The Shaykh’s remarks on acting upon weak hadiths in the virtues of actions, the scholars’ statements on the matter, and a mention of some examples thereof

The Shaykh : It is well known among scholars the statement that it is permissible to act upon a weak hadith in the virtues of actions. This is a matter in which there is actually disagreement among the hadith scholars. The well-known view among them, or among the majority of them, is that it is permissible to act upon a weak hadith in the virtues of actions. Others, and although they are few, one believes the correct view is with them, say that it is not permissible to act upon a weak hadith in the virtues of actions. Others took a middle path between these two groups and said that it is permissible to act upon a weak hadith in the virtues of actions with three conditions. One of these conditions is that the weakness of the hadith not be severe. In reality, by this phrase they mean that there should not be a narrator in the chain of the hadith who is severely weak, one who is described as "abandoned" (matruk) or "accused of lying," or, a fortiori, if he is called a "liar" or "fabricator." If there is this severe weakness in the chain, then it is not permissible to act upon it according to those who took the middle path between the first and the second groups. This is one of the conditions. Another condition is that the hadith should have a connection to the general principles, or in other words, that it should not contradict the general principles of the Shari'ah. For example, the hadith of the Prayer of Tasbih. You all know that this prayer differs in its form and manner from all the customary prayers. This hadith, according to those who say it is weak, falls under the rule mentioned earlier: that it should not contradict the principles and general rules. A prayer like this has no precedent, unlike, for example, any other prayer built on two rak'ahs, where one recites such-and-such in the first rak'ah and such-and-such in the second rak'ah, but it does not contradict the two-rak'ah prayer, whether the Sunnah of Fajr, the Fard of Fajr, or whatever else. The one who provides this detail and stipulates this condition does not act upon the hadith of the Prayer of Tasbih because it has no counterpart, meaning, in the Shari'ah. This is one of the conditions, or it is the second condition.
The third and final condition is that one should not commit to acting upon this weak hadith consistently, but rather do it sometimes and not others, so that it is not imagined to be a Sunnah established from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him).
I mentioned earlier that the second opinion, which closes the door firmly and does not permit acting upon a weak hadith in the virtues of actions, is, in my view, the correct one. The reason for this, in my opinion, goes back to two things. This is from the grace of Allah (Mighty and Majestic) upon us that we understood it from our observation of something we studied in the Sunnah first, and then from something else we studied in the reality of those who act upon weak hadiths second. The scholars who said before, as is narrated from Imam Ahmad or others, that if the hadith is in the virtues we are lenient, and if it is in the rulings we are strict, they mean in the chains of narration. They mean that the narrator narrates the hadith saying "The Messenger of Allah said," and then he acts upon it. He is asked, "Why do you act upon it?" He says, "This is a weak hadith." No, they mean that if they narrate the hadith from the Messenger of Allah with a chain, and there is a weakened man in the chain, they have fulfilled the trust. This is how we received the hadith. So, if the hadith has weakness in the chain, it does not prevent him from acting upon it out of caution. But later, the subject developed in the fourth century, and you are descending, and there were no longer hadiths mentioned with their chains, but rather the chains were separated from them. At that time, there was no longer a way to know the authentic from the weak except by the explicit statement of the hadith scholars that this is authentic and this is weak. At that time, if one of them knew that a hadith was weak and acted upon it, he was either with the first opinion or the second. As for the third opinion, it says it is not permissible for you to act upon the weak hadith. Based on the first and second opinions, I observe the following: they said it is permissible to act upon a weak hadith in the virtues of actions, meaning if you know that a hadith is weak, it is permissible for you to act upon it. The reality I referred to earlier, which I observed myself, and which was one of the reasons for my preference of the opinion that prohibits acting upon the weak hadith absolutely, is that those who act upon weak hadiths do not pay any attention to know whether a hadith is weak or not. Because we surprised them repeatedly: "O Shaykh, you are a noble, virtuous scholar, why do you act upon this hadith when it is weak?" He says to you, "My brother, one acts upon a weak hadith in the virtues of actions. But do you know that this hadith is weak?" He has no news, especially regarding the middle opinion. He says to you, "You should know that this hadith is weak so that you do not persist in acting upon it as if the hadith were authentic." And due to this negligence of these conditions, acting upon weak hadiths spread among the Muslims with a very terrible extent. And one of the effects of that was that the true and the false were mixed, as they say, and the sound with the sick. So the worshipping, knowledgeable, righteous person among them no longer distinguishes between the authentic Sunnah and the weak Sunnah. Take, for example, the Tarawih prayer of twenty rak'ahs. There is no authentic hadith at all; there is a weak hadith. But this rule also justifies acting upon it: acting upon a weak hadith in the virtues of actions. Well, you always and forever pray Tarawih twenty rak'ahs. You have never prayed Tarawih according to the authentic Sunnah of eleven rak'ahs. How can it be said that it is permissible to act upon this hadith? You are authorized to do so.

The questioner : Yes, yes.

The Shaykh : I made a mistake.

The Shaykh : The audience : They laugh.

The Shaykh : I mentioned earlier that one of the things that stand between people and acting upon a weak hadith is that they fall into acting upon weak hadiths without knowing them. The imams who permitted acting upon a weak hadith said, "If the hadith is weak, we are lenient in the virtues, and if it is in the rulings, we are strict." They are speaking the speech of the scholar who distinguishes between the authentic and the weak. As for the masses of Muslims today, even the scholars among them who are not specialists in the science of hadith, they do not know the difference between acting upon an authentic hadith and acting upon a weak hadith. So whatever hadith reaches them, they rush to act upon it. This is one of the dangers of the unrestricted statement of the permissibility of acting upon a weak hadith, which is the first school of thought. As for the second school of thought, it is prohibition, and we said it is the correct one. Why? Because the middle school of thought, which set conditions, these conditions are theoretical, not practical. Therefore, the middle opinion will, from a practical standpoint, return to the second opinion, which is the opposite of the first opinion. Because they say, "It should be permissible to act upon a weak hadith," as I mentioned earlier. And I repeat this so that I can build upon my other observation, which is based on my study in the Sunnah. They say the first condition is knowing that the hadith is weak. Who knows among the Muslims which weak hadith is acted upon in the virtues of actions? Those who know this are far fewer than a few. So for the masses of Muslims, it is better for them to adopt the second school of thought: it is not permissible to act upon a weak hadith in the virtues of actions. This is the first condition. The second condition is that it should fall within the generalities of the Shari'ah. Who knows this? Only the special scholars, the elite of people, know it. The third condition is based on the first and second conditions, which is not persisting in it. So these conditions that were set to permit acting upon a weak hadith remain theoretical conditions that cannot be applied practically.