Does one accept a correction of a hadith made by a student after a scholar has authenticated it?

The questioner : All right, Shaykh Muhammad.

The Shaykh : Yes.

The questioner : All right, I mean, what is our position regarding a hadith if one of the memorizers authenticates it and adopts it, and we know the method of authenticating hadiths? It is possible...

The Shaykh : Your voice has gone.

The questioner : I say, if one of the early memorizers, may Allah have mercy on them, authenticates a hadith in Ibn Hittan’s position regarding the hadith, and then one of the students of knowledge points out a circumstance that invalidates the authentication that Ibn Hittan established, can we rely on this statement or not?

The Shaykh : If you do not know that someone stronger than him preceded him and contradicted him, then yes; otherwise, no.

The questioner : Many memorizers have graded this hadith as weak.

The Shaykh : My brother, did you understand my answer?

The questioner : It seems so.

The Shaykh : No, it does not seem so. I tell you, there are two men: a student of knowledge, do you hear me?

The questioner: Yes, Shaykh

The Shaykh : A beginner student of knowledge and a Shaykh who has practiced this science for a long time. They disagree on the ruling regarding the hadith. Whose statement should be accepted?

The questioner : The statement of...The Shaykh .

The Shaykh : And by that, you can judge, whether in fiqh or in hadith or in tafsir. The young people today, my brother, especially in the science of hadith, it is a matter that draws attention.

The questioner : This hadith...

The Shaykh : Listen, my brother, may Allah guide you. The people today, the students of knowledge, they all rushed in one wave to the science of hadith, thinking that the science of hadith is just going back to the biographies of the narrators of hadith, saying this one is a liar, this one is a fabricator, this one is weak, this one has poor memory, this one is trustworthy, and so on. They think that this is the science of hadith. And so you find now, what Allah wills, students of hadith science by the dozens, if not by the hundreds. As for the other sciences, you do not find any of them turning to them. Why? Because the popular market is the market of hadith. If they had been patient and sought this knowledge and studied it well, and mastered this science, and then they started writing for people to benefit them, rather than going directly to criticism, and the criticism they direct is at what they believe has passed through about half a century of time, and he is specialized in this science, and it is attested to by the men of knowledge. So what does their rush indicate? First, their quick study of this science. Second, their lack of dedication to writing what benefits the masses of Muslims. Third, their headlong plunge into refuting so-and-so. Did you understand me?

The questioner : Good, Shaykh. All right, I bid you farewell. What service?

The Shaykh : May you be safe.

The questioner: Peace be upon you.

The Shaykh : And upon you be peace and the mercy of Allah and His blessings. It is not just you recording, Abu Layla; they are recording in Saudi Arabia too. (He laughs, may Allah have mercy on him).
Al-Halabi : Shaykh, it is amazing, subhan Allah! I say, on the occasion of speaking about this treatise, that the man appears to have been writing this treatise for many months, polishing it and correcting it and so on. Subhan Allah! I remember, Shaykh, when I reviewed it, many paths were missed by him, and many things, and illusions and errors. Subhan Allah!

The Shaykh : He is a beginner.
Al-Halabi : The haste, subhan Allah, how...

The Shaykh : But that is the arrogance.
Al-Halabi : We ask Allah for guidance.

The Shaykh : Arrogance is the love of appearing. It is truly a strange matter. A person who is not an author, not even one treatise, in the takhrij of some hadiths that people need, authenticates and weakens, and so on. He comes directly to refute and jump in, and refute whom, without offense? Al-Albani, in whom the great scholars testify that he is the hadith scholar of the time, and they say about him, "He is more memorizing than our close relatives here, more memorizing than Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani," and so on. This is exaggeration, not the truth. But what? But he must admit that he is a person who has been working in this science for fifty years and more, not five years. And from where did he benefit from this science? From Al-Albani’s books. And he comes to refute whom? Al-Albani.
Al-Halabi : Strange, Shaykh. The strange thing is also in the introduction of the book, where he says, and...The Shaykh : Muqbil, the author of his book, that...The Shaykh : Al-Albani is the Imam of the people of the Sunnah and the hadith scholar of the era, whom we have not seen like him, and we benefited from him, and so on. Then he says, "And we have established the evidence in this treatise for the weakness of the methodology of..."The Shaykh : ...meaning, first, these are two great contradictions. Add to that...

Another questioner: ..
Al-Halabi : No, no. In a second point, add to that that the methodology is not taken from one hadith.The Shaykh : He has extracted thirty thousand hadiths and athar. From thirty thousand hadiths and athar, he weakens a hadith, and assuming he made a mistake in...The Shaykh : ...one hundred percent, can it be said that the methodology is wrong because of a mistake in one hadith? And let the mistake be one percent or two percent. Truly, a strange contradiction.

The Shaykh : Who does not make mistakes? Who does not make mistakes? Yes.