Analisis Kritikan Al-Dhahabi Terhadap Ibn Hibban dalam Mizan Al-Iʻtidal

The culture of criticising amongst hadith scholars often revolves around the debate on ‘ilm al-jarh wa al-ta‘dil. The criticism is exemplified in the works penned by hadith scholars in assessing the narrators in the sanad mentioned in any particular hadith in which the latter are evaluated as thiqah or daif and others. There are varrying views pertaining to criticism against the narrators particularly when evaluating them from the view point of al-jarh wa al-ta‘dil. These differences in view may cause confusion in determining the status of a particular hadith in light of acceptance and rejection of the hadith. In this context, the evaluation of Ibn Hibban who is regarded as mutashaddid in his tajrih exercize upon the narrators had garnered criticism from al-Dhahabi who views that the former's eveluation; upon the latter's scrutiny was found to be imprecise. Therefore, this article intends to analyze the criticism levelled by al-Dhahabi against Ibn Hibban in his work al-Mizan al-I‘tidal. This research applied two main methods, namely data collection and data analysis. Data collection was conducted via library research and thereafter analyzed through inductive and deductive methods as well as al-jarh wa al-ta‘dil methods. Research findings show that al-Dhahabi's criticism against Ibn Hibban in al-Mizan al-I‘tidal consists of two types of criticism, firstly criticism against the tajrih of Ibn Hibban on the the narrators; secondly, criticism on the mistakes made by Ibn Hibban in presenting the biographies of the narrators. This research further proves that Ibn Hibban was a scholar who was mutashaddid in exercizing tajrih on the narrators; as well as highlights the prominence of both al-Dhahabi and Ibn Hibban as outstanding critics of narrators of their time.