Is there a limit to the number of ways in which a hadith can be strengthened?
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The Shaykh : Please go ahead.
The questioner : Following up on a question, O Shaykh, regarding the multiplicity of chains: is there a limit to the number of chains?
The Shaykh : A limit? Do you mean a legal limit, or a research-based historical limit?
The questioner : I mean a research-based limit, based on your research to improve the hadith. Does the number of chains mean that a hadith can be improved?
The Shaykh : It is not correct to stipulate a specific number of chains, just as it was not done in the case of mutawatir (mass-transmitted) reports. There was much disagreement regarding the number required for mutawatir, with many different opinions. It is not correct to impose a specific number, because the issue varies depending on the characteristics of the narrators in terms of their integrity and precision.
The same applies to a weak hadith that is strengthened by the multiplicity of chains. I may find that a weak hadith rises to the level of hasan (good) by coming through only two chains, because the narrators in both chains are trustworthy, except that one of them has a weakness that does not place his hadith in the category of hasan, nor does it place it in the category of severely weak. This weakness is matched by another chain for the same first hadith, so one strengthens the other. This is because, as I mentioned earlier regarding Ibn Taymiyyah, if these narrators are from different lands such that it is inconceivable that they conspired, or if their generations are different such that they could not have been contemporaries, then in that case the hadith can be strengthened by the combination of the two chains. The weakness present in the memory of each of the two narrators in the two chains is a weakness that does not make the chain severely weak. Now, let us move to another example. The weakness in another hadith may be more severe in each of the narrators than in the first example, requiring the heart to be reassured of the authenticity of this hadith by a third chain, and perhaps a fourth, and so on.
Therefore, it is a clear error to set a specific, rigid percentage of chains to say that with this number of chains, in every hadith that has such chains, it rises to the level of hasan, or that it does not rise. It is not correct to say either this or that. Yes.
The questioner : Following up on a question, O Shaykh, regarding the multiplicity of chains: is there a limit to the number of chains?
The Shaykh : A limit? Do you mean a legal limit, or a research-based historical limit?
The questioner : I mean a research-based limit, based on your research to improve the hadith. Does the number of chains mean that a hadith can be improved?
The Shaykh : It is not correct to stipulate a specific number of chains, just as it was not done in the case of mutawatir (mass-transmitted) reports. There was much disagreement regarding the number required for mutawatir, with many different opinions. It is not correct to impose a specific number, because the issue varies depending on the characteristics of the narrators in terms of their integrity and precision.
The same applies to a weak hadith that is strengthened by the multiplicity of chains. I may find that a weak hadith rises to the level of hasan (good) by coming through only two chains, because the narrators in both chains are trustworthy, except that one of them has a weakness that does not place his hadith in the category of hasan, nor does it place it in the category of severely weak. This weakness is matched by another chain for the same first hadith, so one strengthens the other. This is because, as I mentioned earlier regarding Ibn Taymiyyah, if these narrators are from different lands such that it is inconceivable that they conspired, or if their generations are different such that they could not have been contemporaries, then in that case the hadith can be strengthened by the combination of the two chains. The weakness present in the memory of each of the two narrators in the two chains is a weakness that does not make the chain severely weak. Now, let us move to another example. The weakness in another hadith may be more severe in each of the narrators than in the first example, requiring the heart to be reassured of the authenticity of this hadith by a third chain, and perhaps a fourth, and so on.
Therefore, it is a clear error to set a specific, rigid percentage of chains to say that with this number of chains, in every hadith that has such chains, it rises to the level of hasan, or that it does not rise. It is not correct to say either this or that. Yes.