What is the criterion for identifying an anomalous hadith? And how do we distinguish it from the acceptable addition of a trustworthy narrator?
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The questioner : The last question—because time is nearly up now.
The Shaykh : May Allah reward you with good.
The questioner : The last question: What is the criterion for identifying an anomalous hadith, because some scholars of hadith grade a hadith as good or authentic, while another scholar labels it as anomalous—such as the hadith about moving the finger?
The Shaykh : Yes, this issue is, in reality, among the subtleties of hadith science. Identifying the anomalous hadith: First, the subtlety of the issue is that they differed in defining the anomalous hadith. Then there is another subtlety in applying this definition, because the matter is relative.
The anomalous hadith is: "What a trustworthy narrator contradicts, when others who are more trustworthy than him, or more numerous in number, contradict him. The anomalous hadith is not when a trustworthy narrator narrates a hadith uniquely without contradicting others". The first person we know who clarified this definition is Imam al-Shafi'i (may Allah have mercy on him), and the scholars of hadith followed this. It is: that a trustworthy narrator is contradicted by one who is more trustworthy than him.
And at that point, we come to the other subtlety: How can one identify this contradiction?
This does not appear except by tracing the chains of transmission on one hand, and by recalling the biography of each narrator accurately on the other hand. If the narrator is precise and a memorizer, and he has a specialization in the narrator from whom he narrated or the sheikh from whom he narrated, then at that time his contradiction of one who is trustworthy like him, or even if he is more trustworthy in general, is considered. But his specialization in his sheikh gives him a preponderance over that trustworthy narrator who is more precise in general. So the anomalous hadith becomes clear, as I said earlier, by studying the biography of the contradictor and the contradicted, the contradictor or the contradictors. This study is what allows one to weigh whether the hadith that the trustworthy narrator narrated uniquely is anomalous, or whether it falls under what scholars of hadith say in another definition of theirs: "The addition of a trustworthy narrator is acceptable". There is no contradiction between this rule and that one, as many people imagine. They accept the addition of a trustworthy narrator absolutely. No, the addition of a trustworthy narrator is acceptable with a criterion: that the one who added did not err in his addition and did not contradict one who is more trustworthy than him. All that is in the matter, when we say "more trustworthy than him," is that this needs precision, because perhaps the contradictor is one person and those contradicting him are two, and yet the narration of the trustworthy narrator is more preponderant than the narration of the two. How is this?
One looks at the strength of the trustworthy narrator's precision and the ratio of the strength of precision of those contradicting him. As some poets expressed in a different occasion, but in a quote, the poet said:
"Do not wage war against my heart with your two eyes, *** For two weak ones can overpower a strong one":
So this ratio varies; sometimes the two weak ones are better than a strong one, and a strong one is stronger than two strong ones. Note the ratio of strength in each of the contradictor or the contradicted. This is what can be said now regarding the anomalous hadith.
And we ask Allah (Mighty and Majestic) to benefit us with what He has taught us and to increase us in knowledge, guidance, righteousness, and piety. And peace be upon you and the mercy of Allah and His blessings.
The Shaykh : May Allah reward you with good.
The questioner : The last question: What is the criterion for identifying an anomalous hadith, because some scholars of hadith grade a hadith as good or authentic, while another scholar labels it as anomalous—such as the hadith about moving the finger?
The Shaykh : Yes, this issue is, in reality, among the subtleties of hadith science. Identifying the anomalous hadith: First, the subtlety of the issue is that they differed in defining the anomalous hadith. Then there is another subtlety in applying this definition, because the matter is relative.
The anomalous hadith is: "What a trustworthy narrator contradicts, when others who are more trustworthy than him, or more numerous in number, contradict him. The anomalous hadith is not when a trustworthy narrator narrates a hadith uniquely without contradicting others". The first person we know who clarified this definition is Imam al-Shafi'i (may Allah have mercy on him), and the scholars of hadith followed this. It is: that a trustworthy narrator is contradicted by one who is more trustworthy than him.
And at that point, we come to the other subtlety: How can one identify this contradiction?
This does not appear except by tracing the chains of transmission on one hand, and by recalling the biography of each narrator accurately on the other hand. If the narrator is precise and a memorizer, and he has a specialization in the narrator from whom he narrated or the sheikh from whom he narrated, then at that time his contradiction of one who is trustworthy like him, or even if he is more trustworthy in general, is considered. But his specialization in his sheikh gives him a preponderance over that trustworthy narrator who is more precise in general. So the anomalous hadith becomes clear, as I said earlier, by studying the biography of the contradictor and the contradicted, the contradictor or the contradictors. This study is what allows one to weigh whether the hadith that the trustworthy narrator narrated uniquely is anomalous, or whether it falls under what scholars of hadith say in another definition of theirs: "The addition of a trustworthy narrator is acceptable". There is no contradiction between this rule and that one, as many people imagine. They accept the addition of a trustworthy narrator absolutely. No, the addition of a trustworthy narrator is acceptable with a criterion: that the one who added did not err in his addition and did not contradict one who is more trustworthy than him. All that is in the matter, when we say "more trustworthy than him," is that this needs precision, because perhaps the contradictor is one person and those contradicting him are two, and yet the narration of the trustworthy narrator is more preponderant than the narration of the two. How is this?
One looks at the strength of the trustworthy narrator's precision and the ratio of the strength of precision of those contradicting him. As some poets expressed in a different occasion, but in a quote, the poet said:
"Do not wage war against my heart with your two eyes, *** For two weak ones can overpower a strong one":
So this ratio varies; sometimes the two weak ones are better than a strong one, and a strong one is stronger than two strong ones. Note the ratio of strength in each of the contradictor or the contradicted. This is what can be said now regarding the anomalous hadith.
And we ask Allah (Mighty and Majestic) to benefit us with what He has taught us and to increase us in knowledge, guidance, righteousness, and piety. And peace be upon you and the mercy of Allah and His blessings.