Does an mursal hadith gain strength through the scholars' acceptance of it?

The questioner : Regarding the mursal, naturally, the transition... I don't know, a constant transition? First, yes. Regarding the mursal hadith, O Shaykh, is it possible, I mean, for it to be strengthened by the scholars' acceptance of it or by the scholars' acting upon it?

The Shaykh : If there is no disagreement, yes. If there is no disagreement regarding the issue contained in the mursal hadith, then it is so.

The questioner : May Allah reward you with good.

The Shaykh : And upon this, any other hadith is measured. In another evening session we held with some of our new brothers, one of our brothers from among the Saudi students of knowledge was present in the gathering, and he appeared to be well-cultured. He directed the following question to me: "You mentioned in the description of prayer, in the chapter or section on the tashahhud, that the sunnah in the tashahhud is to keep it silent, and the hadith that you cited and extracted in the footnote has Abu Ishaq al-Sabi'i in its chain, and as you know, he is a tadlis narrator. He says that he reviewed the sources to which you attributed the hadith and did not find in any of them an explicit statement of narration from him. Therefore, on this basis, the hadith is defective due to the 'an'anah of the tadlis narrator, and consequently the hadith is weak. How did you mention it in the description of prayer and transmit it? He says: 'I transmitted from al-Hakim that he authenticated it, and al-Dhahabi agreed with him.' I told him, and this is in fact one of the subtleties of knowledge related to the art of takhrij, authentication, and weakening, which is unknown to— if I say 'most,' I will not be lying, and if I say 'all,' I may not be far from the truth—unknown to most or all students of knowledge who have focused in this era on takhrij, and not only on takhrij, but also on authentication and weakening. They assume that authentication and weakening rely solely on the science of hadith, hadith terminology, and biographies of hadith narrators. Meanwhile, this science is related in many of its aspects to fiqh, the understanding of legal rulings. I said this in that session and I repeat it in this session. I continued speaking with him and said to him: 'Suppose now that this hadith does not exist at all in the books of Sunnah. The hadith states the concealment of the tashahhud. What would be our practical position? Do we recite the tashahhud aloud or do we keep it silent?' He said, and as I mentioned earlier, he has some knowledge and fiqh: 'We keep it silent.' I said: 'Where did we take this ruling from? We assumed that we do not have the hadith of Abu Ishaq al-Sabi'i. Where did we take this fiqh or this ruling from?' Naturally, I continued my speech saying: 'We took it from the practice of the Muslims, the ongoing practice of the Muslims, the Khalaf following the Salaf. So this is a strong corroborating evidence (shahid) upon which the practitioners of the Muslims, the Khalaf and the Salaf, have acted, testifying to the authenticity of the hadith of Abu Ishaq al-Sabi'i. So when I extracted it and transmitted al-Hakim's authentication of it and al-Dhahabi's approval of it, and I approved it, or approved both of them, it is because I am assured in the depths of my heart and soul that this hadith is authentic, even if it had that defect. And the same is said regarding the mursal hadith or other hadiths that have a defect preventing the ruling of authenticity or goodness from a hadith perspective, but they may be strengthened by a fiqh aspect. And as they say, one thing reminds one of another, due to the masses' negligence of this aspect, you find sometimes a discrepancy in authentication and weakening among some scholars, whether they are early or modern. From the examples suitable to mention now is the hadith that some extremists regarding women, who obligatorily require them to cover the face and do not settle for merely stating the recommendation of covering, rush to weaken the hadith narrated by Abu Dawud with a defective chain, namely his saying (peace and blessings be upon him): All these people who go to the obligation of a woman covering her face agree to weaken this hadith. And when they weaken it, they weaken it by stopping at the chain of the hadith in Sunan Abu Dawud, and they mention that there is a disconnection or mursal status between Khalid, yes, and who is the narrator of the hadith?

Another questioner: Aisha.

The Shaykh : Aisha, and another defect is Sa'id ibn Bashir. They mention these two defects and proceed. So the hadith is weak, and then they ignore some scientific facts, some hadith-related and some precise fiqh-related, having to do with the fiqh mentioned earlier. As for the hadith aspect, it relates to two matters. The first aspect is that this hadith has a shahid from the hadith of Asma bint Umayyad. It is true that in the chain of this shahid is Abdullah ibn Lahi'ah, who is known to be weak due to his poor memory, but this does not prevent the scholar from citing it as evidence. They ignore citing evidence like the hadith of Ibn Lahi'ah and settle for saying that it is weak and the matter is ended. As for remembering that a weak plus a weak equals a strong—this rule mentioned in terminology, which I sometimes allude to by quoting the poet: 'Do not fight my heart with your eyes, for two weak ones overcome a strong one'—they ignore this fact and say Ibn Lahi'ah is weak, but a weak plus a weak does not equal a strong weakness, it does not equal goodness. This is one point. The other is that they ignore that Sa'id ibn Bashir, who narrated the hadith with the disconnection mentioned earlier, was followed by a trustworthy man who narrated it from his sheikh Qatadah, saying: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said, and he mentioned the hadith. If we were to overlook the two previous hadiths mentioned and stop at the mursal hadith of Qatadah, we would say this is a mursal hadith with a sound chain. Have we reached your question? Does this mursal hadith gain strength from other matters, including the hadith of Sa'id ibn Bashir which he narrated as musnad? Yes, we do not argue with the hadith of Ibn Lahi'ah which he narrated as musnad from another path. Finally, there are other supports, which is that the interpreter of the Qur'an, Abdullah ibn Abbas, and the most ascetic and most worshipful of the Companions, Abdullah ibn Umar ibn al-Khattab, both said that the face of a woman is not an 'awrah. They overlooked all these issues and the ongoing practice of the Muslims. And this is the last word said regarding the permissibility of uncovering, even from some of the Hanbali scholars, and at their head—may peace and the mercy and blessings of Allah be upon you—is Ibn Muflih the Hanbali, to whom Ibn Taymiyyah (may Allah have mercy on him) gave a very great testimony. He said: 'You, Muflih.' He was asked about the face of a woman when she goes out in the road, is it permissible for her to go out uncovered? He mentioned the disagreement among the scholars of the Muslims and said that it is permissible. And I mentioned this in detail in the introduction to The Muslim Woman's Jilbab. So my point is: if we stop at the narration of Abu Dawud only, it remains weak. But if we look at those shahids and the fatwas of some of the great Companions, without knowing any contradictor to them, and then the continuation of the practice of the Muslims, especially in Hajj, on this ruling, all of this makes the researcher certain of the authenticity of his saying (peace and blessings be upon him): And it is amazing that Imam al-Shafi'i explicitly stated that if a mursal hadith comes as musnad from another path, even if it is weak, the mursal hadith rises to the level of a proof. They also neglected this. The point I want to make is that the science of hadith cannot do without the science of fiqh, just as the science of fiqh cannot do without the science of hadith; rather, they are two brothers who cooperate.