Continuation of the Shaykh's remarks on the Prayer of Tasbih.

The Shaykh : ... So this criticism causes no harm whatsoever. It is obligatory for every hadith scholar who engages in the critique of hadiths that his critique of them be from the perspective of their chains of narration, not from the perspective of their texts. However, if a hadith is not established from the perspective of its chain of narration, then the critic, if he has logic, may turn to critiquing the text as well, in which case the hadith becomes weak in its chain and denounceable in its text. Beware, you and others, of being deceived by what is stated in the introduction of Ibn al-Salah and other books of terminology that a hadith's chain may be authentic while its text is not authentic. Beware, and beware again, because this statement, in its absolute form, is not correct in reality. It must be patched up by interpreting it so that the statement becomes sound, and that is by meaning that its chain is authentic, disregarding some of the conditions of an authentic chain, among which is that it not be anomalous or defective. The chain may be one in which so-and-so said, "Its chain is authentic," and he is excused for it because the defect was not apparent to him. And the defect, as you may know, if Allah wills, is divided into two categories: an obvious defect and a hidden defect. The second type is the one that is hidden from many scholars, let alone others. So if one of them says, "The chain of the hadith may be authentic," then with this interpretation, is it a chain that is authentic and free from any defect, while the text is denounceable and weak? This does not exist in the world. If you know this reality, then as I said earlier, the critic should turn to the hadith by critiquing the chain. If the chain is sound, the text is sound; otherwise, we open the door for people who claim that Islam is nothing but the Qur'an. This is because they found many hadiths that are not authentic, especially when they opened the door to critiquing the texts, which some contemporary imitators of the disbelieving Orientalists call "internal criticism." They call the critique of the text "internal criticism." When they expanded this critique, very little of the hadith remained sound for them. Therefore, they also turned away from this little and were content with the Qur'an, so they exited Islam in the name of the Qur'an. In summary, the hadith of the Prayer of Tasbih does not fall below the rank of hasan (good), and in my view, it is authentic (sahih) in the aggregate of its routes. It is sufficient for the student of knowledge to know that one of the Imams of the Salaf, Abdullah ibn al-Mubarak, the Imam of the Imam of the Sunnah, Imam Ahmad, used to perform this prayer that those people who critique its text want to call an anomalous or denounceable hadith. A hadith like this, which has come through many routes, some of which contain only slight weakness that is strengthened by the others, and that Imam acted upon it. So do not be deceived by what is transmitted of the words of some of the Imams of Islam in weakening their chains or in judging the chain as denounceable. This is what I have.