When is the publisher of a hadith permitted to rely on his assessment of it regarding the search for its chains?

The questioner : Shaykh, may Allah bless you, regarding the Prophetic hadith, when is the publisher of the hadith, or the one who wishes to publish the hadith with its chains, permitted to say, "This is weak," and be content with that, without searching the remaining sources to see if there are other chains or not?

The Shaykh : If the publisher intends to base a legal ruling on the hadith, and he has identified its weak chain, then built the legal ruling upon it without exerting his effort to trace whether it has other chains or corroborating narrations, then this is not permissible. However, if he is merely indicating the state of the chain before him, and he finds that the chain is weak, but he does not declare the hadith weak, rather he declares the chain weak, then there is no harm in that. For this reason, the scholars of hadith stated in the terminology that it is not permissible for one who encounters a hadith with a weak chain to say, "The hadith is weak," but rather he should say, "Its chain is weak," due to the possibility that there may be something that strengthens it. But if a man is knowledgeable about hadith and the chains of hadith, and he has exerted his effort and traced its chains, and he did not find in them anything that strengthens the hadith, despite the possibility that something may have escaped him, then in this case, if he says, "The hadith is weak," it is permissible. That is after exerting the effort in tracing the chains of the hadith. As for the first case, it is not permissible for him to say anything other than, "Its chain is weak."

The questioner : May Allah reward you with good.