The Difference Between the Hafidh, the Muhaddith, and the One Who Transmits from Books
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The questioner:
The Shaykh’s ability: Some of the muhaddithin who have emerged in this era from the great huffaz, who have reached the pinnacle. In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
The Shaykh:
Okay.
The questioner:
This.
The Shaykh:
Welcome.
The questioner:
They proceeded upon it and did not consider it to be from their own siblings.
The Shaykh:
Yes, from where did they memorize it? From where did they receive it? From the scholars? From the narrators? Or did they find compiled books and read them? This is what constitutes the huffaz who narrated it with chains of transmission from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) to them, meaning from the person himself to the Messenger. The chain is narrated with its isnad and its matn from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). This is the hafidh. As for the one who came to existing books and began reading in them and transmitting from them, he is a transmitter, not a hafidh. A transmitter, or in other words, we call him a reader who reads books. They are neither muhaddithin nor huffaz. The huffaz are like Ibn Hajar, like al-Bukhari, like Imam Ahmad. These are the huffaz, like Ibn Ma’in, like Ibn al-Mubarak. These are the huffaz of hadith and their like among the imams. But these poor people are merely readers who read in books and read, and they may not even understand the meaning. The problem is that they do not understand many of the meanings and objectives because they did not receive the knowledge from its people and did not take the matter from its proper door. Rather, they rushed into these books and began transmitting from them. Is this authentic or weak? This is a very great problem. And as I mentioned to you, if you asked about my specialization, I would say, “I am a doctor,” or “I am an engineer,” or “I am a physicist; my specialization is physics,” or “I am a graduate of Oxford University” or something similar, or the Sorbonne University. Are these muhaddithin? I swear to you, are these huffaz? No, no, no. Defend Allah in His religion. What is wrong with you?
The Shaykh’s ability: Some of the muhaddithin who have emerged in this era from the great huffaz, who have reached the pinnacle. In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
The Shaykh:
Okay.
The questioner:
This.
The Shaykh:
Welcome.
The questioner:
They proceeded upon it and did not consider it to be from their own siblings.
The Shaykh:
Yes, from where did they memorize it? From where did they receive it? From the scholars? From the narrators? Or did they find compiled books and read them? This is what constitutes the huffaz who narrated it with chains of transmission from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) to them, meaning from the person himself to the Messenger. The chain is narrated with its isnad and its matn from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). This is the hafidh. As for the one who came to existing books and began reading in them and transmitting from them, he is a transmitter, not a hafidh. A transmitter, or in other words, we call him a reader who reads books. They are neither muhaddithin nor huffaz. The huffaz are like Ibn Hajar, like al-Bukhari, like Imam Ahmad. These are the huffaz, like Ibn Ma’in, like Ibn al-Mubarak. These are the huffaz of hadith and their like among the imams. But these poor people are merely readers who read in books and read, and they may not even understand the meaning. The problem is that they do not understand many of the meanings and objectives because they did not receive the knowledge from its people and did not take the matter from its proper door. Rather, they rushed into these books and began transmitting from them. Is this authentic or weak? This is a very great problem. And as I mentioned to you, if you asked about my specialization, I would say, “I am a doctor,” or “I am an engineer,” or “I am a physicist; my specialization is physics,” or “I am a graduate of Oxford University” or something similar, or the Sorbonne University. Are these muhaddithin? I swear to you, are these huffaz? No, no, no. Defend Allah in His religion. What is wrong with you?
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، 18 من 36/شرح العقيدة الواسطية (مع الأسئلة)/وجوه يومئذ ناضرة/صالح الفوزان/العقيدة/كبار العلماء — youtube.com (58:16)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.