40 Nawawi
Hadiths
For example:
Imaam adh-Dhahabee [6] often agrees with al-Haakim in his 'Talkhees' of the latter's 'al-Mustadrak'; but then he disagrees in either 'al-Meezaan' or 'Muhadhdhab Sunan al-Bayhaqi' or other works.
Ibn al-Jawzi often includes a hadeeth in his book of fabricated narrations, 'al-Mawdoo`aat', which he also includes in his book of answering charges of weakness against hadeeth 'al-`Ilal al-Mutanahiyah'
Ibn Hibbaan often declares a narrator reliable, then we find that he includes him in 'al-Majrooheen', a book of weak narrators.
Ibn Hajr al-Asqalaanee often has different sayings about a particular narrator in his different books: 'Taqreeb at-Tahdheeb', 'Fath al-Baaree', and 'at-Talkhees al-Habeer'.
Are we to say that they contradict themselves?!! No, rather it is due to progressive research!
Examples:
1 - The hadeeth, "He who does not use kuhl (antimony) should apply it an odd number of times - he who does so has done well, and he who does not, then there is no harm..."
Ibn Hajr declares in 'at-Talkhees al-Habeer' (1/102-103) that it has a weakness since al-Husayn al-Hubraani is unknown, but in 'Fath al-Baaree' (1/206) he declares its isnaad to be hasan!
2 - The hadeeth about sending down verse 108 of Surah at-Tawba, that it was sent down concerning the people of Qubaa`.
Ibn Hajr declares its isnaad to be weak in 'at-Talkhees al-Habeer' (1/113), but in 'Fath al-Baaree' (7/195) and in 'ad-Diraayah' (1/97) he declares its isnaad to be saheeh.
3 - The hadeeth of ibn Umar (RA), "Two dead things and two types of blood have been made lawful for us....."
Ibn Hajr quotes it in 'Bulugh al-Maraam' (no. 11) and says, "it contains weakness", but then declares it saheeh in 'at-Talkhees' (1/26)
4 - The hadeeth, "indeed Allaah and His Angels send blessings upon the first rows"
Imaam Nawawee declares it saheeh in 'al-Majmoo' (4/301), but he only declares it hasan in 'Riyaadh as-Saaliheen' (no. 1090)
5 - The hadeeth, "remember the Destroyer of pleasures: Death"
Ibn Hajr declares it hasan in 'Takhreej al-Adhkaar' [as occurs in 'al-Futoohaat ar-Rabbaaniyyah (4/50)], whereas in 'at-Talkhees' (2/101) he agrees with ibn Hibbaan, al-Haakim and ibn as-Sakn that it is saheeh.
6 - al-Haafidh Ibn Hajr declares the narrator Idrees ibn Yazeed al-Awdi to be reliable in 'at-Taqreeb', but in 'Fath al-Baaree' (2/115) he declares him to be weak.
7 - About Nawf ibn Fadaalah, Ibn Hajr says in 'at-Taqreeb', "Mastoor (condition unknown)", whereas in 'Fath al-Baaree' (8/413) he says of him, "sadooq (truthful)."
8 - About `Abdur Rahmaan ibn 'Abdul `Azeez al-Awsee, Ibn Hajr says in 'at-Taqreeb', "truthful but makes mistakes", but in 'Fath al-Baaree' (3/210) he declares him weak.
9 - In his notes to the 'Muqaddimah Ibn as-Salaah' (1/355-6), Ibn Hajr declares a hadeeth narrated through Muhammad ibn `Ajlaan to be saheeh, whereas in 'Amaali al-Adhkaar' (1/110) he explains that the hadeeth does not rise above the level of hasan.
10 - al-Haafidh ibn Hajr quotes in 'at-Talkhees' (4/176) that an-Nawawee said in 'Rawdah at-Taalibeen' about the hadeeth, "there is no vow in disobedience", "it is weak by agreement of the scholars of hadeeth"; however, ibn Hajr contradicts him by saying, "it was declared saheeh by at-Tahaawee and Abu Alee ibn as-Sakan, so where is the agreement?"
11 - An-Nawawee says in 'al-Majmoo' (2/42) about the hadeeth concerning touching the penis, "is it not but a part of you?", "it is weak by agreement of the memorisers." However the hadeeth has been declared saheeh by ibn Hibbaan, ibn Hazm, at-Tabaraanee, ibn at-Turkamaanee and others, therefore ibn Abdul Haadee says in 'al-Muharrar' (pg.19), "and the one quoting agreement upon it's being weak is mistaken."
So this principle itself is enough to demolish what Saqqaaf and his disciples say from its very foundations!!
| "...And we do not aspire to a single rule/principle for the (class of) hasan which will cover all hasan ahaadeeth, rather I have no hope of that, since how many ahaadeeth there are about which the memorising scholars of hadeeth are undecided as to whether it is hasan or da`eef or saheeh! Indeed a single memorising scholar may change his opinion (ijtihaad) about a single hadeeth, so one day he declares it saheeh and one day hasan and perhaps even declares it to have weakness - and this is true since the hasan hadeeth is declared by the scholar to have a weakness which prevents its rising to the level of saheeh, so in this sense it does have weakness and so the hasan hadeeth will not be free from weakness - and if it were free then it would be saheeh by agreement." |
The few ahaadeeth about which the verdicts of Shaykh al-Albaanee have differed fall into this category, so what is said about him is to be said about the previous scholars and Imaams!
Imaam as-Suyootee says in 'al-La`aali al-Masnoo`ah' (1/114), "know that the practice of the scholars of hadeeth such as al-Haakim, ibn Hibbaan, al-Uqailee and others was that they would judge a particular hadeeth to be baseless with respect to a particular chain, due to the fact that it's narrator had falsely attached that chain to a certain text, whereas the text itself is well known from other chains...."
Imaam Abu Amr ibn as-Salaah says in , 'Uloom al-Hadeeth' (pp92-93), "if you find a hadeeth with a weak isnaad, then you may say, 'this is weak', meaning that is weak with this isnaad but you may not say, 'this is weak', meaning its text is weak based merely upon the weakness of that chain, since it may be reported by another authentic chain by which the hadeeth is established...."
So Saqqaaf is either ignorant of these facts (as many examples that he quotes of 'self-contradiction' from al-Albaanee are of the same nature as above) and does not know what he is talking about, or he knows and is a liar who conceals the truth! The sweeter of these two possibilities is bitter, and the better of the two is evil!! So how about when he combines the pair of them?!
And "the fully competent one is he whose mistakes are limited." [8]
Ibn al-Mubaarak (RA), said, "if the good qualities of a person (greatly) outweigh his bad qualities, then his bad qualities are not mentioned, and if his bad qualities (greatly) outweigh his good qualities, then his good qualities are not mentioned." [9 ]
adh-Dhahabee says in 'as-Siyar' (16/285), "completeness is very rare, so a scholar is praised for the may virtues he has, so good qualities are not buried due to a single failing."
Ash-Sha`bee said, "if you were right ninety-nine time and erred once, they would seize the single error and forget the ninety-nine...."[10]
So even if, for the sake of argument, we were to accept all the criticisms and attacks made by Saqqaaf against shaykh al-Albaanee, then their number, in comparison to the great number of works written by the shaykh and the huge number of ahaadeeth he has checked, and the enormous number of isnaads he has researched and commented upon, is insignificant. Since the number of works of shaykh al-Albaanee printed so far is more than seventy, and the number of his works in manuscript form is as many again if not more, and he has researched and commented on over 30, 000 isnaads, spending sixty years in the study of the books of the Sunnah and being in the company of, and in contact with, its other scholars.
A tiny proportion of Saqqaaf's criticisms are correct and agree with the principle given by the Prophet, sallallaahu alayhi wa sallam, "he has spoken the truth, but he is a very great liar" [11], since we find that Saqqaaf's usual currency is merely misguidance, deliberate distortions, twisting of words and lies and falsification.
A certain scholar whom Saqqaaf respects and still visits wrote upon the copy of Saqqaaf's work ('Self- Contradictions of al-Albaanee'), "your errors would only deceive a fool, an ignorant person or a malicious one like yourself, and you O (...) unfortunately have gathered all these three qualities in your book, and the points you have quoted against Shaykh Naasir - may Allaah protect him from ignorant ones like you - show only that you have not read a single book about hadeeth and its sciences in your life, and I do not find this unlikely since your desire is fame and not knowledge. O Allaah! Do not take us into account for what the fools amongst us have done."
Some noble brothers mentioned a saying to Saqqaaf's book, "if you wish to become known, then urinate in the well of Zamzam!" - Likewise with Saqqaaf, could he find no other route to fame than by writing what he has against the Scholar of Hadeeth of this age, and by calling Shaykh al-Islaam ibn Taymiyyah a kaafir?!!
It is not permissible to use these a examples in the first place since the shaykh, as any scholar or student of knowledge should know, due to various circumstances and well-known reasons, did only a small amount of checking and footnotes upon these books.
a) As for 'Mishkaat' then the publisher wrote in its Introduction, "We requested that the great scholar of Hadeeth, Shaykh Muhammad Naasir-ud-Deen al-Albaani should help us in the checking of Mishkaat and take responsibility for adding footnotes for any ahaadeeth needing them, and researching and reproducing their sources and authenticity where needed, and correcting any deficiencies, so he agreed to that, may Allaah reward him well. That was done in the first part of the book, but then his time, which is filled with other necessary services to the Sunnah of Allaah's Messenger, may Allaah bless him and grant him peace, became restricted and he excused himself from its continuation, except that we requested that he should provide whatever benefit he was able from his vast knowledge and examine the rest of the book quickly, and add any notes that he found to be necessary and had time to do; he did this, and this was the cause of many points of benefit ..."
The Shaykh also explained this himself in 'Silsilah as-Saheehah'[13] (1/346), "It was a case of hurried footnotes due to circumstances which did not allow us to follow up fully the chains of narration of the ahaadeeth which is our usual practice."
All of this is known to Saqqaaf, and he has quoted from it in his book !!
b) Likewise as regards 'Saheeh Ibn Khuzaimah', the work of checking was not by shaykh al-Albaanee but rather by Dr. Muhammad Mustafaa al-A`zami, who then requested that shaykh Naasir have a general look at his checking and do a general revision, adding anything necessary - such that it would not be a new checking. Therefore, many of the shaykh's notes are extremely abbreviated, or merely the completion of something unfinished by al-A`zami ...
Now, many of the alleged contradictions quoted by Saqqaaf are to be found in these two books, their nos. in Saqqaaf's alleged book of al-Albaanee's contradictions being:
1-3,5-16,19,20,21,26,32-49,51,52,54-69,72,73,75-78,81-85,87, 90,95,103,143,144,147,153,158,164,188-189,198,199,240-250 !! These in fact constitute nearly half the book!
Further, in order to increase the number of apparent errors and the size of his book, Saqqaaf has repeated a number of the ahaadeeth and his points of criticism in various places with different numbers, for example:
What he quotes on p. 7 he repeats on p. 70 & p. 161 !
Similarly, p. 9 pp. 114, 136 &140 !
p. 10 p. 98 !
p. 10 p. 11 & p. 140 !
p. 64 p. 105 !
p. 96 p. 145 !
And likewise in many other places!
SO WE ASK THE READER TO CONSIDER CAREFULLY WHAT HAS BEEN STATED ABOVE SO THAT HE OR SHE CAN FULLY UNDERSTAND WHAT FOLLOWS.
{6} He is the Muhaddith and Imaam adh-Dhahabee.
The work quoted from here, 'at-Talkhees' is his checking to 'al-Mustadrak' of al-Haakim which claimed to include all the ahaadeeth that fulfilled the criteria of Bukhaaree and Muslim but were not included by them. Unfortunately al-Haakim did not live up to this claim and included in his work hundreds of weak and fabricated ahaadeeth and hence the need for this checking. This single example, not to speak of the others, is enough to show the total lack of understanding of the one who challenges to bring 'ten such contradictions' that are mentioned in 'al-Albani Unveiled' from the classical memorising scholars. Would such a person now declare al-Haakim, and the other scholars mentioned incompetent?!
Adh-Dhahabee also authored many other works relating to hadeeth science and biographies of narrators, from amongst them: 'Siyar A`laam an-Nubalaa', 'al-Meezaan', and 'ad-Du`afaa'.
{7} 'Tabaqaat' of as-Subki (10/52)
{8} 'Siyar A`laam an-Nubalaa' of adh-Dhahabee (4/93)
{9} 'Siyar' (8/532)
{10} 'Hilyah al-Awliyaah' of Abu Nu`aym (4/320-321)
{11} Saheeh al-Bukhaaree from Abu Hurayra, in the hadeeth about the devil stealing from the charity
{12} Mishkaat al-Masaabeeh is a collection of hadeeth written by at-Tabrizi
{13} 'Silsilah as-Saheehah' is al-Albaanee's collection of saheeh and hasan ahaadeeth, along with detailed documentation and analysis of the various routes and texts of the hadeeth under discussion, and sometimes with a discussion of various points of fiqh and benefit which are derived from the hadeeth. Thus far 6 volumes have been printed each volume containing 500 ahaadeeth,
It has a sister book called, 'Silsilah ad-Da`eefah' which is a similar collection of weak and fabricated ahaadeeth. Printed thus far in 5 volumes, each volume containing 500 ahaadeeth.