The Miswak: Its Evidence Is the Hadith of Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) that he said

The Shaykh : The evidence for the miswak is the hadith of Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) that he said: . "Lawla" (if it were not for): This is a particle of prevention due to existence. We have three tools that divide prevention and existence: "Lamma," "Law," and "Lawla." "Lamma" is existence for existence, "Law" is prevention for prevention, and "Lawla" is prevention for existence. An example of "Lamma" is when you say: "Lamma he visited me, I honored him." Here, the honor occurred due to the occurrence of what? The visit. So, existence for existence. An example of "Law" is: "Law he visited me, I would have honored him." Here, the honor was prevented due to the prevention of the visit. An example of "Lawla" is: "Lawla that I would make things difficult for my Ummah, I would have ordered them." Here, the command was prevented due to the existence of the difficulty. Now, his saying: The difficulty is fatigue and exhaustion. And his saying: By the Ummah, he means the Ummah of response, because the Ummah of invitation, meaning the invited Ummah, are not addressed regarding the miswak, but rather they are addressed with what? With Islam first. And his saying: Meaning a binding command. The reason for this is that we interpreted it as a binding command because a non-binding command does not involve difficulty, since it is permissible for a person to do what? Leave it. And as long as it is permissible to leave it, there is no difficulty in it. And thus, his intended meaning is "I would have ordered them" as a binding command. Now, the miswak: The term miswak is used for the tool with which one uses the miswak and for the action. It is used for the tool and for the action. So you say, "The man used the miswak with intensity." This is what?
The student: The action.

The Shaykh : The action. And thus, "miswak" is a verbal noun (ism masdar) and not a source (masdar) because it did not match the verb in its letters. And from that also is the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): The miswak means what?
The student: The act of using the miswak.

The Shaykh : The act of using the miswak, not the stick. The act of using the miswak. And from its usage meaning the tool with which one uses the miswak is when you say, "I gave so-and-so a miswak," meaning what? What one uses to clean the teeth, and it is not intended that I gave him the action, but rather I gave him what he uses to clean the teeth. So the miswak is used for the tool with which one uses the miswak and for the action itself. So what is intended by it in the hadith ?
The student: The action.

The Shaykh : Yes, Yes, he says: "It was narrated by Malik, Ahmad, and al-Nasa'i, and Ibn Khuzaymah graded it as authentic, and al-Bukhari mentioned it in a suspended form" Yes, it was narrated by Malik and Ahmad. The author placed Malik first, either because of the precedence of his time, or because the Muwatta is more authentic than the Musnad, or because, without a doubt, the imamate of Imam Ahmad (may Allah have mercy on him) is more famous than the imamate of Imam Malik and others. For he was called the Imam of the People of the Sunnah, and his status is well-known and recognized.
And his saying: "al-Bukhari mentioned it in a suspended form." He mentioned it in a suspended form. What does "suspended" (ta'liq) mean? The scholars of terminology say that ta'liq is the deletion of the beginning of the chain of narration. So, for example, if the narrator who extracted the hadith narrated it in this order: one, two, three, four, to its end, then deleting number one is suspended, or is it not suspended?
The student: Suspended.

The Shaykh : Suspended. Deleting one and two?
The student: Suspended.

The Shaykh : Deleting one, two, and three?
The student: Suspended.

The Shaykh : Rather, "suspended" is applied to the deletion of the entire chain of narration. Yes, the ruling on a suspended hadith is that it is weak due to the absence of the chain of narration, and if the chain of narration is absent, the narrators become unknown, and it is necessary to know the narrators and that they are qualified for narration. However, they said that if the extractor adhered to suspending what is authentic in his view with a form of certainty, it is judged as authentic absolutely, or only with the suspender? Only with the suspender. Meaning, it may be authentic in his view, but it is not authentic in the view of others. In summary, a suspended hadith technically is one whose beginning of its chain of narration or the entire chain of narration has been deleted. A suspended hadith is weak in rank, from the category of weak hadiths, unless it is in a book where its extractor adhered to authenticity, and this becomes authentic with whom? Only with him. And with others, it may be authentic or it may not be authentic. But if the suspender is a recognized imam among the memorizers, there is no doubt that his suspension has its weight and value. For this reason, the author mentioned it, saying "al-Bukhari mentioned it in a suspended form," even though it would have been sufficient to say "It was narrated by Malik, Ahmad, and al-Nasa'i, and Ibn Khuzaymah graded it as authentic."