Al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar (may Allah have mercy on him), at the end of *Lisan al-Mizan*, after stating that he had completed the weak narrators whom al-Dhahabi did not mention in *al-Mizan*

The questioner : Al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar (may Allah have mercy on him), at the end of *Lisan al-Mizan*, after stating that he had completed the weak narrators whom al-Dhahabi did not mention in *al-Mizan*, said: "And whoever is not mentioned in this book is either a *thiqah* (reliable narrator) or a *mustawar* (narrator whose status is concealed)"; so what does this mean?

The Shaykh : This is not accepted with certainty, and this is subject to the opposite of the other proverb: "The first left nothing for the last"; so it was refuted: "How much did the first leave for the last!"? Therefore, some narrators were added to the work of the Hafiz, even from those who were mentioned in those well-known sources from which the Hafiz took the material for his book. So this is accepted in general, but not in detail. And the rule you referred to, that he is either a *thiqah* or a *mustawar*, where is it taken from? He did not state it explicitly, as he did, for example, regarding the hadiths about which he is silent in *Fath al-Bari*. Rather, this is also an opinion of some of the reviewers of his book and those who benefit from it; so I do not believe that this statement is absolutely sound.