Who is the one who conceals defects (al-mudallis) and what are the reasons that lead him to conceal them?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner : Who is the one who conceals defects (al-mudallis) and what are the reasons that lead him to conceal them?
The Shaykh : The one who conceals defects (al-mudallis) is the one who presents something in a desirable appearance when it is not so, such as polishing his car so that it appears new to the buyer, or painting his house to remove the cracks and collapse in it so that it appears new to people, and the like of that. This is from the deception that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) forbade, indeed he disavowed the one who does it, as the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said:Jami` at-Tirmidhi 1315Sahih (Darussalam).
And if the questioner means by the one who conceals defects (al-mudallis) the one who conceals defects in the science of hadith, then he does not go beyond the meaning we mentioned, which is presenting something with a characteristic that necessitates its acceptance. Indeed, the one who conceals defects in hadith is the one who narrates from a person from whom he did not receive the hadith directly, using a formulation that implies meeting, such as saying: "From so-and-so," and so-and-so did not narrate it to him, but he narrated it from him through an intermediary. So he makes it appear to people that this chain of narration is connected because its apparent formulation implies that, whereas he did not meet him.
And the scholars have mentioned that the known ones who conceal defects (al-mudallis) are not accepted their narrations with the explicit "told me" (mu'anan) unless they explicitly state the narration, meaning unless this one who conceals defects says, regarding the one from whom he narrated: "So-and-so told me" or "I heard so-and-so," and the like of that. In this case, it is accepted if he is trustworthy, meaning if there is no reason for rejection in him other than the concealment of defects.
The Shaykh : The one who conceals defects (al-mudallis) is the one who presents something in a desirable appearance when it is not so, such as polishing his car so that it appears new to the buyer, or painting his house to remove the cracks and collapse in it so that it appears new to people, and the like of that. This is from the deception that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) forbade, indeed he disavowed the one who does it, as the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said:
Whoever cheats, he is not one of us.
من غش فليس مناAnd if the questioner means by the one who conceals defects (al-mudallis) the one who conceals defects in the science of hadith, then he does not go beyond the meaning we mentioned, which is presenting something with a characteristic that necessitates its acceptance. Indeed, the one who conceals defects in hadith is the one who narrates from a person from whom he did not receive the hadith directly, using a formulation that implies meeting, such as saying: "From so-and-so," and so-and-so did not narrate it to him, but he narrated it from him through an intermediary. So he makes it appear to people that this chain of narration is connected because its apparent formulation implies that, whereas he did not meet him.
And the scholars have mentioned that the known ones who conceal defects (al-mudallis) are not accepted their narrations with the explicit "told me" (mu'anan) unless they explicitly state the narration, meaning unless this one who conceals defects says, regarding the one from whom he narrated: "So-and-so told me" or "I heard so-and-so," and the like of that. In this case, it is accepted if he is trustworthy, meaning if there is no reason for rejection in him other than the concealment of defects.