At a glance
- Era
- The Rashidun Caliphate · The Umayyad Period
- Region
- Arabia
- Review
- Draft Completeness 1/5 · Help complete it
Overview
The Companions and Successors differed over transmitting hadith by meaning: some forbade it and refused to narrate but in the wording heard, others permitted it 1. The permitters argued that the Prophet ﷺ legislated in every time and place and it was impossible that word-perfect hearers always attend him; that people must convey what was legislated; that the Prophet's envoys rendered his messages by meaning faithfully; and that Ibn Sirin would hear one hadith from ten men differing in wording with a single meaning 23.
Connections
- Related to
- Hadith· Hadith methodology (mustalah al-hadith)
People and things also explored
Isnad· Writing down the hadith· Hadith· Hadith methodology (mustalah al-hadith)· Shama'il Muhammadiyya· The Prophetic sira· The Prophetic Sunna· Criticism and vindication of narrators (jarh wa-ta'dil)
Sources
- The Standing of the Sunna in Explaining the Legal Rulings — Ali al-Khafif , p. 80
- The Standing of the Sunna in Explaining the Legal Rulings — Ali al-Khafif , p. 81
- The Standing of the Sunna in Explaining the Legal Rulings — Ali al-Khafif , p. 82
Cite this page
islam.museum contributors. “Transmitting a hadith by its meaning (riwaya bil-maana)”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/concept/riwayat-al-hadith-bil-maana/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-10-22.