The Shaykh’s mention of a story that happened to him with a Turkish officer in Damascus regarding the validity of a hadith.

The Shaykh: -- Thank you.

Another questioner: May Allah bless you. --

The Shaykh: Once, a person came to me. At that time, I was still in my father’s shop, repairing watches. It was my father’s custom—may Allah have mercy on him—to go home after the midday prayer to take his nap, leaving me alone in the shop. The shop, despite being small, faced west and was hit by the sun. We would lower this iron shutter to protect ourselves from the heat, leaving a small opening for customers.

The questioner: Of the open type.

The Shaykh: Ah, open. I was sitting when a man with a light beard came to me; although beards were rare at that time. I later learned that his name was "Najm al-Din Bey" and that he was an officer in the Turkish army, from the group of Turkish officers. Yes, he took a watch out of his pocket, a "Zenith" brand, which was very expensive for us, a pocket watch. He said to me: "Look at it for me." We took it and repaired it. We had repaired many for people. Then, after he finished complaining about the people, he began to praise us highly. When I heard this praise, I said to him: "Hold on!" My beard was just starting to grow, a bit scruffy; I was seventeen or eighteen years old. I said to him: "Don’t be deceived by this. What is this exaggeration in praise?" He said: "No, a Muslim has what? Intuition. And the Messenger of Allah said: ." I said to him: "But, Professor, this hadith is weak." He widened his eyes like that; he realized this statement was much bigger than me, and he had the right to do so. He said to me: "How is it weak? We read it today in *Al-Risalah al-Qushayriyyah*."

The questioner: That’s it, my brother, if it is in *Al-Risalah al-Qushayriyyah*.

The Shaykh: We read *Al-Risalah al-Qushayriyyah* to the Shaykh, and the Shaykh’s fame filled all of Sham at that time. His name was Shaykh "Muhammad al-Dairani." I said to him: "Yes, but your reading of the hadith in *Al-Risalah al-Qushayriyyah* does not mean that the hadith is authentic; because every science is taken from its specialists. *Al-Risalah al-Qushayriyyah* is a treatise on Sufism and the etiquette of seekers with their Shaykhs, whereas our subject concerns the science of hadith. You must say: Al-Bukhari authenticated it, and so on. This hadith is weak, my brother." He was even more surprised. He said to me: "Who did you study with? Shaykh 'Badr al-Din'? Shaykh 'Badr al-Din' was the scholar of Sham in hadith at that time. He was the father of Shaykh 'Taj al-Husayni,' who, during the French era, was the President of the Republic." I said to him: "No." He said to me: "Then Shaykh 'Ali al-Duqr'?" I said to him: "No." He said: "Then? How did you acquire this knowledge? Where did you get it from?" I said to him: "I have personal study." Meaning, I heard something and was not convinced by it. In any case, we agreed that he would come at a specific time to pick up his watch, as was our custom, in two or three days. He surprised me at the same time, at that opening, throwing a paper into my lap; because we were sitting on a wooden bench raised from the ground, not on chairs. I opened the paper and found that he had brought the hadith from *Al-Risalah al-Qushayriyyah* with its chain of narration.

The questioner: From so-and-so, from so-and-so, from so-and-so.

The Shaykh: I said: "I wish he had waited for me; I would have given him the answer." In any case, the time came for him to pick up the watch. He said to me: "Is the watch ready?" We said to him: "Please." He said to me: "Did you see the hadith?" I said to him: "Yes." He said to me: "What did you see?" So I took a somewhat strange path with him. I said to him: "I saw that the author is saying that the hadith is weak!" He said: "No, my brother, there is nothing of that." I said to him: "Yes, there is." He said: "My brother, I wrote it with my own hand from the book."

The questioner: How... weak.

The Shaykh: I said to him: "My brother, but this language is not understood by everyone. Al-Qushayri—may Allah have mercy on him—when he mentioned the hadith, why did he mention the chain? He said: 'So-and-so narrated to me.' He said: 'So-and-so narrated to me.' He said: 'So-and-so narrated to me?' So that the established scholar, who is proficient in knowing the biographies of hadith narrators and proficient in the science of al-jarh wa al-ta'dil, can understand from the chain whether the hadith is authentic or weak. See here? We didn’t have dry-ink pens like now at that time, it was a long time ago. There was a dip pen, they called it that. I did this, a little like this, it came out dark.

Another questioner: So that he would annotate it.

The Shaykh: Yes, I wrote to him: "'Atiyyah =' two lines equal 'weak according to the scholars of hadith'."
"Atiyyah" is found at the top of the chain. In its chain, Atiyyah al-'Aufi from Abu Sa'id al-Khudri said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: . So "Atiyyah" is weak according to the scholars of hadith. Whenever this man narrated a hadith and was unique in its narration, the hadith would be considered invalid. He took the watch, paid the fee, and the man left. It has passed, by Allah, perhaps more than a year. I moved from my father’s shop to a shop of my own. I didn’t see him except on a Friday when he came with Shaykh "Muhammad al-Dairani."

The questioner: His Shaykh.

The Shaykh: Here is the point, yes.
And I usually opened on Fridays but didn’t work. I opened because my shop was on the road of the farmers who came from the people of the Ghouta, from "Joubar" and "Douma" and those areas. Whoever wanted to take his watch, and whoever wanted to leave his watch, and so on. But I was sitting studying. By chance, on that day, the book *Al-Targhib wa al-Tarhib* was there; the copy is still with me to this day, I was studying in it. When "Najm al-Din Bey" came with Shaykh Muhammad—Shaykh "Muhammad al-Dairani"—immediately I stood up to receive them, even though I am the owner of the shop, meaning I was supposed to stay in my place. But since a Shaykh came, I stood up to receive him. Welcome, and I returned to my place. Before they had even sat down, I sat and said to him: "Is it true, O Shaykh, that the hadith: is weak?" He said: "No. It is an authentic hadith; Abu Dawud and al-Tirmidhi narrated it. His tracing of the hadith was perfect. A sign that he is a memorizer or prepared; one of the two, meaning. But no; he actually used to sit in the Umayyad Mosque, if you know it there, in a place like: 'So-and-so the Shaykh is studying under the dome.'
The one who studies under the dome means as if he were the preacher of the Prophet’s Mosque or the Mosque of the Sacred Precinct in Makkah; meaning a high rank. So this was what? A teacher under the dome. When he said this to me; the attribution is correct, but the logic is not correct; why? Because he is using the tracing of these scholars for the hadith as evidence for the authenticity of the hadith, and this is incorrect reasoning according to the science of terminology. Here is the point; he messed me up, and he also brought us the "trick" like that Azhari. Immediately the divine computer worked at the speed of lightning and faster; how am I going to convince him that this statement is not sound? I said to him: "What do you think of the hadith?" Yes; it was part of his perfect speech that this hadith was narrated by these, and if it were a weak hadith, they would not have narrated it. I said to him: "What do you think of the hadith: ? What did I plan? He would say to me: This hadith has no basis. But he messed me up; meaning a second trick; see how? I planned that he would say: This hadith is not authentic. I would say to him: The scholars mentioned it, this so-and-so mentioned it, but he "tricked" me; he said to me: This hadith is authentic. And it has absolutely no basis!!
I said to myself: "The liar is behind the door; who narrated it? Imam Ahmad!!" He lied again; he never narrated it, no hadith scholar in the world. He said: "Imam Ahmad narrated it." Imam Ahmad, do you know his *Musnad*? Six volumes, containing about forty thousand hadiths. I said to him: "Did you see it in *Imam Ahmad’s Musnad*?" He said: "No." I said to him: "Then?" He said: "I saw it in the book *Al-Targhib wa al-Tarhib*!!"
And the book was placed on the table; I was reading in it before they came, and when they came, I put it aside.

The questioner: Tell him: Trace the hadith.

The Shaykh: We said to him: Please. Out of his ignorance or his confusion, one of the two—and the sweetest of them is bitter—out of his confusion or ignorance, he said to me: "How am I supposed to look at it?!!"
A man who is knowledgeable in hadith cannot extract a hadith?! We said to him: "Professor, the matter is simple. What is the subject of this hadith? It is about speaking in the mosques. Mosques are related to prayer, so it is in the book of prayer. Please." He started flipping through the pages without direction, and I knew he would not find anything. I also did what they call "electrifying the atmosphere" with him a bit: "Do not tire yourself, Professor. You will not find this hadith in *Al-Musnad* or in *Al-Targhib*, it has no basis." He said: "No, no, it has a basis." I said to him: "This hadith was cited by Al-Ghazali in the book *Al-Ihya*, and you know—Allah knows if he knows or not—and you know that Al-Hafiz al-Iraqi traced this book, and when he came to this hadith he said: 'A hadith with no basis.'" He said: "No, no, it has a basis." We said to him: "So I turned to 'Najm al-Din Beyk.' I said to him: 'Please, Najm al-Din Beyk, when the Shaykh arrives at the house, he will look for the hadith from *Al-Targhib wa al-Tarhib* on a small slip of paper, with the part and page number.'"

The questioner : As you wrote just now: .

The Shaykh : Yes, "May you guide the guest's face," as they say in our region in Syria. We did not see the man again; it is impossible.