The Affect of Understanding in the Authentication Process of Narrations

Abstract

One of the two main objectives of the science of hadith is the authentication of a hadith narration. During that process according to pre-understandings of the readers it is possible to reach different conclusions on the same narration which are differ from sahih to mawdu. In this article we would like to discuss this issue in the context of subjectivity and objectivity under three chapters which are authenticating hadith narrations considering intertextuality, authenticating hadith narrations considering textuality and authenticating hadith narrations considering beyond textuality. The main aim of this article is to focus on the reader's position against hadith texts, hence without understanding the reader-text relationship it is not possible to understand the nature of hadith narration and its affects on other basic Islamic sciences.