The Hafiz Ibn Hibban lists some unknown narrators among the trustworthy ones; does this affect the ruling on their reliability through an examination of their narrations?
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The questioner : Well, for example, when Ibn Hibban explicitly states about a narrator: "I do not know him, and I do not know his father!"
The Shaykh : Yes, that is correct.
The questioner : Nevertheless, he lists him in *Al-Thiqat* (The Trustworthy Ones), so we can say that he examined his hadiths and found him to be a reliable memorizer.
The Shaykh : No, this is one of his clear and evident errors, because how can he examine his hadiths when he says: "No one narrated from him except so-and-so", and there are many examples of this in his book. So, the matter did not involve examination in Ibn Hibban's case. The truth is, what I see—and I have a project I started years ago, finished writing it on cards, and began recording it in a manuscript a few months ago, which I named *Taysir Intifa' al-Khullan bi Kitab Thiqat Ibn Hibban* (Facilitating the Benefit of Companions from Ibn Hibban's Book of Trustworthy Ones)—is that Ibn Hibban has very strange things in this book. You mentioned earlier that he lists someone in the trustworthy ones and says: "I do not know him, and I do not know his father", yes?
The questioner : And he lists him among the weak ones as well.
The Shaykh : Yes, this is the most problematic issue: he lists him among the weak ones.
Then he mentions some narrators, saying so-and-so narrated from him, and so-and-so is not trustworthy in his view; he is not trustworthy in his view.
The questioner : The one who narrated from him.
The Shaykh : Ah, the one who narrated from him, yes, that is right. It seems to me, from my study of this book, that the man had a thought in his mind: he collected the names of the trustworthy ones, but he collected them and then did not filter his book according to the rules. Because, as you may remember with me, he mentioned, perhaps in the introduction to his *Sahih*, that the narrator he relies on is described by him as the just, reliable, and memorizing one, or words to that effect. So, how did he know many of the trustworthy ones he listed in his book of trustworthy ones, when some of them he says: "I do not know him, and I do not know his father", and some he says: "So-and-so narrated from him, and he is weak, or perhaps fabricated as well" sometimes in his book? So, how does he authenticate them?!
The matter required him to review his book and perform a filtering process on it.
My goal in this book, as indicated by the title, is *Taysir al-Mura'ah* (Facilitating Review), because you know the *Tabaqat* (Layers) and the things taken against him, such as listing a man in two layers: sometimes he lists him among the Tabi'un (Successors) and sometimes among the Atba' al-Tabi'in (Successors of the Successors). Sometimes, in the same text, he lists him in both places. Sometimes there is a discrepancy; the origin of the discrepancy is that when he lists him among the Tabi'un, it is because he found a narration from him from the Companions, saying: "He narrated from so-and-so, a Companion, and so-and-so narrated from him", yes?
The questioner : Even if it is disconnected.
The Shaykh : Even if it is disconnected, then he lists him among the Atba' al-Tabi'in, and in that he is correct. All of this truly requires careful investigation and precision.
My goal was only this facilitation, but I found myself drawn, as they say, like iron to a magnet. I found myself compelled to comment on some of these phenomena that I could not pass over or ignore. So, I have this book with many, many comments. But the truth is that the book needs filtering, because some narrators should be included among the weak ones, and for some narrators, it must be concluded that they are among the trustworthy ones, even if no one else authenticated them. This is an important benefit, and I paid great attention to this when I was subjected to criticism and accused of contradiction or inconsistency. When I spread among the students that Ibn Hibban's authentication is not reliable because he authenticates unknowns, they would sometimes see me authenticating or grading a hadith as good that contains a narrator whom only Ibn Hibban authenticated. They said: "This contradicts what his methodology is." They did not yet realize that a person, no matter how advanced in knowledge, is ignorant, as Allah the Exalted said:[Al-Isra 17:85].
So, something new became clear to me years ago, as something had become clear to me from before: that Ibn Hibban's authentication is not reliable as a rule. But at that time, this second fact had not become clear to me, which is: if he authenticates someone from whom a group of trustworthy narrators narrated, and it is not known that they narrated from him a denounced hadith, then his authentication is valid.
The Shaykh : Yes, that is correct.
The questioner : Nevertheless, he lists him in *Al-Thiqat* (The Trustworthy Ones), so we can say that he examined his hadiths and found him to be a reliable memorizer.
The Shaykh : No, this is one of his clear and evident errors, because how can he examine his hadiths when he says: "No one narrated from him except so-and-so", and there are many examples of this in his book. So, the matter did not involve examination in Ibn Hibban's case. The truth is, what I see—and I have a project I started years ago, finished writing it on cards, and began recording it in a manuscript a few months ago, which I named *Taysir Intifa' al-Khullan bi Kitab Thiqat Ibn Hibban* (Facilitating the Benefit of Companions from Ibn Hibban's Book of Trustworthy Ones)—is that Ibn Hibban has very strange things in this book. You mentioned earlier that he lists someone in the trustworthy ones and says: "I do not know him, and I do not know his father", yes?
The questioner : And he lists him among the weak ones as well.
The Shaykh : Yes, this is the most problematic issue: he lists him among the weak ones.
Then he mentions some narrators, saying so-and-so narrated from him, and so-and-so is not trustworthy in his view; he is not trustworthy in his view.
The questioner : The one who narrated from him.
The Shaykh : Ah, the one who narrated from him, yes, that is right. It seems to me, from my study of this book, that the man had a thought in his mind: he collected the names of the trustworthy ones, but he collected them and then did not filter his book according to the rules. Because, as you may remember with me, he mentioned, perhaps in the introduction to his *Sahih*, that the narrator he relies on is described by him as the just, reliable, and memorizing one, or words to that effect. So, how did he know many of the trustworthy ones he listed in his book of trustworthy ones, when some of them he says: "I do not know him, and I do not know his father", and some he says: "So-and-so narrated from him, and he is weak, or perhaps fabricated as well" sometimes in his book? So, how does he authenticate them?!
The matter required him to review his book and perform a filtering process on it.
My goal in this book, as indicated by the title, is *Taysir al-Mura'ah* (Facilitating Review), because you know the *Tabaqat* (Layers) and the things taken against him, such as listing a man in two layers: sometimes he lists him among the Tabi'un (Successors) and sometimes among the Atba' al-Tabi'in (Successors of the Successors). Sometimes, in the same text, he lists him in both places. Sometimes there is a discrepancy; the origin of the discrepancy is that when he lists him among the Tabi'un, it is because he found a narration from him from the Companions, saying: "He narrated from so-and-so, a Companion, and so-and-so narrated from him", yes?
The questioner : Even if it is disconnected.
The Shaykh : Even if it is disconnected, then he lists him among the Atba' al-Tabi'in, and in that he is correct. All of this truly requires careful investigation and precision.
My goal was only this facilitation, but I found myself drawn, as they say, like iron to a magnet. I found myself compelled to comment on some of these phenomena that I could not pass over or ignore. So, I have this book with many, many comments. But the truth is that the book needs filtering, because some narrators should be included among the weak ones, and for some narrators, it must be concluded that they are among the trustworthy ones, even if no one else authenticated them. This is an important benefit, and I paid great attention to this when I was subjected to criticism and accused of contradiction or inconsistency. When I spread among the students that Ibn Hibban's authentication is not reliable because he authenticates unknowns, they would sometimes see me authenticating or grading a hadith as good that contains a narrator whom only Ibn Hibban authenticated. They said: "This contradicts what his methodology is." They did not yet realize that a person, no matter how advanced in knowledge, is ignorant, as Allah the Exalted said:
And mankind have not been given of knowledge except a little."
وما أُوتيتم من العلم إلا قليلاًSo, something new became clear to me years ago, as something had become clear to me from before: that Ibn Hibban's authentication is not reliable as a rule. But at that time, this second fact had not become clear to me, which is: if he authenticates someone from whom a group of trustworthy narrators narrated, and it is not known that they narrated from him a denounced hadith, then his authentication is valid.