Narrating from Weak Narrators, and the Hadith on Combining Pointing with the Finger and Moving It

The Shaykh : But if a hadith is combined with a hadith from Muslim, it rises from the rank of weak to hasan. So I have now cited five of these weak narrators. If these five weak narrators narrate a hadith with the same wording—or at least with the same meaning—the soul feels more reassurance by these five than by a trustworthy, memorizing huffaz. For if the error of these five, even if that weakness is in each one of them, the soul is more reassured by the consensus of these five in narrating a certain hadith than by that hadith which a single trustworthy huffaz narrated alone.

The questioner : This is... regarding the hadith of Zayyad ibn Qudamah regarding the pointing?

The Shaykh : No, because the contradiction here in the hadith of Zayyad is not from weak narrators, but from trustworthy ones. However, this one is a trustworthy, established narrator, as was said in his biography. Then, his narration of the hadith with the wording "he moves it" does not contradict what the other trustworthy narrators narrated, because he pointed with his finger. For pointing does not contradict moving; linguistically, that is. So from these two groups, or these two points, we derive the result that practically, we prefer the hadith of Zayyad ibn Qudamah over the narration of the other trustworthy narrators. But here, the example is a trustworthy, memorizing huffaz who was contradicted, for example, by five, each of whom is weak in his memorization. If these five agree on narrating a hadith in a form that contradicts that single trustworthy huffaz, the soul is then more reassured by this group. But it is not so if a weak narrator contradicts a weak one; the soul is not reassured by preferring their narration over that single trustworthy one. Between this and that, in reality, there are ranks and degrees, which are among the subtleties of the science of hadith where ideas, opinions, and independent legal reasoning may fluctuate. For this reason, one should be very cautious in criticizing scholars who may disagree with us in this era. We disagree with many of the predecessors; we may err or weaken their positions. So at that time, one should be very, very slow. Because the matter is entirely relative. May Allah have mercy on you.

The questioner : Okay, can we add the point... Shaykh, how do we combine the moving and the pointing? You just said that linguistically there is no contradiction.

The Shaykh: Yes.

The questioner : Practically, how do we clarify this?

The Shaykh : Well, if you saw me saying it is possible... you don't say "So-and-so pointed to so-and-so," do you?

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : But what do I do?

The questioner : He moves it.

The Shaykh : That is it.

The questioner : Okay; on the other hand, if we told so-and-so and showed him where this place of the Najaf is.

The Shaykh : If we said what?

The questioner : ... to a person, point to the place of the Najaf... is it possible to determine the place of the Najaf from this movement?

The Shaykh : No, it is not possible, it is not possible with this wording; because he did not point; because the one who did this and the goal is determined is not pointing. But if you return to the hadiths reported in the Sunnah regarding sitting for the tashahhud; do you not find in them that the pointing is to the qiblah?

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : Okay; is the pointing to the qiblah, did he point or did he not point?

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : Well, whereas the pointing that you exemplified is not pointing... but here the pointing to the qiblah is realized, this meaning, with the combination of this pointing to the qiblah and the moving—also. And therefore, one should not be hasty. This is the thing in which I say that the one who wants to author should be a scholar, a jurist, and a hadith scholar, so that he does not fall into any error and this error spreads, and it becomes difficult afterwards to correct or rectify it. And we know that many of our young brothers today have not first practiced in the science of hadith, and they are farthest from the jurisprudence of hadith. And the jurisprudence of hadith, in reality, is not derived only from a person relying on the Arabic language, even if he is strong in it, and applying his understanding of this language to the Qur'an and the hadith. Rather, it is obligatory for him to study what is called today comparative jurisprudence. This comparative jurisprudence prepares the sound student of knowledge to distinguish the stronger position from the weaker positions. So we know today that most of our young people who are enthusiastic about the science of hadith do not know how to write an Arabic phrase as it should be; because he is deficient from this angle, and he may make a grammatical error in reciting a hadith of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him); whereas they mentioned in the science of terminology that it is obligatory for the student of this science to be knowledgeable of the Arabic language and its etiquette, fearing that he may make a grammatical error in a hadith he narrates from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), and thus fall into a prohibited matter . Therefore, I have many, and very many, objections to what has been written in the present era by those whom I advise to write for themselves. Then, when they feel their maturity in this science, it is obligatory upon them to publish it to the world so that people may benefit from the knowledge by which Allah has distinguished them. But merely when some ideas and some observations appear to one of them, and he has not authored a treatise in his time, and publishes it among the people of knowledge and virtue; to show them whether he is one of those who can be relied upon in this knowledge, or whether he is still, as they say in Syria, "raqraq"? Do you use this word or not? Raqraq, you know the sea.

The questioner : Shallow.

The Shaykh : Oh?

The questioner : I mean shallow.

The Shaykh : Shallow? Yes.

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : ... and meaning, complete. The closer the sea water is to the shore, the shallower it becomes and remains what? A little raqraq. He has not yet entered the sea, so he is on the raqraq on the shore. So every person, as He (Glorified and Exalted is He) said: So every person who wants to account for himself, so I started speaking earlier about the car, but my speech did not continue; because we were occupied with the car.
I have the book "Al-Rawd al-Nadhir," and I attribute much to it, and its full name is "Al-Rawd al-Nadhir in the Arrangement and Tracing of Al-Tabarani's Small Encyclopedia." So this book can be said to be the first book I authored, and it is in two large volumes, and I authored it when I was less than twenty-five years old. If I had published it, it would have benefited people greatly and would have established... the independent legal reasoning from "Al-Tabarani's Small Encyclopedia" which was printed long ago in India in a lithographic edition. You know these editions have poor calligraphy, and the paper is flimsy, you can hardly hold it like this without it collapsing and crumbling. Then it was printed in Egypt, I think by one of the owners of a bookstore—perhaps—the Salafi in Madinah al-Munawwarah, and Allah knows best.
And finally.