The Weak Hadiths in Bulugh al-Maram
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The questioner:
Honorable Shaykh! It is well known that a great many of the hadiths in Bulugh al-Maram are weak.
The Shaykh:
How do you know that it is weak? Are you a hadith scholar? I mean, are you better than al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar? He does not cite a weak hadith unless it has corroborating narrations, or other reports, or it falls under a general principle. I mean, the moment you see the word "weak," you immediately discard the hadith. That is not acceptable. It is not permissible for a person to speak about the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) without knowledge and without discernment. The moment he sees some scholars say it is weak, he is done with the hadith. That is not permissible. It may be weak according to some, but authentic according to others. It may be weak but have corroborating narrations that strengthen it, raising it to the level of hasan li-ghayrihi (good by virtue of other evidence) or sahih li-ghayrihi (authentic by virtue of other evidence).
It may fall under a general principle, and a ruling is not established by it alone, but rather it is included under a correct general principle. The scholars have a view on this. The moment we see a hadith written as "weak," we are done with it? No, it requires study, knowledge, and insight. Or is it that the moment it is said that so-and-so says it is weak, we discard the hadith? Yes.
The questioner:
Honorable Shaykh, when, I mean,
The Shaykh:
the scholars wrote these books and composed them, and there is in them what is called weak, does that mean they are deceiving the Ummah in this? No, they are people of insight and knowledge. If they did not see that it could be cited as corroboration for another hadith, or for an external matter, they would not have placed it in these chapters. Yes.
Honorable Shaykh! It is well known that a great many of the hadiths in Bulugh al-Maram are weak.
The Shaykh:
How do you know that it is weak? Are you a hadith scholar? I mean, are you better than al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar? He does not cite a weak hadith unless it has corroborating narrations, or other reports, or it falls under a general principle. I mean, the moment you see the word "weak," you immediately discard the hadith. That is not acceptable. It is not permissible for a person to speak about the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) without knowledge and without discernment. The moment he sees some scholars say it is weak, he is done with the hadith. That is not permissible. It may be weak according to some, but authentic according to others. It may be weak but have corroborating narrations that strengthen it, raising it to the level of hasan li-ghayrihi (good by virtue of other evidence) or sahih li-ghayrihi (authentic by virtue of other evidence).
It may fall under a general principle, and a ruling is not established by it alone, but rather it is included under a correct general principle. The scholars have a view on this. The moment we see a hadith written as "weak," we are done with it? No, it requires study, knowledge, and insight. Or is it that the moment it is said that so-and-so says it is weak, we discard the hadith? Yes.
The questioner:
Honorable Shaykh, when, I mean,
The Shaykh:
the scholars wrote these books and composed them, and there is in them what is called weak, does that mean they are deceiving the Ummah in this? No, they are people of insight and knowledge. If they did not see that it could be cited as corroboration for another hadith, or for an external matter, they would not have placed it in these chapters. Yes.
Source
شرح بلوغ المرام من أدلة الأحكام [ صالح الفوزان ]، باب العارية — islamhouse.com (1:07:07)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.