- Musnad (hadith)
Musnad is a term used in the science of
hadith to classify a certain type of hadith. The most famous collection of musnad hadiths was compiled by Ahmad ibn Hanbal in his Musnad Ahmad ibn Hanbal, which contains over 30,000 musnad hadiths.Definition of a Musnad Hadith
The scholar of
hadith , Muhammad ibn Abdullah al-Hakim, defines a "musnad" ("supported") hadith as:"A hadith which a traditionalist reports from his shaykh (i.e. teacher of hadith) from whom he is known to have heard (i.e. studied) at a time of life suitable for learning, and similarly in turn for each shaykh (i.e. teacher of hadith) until the
isnad (i.e. chain of narrators) reaches a well knownSahaba (i.e., companion of the Prophet muhammad), who in turn reports from the Prophet (Muhammad )." [ [http://islamonline.net/English/HadithAndItsSciences/HadithMethodology/2005/05/01.shtml#1 Islam Online - Hadith & Its Sciences ] ]As such, a musnad hadith is one where each narrator of a hadith reports from someone he is known to have studied hadith from. This will continue until it includes a
Sahaba who in turn reports it directly fromMuhammad .
Hadiths where there is a break in theisnad (meaning, at least two people in the chain of narrators are not known to have reported hadiths from each other) are not considered musnad. Moreover, those hadiths that are not narrated to be the words ofMuhammad would also not be considered musnad.Example of a Musnad Hadith
An example of a musnad hadith as reported by al-Hakim is as follows:
"We reported from Abu Amr 'Uthman ibn Ahmad al-Sammak al-Baghdadi from al-Hassan ibn Mukarram from Uthman ibn Amr from Yunus ibn Zaid from al-Zuhri from Abdullah ibn Ka'b ibn Malik from his father (Ka'b ibn Malek who had asked ibn Abi Hadrad (a Sahaba) for payment of a debt he owed to him in the mosque. During the ensuing argument, their voices were raised until heard by the Messenger of Allah (
Muhammad ), who eventually lifted the curtain of his apartment and said, "O Ka'b! Write off a part of your debt." So he (Ka'b) agreed, and the man paid him."This
hadith fulfills all the characteristics required of a musnad hadith. First, each of the narrators (e.g Abu Amr 'Uthman ibn Ahmad al-Sammak al-Baghdadi, al-Hassan ibn Mukarram, etc.) is known to have studied hadith from the person he reports from. Moreover, this hadith includes the saying ofMuhammad himself as part of the hadith.References
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