For others; is it accepted in the chapter of creed?
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The questioner : The hasan li-ghayrihi hadith; is it accepted in the chapter of creed?
The Shaykh : What I believe is that distinguishing between a hadith established at a certain level and another hadith with a higher degree of establishment, between creed and rulings; this is a religious innovation that the early scholars of the Muslims did not know. Is this clear up to here?
The questioner: Yes.
The Shaykh : And on this basis, if the hasan hadith establishes a legal ruling, then it also establishes a creed; is that okay?
The questioner: Yes.
The Shaykh : Rather, I say something that I do not think you have read, and I have argued with a group there in Damascus, Syria, who have confused the minds of Muslims today with this transmission they presented as if it were a creed with no flaw or defect in it; and that is that ahad hadiths do not establish creeds. I said to them: Two things come upon you from which you have no escape. The first thing is that you do not adopt a creed from a hadith, no matter how strong or authentic that hadith is, even if it were mutawatir. They said: How is that? I said—and this is a fact known by all students of knowledge who are beginners in the science of hadith—that a hadith being mutawatir is a relative matter; that is, it is mutawatir relative to the one who tracks the paths of the hadith and gains the conviction in his heart that this is a mutawatir hadith that it is impossible for it to be a lie. But is every memorizer—and I do not say every Muslim—is every memorizer necessarily or obligated to consider a hadith that is established with a certain memorizer as mutawatir, to also be mutawatir with the other memorizer? The matter is not obligatory; is this clear?
The questioner: Yes.
The Shaykh : Fine, and it is known in the definition of the mutawatir hadith that it is required in its mutawatir status—and peace be upon you—that the chain continues from the first layer to the second until it reaches the one who says that it is a mutawatir hadith; is this statement okay?
The questioner: Yes.
The Shaykh : So if the mutawatir status is broken in a certain layer, does the hadith remain mutawatir? The answer is: No. I am saying now: Imam al-Bukhari said about a certain hadith that it is mutawatir, and here is the end of the precision in the subject; is it mutawatir with me? Imam al-Bukhari judged a certain hadith to be mutawatir; is it mutawatir with me?
The questioner: No.
Another questioner : Not necessarily.
The Shaykh : This is an exam question, ha!
The questioner : Not necessarily.
The Shaykh : Not necessarily, is it possible?
The questioner : That it is and that it is not.
The Shaykh: Yes.
The questioner : It is possible that it is and that it is not.
Another questioner : It is not possible.
The questioner : It is possible that it is mutawatir with you, and it is possible that it is not.
The Shaykh : No; so your answer is correct, and his answer is correct; but to link one to the other, I say: If Imam al-Bukhari said about a certain hadith that it is a mutawatir hadith, and I have not come across this hadith except through one path; is it mutawatir with me in this state?
The questioner : No, he is not.
The Shaykh : Is there doubt in this?
The questioner: No.
The Shaykh : Here the previous possibility does not apply, but I =
-- Another questioner: Peace be upon you.
The Shaykh : And peace be upon you -- = because of your view that it is possible that I researched and did not find this mutawatir status; so your answer is correct, but in the scenario I presented just now; his answer is correct. Now, for the one who has no knowledge of the hadith at all, and al-Bukhari said about it that it is mutawatir; it is even more likely that it is not mutawatir with him. We said to that group: Suppose your leader is the scholar of the time in hadith, or the Bukhari of hadith, and he told you: such and such a hadith is mutawatir. Does it become mutawatir with you?
The questioner: No.
The Shaykh : The answer is: No, so the chain is broken. When does it become mutawatir with you? If you have ten or twenty imams in hadith, according to their differences in the number required for mutawatir, and then you are connected to this number; at that time the hadith becomes mutawatir relative to you. And as long as the reality is the opposite, and the hypothesis is that your leader is the one who judged this hadith to be mutawatir; at that time this hadith becomes ahad with you; that is because the one who transmitted to you the news of the hadith's mutawatir status is an individual. And on this basis, I said to them: You do not adopt a creed from an authentic hadith; is this clear?
The questioner : Is that clear?
The Shaykh : Good; here is the first point, and it is important. The second point, which the previous research necessitated us to say, is: Every hadith that carries a ruling contains a creed within it. And if you separate the creed from this ruling, you remove the value of this ruling from the legal perspective; is this also clear?
The questioner : Is that clear?
The Shaykh : Meaning, if an order comes to you from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) confirmed as being obligatory or recommended, or if a prohibition comes to you confirmed as being for prohibition or for disliking; if you separate your belief in the content of that order—that the order indicates obligation or recommendation—from that order, no effect of the ruling remains in your heart; so it is the same regarding prohibitions; is this also clear?
The questioner: Yes.
The Shaykh : So we conclude from what preceded: If the previous detail, which some scholars of kalam adopted in the past and some contemporaries adopted recently, if this distinction had validity between creeds and rulings, its placement in rulings would be more appropriate than in creed; because the ruling, we said—and this is very clear—carries a creed, so if we remove the creed from it, it has no effect whatsoever.
Once we know all this, we return to your question about the hasan hadith. The hasan hadith is either said to establish a legal ruling or it does not. If it is known among the majority of scholars that it establishes a ruling; then it contains a creed; so it must be acted upon because it is a ruling, and it does not harm us after that that it contains a creed; because this is a matter almost agreed upon regarding the hasan hadith. As for the sahih hadith, there is no doubt that it is obligatory to act upon it in rulings. And if we know the previous explanation, acting upon the hasan hadith contains a ruling, and this means that if a report comes that does not contain a ruling but contains a creed, but its chain is hasan; it is obligatory to act upon it just as it is obligatory to act upon it in a ruling; because it is a ruling plus a creed.
And branching from this statement—and in my belief this is an important thing, because I do not know it to be written down—is what I also said to those partisans: You are practically distinguishing between ahad hadiths in creed and ahad hadiths in rulings; so what do you do if a hadith comes that contains a creed on one side and a ruling on the other? And if, as we explained, there is no difference between a hadith with a ruling or a hadith with a creed; whoever has a ruling or whoever does not have a ruling; has a creed. But according to their specific philosophy, I said to them: What is your position? They were confused by the question, so they asked for an example. I said to them: For example, his saying (peace and blessings be upon him) in the authentic hadith in al-Bukhari and others:, and the rest of the hadith is known. They are the most knowledgeable of them, but they do not believe in the punishment of the grave; because, in their claim!, the hadiths of the punishment of the grave have not reached the level of mutawatir; so it is permissible to believe in it. We said to them now: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) ordered you to lower the gaze, whether the order is for obligation or for recommendation. The Messenger of Allah ordered you to seek refuge 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: this is an ahad hadith that is not permissible to act upon in creed; because the punishment of the grave is a creed. So what do you do? Do you obey his order (peace be upon him) as a legal ruling, or do you return to your philosophy that creed is not established by an ahad hadith; and this is an ahad hadith so 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 and they are contradicting the Shari'ah, but they have contradicted their creed because of their distinction between ahad hadiths in rulings and ahad hadiths in creed.
This is what I have regarding this interesting issue.
Yes.
The questioner : The brother asked about the hasan li-ghayrihi, and also what I mentioned...
The Shaykh : That is correct.
The Shaykh : What I believe is that distinguishing between a hadith established at a certain level and another hadith with a higher degree of establishment, between creed and rulings; this is a religious innovation that the early scholars of the Muslims did not know. Is this clear up to here?
The questioner: Yes.
The Shaykh : And on this basis, if the hasan hadith establishes a legal ruling, then it also establishes a creed; is that okay?
The questioner: Yes.
The Shaykh : Rather, I say something that I do not think you have read, and I have argued with a group there in Damascus, Syria, who have confused the minds of Muslims today with this transmission they presented as if it were a creed with no flaw or defect in it; and that is that ahad hadiths do not establish creeds. I said to them: Two things come upon you from which you have no escape. The first thing is that you do not adopt a creed from a hadith, no matter how strong or authentic that hadith is, even if it were mutawatir. They said: How is that? I said—and this is a fact known by all students of knowledge who are beginners in the science of hadith—that a hadith being mutawatir is a relative matter; that is, it is mutawatir relative to the one who tracks the paths of the hadith and gains the conviction in his heart that this is a mutawatir hadith that it is impossible for it to be a lie. But is every memorizer—and I do not say every Muslim—is every memorizer necessarily or obligated to consider a hadith that is established with a certain memorizer as mutawatir, to also be mutawatir with the other memorizer? The matter is not obligatory; is this clear?
The questioner: Yes.
The Shaykh : Fine, and it is known in the definition of the mutawatir hadith that it is required in its mutawatir status—and peace be upon you—that the chain continues from the first layer to the second until it reaches the one who says that it is a mutawatir hadith; is this statement okay?
The questioner: Yes.
The Shaykh : So if the mutawatir status is broken in a certain layer, does the hadith remain mutawatir? The answer is: No. I am saying now: Imam al-Bukhari said about a certain hadith that it is mutawatir, and here is the end of the precision in the subject; is it mutawatir with me? Imam al-Bukhari judged a certain hadith to be mutawatir; is it mutawatir with me?
The questioner: No.
Another questioner : Not necessarily.
The Shaykh : This is an exam question, ha!
The questioner : Not necessarily.
The Shaykh : Not necessarily, is it possible?
The questioner : That it is and that it is not.
The Shaykh: Yes.
The questioner : It is possible that it is and that it is not.
Another questioner : It is not possible.
The questioner : It is possible that it is mutawatir with you, and it is possible that it is not.
The Shaykh : No; so your answer is correct, and his answer is correct; but to link one to the other, I say: If Imam al-Bukhari said about a certain hadith that it is a mutawatir hadith, and I have not come across this hadith except through one path; is it mutawatir with me in this state?
The questioner : No, he is not.
The Shaykh : Is there doubt in this?
The questioner: No.
The Shaykh : Here the previous possibility does not apply, but I =
-- Another questioner: Peace be upon you.
The Shaykh : And peace be upon you -- = because of your view that it is possible that I researched and did not find this mutawatir status; so your answer is correct, but in the scenario I presented just now; his answer is correct. Now, for the one who has no knowledge of the hadith at all, and al-Bukhari said about it that it is mutawatir; it is even more likely that it is not mutawatir with him. We said to that group: Suppose your leader is the scholar of the time in hadith, or the Bukhari of hadith, and he told you: such and such a hadith is mutawatir. Does it become mutawatir with you?
The questioner: No.
The Shaykh : The answer is: No, so the chain is broken. When does it become mutawatir with you? If you have ten or twenty imams in hadith, according to their differences in the number required for mutawatir, and then you are connected to this number; at that time the hadith becomes mutawatir relative to you. And as long as the reality is the opposite, and the hypothesis is that your leader is the one who judged this hadith to be mutawatir; at that time this hadith becomes ahad with you; that is because the one who transmitted to you the news of the hadith's mutawatir status is an individual. And on this basis, I said to them: You do not adopt a creed from an authentic hadith; is this clear?
The questioner : Is that clear?
The Shaykh : Good; here is the first point, and it is important. The second point, which the previous research necessitated us to say, is: Every hadith that carries a ruling contains a creed within it. And if you separate the creed from this ruling, you remove the value of this ruling from the legal perspective; is this also clear?
The questioner : Is that clear?
The Shaykh : Meaning, if an order comes to you from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) confirmed as being obligatory or recommended, or if a prohibition comes to you confirmed as being for prohibition or for disliking; if you separate your belief in the content of that order—that the order indicates obligation or recommendation—from that order, no effect of the ruling remains in your heart; so it is the same regarding prohibitions; is this also clear?
The questioner: Yes.
The Shaykh : So we conclude from what preceded: If the previous detail, which some scholars of kalam adopted in the past and some contemporaries adopted recently, if this distinction had validity between creeds and rulings, its placement in rulings would be more appropriate than in creed; because the ruling, we said—and this is very clear—carries a creed, so if we remove the creed from it, it has no effect whatsoever.
Once we know all this, we return to your question about the hasan hadith. The hasan hadith is either said to establish a legal ruling or it does not. If it is known among the majority of scholars that it establishes a ruling; then it contains a creed; so it must be acted upon because it is a ruling, and it does not harm us after that that it contains a creed; because this is a matter almost agreed upon regarding the hasan hadith. As for the sahih hadith, there is no doubt that it is obligatory to act upon it in rulings. And if we know the previous explanation, acting upon the hasan hadith contains a ruling, and this means that if a report comes that does not contain a ruling but contains a creed, but its chain is hasan; it is obligatory to act upon it just as it is obligatory to act upon it in a ruling; because it is a ruling plus a creed.
And branching from this statement—and in my belief this is an important thing, because I do not know it to be written down—is what I also said to those partisans: You are practically distinguishing between ahad hadiths in creed and ahad hadiths in rulings; so what do you do if a hadith comes that contains a creed on one side and a ruling on the other? And if, as we explained, there is no difference between a hadith with a ruling or a hadith with a creed; whoever has a ruling or whoever does not have a ruling; has a creed. But according to their specific philosophy, I said to them: What is your position? They were confused by the question, so they asked for an example. I said to them: For example, his saying (peace and blessings be upon him) in the authentic hadith in al-Bukhari and others:
When one of you sits in the final tashahhud, let him seek refuge with Allah from four things, saying: O Allah, I seek refuge in You from the punishment of the grave
إذا جلس أحدكم في التشهد الأخير ؛ فليستعِذْ الله من أربع ، يقول : اللهم إني أعوذ بك من عذاب القبرThis is what I have regarding this interesting issue.
Yes.
The questioner : The brother asked about the hasan li-ghayrihi, and also what I mentioned...
The Shaykh : That is correct.
Source
www.al-albany.com
The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.