Criteria for Criticism, Correction, Research, and Margin of Hadith from the Viewpoint of Aliakbar Ghaffari in Jāmi’ al-Madārik

Professor Aliakbar Ghaffari, a contemporary scholar and traditionist, concerned the existence of hadith errors and problems in the text and sanad of Hadith sources. Based on divine aids and his mastery on Islamic sciences, he solved these problems by providing criteria and standards. Analyzing his works, this article extracts his criteria of correction, research, margining and criticism. They include: 1) Presenting and confronting the texts to the corrected and read versions of the sheikhs and their handwritings, referring to sources and expert scholars in correction, 2) Observing scientific piety and trusty in margining, 3) Referring to Sunnah and the Qur’an in text criticism, 4) and Identifying and validating narrators and surveying the quality of sanad in sanad criticism. Professor’s solutions for correcting and researching contemporary great scholars’ works such as Jāmi' al-Madārik show his mastery and deserve to be a pattern. Hadith science scholars can continue to study Hadith referring to professor’s methods and apply his ways and criteria.