Discussion of the hadith: That Allah created Adam in the image of the Most Merciful.

The questioner : Regarding the hadith ?

The Shaykh : Raise your voice so that the others can hear. Yes.

The questioner : Regarding the hadith

The Shaykh : Yes, exactly.

The questioner : Guidance regarding this hadith from the perspective of weakness and authenticity?

The Shaykh : We have previously discussed this hadith, first in writing in some of the volumes of the series, and we clarified that it has no sound chain of narration that can be used as evidence. So I return to say that the hadith has no chain of narration with the wording "in the image of the Most Merciful" that establishes a proof. I have clarified this in writing and in lectures, and in my opinion, the matter is even more than that, because this hadith, in addition to the weakness of its chain, contradicts the authentic hadith agreed upon by the two Shaykhs in terms of narration, where they narrated it with a sound chain, naturally, with the wording . So this pronoun is clearer in the first narration, which has no sound chain, and at that time, the scientific rules of hadith compel us to reject this addition that specifies the referent of the pronoun.

Another questioner : Peace be upon you.

The Shaykh : And upon you be peace and the mercy of Allah and His blessings. If we know that the authentic hadith is narrated with the wording , and that the first narration, which made explicit the implicit pronoun in the other narration, said , then if we know that the chain of this narration is not sound, then what we know from the science of hadith compels us to say that it is an addition of the word "the Most Merciful" to the authentic, preserved narration which said "in His image." For this reason, the scholars differed, both in the past and in the present, regarding the referent of the pronoun in the authentic narration . And this disagreement, in my opinion, must be resolved after we have come to the narration of Imam al-Bukhari in his Sahih with the wording ... Thus, the authentic narration of al-Bukhari explains and clarifies the other authentic narration, which is his saying (peace and blessings be upon him) . So the referent of the pronoun in "His image" became clear in the narration of Imam al-Bukhari with the wording .