What is your opinion of those who hold that Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah classified good hadiths and many weak reports as fabricated?

The questioner : He says: What is your opinion of those who hold that Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah classified good hadiths and many weak reports as fabricated, and claimed there is consensus on the fabrication of hadiths that are agreed upon to be weak?

The Shaykh : What?

The questioner : And he claimed there is consensus on the fabrication of hadiths that are agreed upon... and he claimed there is consensus on the fabrication of hadiths that are agreed upon to be weak, and he claimed there is consensus on the fabrication of hadiths that differ in their fabrication?

The Shaykh : This is a correct statement; that is, Ibn Taymiyyah (may Allah have mercy on him) sometimes rules that some hadiths are fabricated, even though their chains of narration do not reach the level where they can be judged as fabricated. Abu al-Faraj Ibn al-Jawzi preceded him in doing more of this in his book *Al-Mawdu'at* (The Fabricated Hadiths). However, there is something here that students of knowledge, or those who occupy themselves with reading the science of hadith in terms of terminology, critique, and vindication of narrators, must observe: A hadith is generally judged as fabricated based on its chain of narration. If there is a liar or a fabricator in it, it is said: This is a fabricated hadith, even if its meaning is beautiful. On the contrary, it is said of some hadiths whose chains do not descend to the level of fabrication, as mentioned in the question, that the hadith remains at the level of weakness; because the chain does not contain what necessitates ruling the hadith as fabricated. It contains a weak man, or a man who has denunciations (munkarat), and this and that does not necessitate that the hadith be fabricated.
-- And peace be upon you --
The Shaykh: But some of the memorizers and critics often look at the text of the hadith in addition to their look at the chain of narration. In this case, it appears to them that the text of the hadith is fabricated, so they say: This is a fabricated hadith. This does not mean that its chain is fabricated, as mentioned in the question.The questioner : This issue is misleading, and it is not so. If Ibn Taymiyyah sometimes rules that a hadith with a weak chain is fabricated, he means that from the perspective of the text, not from the perspective of the chain. For example, the hadith: . This hadith, in reality, cannot be judged as fabricated from the perspective of its chain; because there is no liar or fabricator in its chain. But Ibn Taymiyyah and others ruled that it is fabricated; because they looked at the hadiths that came from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) regarding the virtue of this day in particular, and they are authentic. They did not find in those authentic hadiths any mention of the virtue of being generous to one's family on the day of Ashura. He observes that it occurred in previous history that al-Husayn (may Allah be pleased with him) was killed on the day of Ashura, and it was not known before that it was from the Sunnah (at least recommended) for a man to be generous to his family on the day of Ashura. It is known from the history of some of the extremists of the Umayyads that they used to display intense hostility toward the People of the House, led by 'Ali ibn Abi Talib. So Ibn Taymiyyah (may Allah have mercy on him) held that this hadith is from the fabrication of the Nasibah; that is, those who hated 'Ali. He says: This hadith is false, or he says: This is a fabricated hadith. This causes difficulty for some of those who are limited in their view; they look at the chain and do not find in it what necessitates ruling the hadith as fabricated, and it is true. But he did not look at Ibn Taymiyyah's perspective in his ruling on this hadith as fabricated, which is that he looked at the meaning of the hadith and did not stop only at its weak chain.
The Shaykh: And thus, this research and this detail leads us to a type of hadiths that are considered among the categories of weak hadiths: the anomalous hadith (shadh), which is what a trustworthy narrator narrates in contradiction to one who is more trustworthy than him, or... than him.
Yes?
The Shaykh: The point is: What is the ruling on this anomalous addition? Can it be said to be fabricated? The answer is: If the addition itself is denounced from the perspective of the Shari'ah, it can be said from this angle that this addition is fabricated. But the chain does not give us this ruling; it only gives us that it is weak. And this is the status of the anomalous hadith according to the rule that the anomalous hadith is weak. But if the addition is denounced from the perspective of the Shari'ah, it can be said at that time that this addition, which is weak from the perspective of looking at the chain, is fabricated from the perspective of looking at the text.
The Shaykh: For example—this example is from me—it is his saying (peace and blessings be upon him), as narratedThe Shaykh : in "Their Two Sahihs" from the hadith of Ibn 'Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both), he said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: . Then he (peace be upon him) said, in a story we do not need to mention in its entirety: . Muslim added in a narration, unlike his companion the Qadi... he said: . But this addition he said: This addition is anomalous. The research on this is long, and we do not need it. And Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah (may Allah have mercy on him) explicitly stated a research on this addition, meaning the addition to the chain. But when we look at it from the perspective of its meaning, we find it denounced to the greatest extent; because it contradicts other authentic hadiths, in addition to its contradiction of the trustworthy narrators who narrated the hadith without it.
The Shaykh: Among that, for example, is his saying (peace and blessings be upon him) when he was asked about ruqyah (healing by recitation): ; whoever among you can perform ruqyah for his brother, let him do so. So how can it be said that it is not permissible for a Muslim to perform ruqyah for any of the sick until he is among the characteristics of the seventy thousand who enter Paradise without reckoning or punishment, to the end of the hadith? This is one aspect of the denunciation of this addition, indeed and its falsity. And this is confirmed by what came in *Sahih al-Bukhari* that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) used to perform ruqyah for al-Hasan and al-Husayn from the evil eye, and say: . So the Messenger of Allah, the master of mankind, performed ruqyah. How can it be correct to say: , and the Messenger of Allah performed ruqyah? How can it be correct to say: , and he encouraged all people to perform ruqyah for others? So this addition is false; even though there is no one in the chain accused of lying or fabrication. If you know this reality, the matter of the phenomenon that was indicated byThe questioner : regarding Ibn Taymiyyah contradicting, in many cases, what is known among the scholars of hadith: that a hadith has a weak chain, and he says: It is a false hadith. He means that from the perspective of the chain. But I say: Ibn Taymiyyah may have sometimes gone too far when he ruled on a hadith as fabricated from the perspective of its text. And here, Ibn Taymiyyah is sometimes considered one of the strict ones in ruling on some hadiths as fabricated, like Ibn al-Jawzi. But if you know his basis in that, and that he does not mean his look at the chain, so that it can be said he contradicted the scholars who specialized in the issue of the chain of this hadith. All that is the case is that he looked from another angle, and he may be right and he may be wrong. This is the reality.
Yes.