The Criteria of Accurate Comprehension of Hadith [Fiqh al-Hadith] of Imam Ridha’s (A.S)

The Accurate Comprehension of Hadith [fiqh al-hadith] has a high position in the teachings of the Ahl al-Bayt (A.S); In such a way that understanding a hadith is considered superior to quoting a thousand hadiths. A glimpse at the history of the Accurate Comprehension of Hadith [fiqh al-hadith] shows that the discussion of the true understanding and purpose of the words of the Infallible from the age of their presence has been considered and the necessity of relying on sunnah and hadith required that criteria be created for its correct understanding. It seems from the narrations of the Ahl al-Bayt (A.S), especially Imam Ridha’s (A.S), that those nobles sought to teach the principles and correct methods of understanding the hadith to their followers so that they could benefit from the narrations by using these principles and the method of correct understanding during their absence and occult to find guidance from them at any time and under any circumstance. What can be obtained from the analysis of the narrations of Imam Ridha (A.S) are: methodological types of understanding the hadith, not opposing to the explicit-definite [nusus] of the Quran, explaining the denotation of the text, paying attention to misunderstanding and misinterpretation of the Imam’s hadith, paying attention to the existence of ambiguous [mutashabih] hadiths and referring to unambiguous [muhkam], paying attention to the differences in the audience’s understandings, fragmentation of the hadith, developing the meanings of the words of the hadith, understanding the meaning of the words, understanding the hadith in the light of the cause of issuance, paying attention to the phenomenon of forgery and rejecting such hadith attributed to the Imams.