Some people spread the claim that you authenticate and weaken hadiths without any criteria, and the evidence for this is that you sometimes are strict in authenticating and sometimes are strict in weakening.
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The questioner : Some people spread the claim that you weaken and authenticate without any criteria, and the evidence for this is that you sometimes are strict in authenticating and sometimes are strict in weakening. Sometimes you authenticate in *Sahih* and weaken in *Sahih al-Jami'* and say we have returned from such and such. What is your statement?
The Shaykh : We say that if someone is among the people of knowledge, we are ready to discuss with him what he claims. But if he is not among the people of knowledge, his words have no weight. This is from one aspect.
From another aspect, I acknowledge and say, as I said earlier, if it is permissible for me to take pride, I take pride in the fact that when an error becomes apparent to me, I return from it and do not persist in it as others do. It is very regrettable that a virtue today becomes a defect or an ugliness with some people, or perhaps even a vice. What is in a person if an error becomes apparent to him in a book and he revises it, especially in a science like this, the science of hadith, authentication, and weakening, from which millions of Muslim scholars have turned away throughout these long centuries? Why? Because of its difficulty. And I give you a very simple example, even though it is related to terminology, but the example is clear.
is divided among the scholars of hadith, and I say the authentic is divided into authentic in itself and authentic by other means. Likewise, the good hadith is divided among the people of knowledge into good in itself and good by other means.
And here is the research now: what does this mean, a hadith good in itself and a hadith good by other means? It means that this hadith does not have a valid chain, but it has a valid chain. This is the definition of what? The hadith good in itself. The hadith good in itself is the one in which all the conditions of the authentic hadith are present, but one of its narrators had less precision and memorization than the level of memorization and precision of the narrator of the authentic hadith. Therefore, they said about his hadith that it is good in itself. Then the example comes at the end. What is the hadith good by other means? It means the hadith that does not have a valid chain. Then Shaykh Al-Albani, who is the one placed in the dock of accusation, comes to a hadith and looks at its chain and weakens it.
Time passes and time passes, and he says that this is a weak hadith. Then, while he is immersed all his life in studying manuscripts, let alone printed books, he sees another path for this hadith. The least that this other path benefits is that it raises the weak hadith to the rank of good by other means. So I say in another book, this is a good hadith by other means? Why did I say before that it was weak, and then I said finally in another book that it is good? Because something became apparent to me that I did not know. And although a person, by nature, as Allah Mighty and Majestic described him,[Al-Isra 17:85], but the most accurate application of such a text is for the one who works in the science of hadith, due to the multitude of paths by the thousands. Therefore, it is obligatory for a person to search within the limits of what he can. And I did, perhaps I do not say this in praise but as a statement of the reality, I searched and investigated the paths of the hadith in a way that may not exist in the present age. And many people of fairness and knowledge acknowledge this reality. But have I encompassed everything in knowledge? Far from it, far from it. Much has been missed by me and continues to be missed. This is a simple example. The one who is ignorant of this reality, why did Al-Albani weaken the hadith in such and such a book and then authenticate it in such and such a book? This is an example of a hadith that I weakened in one book and strengthened in another book, and the reverse is also true. It may happen that I authenticate a hadith in a book, and years pass, and then I discover a hidden defect in that chain which I had authenticated, so I critique myself, or perhaps someone else critiques me and I benefit from it, so I declare openly that this hadith has a weak chain. If there is room for explanation, I did so and explained and elaborated, and the place for that is the two famous books: "Silsilat al-Ahadith al-Sahihah" and "Silsilat al-Ahadith al-Da'ifah". And if there is no room, I limited myself to stating the rank, as I did in "Sahih al-Jami'" and "Da'if al-Jami'".
These matters are hardly noticed by the people of knowledge, let alone the students of knowledge, let alone those below them. Therefore, I advise our brothers, all the students of knowledge, whatever their orientations and partisanship may be—may Allah protect us and them—to be cautious in their criticism and to ask themselves. As I received criticism from some brothers in some nights we spent abroad, for example, criticizing me in a hadith about the evil omen, meaning "And none of us is free from the evil omen, then Allah removes it by reliance". So he wrote to me, meaning about a page, saying you made a mistake when you mentioned "And none of us", this is not from the hadith, but this is an insertion, according to what he transmitted only. I said, by Allah, this is a sin, and none of us is free from making a mistake. When I returned to the hadith that I cited in the *Silsilah*, and I found that I had indicated the statement that he is confronting me with, saying that this phrase is an insertion, how did you authenticate it? And I found the statement there in the *Sahihah* indicating the insertion and quoting the words of some of the Imams from whom he quoted that this addition is an insertion. But I adopt the opinion of other scholars that this is not an insertion because it came in the body of the statement. This is an example, meaning from the examples of the haste of some of our brothers to deny, as if the purpose is merely denial and not scientific research.
In summary, I may authenticate a hadith and then a defect becomes apparent to me later, and defects are many in this science. For example, there may be a hidden omission, and hidden omission is among the defects for which some people of knowledge say that knowing the defects of hadith in terms of omission is the most precise type of the science of hadith. Who knows this field and its importance and that it may be hidden from the greatest of scholars? Only the one who has practiced the matter himself knows that.
In summary, this question that I heard now is not a new matter. We receive many letters and discussions, and the answer in brief is that the one who criticizes with this criticism, I do not think he is among the people of knowledge. And if I assume the best of him, he is one of our young, enthusiastic Muslims, and then he proceeds to criticism without his awareness. This is if he is not among the people of enmity and hatred with whom we have been afflicted in some lands. And we ask Allah Mighty and Majestic to rectify our souls and to purify our hearts from resentment, hatred, and envy, and to unite us upon the Book of Allah and the guidance of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him).
The questioner : Last question.
The Shaykh : We say that if someone is among the people of knowledge, we are ready to discuss with him what he claims. But if he is not among the people of knowledge, his words have no weight. This is from one aspect.
From another aspect, I acknowledge and say, as I said earlier, if it is permissible for me to take pride, I take pride in the fact that when an error becomes apparent to me, I return from it and do not persist in it as others do. It is very regrettable that a virtue today becomes a defect or an ugliness with some people, or perhaps even a vice. What is in a person if an error becomes apparent to him in a book and he revises it, especially in a science like this, the science of hadith, authentication, and weakening, from which millions of Muslim scholars have turned away throughout these long centuries? Why? Because of its difficulty. And I give you a very simple example, even though it is related to terminology, but the example is clear.
is divided among the scholars of hadith, and I say the authentic is divided into authentic in itself and authentic by other means. Likewise, the good hadith is divided among the people of knowledge into good in itself and good by other means.
And here is the research now: what does this mean, a hadith good in itself and a hadith good by other means? It means that this hadith does not have a valid chain, but it has a valid chain. This is the definition of what? The hadith good in itself. The hadith good in itself is the one in which all the conditions of the authentic hadith are present, but one of its narrators had less precision and memorization than the level of memorization and precision of the narrator of the authentic hadith. Therefore, they said about his hadith that it is good in itself. Then the example comes at the end. What is the hadith good by other means? It means the hadith that does not have a valid chain. Then Shaykh Al-Albani, who is the one placed in the dock of accusation, comes to a hadith and looks at its chain and weakens it.
Time passes and time passes, and he says that this is a weak hadith. Then, while he is immersed all his life in studying manuscripts, let alone printed books, he sees another path for this hadith. The least that this other path benefits is that it raises the weak hadith to the rank of good by other means. So I say in another book, this is a good hadith by other means? Why did I say before that it was weak, and then I said finally in another book that it is good? Because something became apparent to me that I did not know. And although a person, by nature, as Allah Mighty and Majestic described him,
And mankind have not been given of knowledge except a little."
وما أوتيتم من العلم إلا قليلاThese matters are hardly noticed by the people of knowledge, let alone the students of knowledge, let alone those below them. Therefore, I advise our brothers, all the students of knowledge, whatever their orientations and partisanship may be—may Allah protect us and them—to be cautious in their criticism and to ask themselves. As I received criticism from some brothers in some nights we spent abroad, for example, criticizing me in a hadith about the evil omen, meaning "And none of us is free from the evil omen, then Allah removes it by reliance". So he wrote to me, meaning about a page, saying you made a mistake when you mentioned "And none of us", this is not from the hadith, but this is an insertion, according to what he transmitted only. I said, by Allah, this is a sin, and none of us is free from making a mistake. When I returned to the hadith that I cited in the *Silsilah*, and I found that I had indicated the statement that he is confronting me with, saying that this phrase is an insertion, how did you authenticate it? And I found the statement there in the *Sahihah* indicating the insertion and quoting the words of some of the Imams from whom he quoted that this addition is an insertion. But I adopt the opinion of other scholars that this is not an insertion because it came in the body of the statement. This is an example, meaning from the examples of the haste of some of our brothers to deny, as if the purpose is merely denial and not scientific research.
In summary, I may authenticate a hadith and then a defect becomes apparent to me later, and defects are many in this science. For example, there may be a hidden omission, and hidden omission is among the defects for which some people of knowledge say that knowing the defects of hadith in terms of omission is the most precise type of the science of hadith. Who knows this field and its importance and that it may be hidden from the greatest of scholars? Only the one who has practiced the matter himself knows that.
In summary, this question that I heard now is not a new matter. We receive many letters and discussions, and the answer in brief is that the one who criticizes with this criticism, I do not think he is among the people of knowledge. And if I assume the best of him, he is one of our young, enthusiastic Muslims, and then he proceeds to criticism without his awareness. This is if he is not among the people of enmity and hatred with whom we have been afflicted in some lands. And we ask Allah Mighty and Majestic to rectify our souls and to purify our hearts from resentment, hatred, and envy, and to unite us upon the Book of Allah and the guidance of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him).
The questioner : Last question.