Discover the meaning of the term Al-ḥadath (حَدَث) in Islamic vocabulary.
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Updated on 11 April 2026 at 1:05 AM
📖 3 min readAl-hadith (the new); hence: 'beware of innovation (al-hadath) in Islam': introduce nothing not previously known. Thus in (the work) 'al-Maghrib' and in the 'Sahah': al-huduth: a thing's not having been; one says 'the matter occurred (hadatha haduthan).' Al-hadith: the opposite of the old; 'the matter occurred': it came to pass. Al-hadath, al-hudtha, al-haditha, and al-hadathan: one meaning; 'a man ahdatha from al-hadith' (newer than the new). 'A man hadith mathal fasq' (hadith on the fa'il pattern meaning maf'ul): talkative, that is, of many words. Al-hadith: the report, used of little and much, its plural ahadith being unregular.
A meaning subsisting by another, on condition of occurring and being renewed. The meaning of the sense's subsisting by another is its being qualified by that sense, whether it originates from that other, as striking and killing, or not, as length and brevity; what is meant is not the determinant's specialization or dependence in attribution as in the terminology of the intelligibles. The shaykh 'Abd ar-Rahman al-Jami, may his secret be sanctified, said: by hadath is meant a meaning subsisting by another, whether it issues from it, as striking and walking, or does not, as length and brevity, end quote. The verification of this passage, with nothing more, is in (the work) 'Jami' al-Ghumuz' in the treatment of the verbal noun (masdar).
It is the legal impurity (najs hukmi) barring prayer and other acts.
What is preceded by matter and duration; it has been said: what has an origination for its existence.
The thing 'huduthan': it occurred. It came into being; hence their saying 'a defect occurred (hadatha bi-hi)' when it appeared after not existing; it is then hadath (new) and hadith (recent).
A spiritual quality affecting the whole body, or the limbs of ablution, preventing the validity of prayer.
With the jurists: a legal attribute requiring, of what it describes, the barring of prayer's validity through it, in it, or with it. The meaning of their saying 'hadath breaks purity' is that hadath, should it meet purity, breaks it; and should it not meet purity, it is of such a nature, so that multiple hadaths may accumulate upon a person.
The legal impurity requiring minor or major ablution: it is the juridical impurity barring prayer and other things; the greater is what requires the full bath, and the lesser what requires ablution. It is also applied to the novel blameworthy matter that is neither customary nor known in the Sunna.