I read in al-Subki's treatise and found a great deal of speech about al-Dhahabi; so I stopped reading, and I said I would ask about that first.
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner : There is a question: the rule of al-jarh wa al-ta'dil (the critique and vindication of narrators) ... .
The Shaykh : How?
The questioner : The rule of al-jarh wa al-ta'dil (the critique and vindication of narrators) ... .
The Shaykh : The rule of what?
The questioner : The rule of al-jarh (critique).
The Shaykh : And al-ta'dil (vindication).
The questioner : Yes.
The Shaykh : ... .
The questioner : Yes.
Another questioner : History, meaning its writing.
The questioner : ... 'Abd al-Fattah Abu Ghuddah?
The Shaykh : I hope you will specify the question; because if I stop at this question, I may take a direction in the answer that you do not want, so you can clarify the question precisely; because I do not have his detailed opinion in mind right now, but I know that he says that some of these people are strict, some are moderate, and some are lenient, so from which aspect are you asking regarding al-jarh and al-ta'dil?
The questioner : I am asking about your opinion of the treatise of Taki al-Din al-Subki?
The Shaykh : Remind me of what is in it? ... this point; because I do not have al-Subki's treatise memorized right now; so I cannot answer this broad question unless it is specified, so if you have several points in mind regarding what came in his treatise ... remind me of some of them if you need to know my opinion on them; for al-Subki - for example - speaks about al-Hafiz al-Dhahabi and that ... his bias against the Asha'irah (the Ash'ari theological school) leads him to speak about him, this is what I remember, but perhaps that is not what you mean, so what exactly do you want?
The questioner : ... I did not read it, I read ... the treatise ... only on this point; because I saw a lot of speech about al-Dhahabi, so I stopped reading, and I said I would ask about it first.
The Shaykh : There is no doubt that Imam al-Dhahabi means a rare existence and precision in his critique of men and hadiths, and there was between him and al-Subki; although al-Subki acknowledges the virtue of al-Dhahabi and his knowledge and so on, but in the end ... that his adoption of the people of hadith was based on strictness in criticizing the Asha'irah (the Ash'ari theological school), and this is what we do not truly find in al-Dhahabi - may Allah have mercy on him - , so from here came that old rule which says that the critique of a contemporary against his contemporary is not accepted, and this statement, although I see validity in it, I do not accept it in its absolute form; because we cannot accuse all people that contemporaneity leads them to say other than the truth regarding what they see has strayed from the right path in an opinion or a narration, so there is no doubt that the status of al-Hafiz al-Dhahabi among the scholars and the hafiz who came after him is much higher and more noble than Imam al-Subki; for al-Subki - may Allah have mercy on him - was inclined toward fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) more than his inclination toward hadith on one hand, then he was not influenced by the methodology of the people of hadith, rather the Asha'irah (the Ash'ari theological school) predominated over him, and from there arose the conflict between him and al-Dhahabi, where he attributed to him strictness in some of his judgments that he displays regarding some scholars if they were from the Asha'irah.
... .
The Shaykh : How?
The questioner : The rule of al-jarh wa al-ta'dil (the critique and vindication of narrators) ... .
The Shaykh : The rule of what?
The questioner : The rule of al-jarh (critique).
The Shaykh : And al-ta'dil (vindication).
The questioner : Yes.
The Shaykh : ... .
The questioner : Yes.
Another questioner : History, meaning its writing.
The questioner : ... 'Abd al-Fattah Abu Ghuddah?
The Shaykh : I hope you will specify the question; because if I stop at this question, I may take a direction in the answer that you do not want, so you can clarify the question precisely; because I do not have his detailed opinion in mind right now, but I know that he says that some of these people are strict, some are moderate, and some are lenient, so from which aspect are you asking regarding al-jarh and al-ta'dil?
The questioner : I am asking about your opinion of the treatise of Taki al-Din al-Subki?
The Shaykh : Remind me of what is in it? ... this point; because I do not have al-Subki's treatise memorized right now; so I cannot answer this broad question unless it is specified, so if you have several points in mind regarding what came in his treatise ... remind me of some of them if you need to know my opinion on them; for al-Subki - for example - speaks about al-Hafiz al-Dhahabi and that ... his bias against the Asha'irah (the Ash'ari theological school) leads him to speak about him, this is what I remember, but perhaps that is not what you mean, so what exactly do you want?
The questioner : ... I did not read it, I read ... the treatise ... only on this point; because I saw a lot of speech about al-Dhahabi, so I stopped reading, and I said I would ask about it first.
The Shaykh : There is no doubt that Imam al-Dhahabi means a rare existence and precision in his critique of men and hadiths, and there was between him and al-Subki; although al-Subki acknowledges the virtue of al-Dhahabi and his knowledge and so on, but in the end ... that his adoption of the people of hadith was based on strictness in criticizing the Asha'irah (the Ash'ari theological school), and this is what we do not truly find in al-Dhahabi - may Allah have mercy on him - , so from here came that old rule which says that the critique of a contemporary against his contemporary is not accepted, and this statement, although I see validity in it, I do not accept it in its absolute form; because we cannot accuse all people that contemporaneity leads them to say other than the truth regarding what they see has strayed from the right path in an opinion or a narration, so there is no doubt that the status of al-Hafiz al-Dhahabi among the scholars and the hafiz who came after him is much higher and more noble than Imam al-Subki; for al-Subki - may Allah have mercy on him - was inclined toward fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) more than his inclination toward hadith on one hand, then he was not influenced by the methodology of the people of hadith, rather the Asha'irah (the Ash'ari theological school) predominated over him, and from there arose the conflict between him and al-Dhahabi, where he attributed to him strictness in some of his judgments that he displays regarding some scholars if they were from the Asha'irah.
... .
Source
www.al-albany.com
The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.