Hadith speech of a person. In Islamic terminology, according to Juan Campo, the term "hadith" refers to reports of statements or actions of Muhammad, or of his tacit approval or criticism of something said or done in his presence. Classical hadith specialist Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani says that the intended meaning of "hadith" in religious tradition is something attributed to Muhammad but that is not found in the Quran. Scholar Patricia Crone includes reports by others than Muhammad in her definition of hadith — "short reports (sometimes just a line or two) recording what an early figure, such as a companion of
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