The Danger of Neglecting the Well-Known Rules by Individuals, Even if They Are Scholars, Including What Circulates on the Tongue of Some of Them Regarding the Distinction Between the Methodology of the Early Scholars and the Later Scholars

The questioner : In the days of our studenthood, they would keep talking about the issue of a hadith being good due to external support. They say this is not the view of the early scholars; rather, it is the view of the later scholars. So we wanted a word from you on this matter, especially since we know the words of Imam al-Shafi'i in the chapter of, meaning, citing a mursal report, when it is permissible, and the words of Imam al-Tirmidhi. And they answer by saying al-Shafi'i is a scholar of principles (usul) and al-Tirmidhi is lenient.

The Shaykh: Allahu Akbar.

The questioner : May Allah bless you.

The Shaykh: Allahu Akbar.

The questioner : I mean, that is their answer. They say this scholar said such and such, this one is a scholar of principles, and the second one is lenient. And some scholars say we narrate a hadith in three ways: one for acting upon it, one for knowledge and warning against it, and one for citing it or for consideration. They say they consider it if there is a narration that is authentic or good in itself along with this weak one. So a word from you, if Allah wills.

The Shaykh : Pardon me, how was the last word?

The questioner : They say, for example, if we tell them, for example, al-Daraqutni narrates a lot from some narrators, mentioning them in his books, and says he considers them, and Imam Ahmad said regarding Ibn Lahi'ah, "I only write the hadith to cite it or to consider it," and others mention narrators that they are in three categories regarding consideration. So when that is said to them, they say consideration here means that this weak narrator is supported by a truthful or trustworthy narrator, but a weak narrator supported by another weak narrator is not. These are books, O Shaykh, that I have written on this, and perhaps the brothers have looked at some of them.

The Shaykh : The point, may Allah reward you, is that this novelty, in fact, harms the da'wah in general and the hadith in particular. They want to establish new, modern rules and principles for the science of hadith, and it is enough for them in this that they fall into contradicting the saying of Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He: . So these people contradict the path of the believers. It is absolutely impossible for anyone from the people of Islam—we are not talking about disbelievers—it is impossible for anyone from the people of Islam to bring a new opinion, whether it is a branch or a principle, a rule or a branch of a rule. It is impossible for any of these people to bring something that contradicts the Muslims, because Allah, Mighty and Majestic, threatens these contradictors with what you heard: . Now, it is known in the science of hadith and also in the principles of jurisprudence that a hadith is authentic, good, or weak, and then there are other divisions that we are not currently discussing. So if one of these young hadith scholars today, deluded by their knowledge and truly ignorant, were to say, "We have only authentic and weak, we have no middle hadith, no good hadith," and especially if we do not divide the good like the authentic into good in itself and good due to external support—these divisions, they claim or want to claim that we do not recognize them—the previous verse covers them: they split, they contradicted the path of the believers, so they split from Allah and the Messenger thereby. This is from the perspective of the Shari'ah. From the perspective of reality, there is absolutely no way to contradict these scholars, because any science that passes through centuries and centuries, with scholars succeeding one another in researching it, undoubtedly gains strength and gains support from the later scholars, supporting the earlier ones. So if a person comes wanting to strike down all these efforts, these years, indeed these centuries, this is a foolish man. This is a man like any... if we give a material example, if a foolish man—and this does not exist in material things, I do not know what to say, unfortunately or fortunately, there is no such type—but unfortunately, it exists in the spiritual, in these sacred sciences. This is like a foolish man who is obsessed with innovation and creation, so he wants now to invent a plane that has not been preceded, so he does not look at these huge efforts. And say whatever you want of examples, these are recorders, for example, and this device they call the computer, and so on. He does not give weight to the efforts of those who provided service to this inventor or that one; he only wants to invent a device that precedes all these efforts and services. This would be a madman, this would be a madman. But unfortunately, I say, we do not see this in material things in the human, but we see it, unfortunately, in the sciences, in the spiritual. I say, the reality, after we know from the perspective of the Shari'ah that it is not permissible for a Muslim to contradict the path of the believers in the principles of hadith or the principles of jurisprudence or language or similar, but the reality also refutes them. It is not possible to classify people like this: this one is accepted in his saying and this one is not accepted in his saying, this one is accepted in his saying absolutely and this one is not accepted in his saying absolutely. This classification is not possible. Even if we wanted to make the science of hadith either only authentic or only weak, there must be people of ranks and degrees. For example, a person might be at the extreme of weakness, and this is not cited, in the expression of hadith scholars, but another person is sound, a believer, truthful, wise, intelligent, perceptive, and so on, but because of his preoccupation with one science, his memory in another science is weak. In this case, he is not discarded; if he narrates in another science, he is relied upon and cited. And the hadith scholars have proceeded on this basis. So you, may Allah reward you, are reminding these people: do they want to bring a new term, or do they believe in the established term in the science of hadith? If they declare the first, we wash our hands of them, and it is said, "No, we are with the science of hadith, but the anomalous opinions, as you mentioned about them, that this is a scholar of principles and this is Shafi'i and this is Ahmad, and so on—we ask them now, from the principles, or as they express it in the science of terminology, from the sciences of hadith, the supporting chains and corroborating narrations, and something of this was in your speech. What do they say about supporting chains and corroborating narrations? And the example you quoted from Imam Ahmad regarding Ibn Lahi'ah is what led them to establish this rule, and Imam al-Tirmidhi and Imam al-Bukhari. The student follows Imam al-Bukhari in that he describes some hadiths as good and does not say they are authentic, even though he says in many other hadiths that they are authentic. They say regarding al-Bukhari, "This is al-Bukhari too," and we threw him aside, we cast him to the winds. These people must truly know and be shown the danger of what they are deviating to, and that whoever contradicts the group and deviates, deviates into the Fire. And we only argue with the authentic hadith: . So these people are exposed, especially in this time, to the wolves baring their fangs. As you know, they attack Islam from the enemies of Islam and from the hypocrites who display Islam, in very, very different ways, including fighting the Sunnah by all means and ways. And they may use some Muslims with good hearts to carry out the destruction that these people conceal, but they direct these weak ones, and these weak ones do not feel their treachery!

The questioner : O Shaykh, the proof we always read in your books and hear on the tapes is the argument with the verse from al-Baqarah: .

The Shaykh : Well done.

The questioner : This is entirely in its place.

The Shaykh : Yes, indeed.

The questioner : Weakness in memory with weakness in memory strengthens the testimony and takes the place of one man.

The Shaykh : Yes, that is so.

Another questioner : Your saying, my professor, on the subject of whether they believe in the terminology or not, some of them have a thesis titled "A New Look at the Terminology of the Science of Hadith"!

The Shaykh : The smell has come out, this is what we were afraid of.