And upon his family and all his Companions. Muslim (may Allah have mercy on him) said:
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The reader: In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and may Allah send prayers and blessings upon our Prophet Muhammad, and upon his family and all his Companions.
Muslim (may Allah have mercy on him) said: "And if we were to enumerate the authentic reports among the scholars that this claimant considers weak, and count them, we would be unable to exhaust their mention and count them all. However, we preferred to cite a number of them that would serve as a sign for what we have remained silent about. This is Abu Usman al-Nahdi and Abu Rafi' al-Sayyagh, both of whom lived through the pre-Islamic age of ignorance and were Companions of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) from among the participants at Badr, and so on. They transmitted reports from them, descending to the level of Abu Hurayrah, Ibn 'Umar, and their peers. Each of them narrated a hadith from Abi' ibn Ka'b from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), and we have not heard in a specific narration that they saw Abi' or heard anything from him. Abu 'Amr al-Shaybani, who lived through the pre-Islamic age of ignorance and was a man in the time of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), and Abu Ma'mar 'Abdullah ibn Sukhbarah, each of them narrated two reports from Abu Mas'ud al-Ansari from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). 'Ubayd ibn 'Umar narrated a hadith from Umm Salimah, the wife of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), and 'Ubayd ibn 'Umar was born in the time of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). Qays ibn Abi Hazim, who lived through the time of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), narrated three reports from Abu Mas'ud al-Ansari from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). 'Abd al-Rahman ibn Abi Layla, who memorized from 'Umar ibn al-Khattab and was a Companion of 'Ali, narrated a hadith from Anas ibn Malik from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). Rab'i' ibn Harash narrated two hadiths from Imran ibn Husayn from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), and a hadith from Abu Bakrah from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). Rab'i' heard from 'Ali ibn Abi Talib and narrated from him. Nafi' ibn Jubayr ibn Mutt'im narrated a hadith from Abu Shurayh al-Khuza'i from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). Al-Nu'man ibn Abi 'Iyash narrated three hadiths from Abu Sa'id al-Khudri from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). 'Ata' ibn Yazid al-Laythi narrated a hadith from Tamim al-Dari from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). Sulayman ibn Yasar narrated a hadith from Rafi' ibn Khadij from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). Humayd ibn 'Abd al-Rahman al-Himari narrated hadiths from Abu Hurayrah from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). So, all these Tabi'un whose narrations from the named Companions we have cited, no specific hearing from them that we know of has been preserved in a specific narration, nor that they met them in a specific report. These are chains of narration that those knowledgeable in reports and narrations from authentic chains do not know to have weakened any of them, nor sought a specific hearing of one from the other, since hearing from each of them by the other is possible and not objectionable, as they were all in the era in which they coincided. And this statement that the claimant we mentioned introduced in weakening the hadith by the defect he described is too little to be dwelt upon or mentioned, as it was an innovated statement and a later word that no scholar of the Salaf said, and the Khalaf after them reject it. So we have no need to refute it with more than what we have explained, as the magnitude of the statement and its claimant is the magnitude we described. And Allah is sought for assistance in repelling what contradicts the methodology of the scholars, and upon Him is reliance."
The Shaykh : The result is that the issue does not fall outside of four categories, as you heard earlier, or five categories:
The first category: that one narrates from someone who did not live in his era. This is a broken chain by consensus.
The second: that one narrates from someone who was his contemporary and it is established that he did not meet him. This is also a broken chain.
The third: that it is established that he was a contemporary of the narrator, but it is not established that he did not meet him, nor that he did meet him. This is the point of disagreement between al-Bukhari and Muslim. Al-Bukhari holds that it is a broken chain, and Muslim holds that it is a connected chain.
The fourth: that one narrates from someone he met and whose hearing from him is established, but he did not hear this specific hadith from him. This is attributed to hearing, meaning the hearing of everything he narrated from him, and some differed on this.
The fifth: that one narrates from someone who was his contemporary and from whom he heard the specific hadith itself. There is consensus that this is a connected chain, such as when one says: "He told me," "He informed me," "I heard," and the like.
So these are the categories, as you see. It remains to be said: which is closer to validity: narrating from someone who was his contemporary but it is not established that he met him, or from someone from whom it is established that he met him?
The second, without doubt. The second is closer to validity, and al-Bukhari (may Allah have mercy on him) proceeded on this basis in his Sahih. Muslim differed from this and said: Whenever contemporaneity is established, meeting is not required as a condition, unless he explicitly states that he did not meet him. If he explicitly states that he did not meet him, it is a broken chain without doubt.
Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and may Allah send prayers and blessings upon our Prophet Muhammad, and upon his family and all his Companions.
Muslim (may Allah have mercy on him) said: "And if we were to enumerate the authentic reports among the scholars that this claimant considers weak, and count them, we would be unable to exhaust their mention and count them all. However, we preferred to cite a number of them that would serve as a sign for what we have remained silent about. This is Abu Usman al-Nahdi and Abu Rafi' al-Sayyagh, both of whom lived through the pre-Islamic age of ignorance and were Companions of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) from among the participants at Badr, and so on. They transmitted reports from them, descending to the level of Abu Hurayrah, Ibn 'Umar, and their peers. Each of them narrated a hadith from Abi' ibn Ka'b from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), and we have not heard in a specific narration that they saw Abi' or heard anything from him. Abu 'Amr al-Shaybani, who lived through the pre-Islamic age of ignorance and was a man in the time of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), and Abu Ma'mar 'Abdullah ibn Sukhbarah, each of them narrated two reports from Abu Mas'ud al-Ansari from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). 'Ubayd ibn 'Umar narrated a hadith from Umm Salimah, the wife of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), and 'Ubayd ibn 'Umar was born in the time of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). Qays ibn Abi Hazim, who lived through the time of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), narrated three reports from Abu Mas'ud al-Ansari from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). 'Abd al-Rahman ibn Abi Layla, who memorized from 'Umar ibn al-Khattab and was a Companion of 'Ali, narrated a hadith from Anas ibn Malik from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). Rab'i' ibn Harash narrated two hadiths from Imran ibn Husayn from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), and a hadith from Abu Bakrah from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). Rab'i' heard from 'Ali ibn Abi Talib and narrated from him. Nafi' ibn Jubayr ibn Mutt'im narrated a hadith from Abu Shurayh al-Khuza'i from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). Al-Nu'man ibn Abi 'Iyash narrated three hadiths from Abu Sa'id al-Khudri from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). 'Ata' ibn Yazid al-Laythi narrated a hadith from Tamim al-Dari from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). Sulayman ibn Yasar narrated a hadith from Rafi' ibn Khadij from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). Humayd ibn 'Abd al-Rahman al-Himari narrated hadiths from Abu Hurayrah from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). So, all these Tabi'un whose narrations from the named Companions we have cited, no specific hearing from them that we know of has been preserved in a specific narration, nor that they met them in a specific report. These are chains of narration that those knowledgeable in reports and narrations from authentic chains do not know to have weakened any of them, nor sought a specific hearing of one from the other, since hearing from each of them by the other is possible and not objectionable, as they were all in the era in which they coincided. And this statement that the claimant we mentioned introduced in weakening the hadith by the defect he described is too little to be dwelt upon or mentioned, as it was an innovated statement and a later word that no scholar of the Salaf said, and the Khalaf after them reject it. So we have no need to refute it with more than what we have explained, as the magnitude of the statement and its claimant is the magnitude we described. And Allah is sought for assistance in repelling what contradicts the methodology of the scholars, and upon Him is reliance."
The Shaykh : The result is that the issue does not fall outside of four categories, as you heard earlier, or five categories:
The first category: that one narrates from someone who did not live in his era. This is a broken chain by consensus.
The second: that one narrates from someone who was his contemporary and it is established that he did not meet him. This is also a broken chain.
The third: that it is established that he was a contemporary of the narrator, but it is not established that he did not meet him, nor that he did meet him. This is the point of disagreement between al-Bukhari and Muslim. Al-Bukhari holds that it is a broken chain, and Muslim holds that it is a connected chain.
The fourth: that one narrates from someone he met and whose hearing from him is established, but he did not hear this specific hadith from him. This is attributed to hearing, meaning the hearing of everything he narrated from him, and some differed on this.
The fifth: that one narrates from someone who was his contemporary and from whom he heard the specific hadith itself. There is consensus that this is a connected chain, such as when one says: "He told me," "He informed me," "I heard," and the like.
So these are the categories, as you see. It remains to be said: which is closer to validity: narrating from someone who was his contemporary but it is not established that he met him, or from someone from whom it is established that he met him?
The second, without doubt. The second is closer to validity, and al-Bukhari (may Allah have mercy on him) proceeded on this basis in his Sahih. Muslim differed from this and said: Whenever contemporaneity is established, meeting is not required as a condition, unless he explicitly states that he did not meet him. If he explicitly states that he did not meet him, it is a broken chain without doubt.