The short version
- Sahih is sound, hasan is good, daif is weak; on WhatSurah they are three marks, two and one.
- A grading is about the chain and the narrators, not about whether the words are beautiful.
- Tap the marks on any narration to see what they mean.
The three gradings
Sahih صحيح
Sound. Every narrator trustworthy and exact, the chain unbroken from end to end, and no hidden flaw in it.
Hasan حسن
Good. The same, except that one narrator was a little less exact. Acted upon, a step below sound.
Daif ضعيف
Weak. A break in the chain, or a narrator the critics faulted. Not used to settle a ruling.
The other words
The words you meet beside a narration, as the app explains them.
Agreed upon متفق عليه
Recorded by both al-Bukhari and Muslim. The strongest thing that can be said of a narration.
Hadith qudsi حديث قدسي
The Prophet reporting the words of his Lord in his own wording. It is not the Qur'an.
Isnad إسناد
The chain. The people who passed the narration on, each naming the one he heard it from.
Matn متن
The text. What was actually said, once the chain has been read out.
Marfu مرفوع
Raised. Traced to the Prophet himself, rather than stopping at a Companion.
Mawquf موقوف
Stopped. A saying or a deed of a Companion, not attributed to the Prophet.
Mutawatir متواتر
Narrated by so many people at every level of the chain that they could not have agreed on a lie.
Mursal مرسل
A narration in which the Companion is missing from the chain: a Successor quotes the Prophet directly.
Gharib غريب
Rare. Known through one narrator only at some level of the chain.
Companion صحابي
One who met the Prophet believing in him and died a Muslim. The first link of every chain that reaches him.
Successor تابعي
One who met a Companion. Ibn Hajar counts twelve generations of narrators: the Companions, four of Successors, three of their successors, four after them. The app says which in a word.
Thiqa ثقة
Trustworthy. Ibn Hajar's word for a narrator whose honesty and exactness are both established; with thabt or hafiz, exact beyond question.
Saduq صدوق
Truthful. Honest, a step below in exactness. "Errs at times" marks the ones the critics caught out.
Maqbul مقبول
Acceptable. Too little known to be called trustworthy, taken when others narrate the same.
Majhul مجهول
Unknown. Nobody vouched for him; a chain through him is weak on that account.
The Qur'an and the Hadith, offline
Identify from the microphone, the Madinah mushaf and seventeen collections, free in the app.