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﴿ فَاسْأَلُوا أَهْلَ الذِّكْرِ إِن كُنتُمْ لَا تَعْلَمُونَ ﴾

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How do we distinguish between fabricated hadiths and authentic hadiths, and how do we distinguish between bid'ah (religious innovation) and the Sunnah?

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Question:
How can we distinguish fabricated hadiths from authentic hadiths? And how can we distinguish between bid'ah (religious innovation) and what our master Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) used to do? Please clarify these matters for us. May Allah reward you with good.

Answer:
In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and may Allah send prayers and blessings upon our Prophet Muhammad, his family, and all his Companions. As for what follows, the fabricated hadiths were addressed by the preservers among the hadith scholars, who clarified them and wrote books collecting them, and they are numerous, praise be to Allah. These books collect the false and fabricated hadiths, such as al-Mawdu'at by Ibn al-Jawzi. Good. And al-La'ali al-Masnu'ah fi al-Ahadith al-Mawdu'ah by al-Suyuti, and al-Asrar al-Marfu'ah fi al-Ahadith al-Mawdu'ah by Ibn 'Iraq, and al-Fawa'id al-Majmu'ah fi al-Ahadith al-Mawdu'ah by al-Shawkani, what Allah willed.
And al-Manar al-Munif fi al-Ahadith al-Da'ifah wa al-Mawdu'ah by Imam Ibn al-Qayyim. They established criteria by which a fabricated hadith is distinguished from others, what Allah willed. In these books and in the sciences of hadith. What Allah willed.
There are books called the Sciences of Hadith or the Principles of Hadith, which is the terminology of hadith. It is a great discipline in which books have been written. One refers to these books. And whoever cannot refer to the books asks the scholars of knowledge. He asks the scholars of knowledge about this hadith: is it reported from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) or not? If a hadith is difficult for him, he asks the scholars of knowledge about it: is it an authentic hadith or not? If this hadith is not attributed to a book.
But if it is attributed to the authentic books, such as Sahih al-Bukhari, Sahih al-Imam Muslim, then it does not need to be asked about. If it is agreed upon, or if al-Bukhari narrated it, or if Muslim narrated it, then it is an authentic hadith. As for
If it is in otherإذا كان في غير
Musannaf Abd al-Razzaq 28:1149
the authentic hadiths, other than the books that are specific to authentic hadiths, he asks about it, he asks the scholars of knowledge and the specialists in this matter. The rest. Yes, yes.
And as for bid'ah (religious innovation), its criterion is known, praise be to Allah. He (peace and blessings be upon him) said:
He who did any act for which there is no sanction from our behalf, that is to be rejected.من عمل عملا ليس عليه أمرنا فهو رد،
Sahih Muslim 1718b
He (peace and blessings be upon him) said:
'A'isha reported Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) as saying: He who innovates things in our affairs for which there is no valid (reason) (commits sin) and these are to be rejected.من أحدث في أمرنا هذا ما ليس منه فهو رد،
Sahih Muslim 1718a
This is a great criterion, and one of the concise words brought by the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). So every action that has no evidence from the Book of Allah or from the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) is a bid'ah (religious innovation) rejected upon its doer.
Source قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، كيف نميز بين الأحاديث الموضوعة والأحاديث الصحيحة، وكيف نميز بين البدعة والسنة؟ الشيخ صالح الفوزان — youtube.com

The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.

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