Hadith (acceptance as a source of Islamic law)
(1) Sahih("Authentic or sound"): A hadith that satisfies all five criteria for acceptance as Islamic law.
(1)Continuity of the chain of transmission
(2)Integrity of the transmitter
(3)Soundness of the transmitter's memory,
(4)Confirmability
(5)Absence of defects
(2) Hasan("Good or approved"): A hadith that satisfies all five criteria for acceptance, with the exception that some of its transmitters are found to have a defective memory in comparison with transmitters of an As-Sahih Hadith.
(3) Da'if ("Weak"): A hadith that does not satisfy all five criteria for acceptance. It is important to understand that da'if does not equate with false. Da'if Ahadith are further categorized according to continuity in the chain of transmission:
(a) Muttasil("Continous"): No narrator at any stage of narration is missing, thereby making the chain continuous.
(b)Mu'allaq("Hanging): Continuity in the transmission is disturbed at the beginning of the chain.
(c)Munqati'("Interupted"): Continuity is disturbed in the middle of the chain.
(d)Mu'dal("Problematic"): Two or more succesive transmitters are missing from the middle chain.
(e)Mursal("Incompletely Transmitted"): The first transmitter, a Sahabi, is missing from the chain.
extracted from the book Scholars of Hadith by Syed Bashir Ali(IQRA' International Educational Foundation)2003
(1) Sahih("Authentic or sound"): A hadith that satisfies all five criteria for acceptance as Islamic law.
(1)Continuity of the chain of transmission
(2)Integrity of the transmitter
(3)Soundness of the transmitter's memory,
(4)Confirmability
(5)Absence of defects
(2) Hasan("Good or approved"): A hadith that satisfies all five criteria for acceptance, with the exception that some of its transmitters are found to have a defective memory in comparison with transmitters of an As-Sahih Hadith.
(3) Da'if ("Weak"): A hadith that does not satisfy all five criteria for acceptance. It is important to understand that da'if does not equate with false. Da'if Ahadith are further categorized according to continuity in the chain of transmission:
(a) Muttasil("Continous"): No narrator at any stage of narration is missing, thereby making the chain continuous.
(b)Mu'allaq("Hanging): Continuity in the transmission is disturbed at the beginning of the chain.
(c)Munqati'("Interupted"): Continuity is disturbed in the middle of the chain.
(d)Mu'dal("Problematic"): Two or more succesive transmitters are missing from the middle chain.
(e)Mursal("Incompletely Transmitted"): The first transmitter, a Sahabi, is missing from the chain.
extracted from the book Scholars of Hadith by Syed Bashir Ali(IQRA' International Educational Foundation)2003
