Questioner:
O our Shaykh the question is;
was the Shaykh preceded by
anyone in declaring some Hadith
in Sahih Bukhari to be weak and
collecting them in a book. And if
this has occurred were you
preceded by some of the scholars
in that? We would appreciate
references may Allah reward you
with good.
Shaykh Al Albani:
Define the demonstrative, “in
that”; in what? Because your
question contains two things.
Have you been preceded in
classifying some Hadith in
Bukhari as weak and did you
collect this in a book? So in your
question, “have I been preceded
in that”, what do you mean? Have
I been preceded in classifying
some Hadith in Bukhari as weak
or have I been preceded in
authoring a book containing these
weak Hadith?
Questioner: Both
Shaykh Albani:
(Laughs) Both? As for if I was
preceded in classifying some
Hadith found in Bukhari as weak
then this is a reality which is
obligatory to acknowledge and it
is not permissible to deny it; and
there are numerous reasons for
this.
First of all; all the Muslims
whether they are from the
scholars, the students of
knowledge or the ignorant
Muslims; they are all in
agreement that there is no one
who is infallible in this religion
except the Messenger of Allah
peace and blessings are upon
him.
And from this we also understand
another undeniable conclusion
and that is, any book that crosses
the mind of a Muslim, or any book
title that he hears of, even before
he reads the manuscript, it is
incumbent that he must have
firmly established in his mind that
this book will surely contain some
errors in it. Because the
aforementioned belief states that
no one will obtain infallibility
except for the Messenger of Allah
peace and blessing are upon him.
And on this note it has been
narrated that Imam Shafi’i, may
Allah be pleased with him said,
“Allah has refused to perfect any
book except for His own.”
And this is the truth, it is not
debatable. So this it the first affair,
this is the principle.
As for the applied science
concerning this matter; then we,
due to the virtue of Allah upon us
and upon the people, but most of
the people do not know, but most
of the people are not grateful.
Allah the Exalted has given me
firmness in the study of Hadith…
its foundation matters, subsidiary
matters, its criticisms and
collections to the extent that I
became grounded with a high
level in this science due to the
virtue of Allah and His mercy.
Also I know the authentic hadiths
from the weak, from the fabricated
due to my studies of this science.
I applied this study to some of the
Hadiths that appear in Sahih Al
Bukhari. Thus I found that the
result of this study that there are
some Hadiths that are not
considered to be on the grade of
Hasan much less the level of
Sahih, in Sahih Al Bukhari not to
mention Sahih Muslim.
This is my answer for that which
relates to me, myself. As for that
which relates to other than me,
from that which came in your
question; has anyone proceeded
me? Then I say: All praises
belong to Allah. I have been
preceded by many people who
are more grounded and more
knowledgeable than me
concerning this noble science;
and preceding me by almost one
thousand years.
Imam Daraqutni and others have
scrutinized Sahih Al Bukhari and
Sahih Muslim concerning dozens
of Hadiths. As for me, then I did
not reach the extent of criticizing
dozens of Hadiths. That is
because during this time I am not
able to devote myself to criticizing
the Hadiths in Al Bukhari then the
Hadiths in Muslim, that is
because we are in greater need
to scrutinize the Hadiths found in
the four Sunans not to mention
the chains of narration,
terminology and the like in order
to ascertain the authentic from the
weak. As for Al Bukhari and
Muslim then they both performed
the task of purifying the Hadiths
that are collected in their two
books, from the hundreds of
thousands Hadiths. And this effort
was extremely tremendous. For
this reason, it is not from
knowledge or wisdom that I focus
on criticizing Sahih Al Bukhari
and Sahih Muslim and leave
alone the Hadiths found in the
four Sunans and other than them,
where it is not known if they are
authentic or weak.
But during my knowledge based
research I passed over some
Hadiths in Sahih Al Bukhari and
Sahih Muslim or in one of them
and it was revealed to me that
there are some Hadiths that are
weak. But whoever is in doubt
about what I judge concerning
some Hadiths then return to the
explanation of Sahih Al Bukhari
and he will find a great deal of
things criticized by Al Hafidh
Ahmad ibn Hajr Al ‘Asqalaani;
the one who is rightfully called the
leader of the believers Hadith.
The one who I believe; and I
believe everyone who
participates in the science will
agree with me, that no woman
gave birth to the likes of him after
him. This is Imaam Ahmad ibn
Hajr Al ‘Asqalaani, he clarifies
during his explanation many
mistakes in the Hadiths of Al
Bukhari. He not only address that
which is not found in the Hadiths
of Sahih Muslim rather (he also
addresses) what appears in some
of the reports and some of the
chain of narrations.
The criticism found in the Hadiths
of Sahih Al Bukhari is sometimes
related to the entire Hadith,
meaning it is said; this Hadith is
weak. And sometimes the
criticism is concerning a portion of
the Hadith. The origin of the
Hadith is authentic but there is a
part of it that is not authentic.
An example of the first type is the
Hadith of ibn Abbass; he said:
“The Prophet, prayers and peace
are upon him, married Maimunah
while in a state of Ihram.” This
Hadith is not from the Hadiths
which is only found in Sahih Al
Bukhari and not Sahih Muslim,
rather they both agreed upon the
narration of the Hadith in their
books. And the reason for this, is
the report of this Hadith comes
from the narrator and he is
Abdullah ibn Abbass, and he is
morally impeccable. Thus the
chain of narration is authentic; no
one is able to criticize its narrator.
Whereas there are other Hadith
where there is room to criticize
the Hadith just from the
standpoint of the narrator.
An example from the men of Al
Bukhari, there is a man named:
Fulaih bin Sulaiman. Ibn Hajr
described him, in his book Al
Taqreeeb, as Sadooq (one who is
a level below reliable) with a bad
memory. Therefore if this person
narrates a Hadith in Sahih Al
Bukari, as a lone narrator and it is
not supported by a Mutabi’ah
(Two or more Hadith which are
the same, narrated by the same
Companion, while the rest of the
men in the chain are different) nor
it is supported by a Shaahid (Two
or more Hadith which are the
same narrated by different
Companions) then his Hadith
remains at the level of weak, that
which can be strengthen with a
Mutabi’ah or a Shaahid.
As for the Hadith of Maimunah,
that the Messenger of Allah
prayers and peace are upon him,
married her while he was in a
state of Ihram, there is no room to
criticize the chain of narration due
to the lone narration as in the
case of Fulaih bin Sulaiman for
example. No, all of the people in
the chain of narration are reliable
and trustworthy. For that reason
you do not find those who criticize
this Hadith from the scholars, who
preceded us by generations, that
they found any angle to criticize
this Hadith except concerning the
first narrator in the Hadith, ibn
Abbass and he is a noble
Companion.
They said this was a surmise from
ibn Abbass and that is because
he was young; from one
standpoint. And from another
standpoint, in his narration his
contradicted the person in the
Hadith, meaning the wife of the
Prophet prayers and peace are
upon him, who was Maimunah.
As it has been authentically
narrated from her the Prophet
prayers and peace are upon him,
married her while neither of them
was in a state of Ihram. Therefore
this Hadith was the surmise of the
first narrator, him being ibn
Abbass. Thus this Hadith is weak.
And it is as you see; a limited
number of words. “He married
Maimunah while while is a state
of Ihram.” Four words (in the
original Arabic) “He married
Maimunah while while is a state
of Ihram.”
Similar to this Hadith and perhaps
it is longer, there is another
example in Sahih Al Bukhari
The second category: The Hadith
could be in its origin authentic,
but one of the narrators erred by
inserting in the text a sentence
that was not from the Hadith of
the Prophet, prayers and peace
be upon him.
An example of that is the well-
known Hadith in Sahih Al Bukhari
that the Prophet, prayers and
peace are upon him said: “Verily
my nation will come on the Day of
Judgment with bright streaks of
light from the traces of wudu.”
Up until this point the Hadith is
authentic, and it has many
supporting Hadiths. One of the
narrators in Sahih Al Bukhari
added: “Thus whoever is able to
extend his streaks then let him do
so”. Al Hafidh bin Hajr Al
Asqalaani, and Ibn Al Qayyim Al
Jawziyah, and his Shaykh ibn Al
Tamiyyah, and Al Hafidh Al
Muntharee, and other scholars
have said this addition was
inserted and it is not from the
speech of the Messenger of Allah,
prayers and peace are upon him;
rather it is from the speech of Abu
Huraira.
Thus the answer is complete in
reference to the first condition,
meaning I criticized some Hadiths
and I have been proceeded by
many Imaams. As for did I or
someone other than me author a
book (surrounding this topic) then
I did not author a book. As for
other than me, then they have
authored books, but we are not
able to mention a book today in
this regard. This is the answer to
what you asked