Essay on Hadith Terminology: Hadith-e Qawi (Strong Hadith)

Detailed analysis of meanings of terms and finding examples is of the issues that are of importance in the field of hadith studies. Since one word in different eras and schools has different meanings, finding the exact meaning of the term and its history can be of great help to researchers. The authors of this paper try to examine the term "qawi (strong)" in `Ilm al-Hadith (Hadith Science) through the above mentioned approach. There are approximately 16 meanings for this technical term in fiqhi (jurisprudential) and hadith books. They first give and account of the term: its origin and development, its early application to school of Hillah and then to the school of Jabal Amil. They finally view the concept from different perspectives. Results of the present research study indicate that praising subsequent to discrediting, the Imami narrator as a condemned one, or praising subsequent to accrediting the non- Imami narrator play an important role in defining hadith-e qawi (strong hadith). This research also shows that those who coined this term have not taken into consideration the relationship between literal and idiomatic meanings of the term so it is not wrong to say that they have somehow misled the seekers of hadith.