For others, is it to be acted upon in the chapter of beliefs?
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The questioner : Is a hasan li ghayrihi hadith to be acted upon in the chapter of beliefs?
The Shaykh : What I believe is that distinguishing between a hadith that is established at a certain level and another hadith that is more established than it, between beliefs and rulings; this is an innovation that the early scholars of the Muslims did not know. Is this clear up to here?
The questioner: Yes.
The Shaykh : And on this basis, if a hasan hadith establishes a ruling of the Shari'ah, then it also establishes a belief. Is that okay?
The questioner : Yes.
The Shaykh : Rather, I say something that I do not think you have read, and I have argued with a group there in Damascus, Syria, from among those who have confused the minds of Muslims today with this transmission they have put forward as if it were a belief with no defect in it and no fault with it; and that is that ahad hadiths do not establish beliefs. I said to them: Two things are directed at you from which you have no escape. The first thing is that you do not adopt a belief from a hadith, no matter how strong and authentic that hadith is, even if it were mutawatir. They said: How is that? I said: This is a fact known by all students of knowledge, even beginners in the science of hadith, that a hadith being mutawatir is a relative matter; that is, it is mutawatir for the one who traces the paths of the hadith and obtains the conviction in the heart that this is a mutawatir hadith that it is impossible for it to be a lie. But is every memorizer—and I do not say every Muslim—is every memorizer required or obligated that a hadith established by a certain memorizer as mutawatir must also be mutawatir for the other memorizer? The matter is not obligatory. Is this clear?
The questioner: Yes.
The Shaykh : Fine, and it is known in the definition of the mutawatir hadith that it is required in its mutawatir status—and peace be upon you—that the chain continues from the first layer to the second until it reaches the one who says that it is a mutawatir hadith. Is this statement okay? So if the mutawatir status is broken in a certain layer, does the hadith remain mutawatir? The answer is: No.
I am saying now: Imam al-Bukhari said about a certain hadith that it is mutawatir, and here is the end of the precision in the matter: Is it mutawatir for me? Imam al-Bukhari judged a certain hadith to be mutawatir; is it mutawatir for me?
The questioner: No.
Another questioner : Not necessarily.
The Shaykh : This is an exam question, here.
The questioner : Not necessarily.
The Shaykh : Not necessarily, is it possible?
The questioner : That it is and that it is not.
The Shaykh : Yes?
The questioner : It is possible that it is and that it is not.
Another questioner : It is not possible.
The questioner : It is possible that it is mutawatir for you and it is possible that it is not.
The Shaykh : No, so, your answer is correct, and his answer is correct. But to link one to the other, I say: If Imam al-Bukhari said about a certain hadith that it is a mutawatir hadith, and I have not come across this hadith except through one path; is it mutawatir for me—in this state?
The questioner : No, he is not.
The Shaykh : Is there doubt in this?
The questioner: No.
The Shaykh : Here the previous possibility does not apply, but I...
Another questioner: Peace be upon you.
The Shaykh: And upon you peace.
Because of your view that I might have researched and not found the mutawatir status; so your answer is correct, but in the scenario I presented just now, his answer is correct.
Now, for the one who has no news of the hadith at all, and al-Bukhari said about it that it is mutawatir; it is even more so that it is not mutawatir for him. We said to that group: Suppose your leader is the scholar of the time in hadith, or the Bukhari of hadith, and he told you: Such-and-such a hadith is mutawatir. Does it become mutawatir for you?
The questioner: Yes.
The Shaykh : The answer is: No, so the chain is broken. When does it become mutawatir for you? If you have ten or twenty imams in hadith, according to their difference in the number for mutawatir, and then you are connected to this number; at that time the hadith becomes mutawatir for you. And as long as the reality is the opposite, and the assumption is that your leader is the one who judged this hadith as mutawatir; at that time this hadith becomes ahad for you; that is because the one who transmitted to you the news of the hadith's mutawatir status is an individual. And on this basis, I said to them: You do not adopt a belief from an authentic hadith. Is this clear?
The questioner : Is that clear?
The Shaykh : This is the first point, and it is important.
The second point, which the previous research necessitated us to say: Every hadith that carries a ruling contains a belief under it, and if you separate the belief from this ruling, you have removed the value of this ruling from the Shari'ah perspective. Is this also clear?
The questioner : Is that clear?
The Shaykh : Meaning, if an order comes to you from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) confirmed that it is obligatory or recommended, or if a prohibition comes to you confirmed that it is for prohibition or for disliking, that order or this prohibition, if you separate your belief in its content—the order indicates obligation or recommendation; if you separate your belief from this, no effect of the ruling remains in your soul. So it is the same regarding prohibitions. Is this also clear?
The questioner: Yes.
The Shaykh : So we conclude from what preceded that if the previous detail, which some scholars of kalam adopted in the past and some contemporaries adopted recently, if this distinction had validity between beliefs and rulings, its placement in rulings would be more appropriate than in belief; because the ruling, we said—and this is very clear—carries a belief, so if we remove the belief from it, no effect remains for it.
Once we know all this, we return to your question about the hasan hadith. The hasan hadith is either said to establish a Shari'ah ruling or it does not. If it is known among the majority of scholars that it establishes; then it contains a belief, so it must be acted upon; because it is a ruling, and it does not harm us after that that it contains a belief; because this is a matter almost agreed upon regarding the hasan hadith. As for the sahih hadith, there is no doubt that it is obligatory to act upon it in rulings. And once we know the previous explanation, acting upon the hasan hadith contains a ruling, and this means that if a report comes that does not contain a ruling but contains a belief, but its chain is hasan; it is obligatory to act upon it as it is obligatory to act upon it in a ruling; because it is a ruling plus a belief.
And branching from this statement—and in my belief it is an important thing; because it is not written in what I know—what I also said to those partisans: You are practically distinguishing between ahad hadiths in belief and ahad hadiths in rulings. So what do you do if a hadith comes that contains a belief on one side and a ruling on the other? And if, as we explained, there is no difference between a hadith with a ruling or a hadith with a belief; so whoever has a ruling or whoever does not have a ruling has a belief. But according to their specific philosophy, I said to them: What is your position? They were confused by the question and asked for an example. I said to them: For example, his saying (peace and blessings be upon him) in the authentic hadith in al-Bukhari and others: and the rest of the hadith is known. They are the ones who do not believe in the punishment of the grave; because in their claim, the hadiths of the punishment of the grave have not reached the level of mutawatir. So this is permissible to believe in. We said to them: Now the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) ordered you—regardless of whether the order is obligatory or recommended—the Messenger of Allah ordered you to seek refuge from four things, one of which is the punishment of the grave. If you say: This is a hadith of rulings that must be acted upon, you have contradicted your statement: This is an ahad hadith that is not permissible to act upon in belief; because the punishment of the grave is a belief. So what do you do? Do you obey his order (peace be upon him) as a Shari'ah ruling, or do you return to your philosophy that belief is not established by an ahad hadith and this is an ahad hadith so we do not act upon it? Whether you say this or that, you have contradicted your belief. We do not say you have contradicted the Shari'ah and they are contradicting the Shari'ah, but they have contradicted their belief because of their distinction between ahad hadiths in rulings and ahad hadiths in belief.
This is what I have regarding this interesting issue.
The questioner : If you please, a question, O Shaykh.
The Shaykh: Yes.
The questioner : The brother asked about hasan li ghayrihi.
The Shaykh : Yes.
The questioner : Likewise.
The Shaykh : He.
The questioner : What you mentioned of...
The Shaykh : It is so, what?
Please proceed.
The Shaykh : What I believe is that distinguishing between a hadith that is established at a certain level and another hadith that is more established than it, between beliefs and rulings; this is an innovation that the early scholars of the Muslims did not know. Is this clear up to here?
The questioner: Yes.
The Shaykh : And on this basis, if a hasan hadith establishes a ruling of the Shari'ah, then it also establishes a belief. Is that okay?
The questioner : Yes.
The Shaykh : Rather, I say something that I do not think you have read, and I have argued with a group there in Damascus, Syria, from among those who have confused the minds of Muslims today with this transmission they have put forward as if it were a belief with no defect in it and no fault with it; and that is that ahad hadiths do not establish beliefs. I said to them: Two things are directed at you from which you have no escape. The first thing is that you do not adopt a belief from a hadith, no matter how strong and authentic that hadith is, even if it were mutawatir. They said: How is that? I said: This is a fact known by all students of knowledge, even beginners in the science of hadith, that a hadith being mutawatir is a relative matter; that is, it is mutawatir for the one who traces the paths of the hadith and obtains the conviction in the heart that this is a mutawatir hadith that it is impossible for it to be a lie. But is every memorizer—and I do not say every Muslim—is every memorizer required or obligated that a hadith established by a certain memorizer as mutawatir must also be mutawatir for the other memorizer? The matter is not obligatory. Is this clear?
The questioner: Yes.
The Shaykh : Fine, and it is known in the definition of the mutawatir hadith that it is required in its mutawatir status—and peace be upon you—that the chain continues from the first layer to the second until it reaches the one who says that it is a mutawatir hadith. Is this statement okay? So if the mutawatir status is broken in a certain layer, does the hadith remain mutawatir? The answer is: No.
I am saying now: Imam al-Bukhari said about a certain hadith that it is mutawatir, and here is the end of the precision in the matter: Is it mutawatir for me? Imam al-Bukhari judged a certain hadith to be mutawatir; is it mutawatir for me?
The questioner: No.
Another questioner : Not necessarily.
The Shaykh : This is an exam question, here.
The questioner : Not necessarily.
The Shaykh : Not necessarily, is it possible?
The questioner : That it is and that it is not.
The Shaykh : Yes?
The questioner : It is possible that it is and that it is not.
Another questioner : It is not possible.
The questioner : It is possible that it is mutawatir for you and it is possible that it is not.
The Shaykh : No, so, your answer is correct, and his answer is correct. But to link one to the other, I say: If Imam al-Bukhari said about a certain hadith that it is a mutawatir hadith, and I have not come across this hadith except through one path; is it mutawatir for me—in this state?
The questioner : No, he is not.
The Shaykh : Is there doubt in this?
The questioner: No.
The Shaykh : Here the previous possibility does not apply, but I...
Another questioner: Peace be upon you.
The Shaykh: And upon you peace.
Because of your view that I might have researched and not found the mutawatir status; so your answer is correct, but in the scenario I presented just now, his answer is correct.
Now, for the one who has no news of the hadith at all, and al-Bukhari said about it that it is mutawatir; it is even more so that it is not mutawatir for him. We said to that group: Suppose your leader is the scholar of the time in hadith, or the Bukhari of hadith, and he told you: Such-and-such a hadith is mutawatir. Does it become mutawatir for you?
The questioner: Yes.
The Shaykh : The answer is: No, so the chain is broken. When does it become mutawatir for you? If you have ten or twenty imams in hadith, according to their difference in the number for mutawatir, and then you are connected to this number; at that time the hadith becomes mutawatir for you. And as long as the reality is the opposite, and the assumption is that your leader is the one who judged this hadith as mutawatir; at that time this hadith becomes ahad for you; that is because the one who transmitted to you the news of the hadith's mutawatir status is an individual. And on this basis, I said to them: You do not adopt a belief from an authentic hadith. Is this clear?
The questioner : Is that clear?
The Shaykh : This is the first point, and it is important.
The second point, which the previous research necessitated us to say: Every hadith that carries a ruling contains a belief under it, and if you separate the belief from this ruling, you have removed the value of this ruling from the Shari'ah perspective. Is this also clear?
The questioner : Is that clear?
The Shaykh : Meaning, if an order comes to you from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) confirmed that it is obligatory or recommended, or if a prohibition comes to you confirmed that it is for prohibition or for disliking, that order or this prohibition, if you separate your belief in its content—the order indicates obligation or recommendation; if you separate your belief from this, no effect of the ruling remains in your soul. So it is the same regarding prohibitions. Is this also clear?
The questioner: Yes.
The Shaykh : So we conclude from what preceded that if the previous detail, which some scholars of kalam adopted in the past and some contemporaries adopted recently, if this distinction had validity between beliefs and rulings, its placement in rulings would be more appropriate than in belief; because the ruling, we said—and this is very clear—carries a belief, so if we remove the belief from it, no effect remains for it.
Once we know all this, we return to your question about the hasan hadith. The hasan hadith is either said to establish a Shari'ah ruling or it does not. If it is known among the majority of scholars that it establishes; then it contains a belief, so it must be acted upon; because it is a ruling, and it does not harm us after that that it contains a belief; because this is a matter almost agreed upon regarding the hasan hadith. As for the sahih hadith, there is no doubt that it is obligatory to act upon it in rulings. And once we know the previous explanation, acting upon the hasan hadith contains a ruling, and this means that if a report comes that does not contain a ruling but contains a belief, but its chain is hasan; it is obligatory to act upon it as it is obligatory to act upon it in a ruling; because it is a ruling plus a belief.
And branching from this statement—and in my belief it is an important thing; because it is not written in what I know—what I also said to those partisans: You are practically distinguishing between ahad hadiths in belief and ahad hadiths in rulings. So what do you do if a hadith comes that contains a belief on one side and a ruling on the other? And if, as we explained, there is no difference between a hadith with a ruling or a hadith with a belief; so whoever has a ruling or whoever does not have a ruling has a belief. But according to their specific philosophy, I said to them: What is your position? They were confused by the question and asked for an example. I said to them: For example, his saying (peace and blessings be upon him) in the authentic hadith in al-Bukhari and others:
When one of you sits in the final tashahhud, let him seek refuge with Allah from four things, saying: O Allah, I seek refuge in You from the punishment of the grave
إذا جلس أحدكم في التشهد الأخير فليستعِذْ الله من أربع ، يقول : اللهم إني أعوذ بك من عذاب القبرThis is what I have regarding this interesting issue.
The questioner : If you please, a question, O Shaykh.
The Shaykh: Yes.
The questioner : The brother asked about hasan li ghayrihi.
The Shaykh : Yes.
The questioner : Likewise.
The Shaykh : He.
The questioner : What you mentioned of...
The Shaykh : It is so, what?
Please proceed.
Source
www.al-albany.com
The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.