تعاملِ امت بطور خارجی معیارِ نقدِ حدیث: ائمہ اربعہ کی آرا کا تجزیاتی مطالعہ

Amal/Taʿāmul of the Ummah as an External Criterion of Ḥadīth Criticism: An Analytical Study of the Views of the Four Jurists (a’imma ‘arb’a)

Abstract

The dominant narrative of ḥadīth criticism privileges internal criteria: the continuity of the isnād, the probity and precision of transmitters, and the absence of shudhūdh and ʿillah in the matn. A close reading of the juristic and traditionist writings of the four imams, however, reveals a further criterion operating consistently in their reasoning, one that originates outside the report itself and is frequently decisive: the taʿāmul of the ummah, that is, the sustained communal practice and collective reception of a ruling across generations. This article examines the conceptual formation of this criterion, its historical development, and its differing articulations among Abū Ḥanīfah, Mālik, al-Shāfiʿī and Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal. Its central claim is that all four accept communal practice as a legitimate external indicator, but disagree fundamentally on its epistemic status: whether it constitutes a parallel channel of transmission or merely the sediment of juristic reasoning. This single disagreement, the article argues, largely determined the divergent architecture of the four schools, and cannot be reduced to the conventional dichotomy of ahl al-raʾy versus ahl al-ḥadīth.