The more than 1400 year-old social network of hadith (sayings of the Prophet) scholars is known traditionally as the isnad (chain of transmission) system which includes innumerable scholars in Islam’s broad geography. The intellectual pursuit of these scholars is known as the science(s) of hadith. Here the ilim (science) faces a systematic accumulation of knowledge. As an academic pursuit, the Science of Hadith is an oral discipline essentially related to narratives about Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), together with branches that extend to Islamic culture and society. If the Quran is divine knowledge, then the Prophet’s Sunnah (his practices) is its essential and living state.

Islam possesses two basic sacred tests or narratives that are organically tied to one another and around which many-faceted interpretation traditions or elevated-narrations have appeared.

A narration system is formed by a social network in which reporters, listeners, the narrated text, and elevated-narrations intermingle. The process of narration ties these factors to one another. These factors, in regard to hadith narration, face, in turn, the hadith teacher, the hadith student, the hadith text, the hadith’s elevated-narration and the isnad system. These factors and the means that tie them to one another will be discussed below in regard to the hadith narration system or isnad.