What is your opinion of the one who says
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The questioner : My teacher, it is said that the hadiths changed from the mouths of the narrators. What is your opinion?
The Shaykh : In my opinion, this statement is, as they say, "a word of truth intended to convey falsehood."
The questioner: Yes.
The Shaykh : We do not believe in the principle used by the Zionists, or rather by all the Jews, and then the infection spread to many Islamic preachers. What is the principle? "The end justifies the means."
The questioner: Yes.
The Shaykh : I think you agree with us that this principle is not Islamic.
The questioner: Yes.
The Shaykh : Therefore, in our defense of the hadith, we do not adopt the application of this disbelieving principle; rather, we acknowledge reality and also answer with the truth regarding this reality. I said at the beginning of my answer to this question that it is "a word of truth intended to convey falsehood." There is no doubt that this change occurred, and there is no way to deny it, especially for one who is an expert in the science of hadith, and more specifically, for one who is an expert not just in the scientific rules whose domain is the terminology of hadith, but in applying this terminology to the reality of the hadiths, which number in the thousands upon thousands. In my belief, this question fully coincides with one of the conditions or requirements established for the authentic hadith, where they said in its definition: "What is narrated by a just, precise narrator from a like him from a like him to its end, provided it is not anomalous or defective." May Allah reward you. So the anomalous hadith means, like the defective hadith, that an error occurred in it. And this error is sometimes in the chain of narration and sometimes in the text. And here the question fits. I said this is a word of truth intended to convey falsehood, because the occurrence of such things does not harm the original hadith or its validity. Therefore, Allah (Mighty and Majestic) provided for this Ummah scholars who established rules and conditions for the science of hadith; without them, the Sunnah would have suffered what happened to the two revealed books, the Torah and the Gospel. But Allah (Mighty and Majestic) provided for this Ummah those who established these controls and rules to distinguish the flaws that occurred in these narrations in their texts, let alone their chains of narration. Those are the scholars of hadith. And it is authentically reported from some of the Imams, and I think it is Abdullah ibn al-Mubarak, that "the chain of narration is part of the religion; and were it not for the chain of narration, anyone would have said whatever he wished," just as the Jews and Christians did completely. So, it does not harm the hadith that some errors occurred in it, because the means that help the scholar to know these errors are preserved and accessible, like any science in the world, like any science in the world. For this reason, the hadith, in terms of its text, is divided into authentic, good, weak, and fabricated. Then the authentic is divided into categories, and the good likewise, and so on. And all of this is only in the way of extracting this change that occurred in some hadiths. Therefore, there is no harm to this hadith from what occurred. I wish that all the news circulated by all the peoples, let alone the Islamic peoples, the other peoples, would have the controls and rules that help them to know the authentic from the weak among them. But this is a speciality by which Allah distinguished the Ummah of Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him). And this is what some Orientalists who studied Islam and had some fairness and were far from the deep-seated hatred that prevails over most Orientalists, were forced to admit: that the science of hadith and the science of the chain of narration are a speciality by which the Muhammadan Ummah is unique. And from here, there is no harm in this question and this answer. Yes.
The questioner : Yes, my Shaykh.
The Shaykh : In my opinion, this statement is, as they say, "a word of truth intended to convey falsehood."
The questioner: Yes.
The Shaykh : We do not believe in the principle used by the Zionists, or rather by all the Jews, and then the infection spread to many Islamic preachers. What is the principle? "The end justifies the means."
The questioner: Yes.
The Shaykh : I think you agree with us that this principle is not Islamic.
The questioner: Yes.
The Shaykh : Therefore, in our defense of the hadith, we do not adopt the application of this disbelieving principle; rather, we acknowledge reality and also answer with the truth regarding this reality. I said at the beginning of my answer to this question that it is "a word of truth intended to convey falsehood." There is no doubt that this change occurred, and there is no way to deny it, especially for one who is an expert in the science of hadith, and more specifically, for one who is an expert not just in the scientific rules whose domain is the terminology of hadith, but in applying this terminology to the reality of the hadiths, which number in the thousands upon thousands. In my belief, this question fully coincides with one of the conditions or requirements established for the authentic hadith, where they said in its definition: "What is narrated by a just, precise narrator from a like him from a like him to its end, provided it is not anomalous or defective." May Allah reward you. So the anomalous hadith means, like the defective hadith, that an error occurred in it. And this error is sometimes in the chain of narration and sometimes in the text. And here the question fits. I said this is a word of truth intended to convey falsehood, because the occurrence of such things does not harm the original hadith or its validity. Therefore, Allah (Mighty and Majestic) provided for this Ummah scholars who established rules and conditions for the science of hadith; without them, the Sunnah would have suffered what happened to the two revealed books, the Torah and the Gospel. But Allah (Mighty and Majestic) provided for this Ummah those who established these controls and rules to distinguish the flaws that occurred in these narrations in their texts, let alone their chains of narration. Those are the scholars of hadith. And it is authentically reported from some of the Imams, and I think it is Abdullah ibn al-Mubarak, that "the chain of narration is part of the religion; and were it not for the chain of narration, anyone would have said whatever he wished," just as the Jews and Christians did completely. So, it does not harm the hadith that some errors occurred in it, because the means that help the scholar to know these errors are preserved and accessible, like any science in the world, like any science in the world. For this reason, the hadith, in terms of its text, is divided into authentic, good, weak, and fabricated. Then the authentic is divided into categories, and the good likewise, and so on. And all of this is only in the way of extracting this change that occurred in some hadiths. Therefore, there is no harm to this hadith from what occurred. I wish that all the news circulated by all the peoples, let alone the Islamic peoples, the other peoples, would have the controls and rules that help them to know the authentic from the weak among them. But this is a speciality by which Allah distinguished the Ummah of Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him). And this is what some Orientalists who studied Islam and had some fairness and were far from the deep-seated hatred that prevails over most Orientalists, were forced to admit: that the science of hadith and the science of the chain of narration are a speciality by which the Muhammadan Ummah is unique. And from here, there is no harm in this question and this answer. Yes.
The questioner : Yes, my Shaykh.
Source
www.al-albany.com
The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.