What is the Shaykh's opinion of those who say that some of the hadiths of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) are his personal opinions and not from the revelation, such as the hadiths of medicine?

The questioner : My teacher, some scholarly opinions have begun to lean toward considering some of the hadiths of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) to be personal speech rather than revelation, thinking that this removes the difficulty and negates the objection. What does our Shaykh say about the hadiths of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) regarding medicine?

The Shaykh : My belief, my brother, and this is the belief of every Muslim who testifies that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, is that the original ruling regarding everything that comes out of the mouth of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) is that it is truth. I did not say it is revelation, to include it in my first statement that it is truth, regarding opinions that may issue from him through independent legal reasoning and opinion, which are then approved by him and thus become truth. Unfortunately, the majority of religious intellectuals, let alone those other than them and those below them, do not treat the hadiths of the Messenger (peace be upon him) that fall into the category of the hadiths I referred to earlier, which are related to prophetic medicine, in the same way they treat the statements of the jurists who exercise independent legal reasoning. How do they treat the statements of the jurists who exercise independent legal reasoning? They submit to them and make them a continuing Shari'ah, and they strongly deny anyone who may contradict them, even if the argument is, in reality, stronger than the argument of that imam who held that opinion. So many of those intellectuals do not treat the hadiths of the Messenger of this type by saying, "This issued from the Messenger, even if it was through his independent legal reasoning; we must adopt it because we adopt the opinions of the scholars, and he is the master of scholars first." Then, secondly, there is a great difference between this master, who has no equal, and those scholars. The statements of those scholars, without exception, carry a reward of one if they erred and two if they were correct. But the statements of the Messenger (peace be upon him) are all with multiplied rewards, and I do not say two. Why? Because if the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) exercised independent legal reasoning and erred, as some examples in the prophetic biography and even in the Qur'anic verses indicate, such as the saying of Allah the Exalted: , then if he erred, peace be upon him, he is not like the other scholars of Islam. He is not approved in his error, whereas the other scholars, and by Allah, we do not know if they were correct or erred, but we entrust their matter to Allah: if they were correct, they have two rewards, and if they erred, they have one reward. But the Messenger (peace be upon him) is different, without doubt, by the consensus of the scholars of Muslims, that he is not approved in error. Because, as is known from the principles of jurisprudence, the Sunnah is three parts: speech, action, and approval. That is, if the Messenger saw something and approved it, it became Shari'ah. Why? Because he is not approved in error. Does "not approved in error" mean that revelation came down to him that this thing which was done in his sight or hearing was revealed to him as correct? No, it is not necessary that it be so. But it is sufficient for us that Allah, as "without likening Him to creation," just as we take the approval of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) of something he saw as a proof, it is more fitting for us, and more fitting that we know, that Allah the Mighty and Majestic approved His Prophet regarding something, and it becomes a proof beyond all proof. So, if we imagine that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said, for example, from the medical hadiths: except poison, if we imagine that this prophetic medical statement is an error, how was it approved by him, and how did the Companions receive it, and how did the Salaf receive it from him, generation after generation, until it became part of the life of the Muslim? One cannot imagine it except as if he said: . Likewise, his saying (peace be upon him) about the black seed, whose appearance does not please you , it is impossible for this to be an error, my brothers. And it is a very clear error to say that we postpone the research or the belief or the faith in these hadiths until when? Until science reveals the truths of these prophetic hadiths? If that happens, it would only increase their weakness and not increase their faith. Because faith, as we know from the saying of Allah the Exalted in the Qur'an: , who are they? The first condition is . And the unseen in the Arabic language is everything that is hidden from your mind, you human being, this limited mind first in your brain, and however wide the circle of thought expands, it is limited in any case. So if a text comes to you from Allah or His Messenger regarding something, it is obligatory for you to believe in it and submit to it, because this is the first condition of the believers who believe in the unseen. So if we hesitate to believe in this hadith and to believe in a hadith, for example: , what is this hadith? It contains dirt , this has not yet had its truth revealed by medicine , then it is not permissible to hesitate in these hadiths. Because we assume one of two things—and this is the summary of what preceded—either this statement is not, I do not say revelation, and you are observing my first word, truth, or it is false, and I do not say erroneous; because Allah says: , either it is truth or it is false misguidance. Can a Muslim imagine two dangerous things, one resulting from the other? Can a Muslim imagine that this statement is false? And our Lord, Blessed and Exalted is He, who sent to us our Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) with guidance, light, and all truth, knows that this word spoken by the Messenger (peace be upon him), even if he received it from pre-Islamic medicine, the experimental Arab medicine, even if that were the case; but Allah knows that it is an error. Does Allah approve His Prophet (peace be upon him) in this error? Especially since another error resulted from it, which is that it became a Shari'ah and a belief among Muslims, and there became a specific science called the science of prophetic medicine. If we believe in such misguidance, imagining that it is a word the Messenger said based on Arab traditions and scientific experiments at that time, and without doubt, Arab medical science at that time was not mature, even though the Europeans later benefited from it greatly and very much, especially when they were honored by Islam; but the point is that we do not imagine, but we make it impossible, that the Messenger (peace be upon him) receives a part of knowledge, whether it is medicine or astronomy or similar matters whose truths the human mind usually does not grasp, and then the Messenger (peace be upon him) speaks of it, and it is in reality a false matter, and our Lord approves him in that. This is an impossible matter. Therefore, I believe that those who take this weak, indeed contemptible, stance regarding these hadiths and do not believe in them, these people are without doubt weak in their faith in one of two things, and the bitterer of the two is: the first matter is that they do not trust the narrators of these hadiths, and the imams of hadith who authenticated them, because if they were so, they would believe, and then the matter is more dangerous: they do not believe the Messenger and they raise the possibility that this is an opinion like the opinion of humans, and they apply to it his saying (peace be upon him) with truth: "You are more knowledgeable about the affairs of your worldly life." This hadith is authentic, but the point now is if the Messenger spoke about a matter that does not relate to worship and does not relate to creed, but relates to the science of astronomy, this is from the affairs of the world, the previous discussion revolves around this, this is a matter related to knowledge, which knowledge? The one that was known in the pre-Islamic age. So the Messenger spoke of it, it is impossible that Allah approves him in this matter and it is an error in its reality. So all the hadiths that are authentic from the Messenger, first, and that he approved until the last breath of his life, second, we must not distinguish between them and any other hadith, whether it relates to creed or relates to worship or to behavior, all of that is truth, and the saying of the Messenger (peace be upon him) which Abdullah ibn Amr ibn al-As (may Allah be pleased with him) narrated to us applies to it, who used to sit with the polytheists and argue with them. They raised the following doubt against him, saying to him, "You write down everything Muhammad says in a state of satisfaction and anger." This doubt did its work in the heart of Abdullah, so he went to the Messenger (peace be upon him) and told him what they said. He said to him: . If an error came out of him, the previous discussion applies: he is not approved in it, so he is not like the scholars, he is the master of scholars.

The questioner : In this, our Shaykh, is the saying of Allah the Exalted: ?

The Shaykh : But this has a second side; because it is not hidden from you that "taqul" is the intentional fabrication, and our discussion is not of this type.
Al-Halabi : Our Shaykh, on the same topic

The Shaykh : How is it, and how?

The questioner : May Allah reward you with good.

The Shaykh : May Allah preserve you.

The questioner : May Allah honor you
Al-Halabi : On the same topic, confirming the words of our professor, may Allah bless you

The Shaykh : Please, may Allah preserve you
Al-Halabi : In some books of the principles of jurisprudence, our Shaykh, I saw them dividing revelation into three parts

The Shaykh : Yes.
Al-Halabi : Revelation of transmission, revelation of approval, and revelation of denial; and this is exactly what you mentioned, our Shaykh?

The Shaykh : It is this.
Al-Halabi : May Allah bless you, my professor

The Shaykh : Is there anything else?

The questioner : The Shaykh : Muhammad al-Ghazali, may Allah forgive him, in his book *The Prophetic Sunnah Between the People of Jurisprudence and the People of Hadith*, put forward opinions on singing and possession by jinn. I wish we could know your opinion, my teacher, on this matter?

The Shaykh : My brother, this opinion is from the Ghazali of his time. It is like many of the opinions of that past Ghazali: it stems from a specific philosophy that comes from one who was not saturated with the Muhammadan Sunnah. This is evident in the Ghazali of that era, for he denies established, unassailable legal realities, except by subjecting them to the judgment of the small intellect, which cannot possibly accommodate this revelation that Allah sent down upon the heart of Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him). Our Lord, Mighty and Majestic, did not say this in vain, but in truth He said: The revelation is heavy. When the revelation descended upon Muhammad (peace be upon him) while he was on his she-camel, and the she-camel is one of the most enduring animals, it lowered its head and submitted, unable to bear it. Therefore, the human intellect can never bear all of this revelation except through the way mentioned by the Lord of the Worlds: The more widely a Muslim is versed in both the Book and the Sunnah, the better. I know from this Ghazali that he was constantly reciting the Qur'an, for I met him repeatedly in Madinah when we were in the council they call the Higher Council at the Islamic University. And when I was exiled from here and went to Qatar, my room in the hotel I stayed in there was opposite his room in the same hotel. So I truly felt that he was a man who was constantly reciting the Qur'an, as if he had it memorized. But when I saw him in this light, and saw him from another perspective in the scientific view found in his works and books, I said with my state, and now I say with my words: This man did not produce these anomalies. Rather, I do not excuse him, even though there was companionship between us, as I mentioned earlier. I say, instead of what are these anomalies? These are misguidances. They did not come to him except because he was a forger and was distant from the Sunnah, and he judged the Sunnah by his intellect. Whatever pleased him from it, he grasped and held in his heart, and whatever did not please him, he mocked. I do not say he cast it aside; he mocked it, and he also mocked its bearers. The two examples you asked about are two examples out of many, some of which are scattered in the book you named earlier, and many of them are also scattered in his other books, and some of them overflow from him whenever the occasion arises. So you raised two questions, one concerning singing and the other concerning possession by jinn.