Grades like school grades: After studying a narrator, scholars give him a grade, like a teacher gives a grade to a student.
- Thiqa (Trustworthy): He is honest and he remembers well. His Hadith can be trusted and used.
- Hasan (Good): He is a good person, and his memory is mostly good, but not as perfect as a Thiqa. His Hadith is accepted, but with a lower grade.
- Da'if (Weak): He has a problem — perhaps he was not honest, or his memory was very weak, or he was known for making mistakes. His Hadith cannot be used as proof on its own.
- Majhul (Unknown): We know almost nothing about him. His name appears in a chain, but the books of Rijal say nothing about him. We cannot call him trustworthy, because we do not know him.
Grades help decide quickly: These grades help scholars decide, quickly and fairly, how strong a Hadith is.
Example
Four drivers: Think of four drivers. The first has driven safely for twenty years — you trust him completely. The second drives well most of the time, but sometimes he is careless. The third has had many accidents. The fourth is a stranger — you have never seen him drive at all.
Trust the first driver: You would give your child to the first driver, maybe to the second, never to the third, and not to the fourth until you know him better. Scholars grade narrators in the same way.
Key Terms
- Thiqa (ثقہ) — trustworthy; honest and accurate
- Hasan (حسن) — good; acceptable, but below Thiqa
- Da'if (ضعیف) — weak; cannot be used as proof on its own
- Majhul (مجہول) — unknown; almost nothing is known about him
Quran or Hadith
None used in this topic.
Fresh diagram to be drawn: A grading scale with four steps, from green (Thiqa) to light green (Hasan) to orange (Da'if) to grey (Majhul), each with one line explaining it.
- Thiqa means trustworthy — honest and accurate.
- Hasan means good, but below Thiqa.
- Da'if means weak — it cannot be used as proof on its own.
- Majhul means unknown — we do not know enough about him to trust him.