 The "isnad" means literally 'support', and it is so named due to the reliance of the hadith specialists upon it in determining the authenticity or weakness of a hadith.The "isnad" consists of a chronological list of the narrators, each mentioning the one from whom they heard the hadith, until mentioning the originator of the "matn" along with the "matn" itself.The first people to hear hadith were the companions who preserved it and then conveyed it to those after them.