- Ilm ar-Rijal
Ilm al-Rijal (Arabic) is the "science of
people " especially as practiced inIslam , where it was first applied to the "Sirah Rasul Allah ", the life ofMuhammad .Since the "sira" is part of the
sunnah , or moral example thatMuslim s are supposed to follow, and validating the sayings of Muhammad is a major study ("isnad "), accurate biography has always been of great interest to Muslims.Another important influence of biography on Islam is in the recording of the lives of the four
Rightly Guided Caliphs , who expanded Islamic dominance rapidly:
*Abu Bakr Siddiq
*Umar al-Khattab
*Othman bin Affan
*Ali ibn Abu Talib During the 30 years from the death of Muhammad to the death of Ali, Islam had spread from
Libya toAfghanistan , fromArmenia toSind andGujarat , and also inSpain andChina . The risk of factional splintering, variant heresies regarding the life of Muhammad, and the gains that local leaders could gain by promoting such division grew to extremes.Muslim biographers, accordingly, became expert at sorting out facts from accusations, bias from evidence, etc., and were renowned throughout the known world for their honesty in recording history - many in fact considered acknowledging faults in leaders to be a matter of religious duty, comparing their various failings to the
sira or life of Muhammad. Modern practices ofscientific citation andhistorical method owe a great deal to therigor theisnad tradition of early Muslims.Books about Ilm ar-Rijal
*
The Great History
*The Book of Knowledge about the Companions
*The Comprehensive Compilation of the Names of the Prophet's Companions
*Finding the Truth in Judging the Companinons
*The Lions of the Forest and the knowledge about the Companions
*The book of The Major Classes
*History of Damascus
*Al-Kamal fi ma`rifat al-rijal ee also
*
Bias
*Biography
*Science of hadith
*Narrators of hadith
*Sira External links
* [http://www.bogvaerker.dk/Bookwright/rijal.html Rijal]
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