Qaim, on 17 August 2012 - 10:41 PM, said:
Diraya: Derivation (another term for `ilm ar-rijal is `ilm al-diraya)
`ilm ad-dirayah = knowledge of the laws and factors necessary for examining the sanad and matn in order to determine authenticity.
`ilm ar-rijaal = biographical information of the narrators, including their jarh and ta`deel. May be used to refer to checking if the sanad contains thiqaat or dhu`ufa'.
Dar, on 17 August 2012 - 10:27 PM, said:
Mu'tabar - reliable (means the chain of narrators is sahih, muwaththaq, or hasan)
Its definition is broader than that. Some Imami scholars, such as al-Majlisi and at-Tabarsee, use it for a hadeeth that they have decided to accept and rely on, despite its technically weak chain.
inshaAllah, on 17 August 2012 - 11:08 PM, said:
- Al-marfu': It is a hadith which reaches one of the Ma'sumun, regardless of continuity in the chain of transmitters.
- Al-mursal: It is a hadith narrated by one of the prominent Tabi'un saying 'The Prophet of God said....' so on and so forth. There are many of this kind of narrations.
For Sunnis:
mursal is when a successor doesn't mention the companion he narrates from
marfoo' is a hadeeth attributed to the Prophet.
For Imamis:
mursal is a disconnected chain, sometimes used to denote a disconnection over a single generation, and sometimes used to denote a disconnection over multiple generations.
marfoo` is a chain with disconnection usually spanning multiple generations.
Inquisitor, on 19 August 2012 - 02:34 PM, said:
Used in sunni fiqh (often to make up for the lack of hadeeths). It is haraam in Shia Islam for at least fiqh.
Qiyas is the attempt to determine the correct position on something by using an analogy.
In fiqh, it can specifically refer to saying that act X is known to be permissible (or impermissible), and it is probably permissible/impermissible because of such-and-such reason, therefore act Y is also permissible/impermissible because it also has that reason.
For example, wine is haraam; because it intoxicates the mind; therefore narcotic drugs are haraam because they also intoxicate the mind.
Qiyas is used in Sunni Islam, but is condemned in Shia Islam. Here is an example of the Imam condemning qiyas:
Ali ibn Ibrahim has narrated from his father from ibn abu ‘Umayr from Muhammad ibn Hukaym who has said the following:
“Once I asked (Imam) Abu al-Hasan Musa (A) ‘May Allah keep my soul in your service, please make us Faqeeh (people of proper understanding in religion). Allah has granted us the blessing of your existence among us and has made us independent of other people. This blessing is so great that even if a whole group of us may come to one place, no one needs to ask another a question to prepare an answer for it. Sometimes, however, we may come across an issue for which we have heard nothing from you or from your forefathers. We then look into the best resources available and the closest to your guidance. Can we take such a finding as an authority?’
‘Never, ever, by Allah, O ibn Hakim, many people have been destroyed in it,’ replied the Imam Úáíå ÇáÓáÇã. Ibn Hakim said that the Imam then said, ‘May Allah curse (la`an Allah) Abu Hanifa who says, “Ali said so and so, therefore, I said so and so.’”
Muhammad ibn Hakim has said that he told Hisham ibn al-Hakam, ‘By Allah, I only wanted the Imam to give us permission to use analogy.’”
(source: al-Kafi, volume 1, book 2, chapter 19, hadeeth 9. grading: Majlisi says this hadeeth is hasan (good) in miraat al-uqool, volume 1, page 193)
The Imam has also said that the first to do qiyas was shaytaan:
Ali ibn Ibrahim has narrated from his father from Ahmad ibn ‘Abd Allah al-‘Aqili from ‘Isa ibn ‘Abd Allah al-Qurashi who has said the following:
“Once, abu Hanifa came to see Imam abu ‘Abd Allah, recipient of divine supreme covenant, who said to abu Hanifa, ‘O abu Hanifa, do you practice analogy as I hear you do’? Abu Hanifa replied, ‘Yes, I do practice analogy.’ The Imam then said to him, ‘Do not practice it; the first person who used analogy was Satan when he said, “Lord, you have created me from fire and created him from clay.” He analogized fire with clay. If he had analogized the light in the clay and fire he would have learned about the difference between the two lights and the excellence of one over the other.’”
(source: al-Kafi, volume 1, book 2, chapter 19, hadeeth 20. grading: Majlisi says this hadeeth is saheeh in miraat al-uqool, volume 1, page 201)
The reason why qiyas is condemned is because it doesn't always work. It's just guesswork. For example:
And (shayk as-Sadooq reports) in al-`Ilal from his father and Muhammad b. al-Hasan from Sa`d b. `Abdullah from Ahmad b. Abi `Abdillah from Shabib [from Abu Zuhayr b. Shabib – in al-`Ilal] b. Anas from a man from Abu `Abdillah Úáíå áÓáÇã in a hadith regarding the nullification of qiyas, that he said to Abu Hanifa: Which is more impure, urine or janaba? So he said: Urine. So Abu `Abdillah Úáíå áÓáÇã said: So why is then that the people do ghusl from janaba and they do not do ghusl from urination?
Here the Imam pointed out that it is well-known that urine is more najis than janaba, yet a person in janaba does ghusl while the person who has urinated only needs to perform wudhu.
Another refutation of qiyas would be to point out that salat (prayer) is greater than sawm (fasting) but a woman who is excused from praying and fasting due to her monthly course, must only repeat the missed fasts.
May Allah provide for a correction to be made if I have uttered something in error.
kadhim, on 20 August 2012 - 08:14 PM, said:
Thanks, but probably the primary motivator is to be in a better position to learn and teach my son (and daughter), both Arabic and the teachings of the religion from primary sources. My son is 7, and I'm actually quite a bit behind where I'd like to be in terms of grounding him in basic Arabic and his religion, learning Quran, etc.
In terms of his learning Arabic (either MSA for interaction with Arabs or classical Arabic for texts or both), why not hire him a tutor instead of teaching him yourself if you are not fluent?
Edited by Cake, 20 August 2012 - 09:54 PM.
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and before
