Abstract
In the history of Islam, from the early period, scholars attached significant importance to recording information, which was also actively encouraged by the administrators and rulers of the time. However, for some ḥadīth scholars, there is a few information in history and ṭabaḳāt books, which state that the muḥaddiths destroyed their own collections. Considering the great efforts they spent throughout their life, it is quite remarkable that some of muḥaddiths destroyed their ḥadīth collections by burying, burning, throwing into the water, wiping, washing, tearing them apart, or willing others to destroy before their death. Interestingly, these muḥaddiths are not insignificant in number, and even some of them are among the prominent muḥaddiths. At this point, it is imperative to investigate which muḥaddiths destroyed their books, the motivations behind this decision, and the consequences for the knowledge of hadīth. In this study, we investigate the reasons and methods of muḥaddiths, lived in 2nd and 3rd AH centuries, who destroyed their books. Furthermore, we examine their impacts on hadīth science and thoughts of other muḥaddiths on this issue. Then, we focus on its influence on jarḥ wa’l-ta'dīl as it affects the weakness of the narrator's ḍḥabt.
[You may find an extended abstract of this article after the bibliography.]