Some people say regarding the prohibition of pollinating the date palms that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) intended to engage the minds of the Companions.

The questioner : As for the reporting of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him)... and also, when the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) suggested to one of the Companions the site of Badr, the doctor here... the head of the Shari'ah department says that this error that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) made in the case of... was a human error; and because the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) knew that this pollination would cause great harm to the date palms, he only intended to engage the minds of the Companions so that they would not... regarding matters they know and perceive. Another issue—also—in the issue of Badr, he says that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), who is considered... it is not reasonable that he would be less knowledgeable or unaware of the matters of war, but rather he intended to manage consultation and opinion... So what is your response to that?

The Shaykh : May Allah reward you for your response to your doctors! The truth is, as it is said: "Live in Rajab and you will see wonders; live in Rajab and you will hear wonders."
First: Due to their ignorance of the Sunnah, they hear a fragment of the hadith, and then they are among those who exaggerate in their estimation of the Messenger (peace be upon him) and his glorification, contrary to what he directed his followers to stand upon regarding justice in praising him (peace be upon him), and in not... exaggerating in it.

Another questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : Yes, in praising him.
He said to them once: . The one who interprets the hadith with this interpretation says it is not reasonable that the Messenger (peace be upon him) would make this error, it is not reasonable that he would be ignorant of all the methods of war. We say: It is not reasonable except this; because he is a human being, and it is He to whom Allah (Mighty and Majestic) said: . But Allah (Mighty and Majestic) certainly did not make him, in what He made him, possess an attribute of the attributes of Allah; for Allah is All-Knowing of everything, so the Messenger of Allah is not All-Knowing of everything. So why is it assumed that he knows all the ways of war and fighting the disbelievers, and in every state of the states that befall and descend upon the fighters?
So we say regarding the pollination of the date palms: They—Allah knows best—did not look at the hadith in its entirety, and if they had looked at it, they would not have dared to say—in my opinion, out of good will toward them—to say such a thing, because it is a refutation of the hadith in its core. When the hadith said to them what it said and they obeyed him, the dates came out dry, and this means they came out as pits with flesh on them resembling the skin; meaning there was no taste. So they complained of the matter to the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), and the answer was: . So what does the doctor say about this expression? . How can the hadith be interpreted...?
This reminds me of the interpretation of some of the later Hanafis regarding the prostration for forgetfulness, where they naturally mention some of the hadiths in which the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) forgot; once he prayed the midday prayer, for example, five rak'ahs, and once he prayed the afternoon prayer two rak'ahs, and once he prayed the sunset prayer two rak'ahs, and so on. As if it is too great for them and too big that they imagine the Messenger at this level of humanity, such that what? He forgets the first time, the second time, and the third time. Knowing that we now say: the first time and the second time, but we distributed these times over a history of twenty-three years, and there is nothing worth mentioning, but we see them as a group. How is it reasonable that the Messenger would make a mistake and forget these? So what did they say? They said: This forgetting was not due to the cause of humanity, but rather as came in the hadith in "Al-Muwatta": . And this is a hadith from the hadiths of "Al-Muwatta" in which the imams of hadith exerted themselves to find a chain of narration for it, but they could not find a way to do so.
So the intention is that the hadith itself, in some incidents, will refute them explicitly. In the hadith of Abdullah ibn Mas'ud, he said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) prayed the midday prayer with us and prayed five rak'ahs. When he finished the prayer, we said: O Messenger of Allah...
...
...When it was said to him: You prayed five rak'ahs; so he prostrated the two prostrations of forgetfulness, then turned to them saying: . This has demolished all the reasoning that the jurists mention, until they brought poems I have forgotten, by Allah, despite the recentness of the time. So why did he pray five rak'ahs? Because he is a human being who forgets, so he says explicitly: . So the reality seems to be that some people want to appear before the students that he loves the Messenger and glorifies the Messenger in a way that others who claim to love the Messenger and follow him do not glorify him. And you find this one who appears with this love, his reality refutes him with the strongest refutation; because the Noble Qur'an says: . So you find a doctor who contradicts the Messenger (peace be upon him) in many of the Sunnahs, if not in the obligatory matters and what is more than that. Then here he comes and takes paths of interpretation to appear before people that he glorifies the Messenger (peace be upon him) to the extent that he purifies him from falling into illusion or error. And after that, what does he say about such as His saying (Glorified and Exalted is He): ?

The questioner : Regarding these hadiths and verses.

The Shaykh : He also interprets them!

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : And likewise.

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : Allah is the Helper.

Another questioner : ... , and the issue of disagreement, and his agreement with Abu Bakr regarding the captives... So he lists these verses, then he sits and brings hadiths, even the hadith... and the hadith... he conceals them, he conceals that forgetting or error was the cause of...

The Shaykh : Yes, we ask Allah...