The Shaykh of Islam, when he says: The intention of Imam Ahmad and the other imams by a weak hadith is a good hadith

The questioner : The Shaykh of Islam Ibn Taymiyyah, when he says: The intention of Imam Ahmad and the other imams by a weak hadith is a good hadith... a weak hadith... I do not know, meaning, have you encountered this statement?

The Shaykh : By Allah, we have nothing except what Ibn Taymiyyah (may Allah have mercy on him) transmitted... If you have heard our opinion on the subject of the weak hadith that is acted upon in the virtues of deeds, and you have heard what I just transmitted from the Shaykh of Islam that it is not permissible for a person to legislate based on a weak hadith, even for a recommended practice only, and the transmission of scholarly consensus as we mentioned just now; then it is not reasonable that Imam Ahmad, the Imam of the Sunnah, would use a weak hadith as evidence in all legal rulings. And since this wording that Imam Ahmad uses a weak hadith as evidence cannot coincide with the consensus he raised with the same evidence, he... we are with him in this... the same interpretation, and it is very reasonable; because the division of hadith into three categories: authentic, good, and weak; this was not known in... the science of terminology distorts the statement in it, but their division was only into authentic and weak. So, if it comes in the wording of Imam Ahmad that it is permissible to act upon a weak hadith in rulings; then he means by that the good hadith that is used as evidence by the majority of hadith scholars. So, we have nothing except this interpretation so that it coincides with...