Continuation of the discussion on al-Bukhari’s authentication of hadiths and his grading them as good outside the Sahih.

The Shaykh : Anyone else?
The student : Does the answer change because Ibn Hajar (may Allah have mercy on him) mentioned this statement I made earlier after quoting the words of Ibn al-Salah? When Ibn al-Salah said: “It has been said that the opinion which Muslim rejected is the one held by the masters of this science, namely Ali ibn al-Madini, al-Bukhari, and others,” and then Ibn Hajar said: “I say that some have claimed that al-Bukhari only…” to the end of the statement, and he quoted it after these quotations?

The Shaykh : Pardon me, what are you referring to now?
The student : To Ibn Hajar’s statement: “That al-Bukhari grades hadiths, he grades hadiths in al-Bukhari according to his condition.”

The Shaykh : Okay, what is he asking now?
The student : What I understood from you, may Allah reward you with good, is that this falls within the category of validity (sahih), not within the category of goodness (hasan).

The Shaykh : Yes.
The student : But Ibn Hajar quoted this statement after mentioning the words of Imam Muslim and his opinion. Of course, Muslim’s statement here is regarding goodness and validity, is it not? Or is it only regarding validity?

The Shaykh : What is Muslim’s statement, may Allah bless you? What is the statement of Muslim that you mean?
The student : It is the sufficiency of contemporaneity.

The Shaykh : Yes.
The student : In validity and goodness.

The Shaykh: Yes.
The student : Okay, when Ibn Hajar (may Allah have mercy on him) quotes this statement, after Ibn al-Salah’s statement that the opinion which Muslim rejected is the one that is under consideration, what is the answer?

The Shaykh : If we proceed with you that it means generality, what is the first problem concerning the general text? Because many, if not most, general texts are subject to specification. It has even been said: “There is no general text that has not been specified.” Even this text has been specified. The point is, if we accept that the intended meaning is generality, and we find that Imam al-Bukhari grades some hadiths as good, despite the absence of his condition in the Sahih, then this existing matter compels us to specify the statement to the Sahih, and the Sahih that is according to his condition in the Sahih. This is another restriction, another restriction I mentioned earlier. That is, the Sahih according to al-Bukhari has two categories: a category for which he set very precise conditions, surpassing in precision not only those who came before him but also those who came after him. These conditions are with respect to what he called the authentic isnad (musnad sahih). But he may not adhere to these conditions—and this is the reality—in hadiths outside the authentic isnad, such as, for example, al-Adab al-Mufrad by Imam al-Bukhari. He may authenticate a hadith in which those conditions he adhered to in the authentic isnad are not present. But I am not claiming now that he authenticated outside the Sahih without the condition of meeting (the narrator); I am only claiming the grading as good.
The student : But they say: Instead of making this generality absolute, they say that the goodness (hasan) described by al-Bukhari is linguistic goodness!

The Shaykh : The answer to this has already been given, may Allah bless you. Do you want me to repeat the answer?
The student: No.

The Shaykh : Hmm.