Marife Turkish Journal of Religious Studies

Abstract

The Ahadith are the means of evidence for the sunnah which is one of the basic sources of the religion (of Islam). Therefore they became focus of debate and attention in every period. In order to determine role and degree of the transmitter’s disposals and problems arise from transmitting on breaching the authenticity of hadith a wide-spread and intensive activities of ijtihad were undertaken in the course of first centuries of Hijrah. Thus for this purpose a unique methodology was developed under the name of dirayat al-hadith and by this way the ahadith were selected and classified. Following other steps, it was thought that all studies were completed in the area of determining the authenticity of hadith and it was not possible to make further ijtihads in this field. Eventually Ibn al-Salah has declared that the gate of ijtihad in hadith was closed and despite certain objections his view was widely accepted and hadith sciences entered into a period of cessation lasting for a long time. Since the 19th century various studies were undertaken in hadith field by muslim and non-muslim scholars alike and works on hadith have been published. During this new era several scholars, including some from Turkey, rejected the view that the ijtihad came to an end in hadith. They emphasised the necessity of ijtihad and produced works in this direction.