What is your opinion regarding a person who encounters a disputed issue where the stronger position depends on the authenticity or weakness of a hadith, and the hadith is disputed regarding its authenticity among the hadith scholars?

The questioner : He says:The questioner : What is the Shaykh's opinion regarding a person who does not have the ability to determine the stronger position in the disagreement of the hadith scholars in authenticating and weakening hadiths, if he encounters an issue where determining the stronger position depends on the authenticity of the hadith, and this hadith is disputed regarding its authentication?

The Shaykh : Repeat it.

The questioner : He says: What is the Shaykh's opinion regarding a person who does not have the ability to determine the stronger position in the disagreement of the hadith scholars in authenticating and weakening hadiths, if he encounters an issue where determining the stronger position depends on the authenticity of the hadith, and this hadith is disputed regarding its authentication?

The Shaykh : This resembles the second-to-last issue, meaning, for example, a hadith that Ibn Hibban authenticated, and Ahmad weakened, and he has no means of determining the stronger position, so Ahmad is more trustworthy than Ibn Hibban, and so on until the matters become difficult for him. At that point, the matter returns to what we mentioned earlier: It is necessary to do so. However, the matter may overlap; the previous answer also serves as an answer to some examples of these hadiths. If authenticating them involves caution for the Muslim's religion, he takes the opinion of the one who authenticated it, provided he cannot determine the stronger position by looking at the authenticator or the weakener. And the reverse is the reverse: if authenticating it necessitates laxity regarding some of the rulings of the Shari'ah, he takes the opinion of the one who weakened the hadith. The matter is actually easy but broad. It is incumbent upon the one who is confused by this confusion to use his knowledge if he has knowledge, otherwise he returns to the saying of Allah the Exalted: . It appears, and Allah knows best, that this last point is what this person who is stuck at the point of confusion should resort to, as he is unable to prefer one opinion over another, so he asks those he trusts in their knowledge from among the scholars and people of virtue around him.