Analysis and Critique of Shawkānī’s Criteria of Evaluating the Narrations of the Book “Al-Fawā'id Al-Majmū'a fi Al-Ahādīth Al-Mawdū'a”

Shawkānī, the late prolific Sunni scholar, studied forged hadiths in the book entitled Al-Fawā'id Al-Majmū'a fi Al-Ahādīth Al-Mawdū'a (collected benefits of forged hadiths). In this book, besides rejecting the forgery of some hadiths, he considers others not fabricated basically. Based on content analytical method, this research extracts the methods and criteria applied to recognize forged hadiths and then analyzes and criticizes them. It is concluded that Shawkānī mainly applied sanad criticism in the quotation form to recognize forged hadiths, though traces of content criticism are seen there in his assessments. His evaluation is criticized somehow he did not follow a consistent procedure in his work. Moreover, contradictions are sometimes found between his words and practice.