Musnad (hadith)

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Part of a series on the Science of hadith
Terminology
History of Hadith — ... Ilm ar-Rijal — ... Narrators of hadith — ...
Terminology
Isnad — chain of narrators Matn — hadith text Riwayah — narration
technical terms
Musnad — supported Mursal — hurried Ahaad — single narrator Munqati — broken muttasil — uninterrupted isnad Gharib — strange/rare Shadhdh — irregular Munkar — denounced/rejected Mudraj — interpolated Da'if jiddan — very weak Isra'iliyat
Regarding authenticity
Mutawatir — agreed upon Sahih — authentic Hasan — fair Da'if — weak Mawdo — fabricated Mudtarib — shaky
Other
Sharh — comments Hadith collection This box: view • talk • edit

Musnad is a term used in the science of hadith to classify a certain type of hadith. The most famous collection of musnad hadiths was compiled by Ahmad ibn Hanbal in his Musnad Ahmad ibn Hanbal, which contains over 30,000 musnad hadiths.

[edit] Definition of a Musnad Hadith

The scholar of hadith, Muhammad ibn Abdullah al-Hakim, defines a musnad ("supported") hadith as:

A hadith which a traditionalist reports from his shaykh (i.e. teacher of hadith) from whom he is known to have heard (i.e. studied) at a time of life suitable for learning, and similarly in turn for each shaykh (i.e. teacher of hadith) until the isnad (i.e. chain of narrators) reaches a well known Sahaba (i.e., companion of the Prophet muhammad), who in turn reports from the Prophet (Muhammad)."^[1]

As such, a musnad hadith is one where each narrator of a hadith reports from someone he is known to have studied hadith from. This will continue until it includes a Sahaba who in turn reports it directly from the Prophet Muhammad.
Hadiths where there is a break in the isnad (meaning, at least two people in the chain of narrators are not known to have reported hadiths from each other) are not considered musnad. Moreover, those hadiths that are not narrated to be the words of Muhammad would also not be considered musnad.

[edit] Example of a Musnad Hadith

An example of a musnad hadith as reported by al-Hakim is as follows:

We reported from Abu Amr 'Uthman ibn Ahmad al-Sammak al-Baghdadi from al-Hassan ibn Mukarram from Uthman ibn Amr from Yunus ibn Zaid from al-Zuhri from Abdullah ibn Ka'b ibn Malik from his father (Ka'b ibn Malek who had asked ibn Abi Hadrad (a Sahaba) for payment of a debt he owed to him in the mosque. During the ensuing argument, their voices were raised until heard by the Messenger of Allah (Muhammad), who eventually lifted the curtain of his apartment and said, "O Ka'b! Write off a part of your debt." So he (Ka'b) agreed, and the man paid him."

This hadith fulfills all the characteristics required of a musnad hadith. First, each of the narrators (e.g Abu Amr 'Uthman ibn Ahmad al-Sammak al-Baghdadi, al-Hassan ibn Mukarram, etc.) is known to have studied hadith from the person he reports from. Moreover, this hadith includes the saying of the Prophet Muhammad himself as part of the hadith.