Is it permissible for a later scholar to rule that a narrator is a practitioner of tadlis when the earlier scholars did not precede him in doing so?

The questioner : Here is a question. Some of our contemporaries have written a book on tadlis, and I saw him describing some narrators as practitioners of tadlis, although none of the Imams had preceded him in doing so. The question is: Is it permissible for a later scholar to rule that a narrator is a practitioner of tadlis when the earlier scholars did not precede him in doing so? This is by examining his narrations, where he sees that in one narration he used the abbreviation (ina'ah), and in another he explicitly stated hearing from him, while mentioning a weak intermediary. Is it permissible for a later scholar to rule that he is a practitioner of tadlis in such a case, and what has preceded him in this?

The Shaykh : I say, to begin with, how can he rule on tadlis? The preceding Imams who reached the ruling that some narrators are practitioners of tadlis undoubtedly examined the hadiths of these narrators and were able to issue the ruling of tadlis against them. Does this later scholar have the ability, comprehensive knowledge, and memory to gather the largest possible quantity of this narrator's hadith so that he can apply the term tadlis to him? I believe he does not. Therefore, it is not permissible for him to do this.

The questioner : So, O our Shaykh, even in merely establishing tadlis, let alone mentioning that he is a frequent practitioner of tadlis and placing him in the ranks where his use of the abbreviation is suspended because of that.

The Shaykh : No, this is absolutely impossible. The contemporaries have no standing in hadith except as the jurists have over the jurists in the later eras: they must not establish new rules or original rulings on their own. Rather, they must rely on the rules established by the scholars of usul al-fiqh (principles of jurisprudence). Likewise, the followers of hadith and those who extract hadiths are not permitted to establish defects in some narrators on their own, which they have not preceded in doing.

The questioner : Yes.

The Shaykh : And this example is the one you asked about.

The questioner : And this reminds us, O our Shaykh, of what was mentioned in the biography of Baqiyyah, where Ibn Hibban said: "I entered Homs, and my main concern was to know the status of Baqiyyah. So I tracked his hadith, both high and low, as in the original sources, and I did this and that, and it became clear to me from where the man was affected. I knew that he narrates anomalies from weak narrators and narrates anomalies from trustworthy narrators. So I knew from where he was affected, namely from tadlis."

The Shaykh : Yes, indeed.

The questioner : So this gathering of high and rare narrations and the original sources.

The Shaykh : We can absolutely never do that.

The questioner : And all his colleagues regarding the sameThe Shaykh : and the hadith from above and below. This is what is possible for the later scholar.

The Shaykh : You are right.

The questioner : Until he writes that this one is a practitioner of tadlis, let alone making him a reporter or famous for tadlis.

The Shaykh : Allah is the Greatest, Allah is the Greatest. Whoever knows himself has known his Lord. Even if some of them are ignorant, they did not know their ignorance and thought that they were among the people of knowledge. Allah is the Greatest.

The questioner : And this very matter, O our Shaykh, was discussed by al-Hafiz in the biography of Ja'far ibn Musafir in Tahdhib al-Tahdhib.

The Shaykh: Yes.

The questioner : He quoted words like this and did not rule on tadlis due to the lack of explicit statement by al-Hafiz, due to the lack of explicit statement by the earlier scholars regarding knowledge.The Shaykh : What Allah willed.The questioner : Al-Hafiz himself explicitly stated that although the earlier scholars said he was a practitioner of tadlis, despite the fact that he came across a narration with the abbreviation and another with the intermediary who is weak, and yet he said that the earlier scholars did not say that, so he remained silent about ruling on tadlis.

The Shaykh : A beautiful thing. Name Ja'far ibn Musafir.

The questioner : It is found in al-Tahdhib, volume two, page one hundred and seven.

The Shaykh : Well known, yes.

The questioner : There is no doubt in his action where he says: "And very, very often, I did not see the earlier scholars do this affirmation."

The Shaykh: Allahu Akbar.

The questioner : Meaning my trust in them.

The Shaykh : This is despite the closeness of the era. The closeness of the era, and a thousand years between us and them.