What is the meaning of tadlis? Who is a muddallis? And who are the most famous muddalisin?
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The questioner : Praise be to Allah, and may peace and blessings be upon the Messenger of Allah. O Allah, bless his life and his time. What is the meaning of tadlis? Who is a muddallis? What are the types of tadlis? And who are the most famous muddalisin?
The Shaykh : Tadlis in the science of hadith is when a person narrates from a narrator who appears to be his shaykh, but he narrates from him what he did not hear directly from him. If there is a narrator who has a shaykh known for narrating from him, but he did not hear some of the hadiths directly from him, rather he heard them through an intermediary between him and his shaykh, and then he narrates a hadith from these hadiths from him, he does not say in his narration from him—as is his custom—“My shaykh so-and-so narrated to me,” but rather he says, “So-and-so said,” or “I narrated from so-and-so.” He uses a phrase that leads the listener to believe that he received the hadith from him—as is his custom—by hearing it from him, but in reality, he did not hear it from him. He does not want to inform the listeners that this hadith is not like the hadiths I narrate from him by hearing, but rather I narrated it through an intermediary. He does not want to clarify this fact to people for one reason or another. I will try to mention some of these reasons.
For this purpose, he avoids explicitly stating the narration (tahdith); because if he explicitly stated the narration and he did not hear it from him, he would be lying. He knows that lying is forbidden, and that if he lied, he would be among the liars. He does not lie, and he fears Allah, but he uses a phrase that leads the listeners to believe that he heard the hadith from his shaykh, whereas in reality, he did not hear it. Therefore, the scholars of hadith called it tadlis, because it involves the illusion of hearing when he did not hear. This tadlis is one type of tadlis, and it is called tadlis al-isnad (concealment in the chain). There are many reasons that drive some muddalisin to this type of tadlis: for example, his shaykh might be younger than him in age, so he does not like to narrate from someone younger than him in age. This is a purely formal matter; but he does not intend what the second type of muddalisin intends. Or he does not narrate from a person whose name he does not explicitly state for political reasons, for example. His shaykh might be one of the people the state is monitoring in that era, and it is trying to arrest him. He does not want to say, “So-and-so narrated to me,” because the state might come to him and ask where he met so-and-so? And where did he meet with so-and-so? He would then fall into a political problem; so he wants to avoid it and does not name his shaykh for this reason. These are some of the examples that some muddalisin resort to in order to drop the intermediary between him and his shaykh, from whom he is accustomed to narrating by hearing.
As for the second type of reasons for tadlis, it is very ugly, and if it is established about someone, his integrity (adalah) is dropped; for example, if he dropsThe Shaykh : because he knows that he is weak and his hadith is not relied upon, so he dropsThe Shaykh : the weak narrator between him and his shaykh’s shaykh to make the chain appear free from weakness. This is, without a doubt, as you see with very clear vision, a malicious tadlis; because it presents a weak chain in the appearance of a sound chain, and it contains a betrayal in the performance of the scholarly trust that a Muslim must not fall into. This type of tadlis is called—as we said—tadlis al-isnad.
There is another type, which in its appearance is more wicked than the first; because it is more hidden from it, but—also—the reasons we mentioned earlier apply to it, and we mentioned some of them. This muddallis is dealt with by the same reasons, whether they are permissible or forbidden. This tadlis is called tadlis al-taswiya (concealment by leveling), and that is when the narrator from among the narrators of hadith does not dropThe Shaykh : the one between him and his shaykh, so he might say, “So-and-so narrated to me,” but he drops his shaykh’s shaykh from above. It appears to the narrator or the listener of this chain that the chain is free from any defect; because this muddallis explicitly stated the narration from his shaykh, but it does not occur to the listener or the narrator of the chain that the tadlis is from above his shaykh.
The scholars of terminology mentioned an example of this: al-Walid ibn Muslim was a narrator from al-Awza'i, the imam of the people of Sham in his time. Al-Awza'i used to narrate, among what he narrated, from some of his shaykhs who were abandoned (matruk), and his name was Yusuf ibn—I forgot ibn whom now!—So al-Walid ibn Muslim, when he narrated from al-Awza'i, would drop al-Awza'i’s shaykh, and say, for example, “Al-Awza'i narrated to me from so-and-so,” meaning: al-Awza'i’s shaykh’s shaykh whose name is Yusuf. Some of the hadith scholars noticed this and asked him about it: How do you do this and drop this accused, abandoned man? He said—look now how people’s opinions differ and fluctuate completely—he said: “I revere Imam al-Awza'i that he would narrate from an abandoned man like this Yusuf.” The discerning critic said to him: “You revere Imam al-Awza'i from something he did, narrating from this abandoned man, then you do not care that a very weak hadith appears in the appearance of a sound hadith just to elevate the status of Imam al-Awza'i that he narrates from this abandoned man, and he did narrate?” So the story ended here, and it clarifies that tadlis al-taswiya is more wicked than tadlis al-isnad; because it drops from above, where it usually does not occur to the mind that tadlis and dropping a man is only between the narrator and his shaykh directly, whereas there is this type of tadlis of shaykhs; therefore, this type of tadlis, if the narrator is narrating a hadith that hadith scholars require to have a continuous chain by hearing or narration in every layer and every degree, from the narrator accused of tadlis to the Companion who narrated the hadith from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) by hearing from him, this is a second type of the types of tadlis.
And there is a third type, which is called “tadlis al-shuyukh” (concealment of shaykhs), it isThe Shaykh : famous among hadith scholars by his name, so the muddallis comes and uses his kunya (nickname) and does not name him by his name, to obscure his status from people, or he is famous by his kunya, so he names him by his name which he is not famous by, all of this to obscure his status, and the reasons we mentioned previously—also—apply here, so we should not imagine that merely because we hear about a person named Zayd that he is a muddallis, we should say: I seek refuge in Allah!! How can this man commit tadlis? Because tadlis—as we mentioned—may be for a matter that does not touch the integrity of the muddallis.
Among the most famous muddalisin from the Tabi'un is al-Hasan al-Basri, and he is one of the great scholars and ascetics of the Tabi'un; so if we see in the books of al-jarh wa al-ta'dil that al-Hasan al-Basri is a muddallis, does his tadlis drop his integrity? The answer: Nothing of that, except if it is established—and may he be far from this being established about al-Hasan al-Basri—that he used to narrate from someone he met what he did not hear from him to show the soundness of the chain, and the one he dropped was weak in his view. And the closest view—as some contemporary authors say—is that al-Hasan al-Basri lived in the time of conflict between some states, like the Abbasids with the Umayyads; so there were political enmities, and he used to narrate from some trustworthy people who had a specific stance toward some rulers, so he would drop them so as not to be held accountable for narrating from them, and he did not do that to hide the weakness of the one he dropped.
This is what can be mentioned in answer to the question about tadlis and its types.
Please proceed.
The Shaykh : Tadlis in the science of hadith is when a person narrates from a narrator who appears to be his shaykh, but he narrates from him what he did not hear directly from him. If there is a narrator who has a shaykh known for narrating from him, but he did not hear some of the hadiths directly from him, rather he heard them through an intermediary between him and his shaykh, and then he narrates a hadith from these hadiths from him, he does not say in his narration from him—as is his custom—“My shaykh so-and-so narrated to me,” but rather he says, “So-and-so said,” or “I narrated from so-and-so.” He uses a phrase that leads the listener to believe that he received the hadith from him—as is his custom—by hearing it from him, but in reality, he did not hear it from him. He does not want to inform the listeners that this hadith is not like the hadiths I narrate from him by hearing, but rather I narrated it through an intermediary. He does not want to clarify this fact to people for one reason or another. I will try to mention some of these reasons.
For this purpose, he avoids explicitly stating the narration (tahdith); because if he explicitly stated the narration and he did not hear it from him, he would be lying. He knows that lying is forbidden, and that if he lied, he would be among the liars. He does not lie, and he fears Allah, but he uses a phrase that leads the listeners to believe that he heard the hadith from his shaykh, whereas in reality, he did not hear it. Therefore, the scholars of hadith called it tadlis, because it involves the illusion of hearing when he did not hear. This tadlis is one type of tadlis, and it is called tadlis al-isnad (concealment in the chain). There are many reasons that drive some muddalisin to this type of tadlis: for example, his shaykh might be younger than him in age, so he does not like to narrate from someone younger than him in age. This is a purely formal matter; but he does not intend what the second type of muddalisin intends. Or he does not narrate from a person whose name he does not explicitly state for political reasons, for example. His shaykh might be one of the people the state is monitoring in that era, and it is trying to arrest him. He does not want to say, “So-and-so narrated to me,” because the state might come to him and ask where he met so-and-so? And where did he meet with so-and-so? He would then fall into a political problem; so he wants to avoid it and does not name his shaykh for this reason. These are some of the examples that some muddalisin resort to in order to drop the intermediary between him and his shaykh, from whom he is accustomed to narrating by hearing.
As for the second type of reasons for tadlis, it is very ugly, and if it is established about someone, his integrity (adalah) is dropped; for example, if he dropsThe Shaykh : because he knows that he is weak and his hadith is not relied upon, so he dropsThe Shaykh : the weak narrator between him and his shaykh’s shaykh to make the chain appear free from weakness. This is, without a doubt, as you see with very clear vision, a malicious tadlis; because it presents a weak chain in the appearance of a sound chain, and it contains a betrayal in the performance of the scholarly trust that a Muslim must not fall into. This type of tadlis is called—as we said—tadlis al-isnad.
There is another type, which in its appearance is more wicked than the first; because it is more hidden from it, but—also—the reasons we mentioned earlier apply to it, and we mentioned some of them. This muddallis is dealt with by the same reasons, whether they are permissible or forbidden. This tadlis is called tadlis al-taswiya (concealment by leveling), and that is when the narrator from among the narrators of hadith does not dropThe Shaykh : the one between him and his shaykh, so he might say, “So-and-so narrated to me,” but he drops his shaykh’s shaykh from above. It appears to the narrator or the listener of this chain that the chain is free from any defect; because this muddallis explicitly stated the narration from his shaykh, but it does not occur to the listener or the narrator of the chain that the tadlis is from above his shaykh.
The scholars of terminology mentioned an example of this: al-Walid ibn Muslim was a narrator from al-Awza'i, the imam of the people of Sham in his time. Al-Awza'i used to narrate, among what he narrated, from some of his shaykhs who were abandoned (matruk), and his name was Yusuf ibn—I forgot ibn whom now!—So al-Walid ibn Muslim, when he narrated from al-Awza'i, would drop al-Awza'i’s shaykh, and say, for example, “Al-Awza'i narrated to me from so-and-so,” meaning: al-Awza'i’s shaykh’s shaykh whose name is Yusuf. Some of the hadith scholars noticed this and asked him about it: How do you do this and drop this accused, abandoned man? He said—look now how people’s opinions differ and fluctuate completely—he said: “I revere Imam al-Awza'i that he would narrate from an abandoned man like this Yusuf.” The discerning critic said to him: “You revere Imam al-Awza'i from something he did, narrating from this abandoned man, then you do not care that a very weak hadith appears in the appearance of a sound hadith just to elevate the status of Imam al-Awza'i that he narrates from this abandoned man, and he did narrate?” So the story ended here, and it clarifies that tadlis al-taswiya is more wicked than tadlis al-isnad; because it drops from above, where it usually does not occur to the mind that tadlis and dropping a man is only between the narrator and his shaykh directly, whereas there is this type of tadlis of shaykhs; therefore, this type of tadlis, if the narrator is narrating a hadith that hadith scholars require to have a continuous chain by hearing or narration in every layer and every degree, from the narrator accused of tadlis to the Companion who narrated the hadith from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) by hearing from him, this is a second type of the types of tadlis.
And there is a third type, which is called “tadlis al-shuyukh” (concealment of shaykhs), it isThe Shaykh : famous among hadith scholars by his name, so the muddallis comes and uses his kunya (nickname) and does not name him by his name, to obscure his status from people, or he is famous by his kunya, so he names him by his name which he is not famous by, all of this to obscure his status, and the reasons we mentioned previously—also—apply here, so we should not imagine that merely because we hear about a person named Zayd that he is a muddallis, we should say: I seek refuge in Allah!! How can this man commit tadlis? Because tadlis—as we mentioned—may be for a matter that does not touch the integrity of the muddallis.
Among the most famous muddalisin from the Tabi'un is al-Hasan al-Basri, and he is one of the great scholars and ascetics of the Tabi'un; so if we see in the books of al-jarh wa al-ta'dil that al-Hasan al-Basri is a muddallis, does his tadlis drop his integrity? The answer: Nothing of that, except if it is established—and may he be far from this being established about al-Hasan al-Basri—that he used to narrate from someone he met what he did not hear from him to show the soundness of the chain, and the one he dropped was weak in his view. And the closest view—as some contemporary authors say—is that al-Hasan al-Basri lived in the time of conflict between some states, like the Abbasids with the Umayyads; so there were political enmities, and he used to narrate from some trustworthy people who had a specific stance toward some rulers, so he would drop them so as not to be held accountable for narrating from them, and he did not do that to hide the weakness of the one he dropped.
This is what can be mentioned in answer to the question about tadlis and its types.
Please proceed.
Source
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