As for the first category, we aim to present the reports that are safest from defects than others, and purer in that their transmitters are people of uprightness in hadith and precision in what they transmitted, where no severe discrepancy or gross confusion has been found in their narration, as has been encountered in many hadith scholars, and this has become apparent in their hadith.
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The reader: "As for the first category, we aim to present the reports that are safest from defects than others, and purer in that their transmitters are people of uprightness in hadith and precision in what they transmitted, where no severe discrepancy or gross confusion has been found in their narration, as has been encountered in many hadith scholars, and this has become apparent in their hadith. When we investigate the reports of this type of people, we follow them with reports in whose chains of narration there are some who are not described as having memorization and precision, like the category mentioned before them. Although they are below them in what we described, the name of concealment, truthfulness, and engagement with knowledge includes them, such as 'Ata ibn al-Sa'ib, Yazid ibn Abi Ziyad, Layth ibn Abi Sulaym, and their like among the bearers of athar and transmitters of reports. They, although they are known among the people of knowledge for the knowledge and concealment we described, others among their peers who possess the precision and uprightness in narration we mentioned are preferred over them in status and rank, because this is a high degree and a noble quality among the people of knowledge. Do you not see that if you compare these three whom we named, 'Ata, Yazid, and Layth, with Mansur ibn al-Muttamir, Sulayman al-A'mash, and Isma'il ibn Abi Khalid in the precision of hadith and uprightness therein, you find them distinct from them, not comparable to them? There is no doubt among the people of hadith knowledge regarding this, due to what is widespread among them regarding the soundness of the memorization of Mansur, al-A'mash, and Isma'il, and their precision in their hadith, and that they did not know such a thing from 'Ata, Yazid, and Layth. In the case of people like these, if you compare between peers, like Ibn 'Unayn and Ayyub al-Sakhtiyani, with 'Awf ibn Abi Jamilah and Ash'ath al-Humayri, and the two are companions of al-Hasan and Ibn Sirin, just as Ibn 'Unayn and Ayyub are their companions, except that the distance between them and these two is far in the perfection of excellence and the soundness of transmission, even though 'Awf and Ash'ath are not rejected regarding truthfulness and trustworthiness among the people of knowledge, but the status is what we described of the rank among the people of knowledge. We only exemplified these in naming so that their exemplification would be a mark from which one who is slow to understand the path of the people of knowledge in ranking their people would derive understanding, so that he does not diminish the man of high status from his degree, nor elevate the man of low status in knowledge above his rank, and he gives every one who has a right therein his right and places him in his station."
The Shaykh : So, may Allah have mercy on him, he arranged the hadiths by mentioning first the chains of narration that are the utmost in authenticity, then what is below them, then what is below that. This is a benefit you can derive from it: when hadiths come to you in a specific chapter, you know that the ones presented first are those whose men are more precise and more controlled, then those who come after them, then those who come after them, like a supporting chain or a corroborating narration or something similar. And this benefit, too, keep it in mind in the hadiths that pass by us, if Allah wills, in the future. Yes.
The questioner : ... al-Bukhari and Muslim, ... al-Darimi is better than Muslim ... ?
The Shaykh : In any case, the famous among the hadith scholars is what we said, he says:
"A group disputed about al-Bukhari and Muslim *** To me they said, which of the two do you prefer?
I said: Indeed, al-Bukhari surpassed in authenticity *** Just as Muslim surpassed in the beauty of his craft."
But it is possible that the beauty of the craft is in this arrangement that was mentioned, that he starts with the highest degree and rank, then the middle, then those below that. But it is known that the arrangement is that Muslim is better than al-Bukhari. Yes.
The Shaykh : So, may Allah have mercy on him, he arranged the hadiths by mentioning first the chains of narration that are the utmost in authenticity, then what is below them, then what is below that. This is a benefit you can derive from it: when hadiths come to you in a specific chapter, you know that the ones presented first are those whose men are more precise and more controlled, then those who come after them, then those who come after them, like a supporting chain or a corroborating narration or something similar. And this benefit, too, keep it in mind in the hadiths that pass by us, if Allah wills, in the future. Yes.
The questioner : ... al-Bukhari and Muslim, ... al-Darimi is better than Muslim ... ?
The Shaykh : In any case, the famous among the hadith scholars is what we said, he says:
"A group disputed about al-Bukhari and Muslim *** To me they said, which of the two do you prefer?
I said: Indeed, al-Bukhari surpassed in authenticity *** Just as Muslim surpassed in the beauty of his craft."
But it is possible that the beauty of the craft is in this arrangement that was mentioned, that he starts with the highest degree and rank, then the middle, then those below that. But it is known that the arrangement is that Muslim is better than al-Bukhari. Yes.