The word · Hadith

مُخْتَلِفُ الحَدِيث

Mukhtalif al-Hadith

The science of handling two sound hadiths that appear to contradict one another.

Also written · Mukhtalaf al-hadith · Ikhtilaf al-hadith · Mushkil al-hadith · Mukhtalif ul hadith · Contradictory hadith · Conflicting hadiths · Apparent contradiction · Ikhtilaf ul hadith · Reconciling hadith

The meaning

What Mukhtalif al-Hadith means in Islam

The order of work, as the hadith scholars and most jurists set it out, is: reconcile them if both can be true in different situations, then check whether one came later and replaced the other, then prefer the stronger if neither of those works, and finally suspend judgement. Hanafi jurists run the same steps in a different order, looking for abrogation before reconciliation. Al-Shafi'i wrote the earliest surviving book on this, and Ibn Qutaybah wrote a well known one answering critics of hadith. Most apparent contradictions dissolve once the setting of each report is known.

Evidence · Editorial · Our own summary, drawn from the sources named