Explanation of the athar of al-Hasan al-Basri, may Allah have mercy on him

The Shaykh : And to clarify the virtue of consultation, the author (may Allah have mercy on him) cited another athar following the previous one, which he narrated with his authentic chain from al-Hasan, who said: "By Allah, no people have ever consulted one another but that they were guided to the best of what was present with them." Then he recited: .
The al-Hasan referred to here is al-Hasan al-Basri, the Tabi'i. A reader of such an athar might assume it refers to al-Hasan ibn Ali ibn Abi Talib, but that is not the intended meaning; rather, as we have said, it refers to al-Hasan al-Basri. How is this known? There is no way to know this except through the knowledge of the biographies of men and the narrators of athar and hadith, and those who narrated from these narrators, such as students and seekers of knowledge. Here, for example, the narrator of this athar is al-Thawri, who said: "From al-Thawri, from al-Hasan." Once we know who this al-Thawri is, we uncover the identity of the al-Hasan mentioned in this athar through him. How do we know this al-Thawri? We know him first from the one who narrated from him. This is a branch of hadith science that is neglected today in the Islamic world, except for what is rare and few. The narrator here from al-Thawri is Hammad ibn Zayd. When we return to Hammad ibn Zayd in his biography, they list his sheikhs from whom he received hadith, and we find al-Thawri ibn Yahya among his sheikhs. Thus, it is established that the al-Thawri intended here, who is not specified by a nisbah, is al-Thawri ibn Yahya, as he is mentioned among the sheikhs of Hammad ibn Zayd. Once it is established for us that this al-Thawri is ibn Yahya, we return.

The questioner: Is ibn Yahya the Prophet?

The Shaykh : Yes?

The questioner: The Prophet?

The Shaykh : No, no, this al-Hasan is a Tabi'i, and the one who narrated from him is a Tabi' of a Tabi'i; all of these are from after the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him). The point is that when we investigate the identity of al-Sari and determine that it is al-Sari ibn Yahya, we return to his biography, because we find that many narrators are named al-Sari, so it is necessary to specify which al-Sari is meant here. When we returned to the biography of Hammad—now is the time for study, not for joking—when we went back to the biography of Hammad ibn Zayd, we found al-Sari ibn Yahya among his teachers. We then returned to the biography of al-Sari ibn Yahya and found that he narrates from al-Hasan al-Basri. Thus, it became clear to us that the intended meaning of this report is al-Hasan al-Basri. This is a brief word regarding the science of hadith chains. Although I feel that you are not in need of such a word, first, it is relevant to clarifying who is meant by al-Hasan here, and second, knowledge of a matter is better than ignorance of it, so we mention this, as some of the listeners may benefit. So, al-Hasan al-Basri says, in the course of explaining the virtue of consultation, he swears by Allah (Mighty and Majestic) and says: "By Allah, no people have ever consulted one another except that they were guided to the best of what was in their presence." Then he recited: That is, he takes from this noble verse: that Allah (Mighty and Majestic), when He praised the sincere believers by stating that their affairs are by mutual consultation, and when He commanded the truthful, trustworthy Prophet with the aforementioned statement to consult them in the matter, that was only for the benefit of consultation. And what is the benefit of consultation? It is reaching the best of the two opinions and the most truthful of the two statements, from this and that. This is al-Hasan al-Basri's understanding of the virtue of consultation. So he swore by Allah (Mighty and Majestic), and he was truthful in that, that no people have ever consulted, meaning that no one of them has ever consulted the other, except that they were guided to the best opinion of those who were with them, meaning the best of the opinions and statements in their presence. It may occur to the mind, and someone may say: The author established a chapter here on consultation, meaning the virtue of consultation, so why did he not mention the famous hadith on people's tongues: "He who seeks guidance does not fail, he who consults does not regret, and he who is moderate does not become poor"? This is a famous hadith recorded in many books. The answer is that it is a hadith with a weak chain. It appears that Imam al-Bukhari, because of this weakness in it, did not quote the hadith despite his explicit statement of the virtue of consultation, where he said: But he mentioned later another chapter that branches off from the first chapter.