The Shaykh's remarks regarding the status of 'Abd Allah ibn Lahi'ah.

The questioner: Peace be upon you, our Shaykh, please let me interrupt you. It seems that in his speech he was referring to Ibn Lahi'ah, meaning there was a doubt in his mind because he was older, meaning he was older than him, but that was not the case, may Allah will otherwise. ?

The Shaykh: Ibn Lahi'ah, look, he was in the middle between al-Layth and Ibn 'Ammar. This preacher, Mansur, said that Ibn Lahi'ah was first a judge in Egypt, which naturally means he had a high status. Then he was a prolific hadith narrator, but regarding hadith, he had two states: sometimes he was cited as evidence and sometimes he was not. The reason was that he was occupied with the judiciary, and this is the nature of a person: when he specializes in one thing, he weakens in another. This is the law of Allah in His creation. Therefore, Abu Hanifah specialized in jurisprudence and was not strong in hadith. This one was a judge and was not strong in hadith, and he knew this about himself. So, when he narrated, he would not narrate except from a book to secure what? His memory, his recollection. Then Allah decreed that his library burned down, so he began to narrate from the remnants left in his memory. Thus, confusion and mixing appeared. For example, a hadith that was mawquf (stopping at a Companion) he would raise it to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). A hadith that was marfu' (traced to the Prophet) he would say, "So-and-so the Companion said so-and-so." A hadith that was munqati' (broken chain) he would connect it. There are many known errors in the science of hadith terminology. So now, in this age, we only know the hadith of Ibn Lahi'ah from the books of the Imams of hadith. If Ibn Lahi'ah narrated and specific people narrated from him, most of them being the "Abd Allahu" group, named 'Abd Allah, 'Abd Allah, 'Abd Allah. Among them is 'Abd Allah ibn Wahb, whom we mentioned before, and among them is 'Abd Allah ibn al-Mubarak, and among them is 'Abd Allah ibn Yazid al-Muqri. These three "Abd Allahu" men, if they narrate from Ibn Lahi'ah, their hadith is valid. Why? He said: Because they narrated from him before his books burned down. There are other people of that rank, for example, as mentioned earlier, Qutaybah ibn Sa'id narrated from al-Layth. This one is also Egyptian. He too, if he narrates from Ibn Lahi'ah, his hadith is valid. If anyone other than these people narrates from Ibn Lahi'ah, his hadith is not accepted, because it is feared that he narrated after his library burned down. So the point is that Ibn Lahi'ah had a status, he had prestige, he was a judge. Therefore, al-Layth said, "I did not hear that he was older than Ibn Lahi'ah by three years."