqaddimūn and the scholars of jurisprudence and usul al-fiqh called every hadith with a broken senedium as mursal. While most of the scholars said that a mursal hadith is weak, some scholars accepted the mursals narrated by sika narrators as sahih. A munqati’ hadith is a hadith that is missing at least one or more than one narrator, not necessarily consecutively, or only one of the tābiī narrators or an unknown narrator in the hadith. A Mu’dal hadith is a hadith in which two or more of the narrators are missing from any part of the hadith. Mursal and munkati’ narrations in which one of the narrators is missing are considered weak, and mu’dal narrations in which two or more narrators are missing are considered even weaker than them. A mudelles hadith is a hadith whose defect is concealed by the narrator and narrated as if it had no defect. For example, a narrator narrating a hadith as if he had heard it from a person from whom he had not heard a hadith, or referring to a weak teacher with an unknown nickname or attribute in order to conceal his status are considered as defects (tedlîs). A hadith narrated by dropping one or more of the last narrators or even all the narrators from the last narrator is called muallak. Some muhaddithis such as al-Bukhārī, when they wanted to express a matter briefly, usually mentioned the hadiths that had no breaks in the senedah by omitting the whole senedah or a part of the senedah. Since their intention was known, such incomplete narrations were not considered weak.

    6-According to the Fault of the Narrator. The hadith narrators were criticised by the hadith scholars either in terms of moral and religious defects such as lying, laxity in worship (adālat) or mental deficiencies (zabt) such as being very mistaken, memory impairment, carelessness. Accordingly, the hadiths narrated by the narrators have different names and are evaluated at different levels. A hadith in which a mistake is made in the hadith script or text because the narrator misreads a word or mishears it while listening to his teacher is called musahhaf. In later periods, this meaning changed, and the hadiths in which punctuation mistakes were made even though the spelling of the word was not distorted were called musahhaf, and those in which the movement and letter mistakes were made were called muharraf. These hadiths can be sahih, hasan or weak according to the status of their scripts and texts. Muztarib hadith are narrations that are narrated by the narrators in opposition to each other, one of which cannot be preferred to the other or compiled with each other. The distress caused by the defect of memory of the narrator is more common in the script than in the text and leads to the weakness of the hadith. A hadith narrated by one of the narrators by changing the words in the text or script, or substituting one word for another word is called maklūb. The word or sentence that the narrator of the hadith says for the purpose of explanation, but which is narrated with the hadith by his disciples under the assumption that it is in the text or script of the hadith, and therefore the hadith containing this excess is called mudraj. Some hadiths, even if they are thought to be perfect in terms of their outward appearance, may carry a hidden defect (illet) that prevents them from being authentic and is only recognised by hadith scholars. Such hadiths are called muallel or ma’lul. A hadith narrated by a reliable hadith narrator in a way that contradicts the narration of a more reliable narrator or narrators is called shāz. The narration of the more trustworthy narrator is called mahfuz, and this hadith is preferred over the other for use as evidence. If a sika narrator, together with his companions, narrates a hadith that he received from a muhaddith with an extra part that they did not say, this extra part is called “ziyādat al-sika” and the additional part can be used as evidence. Even if the narrator is reliable, a hadith with only one senad is considered shāz by some scholars. On the contrary, the narration of a weak narrator that contradicts the narration of a reliable person is called munkar, and the narration of a reliable narrator, which is the opposite of munkar, is called ma’rûf, and this hadith is used as evidence. The hadith narrated by a narrator who is accused of lying in the hadith or who is known to have lied in his private life, to have committed great sins or to have been very wrong is called metrûk (matrûh).

      Narrations fabricated by liars and attributed to the Prophet are called mawḍū. Some malicious people, with the idea of gaining material or spiritual benefit, or some well-intentioned people, with the desire to gain good deeds, have fabricated some words they have heard or heard and liked and transmitted them as hadith, thus making it difficult for Muslims to get their religion from its pure source to some extent. The muhaddithis have developed various methods to identify and weed out the fabricated narrations and have produced great efforts for this purpose. The people who tried to spread the narrations fabricated as hadiths or the narrations they themselves fabricated for the sake of their own interests were called “kussâs”.

      This article was included in the 15th volume of the TDV Encyclopaedia of Islam, published in Istanbul in 1997, on pages 27-64.