Examples of the efforts of the hadith scholars and their precision in preserving the Sunnah

The Shaykh : The scholars of hadith continued to follow up on the layers that came after the generation of the Tabi'un, namely the Tabi'in of the Tabi'in and their followers, with this same precise method. Their efforts reached the point where they distinguished that among these trustworthy narrators, whether they were from the Tabi'un or from those below them, some had their hadiths accepted from all their trustworthy teachers, while others had their hadiths accepted from some of their trustworthy teachers but not from others. There is no harm in giving an example of this with some of the memorizers or some of the trustworthy narrators who are considered trustworthy regarding one teacher but not trustworthy regarding another, even though both are trustworthy. For example, there is a man named Sufyan ibn Husayn. If he narrates from all his trustworthy teachers, he is an authority and his hadith is valid. However, if he narrates from a prominent figure among the Tabi'un and a memorizer among their memorizers, namely Imam al-Zuhri, his hadith is weak. How can a trustworthy narrator from a trustworthy narrator be weak, while a trustworthy narrator from trustworthy narrators is valid? The reason is that the scholars of hadith, due to their precision in tracking the biographies of these narrators, knew that a certain person—and our example here is Sufyan ibn Husayn—was a trustworthy, precise, and memorizing scholar, but he relied on his writing and recording. This naturally helped many hadith narrators in preserving and focusing their memorization of these records in their notebooks. On the other hand, others reached a level of memorization where one said, "I never recorded a hadith; I never heard a hadith and forgot it." This is, of course, a rare and very rare matter. But some, like Sufyan, had a concern for narrating from their trustworthy teachers, and part of that concern was that he would record the hadiths he heard from his teachers on papers he kept with him. Among these trustworthy teachers was Imam al-Zuhri. He recorded his hadith in his notebooks, but a violent wind came and blew away these notebooks. As a result, his narrations of hadiths from al-Zuhri contained errors, such as connecting or attributing a mursal report, or elevating a mawquf report, and other mistakes known to those engaged in this field. Therefore, if a researcher today sees a hadith narrated by this Sufyan ibn Husayn from al-Zuhri, he should avoid it unless he finds a corroborating narration that strengthens it. That corroborating narration indicates that he may have memorized it. However, if he finds this hadith from Sufyan from someone other than al-Zuhri, it is valid and sound. Conversely, there is the narrator whose hadith is accepted if narrated by so-and-so and so-and-so, but if others narrate from this same narrator, his hadith is not valid. This applies to narrators who were affected in their old age by what is known among hadith scholars as ikhtilat (confusion). Ikhtilat among these distinguished scholars, may Allah reward them for Islam with the best, is of two types: severe ikhtilat, where the hadith of this confused person is not used as evidence, and non-severe ikhtilat, which is referred to as taghayyur (change). If we see in some biographies that so-and-so became confused, it means that his hadith is not used as evidence except with the details I will mention. If it is said that he changed, the meaning of change is like saying so-and-so is trustworthy but has errors. This trustworthy person with errors does not have his hadith rejected, but his hadith is accepted with caution and wariness, lest he have made a mistake in it. If nothing appears in it that indicates a mistake, whether in the chain or the text, then his hadith is sound and follows the path of correctness. As for the one who is confused, he has two cases. If some of the student narrators from this confused person are known by one of two characteristics, namely that they heard from him before his confusion, then their hadith from him is valid, because he narrated and they heard from him before his confusion. The second case is if the narrator from him heard from the man in both states, during the confusion and before the confusion. If this narrator from this confused person clarifies or explains that he heard from him before the confusion, his hadith is valid. Or the opposite, in which case his hadith is weak. Due to this type of intensive and continuous efforts, the explanation of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and his Sunnah reached us preserved in the books of the scholars of hadith with these chains and these rules and principles that they established, which enable the qualified person to distinguish the valid hadith from the weak one with this level of detail or some type of this precise detail. Therefore, it is not permissible for Muslims today to rely on hadith except after applying the methodology of the scholars of hadith in distinguishing the valid from the weak. Islam is the Book and the Sunnah, and the Sunnah contains what was not in the Book during the time of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) explaining the Qur'an, following this methodology that the first Muslims followed until this day. Therefore, Muslims should follow this, otherwise, whoever deviates from it, the saying of Allah (Mighty and Majestic) applies to him: . This is what comes to my mind in answer to this question.

The questioner: May Allah reward you with good, and may He bless you.