امام احمدرضاخاں فاضل ِبریلویؒ کے فنِ حدیث پر اِ فادات کا ایک جامع تجزیاتی مطالعہ

A comprehensive analytical study of contribution of Imam Ahmed Raza Khan to Hadith Sciences

Abstract

The Muslims are agreed that the Sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad (sw) is the second of the two revealed fundamental sources of Islam, after the glorious Quran.The authentic Sunnah is contained within the vast body of Hadith literature. A Hadith is composed of two parts:  The Matn (text) and the Isnad (chain of reporters). A text may seem to be logical and reasonable but it needs an authentic Isnad with reliable reporters to be acceptable; one of the illustrious teachers of Imam al-Bukhari, said: “الاسناد من الدین، ولو الاسناد لقال من شاء ما شاء” The Isnad is part of the religion; had it not been for the Isnad, whoever wished to would have said whatever he liked. As time passed, more reports were involved in each Isnad, and so the situation demanded strickt discipline in the acceptance of hadith; the rules regulating this discipline are known as Mustalah al-Hadith (the classification of Hadith). There is very little of what i can say about the sciences that the extraordinary personality Imam Ahmed Raza Khan had aquired. It is sufficient to know that his knowledge,Taqwa and level of mastery were acknowledged by the masters themselves; The renowned jurists, masters of Hadith and scholars of traditional Islamic Sciences from the two Holy sanctuaries and the subcontinent. His works in the Hadith area, Imam Ahmed Raza khan has written a huge amount on inference of rulings from Hadith proof texts 'Fiqh al-Hadith', legal Hanafi methodology and authentic Hadith, principles of Hadith 'usul al-hadith' and biographies of men 'Asma al-Rijal' .Imam Ahemd Raza Khan had strong knowledge of Fiqh al-Hadith. His works such as 'Hajiz al-Bahrain' and 'Al-Fadhl al-Mawhabi' shed light on his Manhaj in conciliating contradictory texts and lifting the conflict of narrations, as if there was no contradiction in the first place.His mastry can be identified by the fact that when he wrote a Hadith, it would seem that all of its channels of transmission, narrators and sources were infront of his eyes.Whenever we read the works of Imam Ahmed Raza Khan, we can find five things in them regarding Hadith, like relevancy to the issue, provided vast Hadith textual collection, accuracy in Hadith terminology, criticism of narrators and had a great deal of conciliation between mutually contradictory Hadith narrations. He is the one who introduced a new form of Hadith called (Fiqh ul Hadith).He left a great treasure of Hadith knowledge for the reader.