Applying the Thematic Hadith Method in Research Related to Islam

Various researches have been carried out by Islamic academicians, especially Islamic academicians from the past, related to fields they had explored such as beliefs (aqidah), Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh), mystical dimensions of Islam (tasawuf), interpretation (tafsir), hadith, astronomy (falak), philosophy etc. These academicians had used various research methods when exploring their fields of study. Hence, most of these research methods have yet to be studied before they could be applied as methods in Islamic research. It is for this reason that this study aims to study one the research methods used by past Islamic religious scholars, which is the thematic (al-mawdu‘iy) hadith method. The two questions that arise in this study are, what is the thematic hadith method? and how can the method be applied in research related to Islam?. In order to answer these questions, the discussions in this study were divided into two main parts. The first is to identify the thematic hadith method used by the muhaddithin (scholars of the hadith) when elaborating on the Prophet’s SAW hadith. The second is to analyse the suitability of applying the thematic hadith method in a study related to Islam. The quantitative study found that the thematic hadith method was suitable for application in studies related to Islam. The suitability was based on two aspects, namely rating the sources of the data and analysing the data.