The Merits of the Poem of al-Bayqūnī:
Shihāb al-Dīn al-Dimyāthī said, “The poem of the knowledgeable imām of understanding and perception, al-Shaykh al-Bayqūnī (rahimullah) is one of the most interesting summaries of the science of hadīth and the most eloquent of the writings upon which one takes the rigorous course upon, for it is comprised of clear yet fine expressions that overwhelms its counterparts with a grim face.”
The importance of this subject:
The knowledge of usūl al-hadīth is a science that serves the radiant Prophetic traditions; with it one can distinguish the Prophetic narrations in terms of authenticity and fabrication, soundness and weakness.
Al-Imām ‘Abdullāh ibn al-Mubārak said, “The quality of the hadīth is not in the conciseness of the isnād, rather its quality lies in the soundness of its narrators.”
Al-Imām Yahyā ibn Sa`īd al-Qattān said, “Do not look at the hadīth but rather look at its chain. If the chain is sound [then the narration is sound]. If not, then do not be deceived by the narration with a chain that is not sound.”
Al-Hāfiz ibn Qutaybah al-Daynūrī said, “There is no nation amongst the nations with the isnād like their chains (i.e. this nation); narrator from narrator, the trustworthy from the trustworthy in such a way until it reaches the Prophet (salallahu alayhi wa sallam) and his Companions, so that the sound can be differentiated from the weak, the connected from the disconnected and the fabricated from the genuine.”
