The Categories of Hadith in the Two Sahihs

The Shaykh : Now, listen to this and learn it for later; it is not in this session. The hadiths in "the Two Sahihs" are good; they are of two categories. The larger category is that which the Ummah accepted. Their chains of narration are ahad, for example, I am telling you a hadith: . This is the basis of the Hanafi school, and its chain is weak. The hadith that contradicts it is , and its ending is: . These are ahad hadiths, but they are found in "the Two Sahihs," and the Ummah accepted them. What does it mean that they accepted them? This is explained in the science of terminology. The Ummah accepted them, whether those who act upon them or those who do not act upon them for another reason they have—for example, the hadith: . All Muslims acknowledge this hadith, but the Hanafis do not act upon its apparent meaning; they interpret it figuratively according to their opinion. We are not in this position either, but it is certain that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said this hadith. Why? Because the entire Ummah accepted it. If there had been weakness in it, those who do not act upon it would say, "This is weak, and we are done with it." But no, they found it authentic. So, this hadith is certain in its authenticity. This is established in the science of terminology: any hadith that comes in "the Two Sahihs" by virtue of the fact that "the Two Sahihs" were accepted by the Ummah, then the hadiths that no scholar has previously criticized, such as al-Daraqutni and others, these provide certainty. As for those that were criticized, it is between and between, as is the case with the disagreement in other hadiths regarding their authentication and weakening. This hadith of the girl is of this type. The Ummah accepted it from the time of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), when this question was asked and she answered with that answer, until this time. No scholar of the Muslims except one acknowledges the authentication of this hadith. Some of them state it explicitly, as I told you earlier, al-Bayhaqi and Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani. And some of them treat it as authentic, because it comes to explain it. For example, the Shafi'is argue with the hadith that the speech of the speaker in prayer out of ignorance or forgetfulness, the prayer is valid. This means that they argued with a hadith they believe to be authentic, and so on. So now, the one who weakened this hadith did not weaken it according to the methodology of hadith science, otherwise it would have been very easy to refute it, because all its narrators are trustworthy, memorizers, and precise, and so on. Second, he refuted it with his desire, because he assumed that it contradicts. Look now, there is no contradiction. You know that contradiction is mutual opposition, meaning one contradicts the other.

The questioner: Yes.