Al-Jarḥ wa at-Ta‘dīl

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The discipline by which ḥadīth scholars evaluated each narrator's trustworthiness — preserving the religion from corruption. A unique achievement of the Muslim Ummah unparalleled in any other tradition's textual history.

termPage.pronunciation al-JARḤ wa at-ta‘-DĪL

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Jarḥ = 'wounding' (criticism); ta‘dīl = 'declaring upright.' The scholar 'wounds' a weak narrator's reliability or 'validates' a trustworthy one.

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Foundational works include Ibn Abī Ḥātim's al-Jarḥ wa at-Ta‘dīl, al-Bukhārī's Tārīkh al-Kabīr, Ibn Ḥajar's Tahdhīb at-Tahdhīb, and adh-Dhahabī's Mīzān al-I‘tidāl. The Companions are exempt — their uprightness is established by the Qur'an and Sunnah.

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Critique of a narrator is not personal slander — it is religious counsel (naṣīḥah) protecting the Sharī‘ah from unreliable transmission, and the scholars who engaged in it were the most God-conscious.

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