The Method of Evaluating the title of hadith Books and Entries from the Viewpoint of Muhammad Taqi Shushtari

One of the most important aims in research on the sciences of hadith is offering methods for the study of the works done on hadith. One of these methods is the study and evaluation of the titles and entries of books on hadith. This article is an attempt to introduce and discuss the degree of the efficiency of this method in the sciences of hadith, and in order to fulfill this purpose the efficiency of this method has been studied in the two fields of external assessment (attributing and editing the text) and internal assessment (understanding and evaluating the text). Having proved the efficiency of this method the researcher discusses the way to give title to those texts which have been given wrong titles. In this relation he offers the two textual and metatextual methods in the designation of the titles of texts. In his discussion and explanation of the different aspects of this method the researcher mainly refers to the works of Muhammad Taqi Shushtari, one of the contemporary researchers on hadith.