The Sheikhs of Imam Al-Tirmithi from Whom he Narrated in his (Al-Jami') and Whom Ibn Hajar Criticized in his Book (Al-Taqreeb) An Analytical Inductive Study

Abstract

The authors of the six books of Hadith narration concurred on telling from some sheiks and diverged about others. One of those authors was Imam Al-Tirmithi – May Allah have mercy on him – and who documented in his book "Al-Jami' " for two hundred and fourteen sheiks. He shared more than one hundred and seventy sheiks with the other authors, but he singularly narrated from forty one sheiks. The study shows that among these forty one sheiks, thirteen sheiks were criticized by Ibn Hajar in his book Taqreeb Al-Tahdheeb by weakening them slightly or by abandoning their hadiths. The study tries to answer the main question represented in knowing who those weakened sheikhs and how to narrate from them. The importance of the study lies in tracking the approach of one of the prominent preceding critics in the method of his narration from his weakened sheikhs. The inductive analytical approach is employed in tracking Al-Tirmithi's sheikhs and stating their settings. The study shows the situations of these sheiks in relation to their ranking in terms of criticism and approval, their time statuses, the amount of their narrated hadiths, and Al-Tirmithi's methodology in narrating from them, as he knew their situations, and hence he narrated from them by coupling with others or with substantiation, or he chose some of their hadiths what is good for narration. But even those hadiths which they transmitted singularly and no one verified, he considered them weak, but he documented some just for explaining. The study recommends its emulation in tracking weakened sheikhs of the six books and how to narrate from them.