A reading of the words of Shaykh Al-Albani in "Al-Silsilah al-Da'ifah," in which he defends the position that contemporaneity is sufficient to establish the connection of the chain of narration.

Al-Halabi: Shaykh, here you mention - may Allah preserve you - in "Al-Silsilah al-Da'ifah" a hadith, meaning within the research.

The Shaykh: Yes.
Al-Halabi: "And in 'Al-'Ilal' by Ibn Abi Hatim, it is stated that he asked his father about the disagreement between al-Layth and Shu'bah regarding the chain of narration of this hadith," which is the subject of the research and not our research.

The Shaykh: Yes.
Al-Halabi: He said: "What al-Layth says is more correct; because 'Amr ibn al-Harith ibn Lahiyah supported him, and 'Amr and al-Layth were writers, while Shu'bah was a man of memorization. I said to my father: Is this chain of narration authentic with you? He said: Good. I said to my father: Who is Rabi'ah ibn al-Harith? He said: He is Rabi'ah ibn al-Harith ibn 'Abd al-Muttalib. I said: Did he hear from al-Fadl? He said: He lived in his time. I said: Is the hadith of Rabi'ah ibn al-Harith relied upon? He said: Good. I repeated it to him several times, but he did not go beyond saying: Good. Then he said: The proof is Sufyan and Shu'bah."

The Shaykh: This is a well-known statement from him.

The questioner: Yes, and here, after multiple discussions, Shaykh.

The Shaykh: Yes.
Al-Halabi: You say: "And as for the answer to the second question, which is: What is the status of Rabi'ah ibn al-Harith? I say: In my opinion, the answer can be derived from what was previously quoted from al-Bukhari and Abu Hatim in their biographical entries for him, and that they did not mention for him any narrator other than the unknown Ibn al-'Umya. And if Ibn Hibban mentioned him in 'Al-Thiqat,' that is due to his leniency, as mentioned earlier. However, it is difficult to reconcile with Abu Hatim's answer to his son that the chain of narration is good, for this answer does not align, neither closely nor remotely, with his explicit statement of his ignorance, or with his explicit statement of the ignorance of one who has only one narrator in most cases, even if the narrator from him is trustworthy; how much more so if he is unknown like this Ibn al-'Umya? So does this grading as good mean that he found for him another narrator or other narrators, and his heart was reassured because of that, so he graded its chain of narration as good? Or did he grade it as good because of his status as a Successor? All of this is possible, but I do not find now what supports any of it. Yes, I did find from al-Bukhari something similar to one of these, for al-Tirmidhi narrated from the route of Abu Basrah al-Ghifari from al-Bara' ibn 'Azib a hadith that he found strange, and he said: I asked Muhammad about it, and he did not know the name of Abu Basrah al-Ghifari, but he considered it good. The point of similarity is that the status of this Abu Basrah is like the status of Rabi'ah ibn al-Harith; no one narrated from him except Safwan ibn Sulaym, and Ibn Hibban and al-'Ujayli also graded him as trustworthy, and yet al-Bukhari graded his hadith as good."
Then, in Abu Hatim's answer to his son when he asked him about Rabi'ah: Did he hear from al-Fadl? He answered by saying: He lived in his time; in this is an important point of attention, which is: that contemporaneity is sufficient to establish connection; and therefore he graded its chain of narration as good in response to his question: Is the hadith of Rabi'ah relied upon? But in all of this is a strong indication that the rank of a hadith like this is below the rank of one whose meeting with the one from whom he used the abbreviation 'an'anah is established. And at that time, there is no contradiction between this and what is well-known from him regarding invalidating chains of narration due to the lack of meeting between the narrator who used 'an'anah and the one from whom he used 'an'anah; for the reconciliation between this and what preceded is to attribute this to the negation of authenticity, not goodness. And by this, the statement of one who conditions meeting for connection, like al-Bukhari, is reconciled with the statement of one who is satisfied with contemporaneity, like Muslim; so this is a condition for authenticity and that is a condition for perfection. And therefore some of them said: That connection is a condition for al-Bukhari in his "Sahih" and not for others. And perhaps this is witnessed by al-Bukhari's grading of the hadith of Abu Basrah al-Ghifari mentioned earlier as good, because he did not explicitly state hearing or meeting, but only contemporaneity. And in my opinion, the examples of this are numerous if it were possible to trace them, and Allah knows best."

The Shaykh: Yes, by Allah.
Al-Halabi: Here is another statement, Shaykh, in some of which I look, Shaykh, here - also - you have in some of the annotations, we ask Allah to help us in publishing them.

The Shaykh : O Allah, amen.
Al-Halabi: A refutation of some of those who transgress against the Sunnah who are not its people. You say in the course of refuting him: "And as for the other proof against him, it is that the desires and enemies of the Sunnah may take the condition of meeting as a ladder to attack authentic hadiths, even those agreed upon by the two Shaykhs and others, especially if there is a statement that there was no hearing from the narrator from the one narrated from, as mentioned in the first example; and therefore, it is obligatory to adopt the statement of the scholars that contemporaneity is sufficient from the perspective of blocking the means to harm, which is one of the important principles in the Shari'ah. And why should we go far? This is the demolisher who exploited this condition very badly and expanded it to include cases where the meeting is established or where the meeting is established by it, and the narrator did not explicitly state hearing and is not a deceiver. So he weakened al-Bukhari's hadith from Abu Hurayrah, elevated to the Prophet: , which he narrated from the route of Ibn Sirin from him, and he invalidated it by saying: Perhaps al-Bukhari, perhaps al-Bukhari, with what there is no room now to respond to, and so on."
May Allah reward you with good and bless you.

The Shaykh: By Allah, this is correct, but ... with a pencil.
Al-Halabi: Yes.

The Shaykh: Put - also - following blocking the means to harm; repeat the phrase for me.
Al-Halabi: "And therefore, it is obligatory to adopt the statement of the scholars of contemporaneity from the perspective of blocking the means to harm as well."

The Shaykh : Also.
Al-Halabi: Ah, meaning as a scientific principle, and then blocking the means to harm is another principle.

The Shaykh : Yes.

The questioner: If we say: The Ummah accepted "Sahih Muslim" with acceptance despite the presence of this condition in some of its hadiths; is this answer correct?

The Shaykh: Of course, it is a correct answer, and also the majority of scholars of terminology are on the school of Muslim, and the majority of authenticators and extractors of hadiths do not deal at all on the school of al-Bukhari. Is this clear?

The questioner: From the practical side.
Al-Halabi: Shaykh, there is also a good word, and how good is the saying: "And among the implications of this is not relying on authentic chains of narration that use 'an'anah absolutely; even those that are authenticated by those who conditioned meeting, provided they are free from deception; for they did not condition hearing. And if the researcher 'Ibn Dhaqiq al-Eid' when he mentioned being free from deception found it very difficult, he said in his valuable book 'Al-Iqtirah,' criticizing him or following up on him: 'Except that acting upon this in the actions and extractions of the hadith scholars is difficult and hard, necessitating the rejection of many of the hadiths that they authenticated, since it is impossible for us to prove the hearing of the deceiver in them from his sheikh, unless a claimant claims that the predecessors looked into that and we did not look into it, and in that there is consideration.'"
I said - Shaykh -: And perhaps in order to avoid the rejection mentioned, they made the deceivers into levels, among them: those whose deception is forgiven for its rarity and whose 'an'anah is accepted, like the trustworthy ones who have weakness in their memorization; these are the ones whose hadith is accepted with the detail mentioned by al-Hafiz al-'Ala'i in "Marasile," and to clarify that, al-Hafiz wrote his book "Tabaqat al-Mudallis," which is well-known. If this is known, what is likely to be the proportion of the authentic hadiths that these people will reject, much and very much, if they commit to invalidating them due to the lack of hearing, let alone other defects that they may fabricate and ignore the positions of the scholars regarding them, and their authentication of the hadiths by which they weaken them."

The Shaykh: This is the truth.
Al-Halabi : What Allah willed!

The Shaykh: Therefore, the summary: That the school of Imam Muslim is the strongest school. Did you understand how? It is permissible to rely on the hadith in which contemporaneity is sufficient, but the condition of al-Bukhari is undoubtedly, as is agreed among the scholars, more precise and his hadith is more authentic, but this does not negate the authenticity of the hadith corresponding to the most authentic, as is well-known. And the truth is, as we mentioned here and in other places, that adopting the school of al-Bukhari literally, I said that it is a demolition of al-Bukhari himself, let alone the other books. And this is sufficient as an explanation for blocking the door of innovation in religion and opening the door of demolition for authentic hadiths. And we have some examples - unfortunately - in this country, let alone others.

The questioner: And in Egypt.

The Shaykh : Yes?

The questioner: And in Egypt and others.

The Shaykh: And in Egypt as well.

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : The infection spread; because the reality is that the soul that commands evil is seduced, as it is said: there is a pleasure in every new thing. The soul that commands evil wants to appear before people as one who is a achiever and a researcher, not a follower, and so on, even if that leads to the ruin of Basra, as the saying goes!
Perhaps we can suffice, Professor, with this amount, and may Allah reward you with good.
Al-Halabi : May Allah honor you, our Shaykh. May Allah preserve you, our Professor.

The Shaykh : And welcome.
Al-Halabi : May Allah benefit you, our Shaykh.

The Shaykh : May Allah preserve you.