The hadith that the meat of cows is a disease, and His saying (Mighty and Majestic): ((So We said, strike it with a part of it)), and how to deal with texts that appear to contradict each other?
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The questioner : First, I testify that I love you for the sake of Allah.
The Shaykh : May Allah love you, for you loved me for His sake.
The questioner : The question is that I read in one of the men of Islamic thought.
The Shaykh : I read in.
The questioner : In the book of one of the men of Islamic thought.
The Shaykh : Men of thought.
The questioner : He quoted, and you authenticated, the hadith:, and he said: All of it... for the Qur'an, so that when one hears this hadith, he knows that this hadith has no value.
The Shaykh : What Allah willed!
The questioner : Because it contradicts the Qur'an, and Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He) mentioned and bestowed a favor upon the Muslims by mentioning the meat of cows in the Qur'an: So why, if some men of hadith have a deficiency in understanding, do they contradict the explicit text? And some people attribute to the hadith a deficiency in reflecting upon the Qur'an and understanding its rulings; you find arrogance with this deficiency, and why do they rely on others from the men of... Islamic [scholarship] to discover a defect here or a style there? This is the logic of... What is the ruling on one who denies an authentic hadith in this and states that it contradicts the Noble Qur'an?
The Shaykh : There is no doubt that the one who strikes a hadith from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) that is authentic according to the people of knowledge of hadith, striking that hadith with his understanding of the Qur'an, and I do not say with the Qur'an; because the hadith does not contradict the Qur'an, but rather it contradicts the understanding of some people of some verses of the Qur'an. So from the scientific, usuli, hadith, and fiqh principles, it is that if two texts appear to contradict each other, it is obligatory to reconcile them by one of the many methods of reconciliation, which some scholars—especially al-Hafiz al-Iraqi—brought to more than a hundred aspects. Every one of these aspects can be relied upon by the knowledgeable jurist to reconcile between two contradictory texts; whether one of them is the Qur'an or a hadith, or both are Prophetic hadiths, but one of them is authentic and mutawatir, for example, and the other is less than that in authenticity; even if it is in the rank of hasan; even in this last case, two contradictory hadiths, one of which is as strong as possible in authenticity, and the other is as low as possible in authenticity, which is hasan; it should be reconciled between them by one of those many aspects. This is what they said, and good is what they said.
Then they continued the saying and said: If it is not possible to reconcile between the two contradictory texts by one of the many aspects of reconciliation; at that time, it is resorted to considering the abrogating from the abrogated of them. If the earlier of the later is not known, it is resorted to the third rank; which is giving precedence to the stronger in establishment. So in the previous example, if we have a verse and we have a hadith, and reconciliation is not possible by one of those many aspects, and it is not possible to consider the abrogating from the abrogated of them; at that time, without doubt, the Qur'an is taken because it is more authentic than the hadith, whatever its rank is. These are the three ranks.
The fourth and final rank comes: If it is not possible to give precedence between the two texts; as if they are two hadiths—for example—with the same degree of authenticity; at that time, the matter is left to its Knower; that is: it is said: Allah knows best; contrary to the saying of some of them: "They contradicted each other so they fell away." This was said by some of the later scholars, but it is a denunciation of the saying; because Allah (Mighty and Majestic) says in the explicit Qur'an:[Al-Isra 17:85], this is addressed to every individual of the Muslims. So if I do not know the reconciliation between the two texts, and I do not know the abrogating from the abrogated of them, and I am not able to give precedence between them so they are equal to me in authenticity; I do not say they contradicted each other so they fell away, but rather I say: Allah knows best.
This person who says this has not smelled the scent of knowledge, and has not thought about what the scholars mentioned; how should the position of the Muslim be if two texts appear to contradict each other, even if one of them is the Qur'an as this person mentioned, and the other is a Prophetic hadith? So I add to what he mentioned from the Qur'an that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) sacrificed with cows in the Farewell Pilgrimage on behalf of his wives, and this hadith is in "Sahih Muslim," he sacrificed on behalf of his wives with cows; so at that time, it is not hidden from the one who engages in the science of hadith and authenticates a hadith, if there were not a verse in the Qur'an mentioning the livestock and mentioning cows and the like of the rest of the other livestock; so if there were not a verse, he has a hadith that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) sacrificed on behalf of his wives in the Farewell Pilgrimage; so how would he sacrifice and their meat is a disease? This is not hidden at all from the scholars of hadith, but they do not hasten to invalidate the authentic hadiths of the Messenger (peace be upon him), but rather they try to reconcile between these texts that appear to contradict each other, and they did so, and thereby the speech of this attacker on the scholars of hadith and the claimant of fiqh for himself falls away, and he is the farthest from fiqh and knowledge of its principles. They said that when the Messenger (peace be upon him) said:; meaning the excess of it, and here it appears that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) did not come from him in his entire life that he sacrificed or offered a cow except in the Farewell Pilgrimage, so here we observe that the wives of the Messenger (peace be upon him) did not eat much of the meat of cows, so this is what suggested to some scholars of hadith when they stopped at the hadith that explicitly stated that it is a disease, so they combined this and that; and they said: So the excess of the meat of cows is a disease, and this is in reality, and we do not need to support the Sunnah with the experimental science that they say today, but from the perspective of explaining the truth of His saying (Mighty and Majestic) in the Qur'an: [Fussilat 41:53]; for they have mentioned now scientifically that—also—the meat of cows contains a type of worms that are not killed except by a certain heat. Yes?
The questioner : ... .
The Shaykh : How?
The questioner : ... .
The Shaykh : But at a certain temperature; this is my intention, so the hadith that they tried to strike with their misunderstanding of the verse remains a miracle from the scientific miracles of the Messenger, so in the meaning we explained earlier, reconciling it with the sacrifice of the Messenger on behalf of his wives with the meat of cows, so this is the answer to that hadith.
Please proceed.
The Shaykh : May Allah love you, for you loved me for His sake.
The questioner : The question is that I read in one of the men of Islamic thought.
The Shaykh : I read in.
The questioner : In the book of one of the men of Islamic thought.
The Shaykh : Men of thought.
The questioner : He quoted, and you authenticated, the hadith:
Beef is a disease
لحم البقر داءThe Shaykh : What Allah willed!
The questioner : Because it contradicts the Qur'an, and Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He) mentioned and bestowed a favor upon the Muslims by mentioning the meat of cows in the Qur'an: So why, if some men of hadith have a deficiency in understanding, do they contradict the explicit text? And some people attribute to the hadith a deficiency in reflecting upon the Qur'an and understanding its rulings; you find arrogance with this deficiency, and why do they rely on others from the men of... Islamic [scholarship] to discover a defect here or a style there? This is the logic of... What is the ruling on one who denies an authentic hadith in this and states that it contradicts the Noble Qur'an?
The Shaykh : There is no doubt that the one who strikes a hadith from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) that is authentic according to the people of knowledge of hadith, striking that hadith with his understanding of the Qur'an, and I do not say with the Qur'an; because the hadith does not contradict the Qur'an, but rather it contradicts the understanding of some people of some verses of the Qur'an. So from the scientific, usuli, hadith, and fiqh principles, it is that if two texts appear to contradict each other, it is obligatory to reconcile them by one of the many methods of reconciliation, which some scholars—especially al-Hafiz al-Iraqi—brought to more than a hundred aspects. Every one of these aspects can be relied upon by the knowledgeable jurist to reconcile between two contradictory texts; whether one of them is the Qur'an or a hadith, or both are Prophetic hadiths, but one of them is authentic and mutawatir, for example, and the other is less than that in authenticity; even if it is in the rank of hasan; even in this last case, two contradictory hadiths, one of which is as strong as possible in authenticity, and the other is as low as possible in authenticity, which is hasan; it should be reconciled between them by one of those many aspects. This is what they said, and good is what they said.
Then they continued the saying and said: If it is not possible to reconcile between the two contradictory texts by one of the many aspects of reconciliation; at that time, it is resorted to considering the abrogating from the abrogated of them. If the earlier of the later is not known, it is resorted to the third rank; which is giving precedence to the stronger in establishment. So in the previous example, if we have a verse and we have a hadith, and reconciliation is not possible by one of those many aspects, and it is not possible to consider the abrogating from the abrogated of them; at that time, without doubt, the Qur'an is taken because it is more authentic than the hadith, whatever its rank is. These are the three ranks.
The fourth and final rank comes: If it is not possible to give precedence between the two texts; as if they are two hadiths—for example—with the same degree of authenticity; at that time, the matter is left to its Knower; that is: it is said: Allah knows best; contrary to the saying of some of them: "They contradicted each other so they fell away." This was said by some of the later scholars, but it is a denunciation of the saying; because Allah (Mighty and Majestic) says in the explicit Qur'an:
And mankind have not been given of knowledge except a little."
وما أوتيتم من العلم إلا قليلًاThis person who says this has not smelled the scent of knowledge, and has not thought about what the scholars mentioned; how should the position of the Muslim be if two texts appear to contradict each other, even if one of them is the Qur'an as this person mentioned, and the other is a Prophetic hadith? So I add to what he mentioned from the Qur'an that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) sacrificed with cows in the Farewell Pilgrimage on behalf of his wives, and this hadith is in "Sahih Muslim," he sacrificed on behalf of his wives with cows; so at that time, it is not hidden from the one who engages in the science of hadith and authenticates a hadith, if there were not a verse in the Qur'an mentioning the livestock and mentioning cows and the like of the rest of the other livestock; so if there were not a verse, he has a hadith that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) sacrificed on behalf of his wives in the Farewell Pilgrimage; so how would he sacrifice and their meat is a disease? This is not hidden at all from the scholars of hadith, but they do not hasten to invalidate the authentic hadiths of the Messenger (peace be upon him), but rather they try to reconcile between these texts that appear to contradict each other, and they did so, and thereby the speech of this attacker on the scholars of hadith and the claimant of fiqh for himself falls away, and he is the farthest from fiqh and knowledge of its principles. They said that when the Messenger (peace be upon him) said:
Their meat is a disease.
لحومها داءWe will show them Our signs in the horizons and within themselves until it becomes clear to them
سنريهم آياتنا في الآفاق وفي أنفسهم حتى يتبيَّن لهم الحقThe questioner : ... .
The Shaykh : How?
The questioner : ... .
The Shaykh : But at a certain temperature; this is my intention, so the hadith that they tried to strike with their misunderstanding of the verse remains a miracle from the scientific miracles of the Messenger, so in the meaning we explained earlier, reconciling it with the sacrifice of the Messenger on behalf of his wives with the meat of cows, so this is the answer to that hadith.
Please proceed.
Source
www.al-albany.com
The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.