میزانُ الاعتدال و لسانُ المیزان: تعارفی، منہجی اور تقابلی مطالعہ

Mīzān al-Iʿtidāl and Lisān al-Mīzān: An Introductory, Methodological, and Comparative Study

Abstract

Mīzān al-I‘tidāl fī Naqd al-Rijāl by Imām Shams al-Dīn al-Dhahabī (d. 748 AH) and Lisān al-Mīzān by Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Ḥajar al-‘Asqalānī (d. 852 AH) stand as twin pillars in the science of ḥadīth transmitter criticism (‘ilm al-rijāl). Al-Dhahabī’s work is a masterfully condensed and restructured rendition of Ibn ‘Adī’s al-Kāmil fī Ḍu‘afā’ al-Rijāl, systematically cataloging every narrator against whom any form of jarḥ (disparagement)—whether severe or mild—was ever issued. Spanning five volumes and over 3,000 pages, it alphabetically arranges fabricators (wāḍi‘ūn), abandoned transmitters (matrūkūn), unknown narrators (majhūlūn), and those weakened by memory lapses or bias, while sharply distinguishing them from reliable authorities. The text serves as an encyclopedic safeguard against fabricated ḥadīth. Lisān al-Mīzān emerges as a direct extension and refinement of Mīzān. Ibn Ḥajar incorporates post-Dhahabī scholarship, corrects biographical and critical errors, adds contextual depth, and often tempers excessive jarḥ with rehabilitative ta‘dīl, reflecting a more integrative and moderate approach. A comparative analysis reveals al-Dhahabī’s preference for concise, source-critical rigor versus Ibn Ḥajar’s expansive, reconciliatory methodology—illustrating the natural evolution of rijāl science across the 8th and 9th centuries hijrī. Both works exert profound jurisprudential influence by enabling precise ḥadīth authentication, shaping legal rulings across madhhabs, and forming the methodological backbone for later classics like Tahdhīb al-Tahdhīb and al-Mughnī ‘an Ḥaml al-Asfār. (250 words)