A Response to Some Groups That Distinguish Between Ahad Hadith and Mutawatir Hadith
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The Shaykh : And branching from this statement is something that I believe is important, because I am not aware of it being written down anywhere, and I have also said this to those partisan groups:
You are practically distinguishing between ahad hadith in matters of creed and ahad hadith in matters of rulings. So what do you do if a hadith comes that contains a creed on one hand and a ruling on the other? As for us, as we have explained, there is no difference between a hadith containing a ruling and a hadith containing a creed. Whatever contains a ruling, or whatever does not contain a ruling, contains a creed. But according to their specific philosophy, I asked them, "What is your position?" They were confused by the question and asked for an example. I said to them, for example, the saying of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) in the authentic hadith in al-Bukhari and others:Sahih Muslim 588a The rest of the hadith is well known to them. They do not believe in the punishment of the grave because, in their claim, the hadiths regarding the punishment of the grave have not reached the level of mutawatir. So they say it is permissible to believe in it. We said to them, "Now, the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) commanded you, regardless of whether the command is for obligation or recommendation, to seek refuge with Allah from four things, one of which is the punishment of the grave. If you say this is a hadith of rulings that must be acted upon, you have contradicted your statement that this is an ahad hadith that cannot be used in creed, because the punishment of the grave is a creed. So what do you do? Do you obey his command (peace and blessings be upon him) as a legal ruling, or do you return to your philosophy that creed is not established by ahad hadith, and since this is an ahad hadith, we do not act upon it? Whether you say this or that, you have contradicted your creed. We do not say you have contradicted the Shari'ah; they are contradicting the Shari'ah, but they have contradicted their own creed because of their distinction between ahad hadith in rulings and ahad hadith in creed. This is all I have on this interesting issue. Yes.
The questioner : The brother asked about hasan li ghayrihi. Likewise, what I mentioned applies to it.
The Shaykh : It is so. Please, go ahead.
You are practically distinguishing between ahad hadith in matters of creed and ahad hadith in matters of rulings. So what do you do if a hadith comes that contains a creed on one hand and a ruling on the other? As for us, as we have explained, there is no difference between a hadith containing a ruling and a hadith containing a creed. Whatever contains a ruling, or whatever does not contain a ruling, contains a creed. But according to their specific philosophy, I asked them, "What is your position?" They were confused by the question and asked for an example. I said to them, for example, the saying of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) in the authentic hadith in al-Bukhari and others:
When any one of you utters tashahhud (in prayer) he must seek refuge with Allah from four (trials) and should thus say:" O Allah! I seek refuge with Thee from the torment of the Hell, from the torment of the grave
إذا جلس أحدكم في التشهد الأخير فليستعذ بالله من أربع يقول اللهم إني أعوذ بك من عذاب القبرThe questioner : The brother asked about hasan li ghayrihi. Likewise, what I mentioned applies to it.
The Shaykh : It is so. Please, go ahead.