The Shaykh returns to discussing the athar of al-Hasan al-Basri: "They hoped for expiation every night . . . ."

The Shaykh : We see this hadith here first: al-Hasan al-Basri did not speak here about a specific Companion, but rather what did he say? "They hoped." Al-Hasan said: "They hoped." He did not mention the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) at all, in the first place. Second: here is another point regarding hadith: "They hoped." To whom does this plural refer? To the Companions, or to the Tabi'un? Here is a rule among the scholars of hadith: "If a Companion speaks and says: 'They hoped,' referring to one of the Companions, then it is a text indicating that those he means are the Companions. But if a Tabi'i says, as here: 'They,' it is possible that he means the scholars of his time, meaning from the Tabi'un, and it is possible that he means these people along with some of the Companions whom he met."
In summary: a hadith like this is not given the ruling of being marfu' (traced to the Prophet) to the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), because first: the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) is not mentioned in it at all. And second: because the one narrating this report is a Tabi'i and not a Companion. If a Companion were to say this, it would mean that the Companions were hoping. In any case, the purpose of such research and investigation is that we remain with those who hoped. We do not cut off the virtue of what came in this athar from al-Hasan al-Basri: that the fever of a night expiates all sins. If it were a hadith marfu' to the Messenger (peace be upon him) and explicitly attributed to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), we would have clung to it with our nails. But it is nothing but a narration from al-Hasan from the scholars of his era: that they hoped that the fever of a night that strikes a Muslim is an expiation for sins.