The Importance of al-Tahawi’s Book Mushkil al-Athar and the Virtue of Its Author
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The Shaykh : Yes, may Allah reward you. This is a hadith that we can consider, in truth, a rare hadith in terms of its narration, because it is not found in any of the six books of the Sunnah or in the other known books, musnads, and dictionaries, except that it appears in a book called Mushkil al-Athar by Abu Ja’far al-Tahawi. In fact, since I have been teaching the subject of hadith at the Islamic University for about thirty years, I have told the students there that this man is one of the rare scholars of the Hanafi school, because he collects from the Sunnah what is not found among the people of hadith.
The questioner : Allahu Akbar.
The Shaykh : The strangeness... Look at how men differ in knowledge. The Hanafis, generally, unfortunately, we can describe them as being poor in the science of hadith, whether we say they are poor in the science of hadith in terms of quantity and comprehensiveness, or in terms of quality regarding their knowledge of the authentic and the weak; they are poor in both fields, quantity and quality. It is very rare among them for someone to deviate from this rule, and among these rarities is Abu Ja’far al-Tahawi. I know his virtue because I find in his two books, the first being Mushkil al-Athar and the second being Sharh Ma’ani al-Athar, hadiths that I do not find in those famous books of the people of hadith, or I find hadiths that are known in those books, but I find in them... for Abu Ja’far al-Tahawi the Hanafi. So, if I find some of the hadiths that exist in the known books of the Sunnah, I also benefit from him because I find in it a route that I do not find in the books of the Sunnah. It benefits us either by strengthening a hadith that exists in the known books of the Sunnah with a weak chain, so we benefit from the book of Abu Ja’far al-Tahawi with a new chain that gives strength to that hadith which comes with a weak chain, or we find in it some supporting chains, as is said in the science of terminology.
The questioner : Allahu Akbar.
The Shaykh : The strangeness... Look at how men differ in knowledge. The Hanafis, generally, unfortunately, we can describe them as being poor in the science of hadith, whether we say they are poor in the science of hadith in terms of quantity and comprehensiveness, or in terms of quality regarding their knowledge of the authentic and the weak; they are poor in both fields, quantity and quality. It is very rare among them for someone to deviate from this rule, and among these rarities is Abu Ja’far al-Tahawi. I know his virtue because I find in his two books, the first being Mushkil al-Athar and the second being Sharh Ma’ani al-Athar, hadiths that I do not find in those famous books of the people of hadith, or I find hadiths that are known in those books, but I find in them... for Abu Ja’far al-Tahawi the Hanafi. So, if I find some of the hadiths that exist in the known books of the Sunnah, I also benefit from him because I find in it a route that I do not find in the books of the Sunnah. It benefits us either by strengthening a hadith that exists in the known books of the Sunnah with a weak chain, so we benefit from the book of Abu Ja’far al-Tahawi with a new chain that gives strength to that hadith which comes with a weak chain, or we find in it some supporting chains, as is said in the science of terminology.
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The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.