Do the errors of Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani in creed take him outside the circle of the people of the Sunnah and the community?

The Shaykh : Who has a question now? Please, go ahead.

The questioner : Our Shaykh, you mentioned that the correct methodology is found in the Qur'an and the Sunnah, and the rules of this methodology are, of course, known to us: understanding the Book and the Sunnah as the Companions understood them, and so on. We all know that you have exerted your effort in establishing the rules of this methodology. It is not I who testify to this, nor anyone else, but *al-Silsilah al-Sahihah* (The Authentic Chain), *al-Silsilah al-Da'ifah* (The Weak Chain), *Irwa' al-Ghalil*, and other books whose aim was to purify the religion from the impurities attached to it, such as religious innovations, wrongdoings, and weak or denounced hadiths. So, my question, Shaykh, is this: taking the Imam Ibn Hajar as an example, in his book *Fath al-Bari*, which is a commentary on the hadiths of *Sahih al-Bukhari*, he had some slips in the field of creed, and Shaykh 'Abd al-'Aziz ibn Baz pointed them out in his annotations. So, my question is: do these slips of his, where he failed to understand the Companions' understanding, mean that he is outside the methodology? Or do his slips in belief negate that he is upon the correct methodology? This is my question, Shaykh.

The Shaykh : If we all remember that every son of Adam makes mistakes, and that the best of those who make mistakes are the repentant, and that infallibility is not for anyone after the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), then there is nothing strange about a leader in the call to the truth making a mistake. If he errs in one issue, or two, or three, or more, that does not take him out of the call to the truth, provided he upholds it. Al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar is like the Imam al-Nawawi and others who erred in some creedal issues, as they say today. That does not take them out of being among the people of the Sunnah and the community, because the criterion is what predominates in a person: correct thought or righteous action. When is a Muslim considered righteous? Is it a condition for being righteous that he commits no sin or disobedience at all? The answer is no. It is the nature of man to commit sins and disobedience repeatedly. So when is a servant considered righteous? When his good predominates over his evil, and his righteousness over his misguidance. The same is said exactly about scholarly issues, whether they are creedal or jurisprudential. If this scholar is predominated by correct knowledge, he is the one who succeeds. But if he has a slip or slips in jurisprudence or creed, that does not take him out of what predominates in him, which is correct creed. So, the fact that I mentioned those slips of Ibn Hajar does not mean that we should not benefit from his book, or that we should not pray for his mercy, or that we should not include him among the scholars of the Muslims who hold fast to the Book and the Sunnah. Every person makes mistakes, and there is no escape from error, for Allah (Mighty and Majestic), when He created the angels and created humans, decreed that these humans would make mistakes, despite their noses, as he (peace and blessings be upon him) said. There are two very important hadiths, but beware of understanding them wrongly. The first hadith: he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: The point of this hadith is meaning it is not possible for... Why? Because he is a human, not an angel.