The problem of comprehension of hadiths, which constitute one of the two main sources of Islam, has been a problem felt in various fields of sciences since first periods of Islamic History.

The nature of the problem of comprehension of hadiths in terms of the sciences of Hadith has much to do with the answer to be given to the question what the status of hadiths/texts is in relation to the persons comprehending them. The disagreement over the status of hadiths/texts comes into existence because some scholars place the hadith/the text, others the human intellect to the center of the process of comprehension. In this disagreement which can obviously be seen in the division of ahl al-hadith and ahl al-ra’y, the question of “is it human being who speaks when the text stays silent, and is it human being who gives voice to the text, or is it human being who stays silent and lets the text speak for itself?” is vital in determining the source of meaning. Whatever the answer given to this question may be, the one who speaks and who gives voice to the text in reality is human being. This is no way to mean that the hadith/the text is of no value or ineffective, rather to mean that every attempt to comprehend, and make sense of, the hadith/the text is in the hands of the one who comprehends it.

By taking the concepts of pre-comprehension and bias into consideration, the present work discusses the role of the one to comprehend in evaluating hadiths whose authentic transmissions from the Prophet (pbuh) are identified, and in determining authenticity of hadiths.

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