Overview:

This webinar will offer a comprehensive approach to understanding the Prophetic Hadith based on the classification of the Sunnah according to its main themes (Abwāb), which in turn will resolve issues that we might face in our perception of the Sunnah, and make it closer to the overall vision of Islam. Dealing with hadiths according to their classified sections provides precise controls for dealing with the circumstantial aspects which they are associated with. The basics of this idea are not new, but are deep-rooted within our heritage. 

Hadith scholars were aware of this, and classified their books into sections and chapters under which hadiths were included, and they also considered this classification as key to understanding hadiths. The idea of a denied (munkar) hadith is also related to this meaning because the denial of its al-matan has a relationship to the circumstantial aspects in which the hadith is presented. Likewise, scholars of usul al-fiqh and jurists have developed conditions for accepting hadiths that are not limited to the authenticity of the chain of narration (isnaad).

This research project intends to contribute to this trend by defining the characteristics of the substantive sections of the hadith, not from the aspect of its specific detailed events concerning the jurisprudential inference, but from the standpoint of the whole structure of the categories of these hadiths. The project plan draws a quintet map for these sections that intersect with four applied domains. The five sections of the topics are: creeds, rituals, ethics, behavior, and human sociology (sociology, economy, and politics). The four applied domains are the human capacity to understand; the role of the human experience; the circumstantial relationship; and the interaction of the human conscience with the Prophetic guidance. This means that these applied domains are different in nature according to the hadith section, affecting the way we look at the hadith and explore its purpose. For example, the circumstantial relationship is high in economic issues and absent in the creeds section.