In this article, we have examined the theological origins of the “rijal criticism” in the Hadith ethodology, which is the equivalent of the word “tankid”, and synonymous with the word “criticism” in Turkish and often used in a negatively. Essentially, the Islamic society met the “critical mentality” at a very early age; especially the Qur’an and the Prophet Muhammad gave the best examples of the critical view and gave its lesson to the Sahaba. It was determined that many issues were critically handled both in the verses of the Qur’an and in the hadiths and Sunna’s of the Prophet. Even, it is noteworthy that sometimes the behavior of the Messenger of Allah or the Sahaba could not get rid of criticism by Allah. On the other hand, it is seen that Allah and his blessed messenger never left rightness in criticism. Because the Qur’an and the Prophet occasionally subjected the polytheists, disbelievers, hypocrites, Jews and Christians to criticism because of some their behaviors, however, these criticism points have been very well justified.
In the later periods, it is understood that the Sahaba operated this criticism mentality in the best way among themselves. “Rijal criticism” came to the agenda in the history of the hadith through the use of “sanad”, which became a necessity to use in hadith narrations, especially after the “fitnah” that began to emerge from the middle of the first hijri century. So this rijal criticism, which began with the knowledge of Hadith, has again shown itself in the form of the knowledge of “Jarh-Ta‘dil” in the same area, and all the people who narrated any hadith from the Messenger of Allah, except for the Sahaba, took their share from this criticism. But the Sahaba were criticized by each other in terms of “zabt” (memory power), not in terms of “adâlah” (righteousness). According to us, it is not possible to see or show a similarity of this criticism activity in the history of the Hadith, in this scale in the world.
As a result, we, as Muslims of today, need much more than ever before the criticism mentality, which has been very well run in history. We believe that the real spirit that will raise the Ummah of Islam again as in their old glory in the past passes from this “critical point of view”. For this, we believe that the Hanafi-Maturidi perspective, which was represented by Ahl al-Ray in history and gave importance to both the nasses (Qur’an and Sunnah) and the mind (reason/wisdom), will be useful.
Keywords: Râwi, criticism, critical thinking, sahaba, Ahl al-Ray