The hadith of Mu'adh ibn Jabal (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said to him when he sent him to Yemen: (By what will you judge?

The Shaykh: And to complete this topic, it is necessary to remind you of a well-known hadith among students of knowledge, and especially those who studied the principles of jurisprudence; where it is mentioned there in the context of discussing analogical reasoning and independent legal reasoning, a hadith is mentioned, narrated in some of the Sunan collections from Mu'adh ibn Jabal (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said to him when he sent him to Yemen: . He said: By the Book of Allah. He said: . He said: Then by the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah. He said: . He said: I will exert my opinion and I will not spare any effort. It is said in the hadith: - (peace and blessings be upon him); so we must know that this hadith is not valid in terms of its chain according to the scholars of hadith, both explicitly and by deduction. By explicit, I mean that many scholars of hadith have explicitly stated the weakness of the chain of this hadith, such as Imam al-Bukhari, the Imam of the hadith scholars, and others. Their number has exceeded ten Imams of hadith, both ancient and modern. The earliest of them is Imam al-Bukhari, as I recall, and the latest is Imam "Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani," and between them are other Imams whose opinions I mentioned in my book "Silsilat al-Ahadith al-Da'ifah wa al-Mawdu'ah wa Atharha al-Sayyid fi al-Ummah" (The Chain of Weak and Fabricated Hadiths and Their Bad Effect on the Ummah). So whoever wants elaboration and detail should refer to it.
The point is: that this hadith is not valid by the explicit statement of the Imams, and also as indicated by their rules; because this hadith revolves around a man known for obscurity; that is: he is not known for narration, let alone for being known for truthfulness, let alone for being known for memorization; all of this is unknown about him, so he is unknown in identity, as Imam al-Naqad "al-Hafiz al-Dhahabi al-Dimashqi" explicitly stated regarding this obscurity in his great book known as "Mizan al-I'tidal fi Naqd al-Rijal" (The Scale of Balance in the Critique of Men).
So if you know that this hadith is weak according to the scholars of hadith, both explicitly and by deduction, as we mentioned, then on this occasion it is necessary that we mention to you that it is also denounced in terms of its text. This is understood from my previous explanation, but the matter is clearer in this hadith regarding its invalidity than what was previously stated about the obligation to refer to the Sunnah together with the Noble Qur'an; because it classified the Sunnah after the Qur'an, and the opinion after the Sunnah, so it lowered the status of the Sunnah to the Qur'an to the status of the opinion to the Sunnah. When does the researcher or jurist refer to the opinion? When he does not find the Sunnah. And when does he refer to the Sunnah? When he does not find the Qur'an. This is never Islamically sound, and none of the Imams of hadith and jurisprudence follows this classification contained in this hadith. . He said: By the Book of Allah. . He said: Then by the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah.
It is recommended that we clarify the denunciation of the text of this hadith with some examples, even if it is just one example, so as not to prolong the session. We all know the saying of Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) in the Noble Qur'an: the verse. If a questioner asked a jurist who follows the classification mentioned in the unknown hadith of Mu'adh about the carrion of the sea, he would look in the Qur'an and find the answer in this explicit verse: , so his answer, if he relied on this verse, would be that he forbids eating the carrion of fish. Similarly, if he was asked about the liver and spleen, he would also say: forbidden; because it is conjoined with the carrion, , so the liver and spleen are blood. So his ruling, based on his reliance on this Noble verse alone, would be non-Islamic; because Islam, as I mentioned earlier, is not just the Qur'an, but the Qur'an and the explanation; the Qur'an and the Sunnah. So what was the explanation of the Messenger (peace be upon him) regarding this Noble verse?
It has come from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) with a chain that has some discussion, but it is authentic from Ibn 'Umar as a mawquf (stopping at a Companion), and as the scholars of hadith say: it is in the status of marfu' (traced to the Prophet); because its wording is: .
In addition to this hadith - which explicitly permits some carrion and some blood - there is another authentic hadith narrated by Imam Muslim in his "Sahih" ... - (peace and blessings be upon him) sent a detachment and appointed Abu 'Ubaydah ibn al-Jarrah as its leader. They traveled along the coast of the sea, and their food was dates until it was almost exhausted. When the dates became scarce, he would distribute one date to each person. Then they saw something huge from afar on the coast of the sea, so they went to it, and it was a huge whale, very large. They began to eat from it and provision themselves from it. And because of its huge size, they set up an arch from the arches of its back on the ground, and a rider would pass under it while on his camel. By the greatness of this whale, the sea cast it up by the power of Allah (Mighty and Majestic) and by His directing the sea to feed the companions of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). When they returned to the Prophet, he asked them: .
So this hadith indicates some of what the first hadith of Ibn 'Umar indicated, that the carrion of the sea is lawful. So what is the position of the Quranist who does not rely on the Sunnah, or one who is influenced by the doubts of the Quranists, if he is asked about the carrion of the sea, about this whale and its like? If he relies on the Qur'an, he will say: Allah (Mighty and Majestic) said: , and this is carrion. But if he returns to the verses in the Noble Qur'an that establish that obedience to the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) is like obedience to Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He); at that time, he will find it obligatory for him to also return to the Sunnah, and to combine it with the Noble Qur'an, and not to separate between them. So the ruling at that time in this issue related to this Noble verse is: except the carrion of the sea, except the liver and spleen. Where did we take this exception from? From the explanation of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him). So this is a very important matter. The entire Shari'ah is based on combining the Sunnah with the Qur'an.