Continuation of the discussion on the ruling regarding the statement of the Ibadiyyah: "We take from al-Rabi' because there is no defect in him, whereas you take from men who have been criticized."

The Shaykh : So, what happened to this knowledge that was confined to the Companions of the Messenger (peace be upon him)? It was scattered as these Companions dispersed to various lands. Who were the ones who connected with these Companions? Give us one of those who claim to be upon the truth and that the people of the Sunnah are upon falsehood. Name for us a man from the Tabi'un, or the generation after the Tabi'un, or from those after them, who traveled through all these lands to collect the hadiths that had become scattered as their bearers, the Companions and the Tabi'un, dispersed. What happened, and what occurred, when the Companions of the Messenger (peace be upon him) dispersed due to the Islamic conquests, was that the turn came for the Tabi'un to collect the knowledge. Some of them were in Madinah, receiving knowledge from the Companions in Madinah. Some were in Makkah, but few of those who traveled from Makkah to Madinah to receive knowledge from the people of Madinah, let alone from other lands like the Levant and others. These Tabi'un, then their followers, and then the turn came for the Imams of Hadith, because the first and most famous of the Imams of Hadith is the Imam of the Sunnah, Ahmad ibn Hanbal (may Allah be pleased with him). The six Imams upon whom most of the hadiths of Islamic creed, Islamic jurisprudence, and Islamic ethics revolve are mostly students of Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal. Imam al-Bukhari had Ahmad among his teachers, Imam Muslim had Ahmad among his teachers, and Imam Abu Dawud had Ahmad among his teachers. So these three of the six had Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal as their teacher. Ahmad ibn Hanbal, regarding the narrators and collectors of hadith among the people of the Sunnah, is almost a byword for his extensive travel through the lands and his collection of the scattered hadiths in the memories of men. Here, we must draw attention to a type of hadith science called the "three-link chain" (al-sand al-thalathi). The three-link chain means that there are three people between the author and the Messenger (peace be upon him). Al-Bukhari has three-link chains in his book. And if al-Bukhari was a student of Imam Ahmad, then without doubt the three-link chains of Imam Ahmad are more numerous, meaning his era is higher and closer to the era of Prophethood and the Message. This Imam, the Imam of the Sunnah, truly is Imam Ahmad. He has his book, as you know, called the Musnad of Imam Ahmad, in six volumes, containing about forty thousand hadiths by the count of repetitions, and about thirty thousand hadiths after removing repetitions. I am thinking that I would like to compare the Musnad of Imam Ahmad with the Musnad of al-Rabi'. How many hadiths are in the Musnad of al-Rabi'? It does not have a thousand hadiths, and if we performed a process of filtering, not even a small fraction of these hadiths would remain that could be relied upon according to the school of the authors of this Musnad. If a man among the scholars of the Muslims, from the people of the Sunnah, has this book, what is the most comprehensive, widest, and most inclusive Musnad among the Ibadi? No, they do not have anything but this Musnad, the Musnad of al-Rabi'. And I am amazed at them; how do they not feel ashamed and hold their heads high boasting with it, when if we conducted a practical study of its hadiths, you would not know if these hadiths were actually narrated by al-Rabi' or by someone else, because in the chains of their narrators, there is a gap of about a century or two before the era of the alleged author, and it contains narrators accused of lying. Yes, and I want to say a word so that the listener is on clear ground: The narrators of the six books are in the thousands, let alone the Musnad of Ahmad, whose narrators are in the thousands. In all these books we have, there is a biography for every narrator. For every narrator, from Ahmad's teacher to the Companion, there is a biography. Bring us your books that give us a biography for every narrator in this—what should we call it? A "musnid," a diminutive, meaning a small collection. Give us a book from the books written after al-Rabi', even if by a hundred years, that gives us a biography of every narrator in that book. There is absolutely nothing of that. And if they want to write biographies for some who are mentioned in some books, those are the books of the people of the Sunnah, our books, and they have nothing of that. What are the books of tafsir they rely on? They have nothing but the tafsir of Ibn Jarir, the tafsir of Ibn Kathir, and the tafsir of al-Baghawi, which are earlier books of the people of the Sunnah. Glory be to Allah, how do they rely on the books of the Sunnah and then deviate from them and oppose them with the strongest enmity, and then boast of us? I quoted this, and by Allah, if I did not trust your words, I would not believe that there are people who understand what they say, who criticize the people of the Sunnah by saying, "What do they do? They take their knowledge from the mouths of men." My brother, we have no way but this way. But happy are those who take from the mouths of men after they study that man: Is he, first, a Muslim? Yes, he is a Muslim. Is he, second, just? Meaning, he is not an open sinner, he is not a wicked person, he tells the truth and does not lie, he is trustworthy and does not betray, and so on. Yes, he is a Muslim and he is just. Is that enough for them? Is he a memorizer who is precise in what he narrates and says? No, this one was a mistake-maker, he had poor memory, so we set him aside, even if he was a man of knowledge and virtue. And we have examples where we and some of the extremists differ because of them, because the science of hadith applies to them. If it were a man, it would apply to him; you do not let anyone take you to task for the sake of Allah. They do not know a major or minor [sin]. They have criticized Muhammad ibn Abd al-Rahman ibn Abi Layla, who is one of the great jurists, and they take his jurisprudence and reject his hadith. This verification does not exist in any of the sects, name whatever you wish other than the people of the Sunnah, the people of hadith, absolutely not. They criticized an Imam of the four Imams of jurisprudence. The four are Abu Hanifa, Malik, al-Shafi'i, and Ahmad. They said, "Abu Hanifa, as Imam al-Shafi'i himself said: 'People are dependent on Abu Hanifa in jurisprudence,' but they are not dependent on him in hadith. Rather, they do not pay any attention to his hadith at all. Rather, they weaken his hadith if he narrates it uniquely without the others." This type of objectivity, as the Companions did exactly, where the father, who was a Muslim, fought his son who was a disbeliever, and the son, who was a Muslim, fought his father who was a disbeliever. Why? Because they did not let anyone take them to task for the sake of Allah. So this knowledge and this history that exists with the people of the Sunnah: all the people of desires and sects need them, and these people are not in need of those at all. And the truth is, I wish I could find someone, whether he is a Shi'i, a Khariji, or an Ibadi, who is fair and objective, so that we can ask him: What sources of knowledge do you have that make you a nation, as they say today, a civilized nation with inherited knowledge passed down from predecessor to successor? They have nothing; they are poor. If they have anything, they take it from the people of the Sunnah. And therefore, I say that what they bring against the people of the Sunnah is returned to them with even greater force, because we said that we never dispense with receiving knowledge by the way that Allah prescribed for us, and He said: There is no revelation after the Messenger of Allah. This is an agreed-upon matter between us and many, many other sects. Since that is the case, we have no way but narration. We naturally differ completely with some of the extremists of the Sufis who meet with these people, and they may exploit this word I quoted, that you take your knowledge from the mouths of men. These Sufi extremists say, "You take knowledge from the dead, but we take knowledge from the living who does not die." It is beautiful poetic speech, but is this correct? Who takes knowledge from the living who does not die? It is those upon whom Satan has seized control, so he inspired them. And as the Lord of the Worlds said: He inspires them to sit in a lit room, but the inspiration does not descend upon you unless you extinguish all the lights. Then this artificial darkness is not enough, but you must close your eyes, and this is also not enough, but you must tuck your head between your knees and sit on your buttocks. Three layers of darkness, one upon the other, waiting for what? For the inspiration to descend upon him. This is what al-Ghazali says, upon whom the masses of the people of the Sunnah today rely. This is his statement at the beginning of the book al-Ihya. We do not say as these people say, and we do not say as is understood from the statement I quoted from those, even though those people are in the same situation as us, with a very large difference between them and us. We have, by the grace of the scholars who preceded us, established scientific rules. We do not take knowledge, we do not receive hadith from any person, but only after we weigh him with the balance, with the straight measure. Imam Muslim narrates in the introduction of his Sahih from Imam Malik, and the meaning of the words of the Imam (may Allah have mercy on him) is: "In Madinah there are men whose supplications we seek blessing, but we do not narrate hadith from them." How much we have read in the book al-Du'afa wa al-Majruhin by Ibn Hibban (may Allah have mercy on him), where he says: "So-and-so was a worshipper and righteous, but his worship occupied him from knowledge, so he narrates denounceable narrations from the trustworthy, he narrates shocking things from the trustworthy," and so on. So he is not used as evidence, even though he is a righteous man by his own admission. Where is this precise distinction? This is a righteous man whose supplication is sought for blessing, one asks for his supplication, but knowledge is not taken from him. This is a jurist from whom you benefit in jurisprudence, but you do not benefit from him in hadith. And this one carries the science of hadith in narration, but he has no knowledge of understanding. This objectivity in the critique of men is only with the people of the Sunnah. A person today counts dozens of books on the biographies of men, in strange and very strange types and shapes. A book dedicated to the six books, a book dedicated to the three books on the reasons for rejection. What are they?
Al-Halabi : The additions of the Four to the Six Books

The Shaykh : For example, the Musnad of Abu Hanifah, the Musnad of al-Shafi'i, the Musnad of Abu Ya'la, and what is the fourth one?
Al-Halabi : The Muwatta of Malik.

The Shaykh : Yes, meaning that each type of book has biographies in a book of another type, biographies in a book, and so on. You will find, for example, the book of al-Jarh wa al-Ta'dil by Imam Abu Hatim al-Razi, which covers all the narrators and is not restricted by a system because he is an early scholar. Likewise, Imam al-Bukhari in his book al-Tarikh al-Kabir, and likewise al-Thiqat wa al-Du'afa by Ibn Hibban, and so on. These types of books do not exist with the Ibadiyyah or with anyone else. So I do not know where they got their knowledge from? If, first of all, they say that knowledge is taken from the mouths of men, then from where? I actually thought, when I heard this doubt, that you meant the Sufis, or that you meant a group of scholars among other groups. But I saw that their situation is like ours, yet the difference between us and them is vast. We have rules, as we mentioned, and they have no rules. And I am now, in brief, challenging any man among those who believe in the validity of calling al-Rabi' al-Musnad al-Sahih to give us a biography for every narrator found in this book, his name, and from their books, not from ours. And I challenge them, and I say: without that, it is as difficult as twisting the thorn of the date palm. It is an Arabic proverb, and you are people of Arabness. I challenge them; there is no way for them without that, it is as difficult as twisting the thorn of the date palm. If they find it, it is in our books. This is al-Rabi' himself, the author of the book. Where is his biography? Where is his vindication? Where is his authentication? Where was he a memorizer and a preserver? Nothing.
Al-Halabi : In the seventh century

The Shaykh : Yes.
Al-Halabi : A discussion arose between me and some of the brothers, and he brought me a book composed in the seventh century

The Shaykh : That is it.
Al-Halabi : In the biography of al-Rabi' from the century...

The Shaykh : Between them are deserts that the necks of camels cannot cross. All right, is there anything else? What Allah willed, it has become nine and a half.
Yes, that is right.

The Shaykh: Go ahead.