The Imams’ equation between the Hadith narrators using more appropriate terminology Analytical Inductive Study

Abstract

The critiques Imams used numerous terms to illustrate the narrator’s status in terms of the science of crediting and discrediting, and other terms to project the narrator’s status in relation to another narrator or more by way of comparison. Such comparisons are usually applied to the field narration precision. However, there are other considerations the Imams observe when comparing one narrator and another. Hence, I intend to shed light on a term that they hardly use, namely, such as saying, “So & so is finer to expose the Imam’s intended definitions of this term.

I have pursued in this research the inductive methodology and analysis and comparison.

Of the most significant results is that the use of the ‘Finer’ by the critiques was minimal, comparatively speaking; and the one who used it most was Abu Hatim Arrazi; although the Imams used to apply this term when comparing between narrators of the same rank who transmitted the texts from the same master, or who are contemporaries of the same locality, or if they were biological brothers.

The Imams’ intended considerations regarding this term are variant, but most of which occur when comparing narrators in terms of textual precision. It also includes the narrator being superior to other narrators in terms of authentication or having fewer demerits than the others in terms of discrediting. They also applied this term concerning the narrator’s trustworthiness and piety. It also applies to a narrator who is more serious in studying the Hadith than his contemporaries; as well as the narrator’s complacence and otherwise. Their use of the term is not restricted to the  comparison between narrators in terms of text precision.