What is your opinion of those who say that dividing the Sunnah into authentic and weak, and shortening its chains of narration, destroys the scholarly aptitude and the study of chains of narration among students of knowledge?

The questioner : What is your opinion, O Shaykh, of those who say that the current methodology of separating the books of Sunnah into authentic and weak destroys the scholarly aptitude of students of knowledge in research and the study of chains of narration?

The Shaykh : My brother, we have heard this objection.

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : This objection would be valid if it were to eliminate the principles. However, the principles are preserved, praise be to Allah. Furthermore, shortening brings the distant closer to the general public. In reality, this achieves two benefits: the benefit for the general people, which is the shortening, and the first and other benefit is that the books of Sunnah remain as they are so that scholars and students of knowledge can circulate them and study their chains of narration. But what is the proportion of those who benefit from the chains of narration of the six books, let alone others, compared to Muslims in general? Very few, meaning one or two in a million. This justifies for us, legally, not to make it easy for the general Muslims to access the knowledge of the authentic from the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). No. Therefore, when I started about forty years ago with the project I called "Bringing the Sunnah Closer to the Ummah," and I began with the Sunan of Abu Dawud, the matter was in my mind: should I authenticate the Sunan and publish it, distinguishing the authentic from the weak, or should I separate the authentic from the weak? The second opinion prevailed over me because of what I mentioned earlier, that this is more beneficial for the general Muslims. Nevertheless, I took care of the first aspect even in this project. I placed the text of the hadith at the top and the chain of narration at the bottom, and I discussed it and spoke about its narrators, clarifying what is authentic and what is not. So, if I divide the book into two sections: "The Authentic of Abu Dawud," containing the chains and texts, and "The Weak of Abu Dawud," containing the chains and texts, what harm is there in that?

The questioner : May Allah reward you.

The Shaykh : May Allah bless you.

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