Does a mursal hadith gain strength through the scholars' acceptance of it or their practice in accordance with it?

The questioner : Shaykh, regarding the mursal hadith—naturally, I don't know if the transition is appropriate or not—yes, regarding the mursal hadith, Shaykh, does it mean it is possible for it to gain strength through the scholars' acceptance of it, or through the scholars' practice in accordance with it?

The Shaykh : If there is no disagreement, yes. If there is no disagreement regarding the issue contained in the mursal hadith, then it is so.

The questioner : May Allah reward you with good.

The Shaykh : And by this, any other hadith is measured. In another evening session we held with some of our new brothers, one of our brothers from among the Saudi students of knowledge was present in the gathering. He appeared to have a good cultural background. He directed the following question to me: He said, "You mentioned in *Sifat al-Salah* (The Description of Prayer), in the chapter or section on the tashahhud, that the sunnah (recommended practice) in the tashahhud is to keep it secret. The hadith that you cited and extracted in the footnote has Abu Ishaq al-Sabi'i in its chain, and as you know, he is a tadlis (concealment of a defect in a chain) narrator. He says that he reviewed the sources to which I attributed the hadith and did not find in any of them an explicit statement of narration from him. Therefore, on this basis, the hadith is defective due to the 'an'anah (narration) of the tadlis narrator, and consequently, the hadith is weak. How did you mention it in *Sifat al-Salah* and quote—this is how he put it—quote from al-Hakim that he authenticated it and al-Dhahabi agreed with him?!" I said to him, "This is, in reality, one of the subtleties of knowledge related to the art of takhrij (tracing a hadith to its sources), authentication, and weakening, which, if I say 'most,' I would be telling the truth, and if I say 'all,' I might not be far from the mark, is unknown to most or all students of knowledge who have focused in this era on takhrij, and not only on takhrij, but also on authentication and weakening. They imagine that authentication and weakening depend solely on the science of hadith, the terminology of hadith, and the biographies of hadith narrators, whereas this knowledge is related in many of its aspects to fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) and the understanding of legal rulings. I said this in that session and I repeat it in this session. I continued speaking with him and said to him, 'Suppose now that this hadith does not exist at all in the Book and the Sunnah. The hadith states that the tashahhud is to be kept secret. What would be our practical position? Do we recite the tashahhud loudly or do we keep it secret?' He said, and as I mentioned earlier, he has some knowledge and fiqh, 'We keep it secret.' I said, 'Where did we take this ruling from? We assumed that we do not have the hadith of Abu Ishaq al-Sabi'i. Where did we take this fiqh or this ruling from?' Naturally, I continued my speech saying, 'We took it from the practice of the Muslims, the continuous practice of the Muslims, the Khalaf (the later generations) following the Salaf (the earliest generations). So this is a strong corroborating narration that the practice of the Muslims, both Salaf and Khalaf, has followed, which testifies to the authenticity of the hadith of Abu Ishaq al-Sabi'i. So when I extracted it and quoted al-Hakim's authentication of it, and al-Dhahabi's approval of it, and I approved it or approved them, that is because I am assured in the depths of my heart and soul that this hadith is authentic, even if it had that defect. And the same is said regarding the mursal hadith or other hadiths that have a defect preventing the ruling of authenticity or goodness upon them from a hadith perspective, but they may gain strength through a fiqh aspect. And as they say, 'A thing is mentioned by its like': due to the masses' negligence of this aspect, you find sometimes a discrepancy in authentication and weakening among some scholars, whether they are early or modern."