The ideas of Ibn al - Salah about the tashih and tahsin of ahadith

This study deal with the ideas of Ibn al-Salah about the tashih and tahsin of ahadith in his work Muqaddima. It also examines the ways of the perception of these ideas after him. Ibn al-Salah's views on this issue were understood as prohibition of tashih and tahsin of ahadith to the scholars of his time and of those afterwards. They were also construed as the closure of the ijtihad door and thus, were faced with various objections. In our research, we tried to comprehensively evaluate Ibn al-Salah's views and applications on the issue found both in his Muqaddima and in other works and also tried to pinpoint what he actually meant by these. In this context, we found out that in various chapters of his book, he aired the view that after some certain period isnad had lost its function on the issue of tashih of ahadith. Hence, Ibn al-Salah's views in discussion did not literally mean to ban hadith tashih and tahsin, rather meant to ban tashih and tahsin that were not found in the earlier books but seen in the books produced after isnad lost its function with the isnad of that period. In Ibn al-Salah's understanding, the time when isnad lost its function is in mid 5th century Hegira. He bases this opinion on the belief that all types of sahih and hasan ahadith were recorded in the reliable and famous books of hadith imams. As a result, Ibn al-Salah reckons that after that certain time sahih and hasan ahadith should be taken from the reliable and famous books of hadith imams; the ahadith that were not found in these books cannot be qualified either sahih or hasan. As regards to the issues of tashih and tahsin, the claim that Ibn al-Salah prohibited a decision on the weakness or fornication of ahadith came to surface. However, he has no explanation on these issues. On the contrary, many of his words and applications clearly demonstrate that he never banned such an action.