Foreword by Issam Eido

Foreword by Issam Eido

In 2009, a female PhD student from Princeton University came to Damascus to study with me ḥadīth sciences and the genre of al-samāʿāt focusing on the role of female narrators during the Islamic medieval age. At that time, I was already familiar with Akram Nadwi’s general work and scholarly efforts, but it was the first time I came to know about his ongoing project on ḥadīth transmission and the role of female narrators. I realized how promising this project would be and its potential impact on reframing our reading of Islamic intellectual history.

During my study of ḥadīth sciences I was fortunate to meet with giant scholars such as Shaykh ʿAbd al-Fattāḥ Abū Ghudda and Nūr ad-Dīn ʿItr, as well as many seekers of ḥadīth sciences who came from Syria, India, Pakistan, Turkey and the Western World. The impression I have collected during this long period is that the Indian subcontinent has produced and given our modern world serious and productive scholars in the field of ḥadīth studies who have been able to reform, reproduce, and reframe the field from within. Without any hesitation, one of these scholars is Shaykh Akram Nadwi who is representing a new episode in this long series. His intellectual life and scholarly works are expressive and full of real stories and incidents that inspire the seekers of knowledge in general and the students of ḥadīth in particular.

A couple of things can be mentioned here about the significance of his character. Among them is his connecting with real scholars of the discipline whether they are his shuyūkh or his colleagues, his capability to reframe complicated issues in the field following a brilliant and simple way that can at one time teach beginners and provoke advanced seekers, his humility and sincere advice he gives to his fellows and students, his vast and comprehensive knowledge covering different fields and disciplines, and his uniqueness in terms of understanding both traditional knowledge and western scholarship. These characteristics represent and reflect his new scholarly work Foundation to Ḥadīth Science: A Primer on Understanding & Studying Ḥadīth. It is a work that can be an important step for beginners, and a source for serious and complex dialogue among advanced students and scholars.

In this work, Nadwi, generously, represents seven major elements: 1- clarifying and confirming specific ḥadīth issues that many student are used to discussing and debating such as mursal, tadlīs, mudraj, munkar, etc., with brief and clear words and examples, 2- reestablishing and fixing some issues that have occupied students’ minds for decades, even centuries, by providing a new approach based on evidences, such as his approach to riwāya, types of ḥadīth books, the meaning of shādhdh, the ranks of knowledge, the preference of Muslim’s Ṣaḥīḥ over al-Bukharī, 3- reframing some technical issues and giving a clear taxonomy for terms such as ṣaḥiḥ, ḥasan, and ḍaʿīf, 4- providing new viewpoints on a couple of issues seekers need to hear such as the Ḥanafi school and ḥadīth, and the significance of Abū Hurayra’s ḥadīth, 5- summarizing and giving concise information on a couple of ḥadīth matters citing unparalleled and appropriate quotations; 6- sincere advices and recommendations for seekers of ḥadīth based on his personal and scholarly communications with his shuyūkh and colleagues, in particular those who are living in the Muslim word and are known for seriousness, sincerity, and humility; and 7- finally, though the style he chose to write in is a very traditional one (based on Q/A), it can be a creative way to motivate readers to engage in reading and forget the time.

However, I must point out that though the book targets both beginners and advanced students, it can confuse some learners who are not equipped with enough ḥadīth studies and do not have a solid background on some issues mentioned in the book such as the Ḥanafi principles of ḥadīth, and the sub-ranks between ṣaḥiḥ, ḥasan, and ḍaʿīf.