Hadith sciences: how a report is graded
Islamic Studies · a self-paced course lesson
Every hadith has an ISNAD (the chain of narrators) and a MATN (the text). Scholars examined both: who narrated it, whether each could have met the next, and what was known of their memory and honesty — alongside whether the text contradicts the Quran or established reports. A discipline of biographical evaluation grew up around this, recording tens of thousands of narrators.