Hadith of position meaning "report", "account" or "narrative". Hadith are second only to the Quran in developing Islamic jurisprudence, and regarded as important tools for understanding the Quran and commentaries ("tafsir") on it. The hadith literature is based on spoken reports that were in circulation in society after the death of Muhammad. Unlike the Quran itself, which was compiled under the official direction of the early Islamic State in Medina, the hadith reports were not compiled by a central authority. Hadith were evaluated and gathered into large collections during the 8th and 9th centuries, generations after the death of Muhammad, after the end
Introduction to the Science of Hadith al-Ṣalāḥ, in his "Introduction", codified the terminology established by those scholars before him based upon his reading of their works. He did so by citing some of those scholarly statements in the earlier works and deducing from them common terms and definitions in the manner of a scholar authoring a book of "fiqh" (jurisprudence). In this manner, his book was based upon those principles established by the earlier hadith specialists combined with some elements of "fiqh". An example of this would be the inclusion of the division of hadith into "mutawātir" and "āḥād". He therefore only mentioned the statements of