It was reported from Ibn Ma'in that if he said a narrator was weak, he was not trustworthy and his hadith was not to be written down. So how does the Hafiz contradict him in *al-Taqrib* by describing him as weak?

The questioner : Here, my Shaykh, it was reported from Ibn Abi Khaythamah that he asked Ibn Ma'in about a narrator who was described as weak, and he said, "If I say he is weak, he is not trustworthy."

The Shaykh : Excuse me, Ma'in, not Mu'in. Ma'in. Yes.

The questioner : I said Mu'in, I did.

The Shaykh : No, I am the one who said it.

The questioner : May Allah reward you. Here, Ibn Abi Khaythamah, a student of Yahya ibn Ma'in, asked him about a narrator who was described as weak. He said, "If I say he is weak, he is not trustworthy and his hadith is not to be written down. And if I say there is no harm in him, he is trustworthy." The question now is: if a biographical entry states that Yahya ibn Ma'in said so-and-so is weak, and we find no other statement about him, yet the Hafiz Ibn Hajar, in many places in *al-Taqrib*, gives him a biography describing him as weak, despite the fact that Ibn Ma'in explicitly stated that he is not trustworthy and his hadith is not to be written down?

The Shaykh : And so, this question, like the previous one, has no issue.

The questioner : Yes, in the case of a solitary report.

The Shaykh : Yes, there is no other statement in the biography of the one about whom Ibn Ma'in said he was weak.

The questioner : No other statement, neither a criticism nor a vindication.

The Shaykh : Here, I think one must observe something: does the biographer who noted this precise observation—where Ibn Ma'in says "weak" meaning severely weak, while the Hafiz Ibn Hajar does not mean by "weak" what Ibn Ma'in means—does the narrator have many narrators from both of these Hafizs, each meaning something different from the other? Are there many or few narrators from him? I want the details. I tell you the details: yes.

The questioner : I do not recall it right now. May Allah reward you.

The Shaykh : I say that if this biographical entry has these two statements that agree in wording but differ in intent, and if this narrator has many narrators, the matter differs for me. Whereas if the narrators from him are few, in the first case, I rely on the word of the Hafiz al-'Asqalani.

The questioner : Apparent and hidden.

The Shaykh : In the other case, no.

The questioner : Yes.

The Shaykh : Yes, indeed.

The questioner : What Allah willed.

The Shaykh : May Allah improve your condition.

The questioner : May Allah bless you.

The Shaykh : May Allah bless you.

The questioner : May Allah reward you with good.

The questioner : And may Allah protect you.