Journal of Islamic Studies > Volume 27, No. 1, 2015

A Critical Study of Ibn-Ma'een's Remark "He Is Nothing" Concerning Hadith Narrators / Saleh Abdullah Al-Sayah

This research studies Ibn-Ma'een's use of the remark "He is nothing" when describing some Haidth narrators. It attempts to show the remark's meaning, and if it indicates the small number of Hadiths narrated or the narrator's unreliability. The research aims to establish what Ibn-Ma'een meant by the remark and to investigate the arguments for interpreting it as other than stating a narrator's unreliability. The research follows an analytical deductive-inductive approach. The following are its most important findings: Al-Haakim was the first to interpret Ibn-Ma'een's remark "He is nothing" as meaning the narrator narrated a small number of Hadiths, not meaning the unreliability of the narrator. Al-Haakim was followed by Ibn-Al-Qattaan Al-Faassy, then by Ibn-Hajar, through whom that interpretation was spread. Al-Haakim's interpretation was not based on well-established evidences. In fact, evidences from the study of the narrators in question supported the interpretation as an unreliability judgment. Only a small number of narrators were criticized by Ibn-Ma'een as having narrated few Hadiths; he just mentioned the number of Hadiths they narrated or how small the number of Hadiths was, without remarking any as being "nothing". Ibn-Ma'een's use of the remark in context could be only interpreted as an expression of narrators' "unreliability". This was the meaning understood by his students, none of whom interpreted it as a reference to the small number of narrated Hadiths. The research recommends that the terms and expressions used by Hadith critics in establishing reliability or unreliability of narrators should be thoroughly studied so that their meanings can be properly understood.