Discover the meaning of the term Al-tdlys (تدليس) in Islamic vocabulary.
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Updated on 11 April 2026 at 1:05 AM
📖 2 min readIt is the spiritual subtle essence (latifa ruhaniyya); it may also be applied to the subtle intermediary linking two things, as the aid reaching from the True to the servant.
Concealing the defect; the waw in it is extra.
In language: hiding the sold goods' defect from the buyer at sale time, and the mingling of darkness as it thickens. In the terminology of hadith principles, tadlis is of two kinds: tadlis of the chain and tadlis of masters. Tadlis of the chain: transmitting from one he met but did not hear from, or a contemporary he neither met nor heard, giving the impression he heard it from him; it is his due not to say 'so-and-so narrated to us' but 'so-and-so said', or 'from so-and-so', and the like. Tadlis of masters: transmitting a hadith from a master while naming him, or by his byname, or lineage, or describing him by what he is not known by, so that he not be known.
Taken from ad-dalsa, which is darkness. In language: concealing the defect. Tadlis in sale: concealing the merchandise's defect from the buyer and hiding it. Tadlis in hadith is of two kinds: the first, tadlis of the chain: relating from one he met but did not hear from, giving the impression he heard him, or from a contemporary he did not meet, giving the impression he met him; the other, tadlis of masters: relating a hadith from a master he heard it from, naming him, using his byname, or describing him by what he is not known by, lest he be known. (At-Ta'rifat, p. 47; at-Tawqif, p. 167; Mu'jam al-Mustalahat al-Iqtisadiyya, p. 96.)