The Merits and Limits of Isnād-Cum-Matn Analysis in Dating Deep Dives

The authenticity of traditions transmitted through single strands, including dives – the chains of transmission that do not pass through common links – is subject to much scholarly debate. This article studies two sets of faḍāʾil hadith, The Best Three (TBT) hadith, which singles out the first three caliphs as the best men of the Muslim community during the Prophet’s lifetime, and Ten Promised Paradise (TPT) hadith, which lists nine or ten Companions as the residents of Paradise, through ICMA in order to evaluate the usefulness and limits of this method in tracing the origins of deep dives. Through ICMA, the earliest known disseminators of different versions of these traditions are identified. The results of ICMA are then used by the present study to investigate when and where the dives came to being. This study argues that the results based on ICMA bring forth significant insights that can be used to gauge the relative timespan for the emergence or circulation of the deep dives. In addition, the regional division displayed in the traditions studied – specific elements in the matn being associated with a transmitter based in a city – also contributes to the clarification of the provenances of the dives. However, the usefulness of ICMA is contingent upon the quantity and quality of hadith preserved in the sources. Furthermore, ICMA can only provide a timepoint after which the given dive may be considered of historical value, but by no means pinpoint the exact time of its birth.