Anonymity in Hadith’s Scholars Perspective.. Is it Discreditation of Narrator or Abstention?

Abstract

This study examines the Hadith scholars judgment of anonymity upon narrators. And whether such attitude should considered as a defect of the narrator’s authentication. The problem of the study lies in the variance in theory and in practice, that the researcher has observed, when reading in the anonymity judgment among the Hadith scholars in the literature of the (MUSTALAH). Therefore, one of the objectives of this study is to clarify Hadith Scholars methodology in the anonymity judgment, and to show its status among the ranking of the science of discrediting or confirming the reliability of narrators. The study concluded that anonymity judging is not a discrediting in itself, but rather a presumption that the scholars infrequently apply to discredit the narrator, and they may not use it- despite its availability- to criticize the narrator, according to the available evidences of which suggest accepting or refusing his narration. In fact some of the Hadith’s scholars had accepted several narrations of anonyms narrators. Anonymity, according to its linguistic definition, is a kind of opacity state. It is more appropriate to regarded it as a reservation until the case of the narrator is identified and the evidences for discrediting or confirming are available. It is more likely to be considered as an unexplained discrediting in which some scholars did not consider it as a defect nor accept it.