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﴿ فَاسْأَلُوا أَهْلَ الذِّكْرِ إِن كُنتُمْ لَا تَعْلَمُونَ ﴾

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Did some of the scholars who preceded al-Bukhari use the term "hasan hadith"? Does this carry the technical meaning?

Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner: A professor, regarding this issue.

The Shaykh: Go ahead.

The questioner: We find scholars, meaning those higher in rank than Imam al-Bukhari, who mention a hasan hadith, such as Imam Malik. Does this carry the technical meaning, or is it...?

The Shaykh: No, this is like what is said regarding some hadiths whose chains they weaken; they say it is hasan. Among them, as I think you know, is Imam Ibn 'Abd al-Barr al-Andalusi, who frequently uses this term. So, this remains hasan in the linguistic sense, not the technical sense.

The questioner: He issued the ruling and acted upon it. For example, when Imam Malik was presented with a hadith... he initially did not act upon it, saying, "This is a hasan hadith," but then he acted upon it and narrated it later.

The Shaykh: No, no, the issue now is a hasan hadith in terms of its chain.
The student: The technical meaning, meaning...

The Shaykh : Yes.
The student: Because the word hasan might mean that he found it good or liked it.

The Shaykh: Linguistic, linguistic, not technical. We do not have [the technical meaning].

The questioner: If it did not imply... he would not have acted upon it.
The student: Because he found it good. There is no objection to this.

The Shaykh: It might have a sound chain, and yet he found it good.
The student: It is agreed upon, my Shaykh.

The Shaykh: Yes.
The student: There are hadiths that are agreed upon, and the early Imams explicitly stated that they are hasan, at the level of hasan only. And the hasan here is not the technical one that is the subject of our discussion.

The Shaykh: There is no doubt that it is different.
The student: And this is one of the issues I intended to address at the end of the answer regarding this matter: that the statements of the early Imams, who preceded the widespread use of this technical term, should be understood as them using the term hasan in the technical sense that is the subject of our discussion.

The Shaykh: It emerged later, meaning...
Source www.al-albany.com

The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.

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