Analysis of Sheikh Ansāri's techniques for the criticism of chain of transmission of hīdith

Sheikh Murtaza Ansārai is regarded as one of the greatest Imamite jurists, and one of the prominent scholarly and juristic figures of the last centuries. His proficiency, originality and gumption are evident in his surviving works regarding problems in principles (usūl) and traditional-demonstrative jurisprudence. His precious researches on “investigation and criticism of chain of transmission of hadīth”, which manifest his skill and innovation in the science dealing with the transmitters (‘ilm al-rijāl) as well as principles of criticism of hadith, on the one hand, and the significant function of academic methodology in the present time, on the other hand, necessitates, more than any time before, a rereading of Sheikh Ansāri’s system of thought regarding traditional jurisprudence in general and the criticism of hadith in particular. The present descriptive analytical study, which is done with a lot of research on Sheikh Ansāri’s works on jurisprudence and its principles, seeks the introduction of Sheikh Ansāri’s methodology of systematic thinking concerning “the techniques of the criticism of chain of transmission of hadith” in traditional-demonstrative jurisprudence.
Our investigations show that the most important techniques Sheikh Ansari applied in his criticism of chain of transmission of hadīth consist of the following items: paying atterntion to the personality characteristics of the transmitters (like the people of consensus (ashab al-ijma‘), trustworthy sheikhs (mashāyikh al-thiqa), Ahmad b. ‘Isā narrated from him (rawī ‘anh), sons of faḍḍāl (banī faḍḍāl)), paying attention to the concealment of the original teller of the hadīth (iḍmār-i hadīth), cohesion of the chain of transmitters (ittiṣāl-i sanad), mentioning the anonymity of the transmitters, paying attention to the sameness of the names of the transmitters, and compensation (injibār) for the weakness of hadīth.