Description:

A review of the history of human intellectual disciplines shows that sciences have not emerged instantaneously. Rather they have grown over time and have been perfected through the ages under the influences of a multiplicity of causes. Islamic sciences (‘ulūm), especially the discipline of hadith, have had such a trajectory. In its initial stages, hadith was merely concerned with hearing and learning the statements of the Infallibles (as), committing them to the memory or writing them down, and eventually transmitting them to those who were yearning to learn them.
Hadith has a noble status in Islam because, after the Qur’an, it is the most important source from which the intentions of Shari‘a can be derived. From the Shī’ī perspective, after the Prophet
Muhammad (s) the infallible Imams were in charge of the explication of Shari’a. The Imams would explain the revelation at various stages and further explicate jurisprudential and
theological issues with their own hadiths.

The narrators of hadith were not equal in committing the hadiths to their memory, and in being trustworthy and honest. There were also mendacious and untrustworthy individuals
among the narrators of hadith. Also, the similarity in the names of some of the narrators would mean that a jurisconsult would lose confidence in the hadiths narrated by such narrators. As a
rule, a jurisconsult cannot issue a certain fatwa until he is fully confident that narrations that form the basis of that fatwa can be trusted. In this manner, in the history of hadith and in the transmission of hadiths to the later generation such problems as fabrication, distortion, misspelling, and other impairments emerged. Hence, Muslim scholars established a number of disciplines to distinguish the reliable from the unreliable hadiths so that they could benefit from the pristine discourses of the Infallibles (as).

One such discipline is the science of Rijāl which plays a role in filtering the authentic hadiths from non-authentic ones. A jurisconsult can utilise this science to find out about the life of
the narrators and assess their trustworthiness and retentiveness, thereby establishing a reliable procedure for deriving religious decrees. Not only the jurisconsults but also the scholars in such fields as history, exegesis, and theology need the science (‘Ilm ) of Rijāl because the hadiths of the Infallibles (as) form a significant part of the sources in these fields. Such scholars cannot truly utilise these sources without employing the methods and procedures of the science of Rijāl.

His eminence Dr. Sobhani, with decades of experience in academia, takes the readers’ hand and navigates them through important Rijāl themes by providing numerous examples, making the journey through this book a fun and pleasant undertaking.

The book is comprised of 15 chapters. Here are some of the most important sections:
• Defining the ‘Ilm al – Rijāl
• Arguments for the ‘Ilm al – Rijāl
• Arguments against ‘Ilm al – Rijāl
• How to Know Narrators’ Qualities
• A Glance at Modern and Old ‘Ilm al – Rijāl Literature