The Shaykh’s weakening of the hadith of Mu'adh ibn Jabal regarding the Prophet's (peace and blessings be upon him) sending him to Yemen, in terms of both chain and text.

The Shaykh : And to complete this topic, it is necessary to remind you of a well-known hadith among students of knowledge, especially those who have studied the principles of jurisprudence, where it is mentioned in the context of discussing analogical reasoning and independent legal reasoning. It is a hadith narrated in some of the Sunan collections from Mu'adh ibn Jabal (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said to him when he sent him to Yemen: He said, "By the Book of Allah." He said: He said, "By the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah." He said: He said, "I will use my own judgment and not fail." The hadith states: Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). We must know that this hadith is not authentic in terms of its chain according to the scholars of hadith, both explicitly and by deduction. By explicit statement, I mean that many scholars of hadith have explicitly stated the weakness of the chain of this hadith, such as Imam al-Bukhari, the Imam of the hadith scholars, and others. More than ten of the Imams of hadith, both ancient and modern, have stated this, the earliest of whom, as I recall, is Imam al-Bukhari, and the latest is Imam Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, with other Imams in between whose opinions I mentioned in my book "The Series of Weak and Fabricated Hadiths and Their Bad Effect on the Ummah". Whoever wants elaboration and detail should refer to it. The point is that this hadith is not authentic, as the Imams have explicitly stated, and also as their rules indicate, because this hadith hinges on a man known for obscurity, meaning he is not known for narration, let alone for truthfulness, let alone for memorization; all of this is unknown about him, so he is a person of unknown identity. This obscurity was explicitly stated by the Imam, the critic, al-Hafiz al-Dhahabi al-Dimashqi in his great book known as "The Scale of Balance in Criticizing Men". So, if you know that this hadith is weak according to the scholars of hadith, both explicitly and by deduction, as we mentioned, then on this occasion we must tell you that it is also rejected in terms of its text. This is understood from my previous explanation, but the matter is clearer in this hadith regarding its invalidity than what was previously stated about the obligation to refer to the Sunnah along with the Noble Qur'an. This is because it classifies the Sunnah after the Qur'an, and opinion after the Sunnah, placing the Sunnah in relation to the Qur'an as opinion is in relation to the Sunnah. When does the researcher or jurist refer to opinion? When he does not find the Sunnah. And when does he refer to the Sunnah? When he does not find the Qur'an. This is never Islamically correct, and none of the Imams of hadith and jurisprudence follow this classification contained in this hadith. "By what do you judge?" He said, "By the Book of Allah." "If you do not find it?" He said, "Then by the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah." We should clarify the rejection of the text of this hadith with some examples, even if it is just one, so as not to prolong the session. We know the saying of Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) in the Noble Qur'an: If a questioner asked a jurist who follows the classification mentioned in the unknown hadith of Mu'adh about the carrion of the sea, he would look in the Qur'an and find the answer in this explicit verse: So, if he relied on this verse, his answer would be that it is forbidden to eat the carrion of fish. Similarly, if asked about the liver and spleen, he would also say it is forbidden, because they are conjoined with carrion. The liver and spleen are blood. So, his ruling, based on his reliance on this Noble verse alone, would be non-Islamic. This is because Islam, as I mentioned earlier, is not just the Qur'an, but the Qur'an and the explanation, the Qur'an and the Sunnah. What was the explanation of the Messenger (peace be upon him) regarding this Noble verse? It was reported from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) with a chain that has some issues, but it is authentic from Ibn 'Umar as a mawquf report, and as the scholars of hadith say, it is considered a marfu' report because its wording is: In addition to this hadith, which explicitly permits some carrion and some blood, there is another authentic hadith narrated by Imam Muslim in his Sahih.
The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) sent a military expedition and appointed Abu 'Ubaydah ibn al-Jarrah as its commander. They traveled along the coast of the sea, and their food was dates until it was almost exhausted. When the dates became scarce, they were distributed one date per person. Then they saw something huge in the distance on the coast of the sea, so they went to it, and it was a very large whale. They began to eat from it and provision themselves from it. It was so huge that they set up a bow from one of its ribs on the ground, and a rider on his camel could pass underneath it due to the size of this whale. The sea cast it up by the power of Allah (Mighty and Majestic) and His arrangement of the sea to feed the companions of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). When they returned to the Prophet, he asked them: So, this hadith indicates some of what the first hadith of Ibn 'Umar indicated, that the carrion of the sea is lawful. What is the position of the Quranist who does not rely on the Sunnah, or one influenced by the doubts of the Quranists, if asked about the carrion of the sea, about this whale and its like? If he relies on the Qur'an, he will say that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) said: And this is carrion. But if he returns to the verses in the Noble Qur'an that establish that obedience to the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) is like obedience to Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He), then he will find it obligatory for him to also return to the Sunnah, and to combine it with the Noble Qur'an, and not to separate between them. So, the ruling in this issue related to this Noble verse would be: "Forbidden to you are carrion, except the carrion of the sea, and blood, except the liver and spleen." Where did we take this exception from? From the explanation of the Messenger (peace be upon him). This is a very important matter. The entire Shari'ah is based on combining the Sunnah with the Qur'an.