When the early scholars agreed to accept a certain hadith

The Shaykh : We say the same: If a hadith comes and the community accepted it without disagreement among them, as specialists in this science, it is not permissible for anyone who comes after them to contradict them and say: This hadith is weak; because in doing so he would have deviated from the path of the believers. The believers agreed on some hadiths and disagreed on others; as for the first category, contradiction is not permissible, rather contradiction is a departure from the path of the believers. Once this is known, there is no way to deny the hadith of the sorcery of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) with such weak reasoning, by applying the verse: to mean that no human being can harm the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) with physical, material harm; because first, this means accusing the community of error in their acceptance of this hadith, and second, it would necessitate rejecting many hadiths, some of which we mentioned earlier; such as the injury to the face of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), and the breaking of his front tooth on the day of Uhud—this is also an authentic hadith; would it be rejected on the basis of: ? The answer is no. The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him and his family), in what concerns his human nature, is fully like other humans, and this is the clear meaning of the Noble Qur'an: . Is that all? No, rather he was distinguished by His saying (Glorified and Exalted is He), quoting his words: to the end of the verse. So in what concerns him (peace be upon him) in his capacity as a human being, he is like other humans; that is: he gets sick, he rejoices, he grieves, he laughs, he smiles, he weeps, and so on.
Therefore, Imam al-Dhahabi (may Allah have mercy on him) mentioned in the biography of some narrators, when they narrated that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) changed in his body after his death, that he denied this in some of their narrations from a rational perspective; he said: This is not befitting to attribute to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family). Al-Dhahabi refuted him by saying that if this narration is authentic, there is nothing in it that contradicts his (peace be upon him) infallibility and his status with his Lord (Blessed and Exalted is He); because he is a human being, so all the rulings of humans apply to him, including that the Jew performed sorcery on him. We should pause a little here regarding this sorcery; many people assume that it affected him (peace be upon him) not only in what concerns his humanity, but also in what concerns his prophethood and his message. We say: Far from that, there is nothing in the hadith that indicates that. Everything in the hadith is only in the narration that he was bewitched until he thought he was doing something but was not doing it. Some people with desires, who like to depart from the community of Muslims with things they assume will make them appear to people as investigators, and that they have preceded all people in an idea that occurred to them, have latched onto this narration. They say: This contradicts his (peace be upon him) infallibility in the aspect of conveying the message, and they build upon this what is said in error and deficiency. We say: There is nothing in this phrase related to this hadith, "he thought he was doing something but was not doing it"; because the intended meaning is that the sorcery affected the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) in his body; such that he wanted to approach his wife as a man approaches his wife, but he found no strength in it. This is called in some Arab countries "murtab" (bound). Do you use this expression?
The audience : Yes.

The Shaykh : "Murtab" means the strength of the Messenger (peace be upon him) collapsed, and he was undoubtedly the strongest of men, and the evidence for that is:
First: his wrestling with Rukanah the first, second, and third time.
And second: what came in "Sahih al-Bukhari" on this occasion from Anas ibn Malik (may Allah be pleased with him) that he said: "We used to discuss that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) was given the strength of thirty men"—the strength of thirty men!—This chosen, strong man was affected by sorcery, so he wanted to approach his family; he was "murtab" and could not approach his family. This is all that happened to the Messenger (peace be upon him); so it was a physical effect, not a mental effect; such that he would perceive a thing other than its reality.
Therefore, I once said to one of my countrymen there in Damascus, when he denied this hadith on the pulpit, and I refuted him with something like what you are hearing from me now, and I told him that there is no extra knowledge in it and a refutation of the doubt from its root. They say: If the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) is said to have been bewitched, we open the door for disbelievers to cast doubt on the religion of Islam; because if we say he was bewitched, the disbeliever will say: Fine; and how do you know that this bewitched man claimed, in his state of being bewitched, that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) revealed to him such a verse, and such a verse, and such a ruling, and such a ruling, and you think that this is from the revelation of the sky, while he is bewitched? So my answer to him was: What do you say about the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family): Is he a human being or not a human being? Of course, he cannot say anything other than that he is a human being. We said this is one point. The second: Is it not permissible for humans, as humans, to lie? He said: Yes.
I said: Then the doubt you raised regarding the fact that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) is a human being who was bewitched applies to a human being who was not bewitched; because humans usually lie. So what is your answer to this doubt if it were raised before you by an atheist or a disbeliever? He said: I would say that he is a human being, but he is infallible. I said: Then that is the answer. Then I continued speaking with him: Do humans forget? He said: Yes. I said: So what do you answer if it is claimed—how do you know that your Prophet was revealed things and then forgot them? Especially since there is in the Qur'an and the Sunnah what confirms this forgetting; such as His saying (Blessed and Exalted is He): ? So the Messenger of Allah forgets, and this is confirmed by the hadith in al-Bukhari that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) entered the mosque one day and heard a reciter reading, so he said: . So the Messenger forgets. So what is your answer, when you cannot deny first that the Messenger, as a human being, can lie? We took the answer from you. Now, as a human being he does not lie, but we believe that he is a human being who does not lie, but he forgets; what is your answer? He said: My answer is that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) preserved him from forgetting anything that was revealed to him, but if he forgets something he conveyed to the people, there is no harm in that; as came in the hadith in al-Bukhari: a surah—excuse me—a verse, .
Then, forgetfulness is confirmed by many incidents that occurred with the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), such as the hadith in the *Sahihayn* from Ibn Mas'ud that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) prayed the midday prayer in five rak'ahs. When he finished the prayer, it was said to him: "O Messenger of Allah, was something added to the prayer?" He said: . They said: "You prayed five rak'ahs." So he prostrated the two prostrations of forgetfulness and then said the closing salam. Then he said: . This is a text that confirms what came in the Qur'an and the previous Sunnah that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), in terms of his forgetfulness, is like a human being, subject to forgetfulness. And as in the story of Dhu al-Yadayn, where the Messenger (peace be upon him) prayed the afternoon prayer in two rak'ahs, and in a narration: that he prayed the midday prayer, but the stronger narration is that it was the afternoon prayer. He prayed it in two rak'ahs and then said the salam. He moved to a side of the mosque and placed his right hand over his left, or one of his legs over the other—thus resting—(peace be upon him). And among the people was a man called "Dhu al-Yadayn"; it seems he was bold, so he said: "O Messenger of Allah, was the prayer shortened?" He said: . He said: "Yes, O Messenger of Allah, you prayed two rak'ahs." So he looked at the people—and among them were the senior Companions, Abu Bakr and 'Umar—and said to them: . They said: "Yes." So he returned to his place, completed the two rak'ahs, and then—also—prostrated the two prostrations of forgetfulness.
And a third story: "He prayed the sunset prayer in two rak'ahs and said the salam, so the people quickly left. It was said to him: 'You prayed two rak'ahs.' So he ordered the iqamah to be called again—the iqamah for the prayer to be called again—then he prayed with them, bowing and prostrating the two prostrations of forgetfulness." All these texts converge to establish the humanity of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) in that he forgets. So what is your answer, O Shaykh, if some disbelievers bring to us the claim that the Prophet, whom you claim is a human and forgets—what do you know? Perhaps he forgot a ruling, or changed or altered it because of forgetfulness? He said: We say that Allah protected him with the protection of prophethood. We said: So, here is the summary—Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) is a human, and although humans usually can lie, he does not lie; because he is protected from lying by the consensus of the Muslim community. Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) is a human who forgets as humans forget, as you heard explicitly in the hadith of Ibn Mas'ud. But Allah, nevertheless, preserved him from forgetting a legal ruling that he would not convey to his community. Likewise, Muhammad is a human who was subjected to sorcery, and Allah (Mighty and Majestic) preserved him, just as He preserved him as an absolute human, and preserved him as a human who forgets. So likewise, Allah (Mighty and Majestic) preserves him by the same principle by which we refuted the first and second possibilities. So we refute your third possibility, which comes from you—unfortunately!—and not from the disbelievers or polytheists. With this, the answer regarding the hadith of the sorcery of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) is complete.
Please.