The increase in recent years of young people’s efforts in critiquing narrators, authenticating hadiths, and weakening them

The questioner : In recent years, young people have increasingly exerted themselves in critiquing narrators, authenticating hadiths, and weakening them. This has even extended to commenting on some of the earlier and later scholars, by authenticating what they had weakened or vice versa. The question is: What is your assessment of these works, both negative and positive? And what are your guidelines in this matter? A similar question follows: What are the conditions that must be present in a student of knowledge for him to have the right to judge hadiths as authentic or weak? And another question for you regarding the same topic: Why do you not limit yourselves to the hadiths narrated by Imam Muslim in his "Sahih" by judging them all as authentic? Because we see that sometimes you judge some of them as good (hasan) and sometimes you judge others as weak.
Shall I repeat it for you?

The Shaykh : No, there are several questions here if you had delayed some of them.
We advise, in any case, our young brothers who are students in this knowledge to be patient and not to rush. Because this knowledge, as I have experienced it firsthand, requires many things. Among the most important is that one must combine the understanding of the principles of hadith and understand them well, and practice them for a long time. One should not rush to write for others, but rather write for oneself, until he feels that he has become qualified to authenticate and weaken hadiths, just as the earlier imams did.
I say: We know this from ourselves, and we know it from others. Al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani (may Allah have mercy on him), who was rightly called the Prince of the Believers in hadith, has many, many books. He testifies to himself, and that is sufficient testimony from him, because he was not satisfied with any of his books except "Fath al-Bari." He worked on "Fath al-Bari" for about twenty years; and therefore he achieved satisfaction with this book. As for the other books, it appears that they were written during his period of seeking knowledge, exactly as the young students do today.
I know from my own experience that the first book I wrote is the one I refer to in many of my later works, and which you see or hear the name of, "al-Rawd al-Nadhir." Its full title is: "On the Arrangement and Takhrij of al-Tabarani’s Small Mu'jam." It is two large volumes for me. It was—this is what many of our brothers requested of me—I should have rushed to print this book for two reasons. First: "al-Tabarani’s Small Mu'jam" had not been printed except in the old Indian edition. You know the Indian editions; although they were pioneers in publishing hadith books, their editions were delayed. So I had to publish this book, "al-Tabarani’s Small Mu'jam," to be printed with my commentary, takhrij, and arrangement. But I did not do it, and I will not do it. Why? Because I correct myself with myself on many things. I give you an example: it has become known now in the Islamic world, by the grace of Allah (Mighty and Majestic), where before a quarter of a time no one heard of it. I was among those people who trusted Ibn Hibban’s authentication. So if a hadith came to me in "al-Tabarani’s Small Mu'jam" and all its narrators were trustworthy except one whom Ibn Hibban authenticated, I would authenticate it, relying on Ibn Hibban. But I had not yet read, for example, the introduction of al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar in "al-Lisan," or the words of Ibn 'Abd al-Hadi in his refutation of al-Subki, "al-Sarim al-Manki." Or this happens to many students: we read something, but it does not settle in the mind with a firmness that works in the heart of its owner, and then drives him to correct, righteous action. And so I proceeded in this book.
Now we ask: How do we authenticate this hadith when it contains a narrator authenticated by Ibn Hibban? This example is easy now, and many, many examples come. Among the most precise is what relates to the same topic: students of knowledge now assume that every narrator authenticated only by Ibn Hibban is not authenticated by his authentication. This is not absolute. I have explained this in some sessions, and it will be explained more in the book currently in print, "Tammam al-Mannah fi al-Ta'liq 'ala Fiqh al-Sunnah." Students of knowledge should be patient when they write or compile, for themselves. The difference will appear later between what they wrote during their seeking of knowledge and what comes after years of seeking and mastery in this knowledge, as Allah wills.
Early writing is a cause for many errors. With this detail I mentioned earlier, I personally attribute the many errors of some scholars. For example, one of the clearest examples is "Takhmis Mustadrak al-Hakim" by al-Hafiz al-Dhahabi. You find in it the amazing and astonishing of his authenticating hadiths following al-Hakim, where he judges some of them as fabricated, let alone some others he judges as weak. What is the reason? Summarizing a book, as people do today, shortening a book, and they think this is an easy matter, while this requires mature knowledge. It appears—and Allah knows best—that al-Hafiz al-Dhahabi summarized "al-Mustadrak" before his knowledge had matured. Similarly, for example, we find al-Hafiz al-Suyuti, and perhaps you have read this in my introduction to "Sahih al-Jami' and Da'if al-Jami'," where he says: "He protected it from what a liar or fabricator uniquely narrated." Yet you find in it hadiths that he judged as fabricated in two books:
The first book: "al-Lala' al-Masnu'ah fi al-Ahadith al-Mawdu'ah," which is a book in which Ibn al-Jawzi comments on his book "al-Mawdu'at," but he concedes to him dozens of hadiths that they are fabricated. This concession is very clear when he recounts the summary of Ibn al-Jawzi’s words in his judgment of the hadith as fabricated, then does not follow it with his own saying "I say." But the hadith came from another path, perhaps he says: first, second, third, and so on. He tries thereby to save the hadith from being fabricated. There is no harm in this, but in many hadiths, al-Hafiz al-Suyuti approved Ibn al-Jawzi’s judgment of fabrication in this work of his. Yet you find these hadiths present in "al-Jami' al-Saghir," and also in the additions to "al-Jami' al-Saghir."
His second book is much more important; because it is like a supplement to "Ibn al-Jawzi’s Mawdu'at"; meaning: that Ibn al-Jawzi missed many weak—pardon me—fabricated hadiths. And he came and wrote a book, "Dhail al-Ahadith al-Mawdu'ah." All these hadiths that al-Suyuti included in this book, "Dhail al-Ahadith al-Mawdu'ah," are considered fabricated by him. But you will be amazed when you find a large portion of them in "al-Jami' al-Saghir." How do we reconcile this and that? It is what I mentioned to you earlier; he compiled "al-Jami' al-Saghir" before he began the refinement and purification of the weak, fabricated hadiths, or before he became proficient in this knowledge as we should say. So he fell into this strange, odd contradiction. This is a cause whose effects are that people rush to knowledge without maturing and without being qualified for knowledge.
Personally, I say now, after answering this question: I am as pleased when I find young people criticizing righteous scholars, or those present—such as myself, for example—when I find them criticizing me. Why? Because less than ten years ago, or so, no one could say a single word of criticism about Al-Albani regarding his knowledge of hadith. So, praise be to Allah, what Allah willed, now there are dozens and hundreds in the Islamic world. This is a sign of good, because as they say, "The first of the rain is a drop, then it pours down." This benefits me and others like me, and it does not harm us, but these people harm themselves. As for me, I say, as the scholars have said in the past and present: "One may find in the inferior what one does not find in the superior." So there is no fault in a student criticizing his teacher; how much more so if he was not his student? It is not strange. But if he hits the mark here and there, he will err in many other places, and he will think he has done well, while reality will testify against him in years to come that he was hasty. And it has been said in the wisdoms: "Whoever hastens a thing before its time is tested with its deprivation." This is one thing.
And a final thing: I fear most of all that authorship in this era will become a disease and a calamity, and it relates to a lack of sincerity in seeking knowledge and in spreading it. Because authorship is the means today, as you know, for spreading knowledge. And you all know that if knowledge is not pure for the face of Allah, whether in spreading a lesson, a lecture, a book, or the like, if it is not pure for the face of Allah, it becomes a calamity for its owner, as you know from the long hadith of Abu Hurayrah, which contains a lesson for whoever takes heed, which begins with his saying (peace and blessings be upon him): to the end of the hadith. So I fear most of all that the motive and driving force for these young people emerging in this knowledge is not advice and warning, but rather that they should appear and that their names should be recorded among the authors.
And finally, another wisdom comes to say: "Love of appearing cuts off appearing"; because it contradicts sincerity to the Lord of the worlds.