مختلف الحديث
Mukhtalaf al-ḥadīth
The science that studies hadith that seem to conflict, with the aim of reconciling them.
What it means
Mukhtalaf al-ḥadīth is the branch of hadith study that deals with reports which appear to contradict one another. The scholar first tries to reconcile them, for example by showing that they address different circumstances or that one is general and the other specific. If that fails, he checks whether one report abrogates the other, and only then prefers the stronger on grounds of its chain and text. Early works include al-Shafii’s Ikhtilāf al-ḥadīth and Ibn Qutayba’s Taʾwīl mukhtalaf al-ḥadīth. The science rests on the view that a sound report cannot truly contradict another or the Quran, so apparent conflict points to a limit in understanding.
Often misunderstood as
A conflict between two reports is often taken as proof that one is false, whereas the science first looks for a way to read both.
Term and Arabic as listed in Ismail al Faruqi, Toward Islamic English (International Institute of Islamic Thought, 1995), p. 50, listed as MUKHTALAF AL ḤADĪTH. The definition is restated here.