Hadith Database - The IHSAN Network - Online Encyclopedia of Hadith

ONLINE HADITH ENCYCLOPAEDIA DATABASE

Available online to IHSAN Network members is the Foundation's searchable hadith database. The printed edition of the hadith collections released by the Foundation in 2000 includes a Windows-compatible CD-ROM. This contains a database which includes all the hadith collections provided in printed form, which may be accessed by searches of various kinds and of various degrees of complexity. The same functionality is contained in the online version of the hadith database.

• More information about the printed hadith volumes.
• More information about the Hadith database CD-ROM.
• Azhar permissions
• Extracts from reviews of Hadith scholars on the Musnad Ahmad
• The Introduction (Muqaddimah) of the Hadith Encyclopedia. (view PDF 6.67 MB)

SPECIAL FEATURES OF THE ONLINE HADITH DATABASE

1. Printing

The user of the database may save the data collected either to paper or to word processing files. This data may include lists of references as well as the vocalised texts of the hadiths themselves.

2. Choosing a Search Range

The high-speed search algorithm facilities are rendered more efficient still by selecting the hadith collection or collections in which the search is to be made.

3. Searching the Database

Any word, or series of letters or numbers, can be the basis of a search. The programme displays the number of ‘hits’, and also allows the user to make simultaneous searches for separate items. Double-clicking on the segment of text found brings up the entire vocalised hadith.

The following search types are available in the computer database:

•	Quranic Verses. These may be searched for by either sura name or number.

•	Hadith Qudsi (hadiths spoken by God). Rapid searches of the entire Hadith Qudsi content of the Database are possible under this head.

•	‘Famous Hadiths’ (al-ahadith al-musamma). This index allows a hadith to be located by the name by which it is popularly known.

•	Poetry. Arabic poetic quotations appearing in the Hadith Database may be located readily by entering part of the poem, or the name of the poet or narrator.

•	Place Names. Searches may be made for the names of cities, seas, mountains and other geographical features.

•	Peoples and Tribes.

•	Proper Names. Any individual named in the text, even very briefly, can be located and identified by his full name. Integration of information from the commentaries means that individuals referred to in hadith texts simply as ‘so-and-so’ can also be fully identified.

•	Historical Events.

•	Unusual (gharib) Words. The Database allows the user to access information from the commentaries and the dictionaries when encountering unusual Arabic words in a hadith.

•	Isnad (chain of transmission). The Hadith Database makes available a series of operations which facilitate study of this characteristic feature of the literature. For instance, where a single narrator is identified using different forms of his name, these are all identifiable by the system as referring to the same individual. It is also possible to create graphic representations of the relationships between teachers and their pupils.

•	Hadith Assessment. Where the compiler of a hadith collection has himself passed judgment on the reliability of a text or an individual narrator, this is indicated in the Database. The system allows several ways of sorting and displaying this information, so that, for instance, all the judgments on or by a named individual may be displayed together.