We request clarification of al-Hafiz al-Dhahabi’s statement and its summary: “That the narration of a group of trustworthy narrators from a narrator about whom nothing has come to be criticized is authentic
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The questioner : Shaykh.
The Shaykh : Please go ahead.
The questioner : Al-Dhahabi mentioned in *al-Mizan* that if a group of narrators narrate from a narrator and nothing has come to be criticized about him, the majority are on the position of authenticating his hadith. Al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar (may Allah have mercy on him) in the manuscript *al-Lisan* added a correction to al-Dhahabi regarding this phrase, saying: “I have not seen any of the predecessors explicitly state this”, then he said: “Yes, it is true for the one who is famous for seeking knowledge and claiming affiliation with it”. So we want clarification of this phrase?
The Shaykh : Al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar himself clarified it, and he himself applied it in the book: *al-Tahdhib*.
And recently, a study came out containing an answer to this question. Al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar in the book: *al-Tahdhib* provides biographies for some narrators and mentions many of the trustworthy narrators who narrated from them, and he does not report from any of the imams of al-jarh wa al-ta'dil a declaration of their trustworthiness. Yet, we find that he explicitly states in *al-Taqrib* that he is generally truthful, and sometimes that he is trustworthy. Then we find that in some of his reports and his commentary on some hadiths in his large book *Fath al-Bari*, he treats the hadiths of this type of narrators as authentic, even though he himself did not mention who declared them trustworthy. So he followed this rule that you quoted from al-Hafiz al-Dhahabi, and then you mentioned that al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar did not find anyone who preceded him to that. And this is the knowledge, and it is:
“That a person comes with something through his tracking and verification, which no one has explicitly stated. Therefore, al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar, practically, had no choice but to follow this statement which he mentioned that he did not find anyone who preceded al-Hafiz al-Dhahabi to it”. But when the specialist researcher in the science of hadith and in the biographies of men, when he looks deeply into their method of criticizing narrators and declaring them trustworthy, and they did not meet them, he finds himself drawn to what al-Hafiz al-Dhahabi (may Allah have mercy on him) mentioned.
The Shaykh : Please go ahead.
The questioner : Al-Dhahabi mentioned in *al-Mizan* that if a group of narrators narrate from a narrator and nothing has come to be criticized about him, the majority are on the position of authenticating his hadith. Al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar (may Allah have mercy on him) in the manuscript *al-Lisan* added a correction to al-Dhahabi regarding this phrase, saying: “I have not seen any of the predecessors explicitly state this”, then he said: “Yes, it is true for the one who is famous for seeking knowledge and claiming affiliation with it”. So we want clarification of this phrase?
The Shaykh : Al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar himself clarified it, and he himself applied it in the book: *al-Tahdhib*.
And recently, a study came out containing an answer to this question. Al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar in the book: *al-Tahdhib* provides biographies for some narrators and mentions many of the trustworthy narrators who narrated from them, and he does not report from any of the imams of al-jarh wa al-ta'dil a declaration of their trustworthiness. Yet, we find that he explicitly states in *al-Taqrib* that he is generally truthful, and sometimes that he is trustworthy. Then we find that in some of his reports and his commentary on some hadiths in his large book *Fath al-Bari*, he treats the hadiths of this type of narrators as authentic, even though he himself did not mention who declared them trustworthy. So he followed this rule that you quoted from al-Hafiz al-Dhahabi, and then you mentioned that al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar did not find anyone who preceded him to that. And this is the knowledge, and it is:
“That a person comes with something through his tracking and verification, which no one has explicitly stated. Therefore, al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar, practically, had no choice but to follow this statement which he mentioned that he did not find anyone who preceded al-Hafiz al-Dhahabi to it”. But when the specialist researcher in the science of hadith and in the biographies of men, when he looks deeply into their method of criticizing narrators and declaring them trustworthy, and they did not meet them, he finds himself drawn to what al-Hafiz al-Dhahabi (may Allah have mercy on him) mentioned.