Explanation of the hadith of 'Uqbah ibn 'Amir (may Allah be pleased with him) - he said: I said: O Messenger of Allah, what is salvation?

The Shaykh : And so he followed the previous hadith with the hadith of 'Uqbah ibn 'Amir (may Allah be pleased with him) - he said: I said: O Messenger of Allah, what is salvation? What is the escape from the punishment of Allah (Mighty and Majestic) on the Day of Resurrection? He said: . It was narrated by al-Tirmidhi, Ibn Abi al-Dunya, and al-Bayhaqi, all of them through the route of 'Ubayd Allah ibn Zahr from 'Ali ibn Yazid from al-Qasim from him, and al-Tirmidhi said: "A good, anomalous hadith."
In this hadith, after speaking about some of its tracing, the Messenger (peace be upon him) commands 'Uqbah ibn 'Amir with three characteristics which he made the cause of salvation; the first characteristic: ; meaning do not speak except in what benefits you and concerns you. It is authentic from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) many hadiths encouraging turning away from speech except in what contains good; for it came in "Sahih al-Bukhari and Muslim" from the hadith of Abu Khuzay'ah and others that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: .
, it may occur to some people that this command is a command for seclusion; seclusion from people absolutely, and the matter is not so, but rather this is an advice from the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) for the person to stay in his home when the trials multiply and fall like rain, so that the person then feels that there is no benefit in mixing with people, but rather he must save himself; at that time let him stay in his home.
And there is no doubt that such an advice from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) that the Muslim should stay in his home cannot be understood as having established a rule for the Muslim in every time and in every place; for Islam was established on the basis of , and that requires mixing with people and conveying the call to them. For this reason the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) says: , but if the Muslim's mixing with people results in the Muslim being harmed and afflicted in his belief, in his morals, and in his religion, here comes this noble advice from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) in his saying: . Thus we must reconcile between the hadiths just as we must reconcile between the verses themselves; for they all came from one source, so it is not permissible for us to take this hadith as a general rule and use it to negate the hadith: and so on, nor to make this last hadith a rule and negate the hadith we are reading now in the book, but rather each of the two hadiths has its place and its appropriateness.
Then he said to him (peace and blessings be upon him): . And this command is a binding command always and forever, whatever the condition of the Muslim, whether he lives secluded from people or mixing with people, so he should always engage in the causes that soften his heart and cause his tears to flow; and that is to weep over his sin. And this necessarily entails that the person should account himself and think about what his hands have done in his day or in his night; so that the person is mindful of his Lord, and perhaps he will be recorded to be among those seven whose hadith preceded in past lessons, and among them: . You remember the beginning of the hadith: and their mention, and among them: .
Here a question may arise in this tracing; where he attributed the hadith to al-Tirmidhi, Ibn Abi al-Dunya, and al-Bayhaqi and said: "All of them through the route of 'Ubayd Allah ibn Zahr," and this is a weak man. "From 'Ali ibn Yazid," and he is al-Ahlan al-Shami, and he is like the first in weakness. "From al-Qasim," Abu al-Rahman al-Dimashqi, and he is the client of Abu Umaymah, and there is discussion about him, but the matter does not entail that he is like the first two. Then he said: And al-Tirmidhi said: "A good, anomalous hadith"; so how, first of all, regarding our work, how did we choose this hadith as being from the established hadiths when it is from this single route through 'Ubayd Allah ibn Zahr from 'Ali ibn Yazid al-Ahlan? The answer is: it is a correct hadith by virtue of other evidence; that is: by its corroborations and routes, and not for the specific sake of this route, even though al-Tirmidhi himself grades this route as good in itself, and says as you heard in it: "A good, anomalous hadith."
And perhaps it is good to remind again of the difference between al-Tirmidhi's saying in such a hadith: "Good, anomalous," and his saying in another hadith: "A good hadith"; what is the difference between the two sayings? Sometimes we find al-Tirmidhi saying: "A good, anomalous hadith" as here, and sometimes the word anomalous does not come and he limits himself to saying: "A good hadith"?
The answer: This is a terminology of al-Tirmidhi which a student of knowledge should be aware of; so that when he reads his book - if Allah wills - or reads a transmission from it: "A good, anomalous hadith" sometimes, and sometimes: "A good hadith"; he should be aware that when he says: "A good, anomalous hadith," he means that its chain itself is good, so the hadith is good in itself according to him, and when he says: "A good hadith" only; he means that the chain of the hadith has weakness in it according to him, and it was strengthened for him by other evidence. And from here it appears that the one who transmits from al-Tirmidhi's book should be precise in his transmission, so he must be aware of this difference between his saying: "A good, anomalous hadith," and his saying: "A good hadith" only, and unfortunately many of those who have knowledge and engagement with hadith do not keep this difference in mind, so they do not transmit precisely; the hadith may be in al-Tirmidhi where he said: "A good, anomalous hadith," and he may say we abbreviate this saying of his and say: "A good hadith" only, so the one who has knowledge of al-Tirmidhi's terminology understands that there is weakness in the chain of this hadith, but al-Tirmidhi graded it as good for its corroborations, whereas the reality is that al-Tirmidhi graded it as good in itself, he indicated that by the word "anomalous," so the transmitter abbreviated this word and implied the opposite of what the author al-Tirmidhi himself intended.
This is a short word concerning this hadith terminology in al-Tirmidhi's saying from the side of: "A good, anomalous hadith," and in our strengthening of this hadith even though its route is weak; so the summary is that this hadith is correct by virtue of other evidence.