Sheikh Wahid al-Zaman al-Laknawi and his Contributions in the Field of Hadith: An Inductive Critical Study

Abstract

Sheikh Waheed Zaman Al-Laknawi is a famous Indian Muslim scholar and author. He was regarded as one of the most renowned scholars of the "Jama’at Ahl al-Hadith" during his lifetime. He was known for his distinguished scholarly contributions in translating the main books of Hadith. He was the first to translate and explain many of the Hadith books in Urdu, and he facilitated the people of the Indian subcontinent who did not understand the Arabic language to take benefits from these books directly. He has authored many books on various topics related to the Hadith. This study focuses on Shiekh's work in Hadith scholarship, including its compilation, transcription, and translation. The researcher divided the research's contents into three sections: the first is about his personal life and academic career, the second is about introducing his most important books in Hadith, and the third is about his translated books into the Urdu language. The researcher employed three methodologies in this study: the inductive approach, the descriptive approach, and the critical approach. The inductive strategy has been used to collect academic material about Sheikh Waheed Al-Zaman's life and his scholarly contributions, whilst the descriptive approach has been adopted to explain the peculiarities of his books in the field of Hadith. As far as the critical approach is concerned, the researcher used it to introduce his deeds and critically analyze his academic achievements in the field of Hadith.