What is your methodology in authenticating and weakening hadiths in the four Sunan? Is it based on the chain of the book or on the aggregate of the routes?
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The questioner : ... .
The Shaykh : May Allah reward you with good.
The questioner: Regarding "Sahih Ibn Majah" and "al-Nasa'i" ... is your authentication based on the routes ... found in these books?
The Shaykh: This is not based on ... .
The questioner: On its routes?
The Shaykh : Listen.
The questioner: Go ahead.
The Shaykh: There are two routes. Perhaps before ... explaining these two routes, I remind you that you may know that I adopted this style at the request of .
What is the name of the education department?
Those present: The Education Office.
The Shaykh: The Gulf Education Office, yes.
And they pressed me to hurry and publish this work. It became clear to me later that the director, or the head of this office, was apparently nearing the end of his term, and he wanted to present to the Muslim community a work that would immortalize his name; therefore, he insisted on rushing this ... And I told him that many of the hadiths are already studied and ready for me, so I take the summary and place it under any hadith from these four books of Sunan, whether it is authentic, good, weak, or otherwise. But there are hadiths that have not yet been subjected to the pen of research and verification; I cannot issue a ruling on them according to my method of research. However, I study the chain of the book and rule on it based on the knowledge I have gained through long practice. He said to me: That is enough for me, and may Allah reward you with good.
Therefore, what is currently present in the four Sunan is my ruling according to one of two methods. The first method—and it is the more common one—is that I do not look at the chain, but rather at the aggregate of the routes that my hand, research, or verification has touched. The chain of a hadith may be weak in a certain book, and I say: It is authentic; meaning: the hadith and the chain are weak, but I took the authenticity from other routes. Or the exact opposite may occur; I say: This hadith has a weak chain, and I may find—besides others—that I may find another chain for it in "Musnad Ahmad," and I strengthen it later. But now, when I undertook this project, I gave it the ruling derived from the chain of the book itself, under which I placed the rank of the hadith, deriving this rank from the text itself and from the chain itself. This is the second method, and it is ... and with this, my answer to you is complete.
The questioner : May Allah reward you with good.
The Shaykh : And beware of that.
Anything else? Let us end with your second question? Because this ... is an interjection.
The questioner: ... but in matters of creed, this is ...
The Shaykh : May Allah reward you with good.
The questioner: Regarding "Sahih Ibn Majah" and "al-Nasa'i" ... is your authentication based on the routes ... found in these books?
The Shaykh: This is not based on ... .
The questioner: On its routes?
The Shaykh : Listen.
The questioner: Go ahead.
The Shaykh: There are two routes. Perhaps before ... explaining these two routes, I remind you that you may know that I adopted this style at the request of .
What is the name of the education department?
Those present: The Education Office.
The Shaykh: The Gulf Education Office, yes.
And they pressed me to hurry and publish this work. It became clear to me later that the director, or the head of this office, was apparently nearing the end of his term, and he wanted to present to the Muslim community a work that would immortalize his name; therefore, he insisted on rushing this ... And I told him that many of the hadiths are already studied and ready for me, so I take the summary and place it under any hadith from these four books of Sunan, whether it is authentic, good, weak, or otherwise. But there are hadiths that have not yet been subjected to the pen of research and verification; I cannot issue a ruling on them according to my method of research. However, I study the chain of the book and rule on it based on the knowledge I have gained through long practice. He said to me: That is enough for me, and may Allah reward you with good.
Therefore, what is currently present in the four Sunan is my ruling according to one of two methods. The first method—and it is the more common one—is that I do not look at the chain, but rather at the aggregate of the routes that my hand, research, or verification has touched. The chain of a hadith may be weak in a certain book, and I say: It is authentic; meaning: the hadith and the chain are weak, but I took the authenticity from other routes. Or the exact opposite may occur; I say: This hadith has a weak chain, and I may find—besides others—that I may find another chain for it in "Musnad Ahmad," and I strengthen it later. But now, when I undertook this project, I gave it the ruling derived from the chain of the book itself, under which I placed the rank of the hadith, deriving this rank from the text itself and from the chain itself. This is the second method, and it is ... and with this, my answer to you is complete.
The questioner : May Allah reward you with good.
The Shaykh : And beware of that.
Anything else? Let us end with your second question? Because this ... is an interjection.
The questioner: ... but in matters of creed, this is ...
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