Problems We Face While Reading the Biographies of Some Scholars, Such as Ibn Hajar (may Allah have mercy on him)

The questioner : You may face problems, may Allah reward you, while reading the biographies of some scholars, such as Ibn Hajar (may Allah have mercy on him), for instance in discussions about certain hadiths. The problem is as follows: Ibn Hajar (may Allah have mercy on him) might say, for example, about a person: "So-and-so said about him," or he might transmit a hadith quoting so-and-so, saying before it: "It was said," and then Ibn Hajar says: "And so-and-so did not hear from so-and-so." This sentence, "And so-and-so did not hear from so-and-so," is interwoven with the preceding words that he transmitted from one of the scholars. How does the reader distinguish whether this is Ibn Hajar's own word and personal commentary, or whether it follows the words of the person from whom he quoted? And... I mean, I will give a real example from *Al-Ifadah* in the biography of al-Tufayl ibn 'Umar ibn Tarif ibn al-'As ibn Tha'labah. Ibn Hajar (may Allah have mercy on him) says: "I say: Al-Baghawi also transmitted from the route of Isma'il ibn 'Iyadh: 'Abd al-Rahman ibn Sulayman narrated to me, from al-Tufayl ibn 'Amr al-Dawsi, that he said: 'Abi ibn Ka'b taught me the Qur'an, so I gifted him a bow.' The hadith is strange (gharib), and 'Abd al-Rahman is called Ibn Zaytun, and he did not hear from al-Tufayl ibn 'Amr. And al-Tabari transmitted from the route of Ibn al-Kalbi." So, is the phrase "and he did not hear from al-Tufayl ibn 'Amr" included in the statement "The hadith is strange, and 'Abd al-Rahman is called Ibn Zaytun, and he did not hear from al-Tufayl," or is "and 'Abd al-Rahman is called Ibn Zaytun, and he did not hear from al-Tufayl" from the words of Ibn Hajar?

The Shaykh : No, I mean, it is from the words of al-Baghawi.

The questioner : Okay; so what is it? Is there something specific, or is it by experience?

The Shaykh : Based on the wording, if we assume, for example, that the phrase is explicit; he says: "The hadith is strange (gharib). I say," or he says: "The hadith is strange (gharib). It ended." And so-and-so did not hear from so-and-so. But when the phrase is presented in a single context after attributing the aforementioned statement previously, there is no doubt that this entire speech is the statement of that speaker, and Ibn Hajar has no research or commentary in it.

The questioner : So, unless there is a clear text with "I say," "It ended," or similar phrases, the speech is attributed to the person from whom it was quoted?

The Shaykh: Yes.