Ismail B. Muhammad al-Ansari and his contributions to the science of hadith

In the Islamic scholarly tradition, the science of hadith has an important place as a source for other sciences along with the Qur'an. The science of hadith is of great importance in terms of determining, correcting, understanding and sometimes interpreting hadiths. After the death of the Prophet (s.a.s.), from the Companions to the present day, scholars have worked to identify, classify and classify hadiths according to the needs and conditions of the period, and have contributed to the science of hadith by developing certain systems to know its authenticity, evaluate it in terms of senet and text, and understand it. In the history of hadith, especially in recent periods, person-oriented studies have become widespread and important contributions have been made to the science of hadith and hadith literature. This study focuses on the life and works of Ismail b. Muhammad al-Ansārī (1921-1997), one of the important scholars of the 20th century, and his studies on the science of hadith under the title of his contributions to the science of hadith. According to the findings obtained through qualitative research method during the research, it was revealed that Ansārī was one of the important scholars of his time in terms of his various scientific activities, especially his studies in the field of hadīth, his duties and the students he trained. Although he has independent studies in the field of hadith, he came to the forefront with the refutations he wrote to scholars, especially Elbānī, in terms of understanding and interpreting the detection of hadith, and showed that he was active in the discussions in the science of hadith during his lifetime. He made the works he worked on systematized and practical so that the students of knowledge could easily benefit from them. Especially when we compare him with al-Albānī with his refutations, he showed an attitude that is more in line with the classical understanding in evaluating hadiths, taking into account the tradition, giving importance to the opinions of previous hadith scholars on the subject, and giving importance to the acceptance of the hadiths by the scholars in the acceptance of the hadith. Not all of Anṣārī's works were accessible during the research process. The fact that some of his works were seen as manuscripts in the sources and some of them were printed in limited numbers or the limited number of copies in digital media was one of the factors that narrowed the scope of the research. This means that future studies are needed to examine Anṣārī's contributions to the field of hadīth from a broader perspective, especially through his refutations.