An Introduction to Takhrij A Very Brief Step-by- Step Guide on How to Look up Hadith In this era in which information (both accurate and inaccurate) is so readily available and questionable narrations are widely circulated, it is especially important to verify narrations and attribute them to their original source. Moreover, properly finding and citing ahadith is an essential skill for students of knowledge and scholars1. In Arabic, this science is called takhrij. Due to the sheer vastness of the hadith literature, finding a specific hadith may seem like a daunting task. However, the ‘ulama of this umma have gone to painstaking lengths in order to ensure that we have the utmost ease in finding ahadith. The first step to successful takhrij is being aware of books and knowing how to use them. Based on the information that you have, there are a few ways that you can look up a hadith. Below is a very brief introductory guide on how to get started finding the ahadith that you want. 1) If you know the narrator of the hadith: o You can look in a musnad work. Musnads are collections of ahadith arranged by the sahabi narrating the hadith. One of the most famous musnad works is Musnad Ahmad bin Hanbal – a massive collection of ahadith comprising near 30,000 narrations, collected by the great imam and mujtahid, Imam Ahmad bin Hanbal (d. 241). Atraf works are collections of ahadith .)أطراف( o You can also check a book of atraf that are categorized by the narrator, and under each narrator’s entry, ahadith are categorized by the beginning few words of ahadith. One of the most famous atraf works is called Tuhfat al-Ashraf bi Ma‘rifat al-Atraf by Hafiz Mizzi (d. 742). Additionally, you can check Ithaf al-Maharah by Hafiz Ibn Hajar (d. 852). 2) If you know the beginning part of the hadith: o You can check a work that categorizes ahadith alphabetically, based on the first few words. A major work in this category is Imam Suyuti’s (d. 911) al-Jami’ as-Saghir. o You can additionally refer to works that collect narrations/sayings that are commonly quoted as ahadith (regardless if they are actual ahadith or not). This genre Prominent works in this category include .كتب اﻷحاديث املشتهرة ىلع اﻷلسنة is called Kashf al-Khafa’ by Imam ‘Ajluni (d. 1162) and al-Maqasid al-Hasanah by Imam Sakhawi (d. 902). 1 Generally speaking, the status of a hadith cannot be definitively determined without doing takhrij of the hadith. A hadith might appear to be sahih, but takhrij might reveal that the particular wording of the hadith is shadh. Similarly, a hadith might appear to be da‘if, but takhrij of the hadith might reveal that it has many supporting narrations that elevate its status. This spills over into fiqh as well, as a student/scholar will not know what capacity they can use the hadith in without knowing the status of the hadith. Similarly, a faqih might extract a ruling based on the implications of certain words in the hadith. Yet takhrij might reveal that a more authentic version of the hadith exists with alternative wording. 3) If you know the topic of the hadith: o You can refer to the index of any major hadith work. Most hadith collections, especially the sunan works, the jami‘ works, and the sahihayn are arranged topically. They consist of kitabs, which gather ahadith based on the broader subject matter. These kitabs are further categorized into babs, which deal with the specific topic of the hadith. So for you might ,ﷺ example, if you wanted to look up a hadith on the tahajjud of the Prophet first pick up Bukhari, go to the back of the book where the index is, look for Kitab as- Salah, scroll through the babs and look for a relevant bab. You might then find the hadith ,or a related bab. If you don’t find the hadith you are looking for باب قيام انليب ﷺالليل in you could perhaps check the index of Sahih Muslim, Sunan Abi Dawud, Sunan at- Tirmidhi, or any other hadith book. An easy way to do this is to refer to a topically 2 -by Ibn al جامع اﻷصول arranged work that gathers together many hadith works, such as 3 .(by ‘Ali al-Muttaqi (d. 975 كزن العمال Athir (d. 606), or 4) If you know a word of the hadith: )املعجم املفهرس ﻷلفاظ o You can refer to al-Mu’jam al-Mufahris li Alfaz al-Hadith an-Nabawi This amazing index of the words of ahadith is arranged alphabetically and . احلديث انلبوي( categorizes words by their root letters. To use this work, you simply have to look up a word in the hadith, and the book will tell you where the hadith is. If you can’t find the specific hadith in question under one word, check another word. This work was remarkably compiled in a time before computers, meaning that the author searched through all these ahadith and categorized them by hand. o You can also check books of Gharib al-Hadith. These works define and explain difficult words that arise in the Quran and hadith. Furthermore, many of these books cite the narrations that these words come in along with the reference. Prominent books in this category include an-Nihayah fi Gharib al-Hadith by Imam Ibn al-Athir, Majma’ Bihar al- Anwar by ‘Allamah Muhammad Tahir Patni. 5) If you know anything about the content of the hadith: o If the hadith seems a bit unusual, you can check books of mawdu‘at (fabrications). A 4 .(by Ibn ‘Arraq (d. 963 تزنيه الرشيعة املرفوعة comprehensive book in this category is 2 The narrations in Jami‘ al-Usul are arranged by topic, and the topics are arranged alphabetically. For example, a hadith Jami‘ al-Usul is a collection of the six books with al-Muwatta in place of Sunan Ibn .ص related to salah would be under Majah. 3 Like Jami ‘ al-Usul, Kanz al-‘Ummāl is categorized by topic, and the topics are arranged alphabetically. Kanz al-‘Ummāl is a collection of three valuable works of the great Imām Suyūti: (1) al-Jami’ as-Saghīr, (2) al-Jāmi’ al-Kabīr (also known as Jam‘ al-Jawāmi‘), and (3) Ziyadāt al-Jāmi’ as-Saghīr. 4 Ibn al-Jawzi (d. 597) authored al-Mawdu‘at, in which he collected narrations he believed to be fabricated. Thereafter, in which he summarized Ibn al-Jawzi’s mawdu‘at and challenged his ruling on about الﻷيل املصنوعة Imam Suyuti wrote or القول ابلديع (o If the hadith is regarding salawat, you can check Imam Sakhawi’s (d. 902 .ادلر املنضود (Imam Ibn Hajar al-Haytami’s (d. 975 You can also .نصب الراية (o If the hadith is Fiqh related, check Imam Zayla‘i’s (d. 762 .تلخيص احلبري ,or Hafiz Ibn Hajar’s summary of it ابلدر املنري (check Ibn Mulaqqin’s (d. 804 o If the hadith is Usul al-Fiqh related, check works that reference ahadith found in Usul by Qasim bin Qutlubugha (d. 879) or the َ ختريج أحاديث أصول الزبدوي al-Fiqh books, such as موافقة various takhrijs of the celebrated usul work al-Mukhtasar by Ibn al-Hajib, such as by Hafiz Ibn حتفة الطالب ,by Ibn Mulaqqin اغية املأمول الراغب ,by Hafiz Ibn Hajar ال خرب ال رب Kathir (d. 774). .by Hafiz Ibn Hajar نتائج اﻷفاكر o If the hadith is a dua, check o If the hadith is related to virtues of the Sahabah, check biographic encyclopedias of خ by Ibn Abd al-Barr اﻹستيعاب يف معرفة اﻷصحاب ,by Ibn al-Athir أ خسد الغابة Sahabah, such as by Hafiz Ibn Hajar. Additionally, you can also look in اﻹصابة يف تميزي الصحابة d. 463), or) al-Mustadrak5 of Imam Hakim (d. 405). A General Approach to Takhrij: In your quest to find a hadith, you might be looking to take a bottom-up approach, attempting to find the hadith in as many sources as possible. This may be to compare variant wordings, trace the paths of transmission, cross-reference, identify where an anomaly might have arisen in a certain version of a hadith, or anything else. Whatever your goal is, here is a brief guide to how you can get started: .(by Hafiz Mizzi (d. 742 (حتفة اﻷرشاف) o First check for the hadith in Tuhfat al-Ashraf This covers al-Kutub as-Sittah (Bukhari, Muslim, Nasai, Abu Dawud, Tirmidhi, Ibn Majah). If you don’t know the narrator of the hadith (this work is arranged by specifically dedicated to those انلكت ابلديعات narrations. Thereafter, Imam Suyuti wrote a separate work called 300 narrations in which he differed with Ibn al-Jawzi; Ibn al-Jawzi believed those narrations to be fabricated whereas Imam ذيل الﻷيل املصنوعة Suyuti believed those narrations to have some basis. Imam Suyuti then wrote an additional work called in which he proposed additional fabricated narrations that Ibn al-Jawzi did not mention. Ibn al-‘Arraq (d. 963) then انلكت ابلديعات Shaykh Muhammad Awwamah notes that .تزنيه الرشيعة effectively gathered these three works together in These are often thought to be distinct works yet are in .اتلعقبات ىلع املوضواعت - was originally published with a different title Again, these are not .الزيادات ىلع املوضواعت was originally published with the title ذيل الﻷيل املصنوعة ,fact the same. Similarly two separate works, but rather the same book. Tadrib al-Rawi (3:452) 5 Al-Mustadrak contains an extensive collection of ahadith related to virtues of Sahabah.