(Series of Answers by the Eminent Scholar Ata Bin Khalil Abu al-Rashta, Ameer of Hizb ut-Tahrir, to Questions from Visitors to his Facebook Page "Fiqhi")
Answer to Question
To Osama Ayyat
Question:
Assalamu Alaikum Wa Rahmatullah Wa Barakatuh, may Allah give you life, our Sheikh.
I have a question regarding the Science of Hadith:
The scholars defined a Sahih (authentic) hadith as: that which is transmitted by a continuous chain of upright narrators with precise memory (adl dhabit) from similar narrators from the beginning of the chain to its end, without being anomalous (shadh) or defective (mu'allal). These are the criteria for certifying a hadith. However, I find many scholars classifying Da'if (weak) hadiths as Sahih (or Hasan) through Shawahid (supporting narrations) and Mutaba’at (corroborations). For example, a hadith may come through a certain path and be weak, and then it has Shawahid or Mutaba’at that are also weak; nonetheless, we see scholars authenticating the hadith via these supports. To what extent are these Shawahid and Mutaba’at considered valid? When do they have an effect on the authentication of a hadith?
I hope for an answer, and may Allah bless you.
Answer:
Wa Alaikum Assalam Wa Rahmatullah Wa Barakatuh,
Before answering the question, it is necessary to clarify some related terms such as "Al-Shawahid, Al-Mutaba’at, Al-Matn, and Al-Sanad." These are technical terms in the Science of Hadith, and I will clarify them by providing examples:
- It was reported in Musnad ash-Shafi'i: Malik informed us, on the authority of Abdullah bin Dinar, on the authority of Abdullah bin Umar (ra) that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:
شَهْرُ تِسْعٌ وَعِشْرُونَ، فَلَا تَصُومُوا حَتَّى تَرَوُا الْهِلَالَ، وَلَا تُفْطِرُوا حَتَّى تَرَوْهُ، فَإِنْ غُمَّ عَلَيْكُمْ فَأَكْمِلُوا الْعِدَّةَ ثَلَاثِينَ
"The month is twenty-nine [days], so do not fast until you see the crescent moon, and do not break your fast until you see it. If it is obscured from you, then complete the count to thirty."
The Matn (text) is the speech where the Sanad ends. In this hadith, it is the saying of the Prophet ﷺ: "The month is twenty-nine... (to the end of the hadith)."
The Sanad (chain) is the series of men (narrators) who convey the Matn to its speaker. The Sanad of this hadith is: Ash-Shafi'i from Malik from Abdullah bin Dinar from Abdullah bin Umar from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.
This hadith was not only narrated by Ash-Shafi'i from Malik; rather, Abdullah bin Maslamah also narrated it from Malik with the same chain from Abdullah bin Umar. Al-Bukhari narrated in his Sahih: Abdullah bin Maslamah narrated to us, Malik narrated to us, from Abdullah bin Dinar, from Abdullah bin Umar (ra), that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:
الشَّهْرُ تِسْعٌ وَعِشْرُونَ لَيْلَةً، فَلاَ تَصُومُوا حَتَّى تَرَوْهُ، فَإِنْ غُمَّ عَلَيْكُمْ فَأَكْمِلُوا العِدَّةَ ثَلاَثِينَ
"The month is twenty-nine nights, so do not fast until you see it. If it is obscured from you, then complete the count to thirty."
Thus, Abdullah bin Maslamah followed (taba'a) Ash-Shafi'i in narrating this hadith; meaning, he narrated the hadith from the teacher of Ash-Shafi'i, who is Malik, with the mentioned chain. Therefore, the narration of Abdullah bin Maslamah is called a "Mutaba’ah" (corroboration), and in this case, it is called a "complete corroboration" (mutaba'ah tammah)...
- Similarly, Muslim narrated this hadith in his Sahih from Abdullah bin Umar as follows: Abu Bakr bin Abi Shaybah narrated to us, Abu Usamah narrated to us, Ubaydullah narrated to us, from Nafi’, from Ibn Umar (ra), that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ mentioned Ramadan, struck his hands together and said:
الشَّهْرُ هَكَذَا، وَهَكَذَا، وَهَكَذَا - ثُمَّ عَقَدَ إِبْهَامَهُ فِي الثَّالِثَةِ - فَصُومُوا لِرُؤْيَتِهِ، وَأَفْطِرُوا لِرُؤْيَتِهِ، فَإِنْ أُغْمِيَ عَلَيْكُمْ فَاقْدِرُوا لَهُ ثَلَاثِينَ
"The month is like this, like this, and like this—then he folded his thumb on the third time—so fast upon seeing it, and break your fast upon seeing it. If it is obscured from you, then determine it as thirty."
In this narration of the hadith, Nafi’ followed (taba'a) Abdullah bin Dinar in narrating from Abdullah bin Umar. This is called an "incomplete corroboration" (mutaba’ah qasirah) because it did not occur at the beginning of the chain...
- An-Nasa'i narrated this hadith in his Sunan as follows: Muhammad bin Abdullah bin Yazid informed us, he said: Sufyan narrated to us, from Amr bin Dinar, from Muhammad bin Hunayn, from Ibn Abbas, who said: I was surprised at those who precede the month, while the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:
إِذَا رَأَيْتُمُ الْهِلَالَ فَصُومُوا، وَإِذَا رَأَيْتُمُوهُ فَأَفْطِرُوا، فَإِنْ غُمَّ عَلَيْكُمْ فَأَكْمِلُوا الْعِدَّةَ ثَلَاثِينَ
"When you see the crescent moon, fast, and when you see it, break your fast. If it is obscured from you, then complete the count to thirty."
It is clear that this narration of the hadith is through another chain from a different companion, who is Ibn Abbas, and not from Abdullah bin Umar. The hadith of An-Nasa’i is called a "Shahid" (witness/supporting narration) for the hadith of Ash-Shafi'i mentioned above, as well as for the hadiths of Al-Bukhari and Muslim... Similarly, each of the hadiths of Ash-Shafi'i, Al-Bukhari, and Muslim above are called Shawahid for the hadith of An-Nasa’i... If the text of the Shahid hadith differs in wording but is similar in meaning, it is called a "Shahid bi-al-ma’na" (witness in meaning). An example is the hadith of Al-Bukhari in his Sahih: Adam narrated to us, Shu'bah narrated to us, Muhammad bin Ziyad narrated to us, who said: I heard Abu Hurairah (ra) say: The Prophet ﷺ said, or he said: Abu al-Qasim ﷺ said:
صُومُوا لِرُؤْيَتِهِ وَأَفْطِرُوا لِرُؤْيَتِهِ، فَإِنْ غُبِّيَ عَلَيْكُمْ فَأَكْمِلُوا عِدَّةَ شَعْبَانَ ثَلاَثِينَ
"Fast upon seeing it and break your fast upon seeing it. If it is hidden from you, then complete the count of Sha’ban to thirty."
The text of this hadith is similar to the text of Ash-Shafi'i’s hadith in meaning, but not in wording, because it specifically mentions the month of Sha’ban...
Now we come to the answer to the question:
- Hadiths where the reason for weakness is the narrator’s immorality (fisq), being accused of lying, or similar reasons, are not strengthened by other hadiths. Rather, they are rejected and not acted upon. It is stated in the book The Islamic Personality (Al-Shakhsiyyah al-Islamiyyah), Volume 1:
(...It is an error to say that a weak hadith, if it comes through multiple weak paths, rises to the level of Hasan or Sahih. For if the weakness of the hadith is due to the immorality of its narrator or his being accused of lying, then if it comes through other paths of this type, it only increases in weakness...) End quote.
Ibn al-Salah said in his Muqaddimah:
(Not every weakness in a hadith is removed by its coming through multiple facets; rather, that varies:
...Among that is weakness that is not removed by such means, due to the strength of the weakness and the inability of this "restorer" (al-jabir) to mend or resist it. That is like the weakness that arises from the narrator being accused of lying, or the hadith being anomalous (shadh).) End quote.
- There are narrations of hadiths where one or more narrators have poor memory (su' al-hifz) or are "hidden" (mastur - meaning their reliability is not fully known), etc., but they are not accused of lying or immorality... meaning that the cause of weakness refers back to memory and precision, not to truthfulness or religion... These narrations, if taken alone, would be judged as weak due to the weakness of some men in the chain... However, upon tracking the narrations, it becomes clear that these narrations have valid Mutaba’at and Shawahid; meaning, they are suitable to strengthen the narration in question. They "mend" (yajbur) the poor memory and remove the text from being anomalous (shadh) or rejected (munkar)... In this case, we do not judge the hadith as weak; rather, it becomes a Hasan hadith because it was narrated through another facet that mended the defect due to which the hadith could have been weak... It is stated in the book The Islamic Personality, Volume 1:
(Hasan: It is that whose source is known and its men are famous, and upon it revolves most of the hadith. It is that which most scholars accept and the general jurists use. That is, its chain must not contain someone accused of lying, and it must not be an anomalous (shadh) hadith. It is of two types:
One of them: The hadith whose chain of narrators is not free from a "hidden" (mastur) narrator whose full eligibility has not been verified, yet he is not oblivious/frequently erroneous, nor is he accused of lying. Furthermore, the text of the hadith must have been narrated similarly from another facet, thus being removed from being anomalous (shadh) or rejected (munkar)...) End quote.
It is stated in the Muqaddimah of Ibn al-Salah:
(...It has been refined and clarified for me that the Hasan hadith is of two types:
One of them: The hadith whose chain of narrators is not free from a "hidden" (mastur) narrator whose eligibility has not been verified, yet he is not oblivious with many mistakes in what he narrates, nor is he accused of lying in the hadith—meaning he has not shown intentional lying in hadith nor any other reason for immorality—and the text of the hadith has nonetheless been recognized by being narrated similarly or nearly so from another facet or more, until it is supported by the corroboration of whoever followed its narrator in the like of it, or by what it has of a witness (shahid), which is the arrival of another hadith similar to it. Thus, it is removed from being anomalous (shadh) or rejected (munkar). The words of At-Tirmidhi apply to this type...) End quote. He also said:
(...Not every weakness in a hadith is removed by its coming through multiple facets; rather, that varies:
Among it is weakness that is removed by that; by its weakness being arising from the poor memory of its narrator, while he is among the people of truthfulness and religion. If we see what he narrated has come through another facet, we know that it is among what he has memorized, and his precision in it was not impaired...) End quote.
Accordingly, one should not rush to judge hadiths as weak simply because of the presence of a "hidden" (mastur) man or one with poor memory in the chain... Rather, other narrations must be studied to identify corroborations and supporting witnesses... However, it should be noted that strengthening hadiths with Mutaba’at and Shawahid is a precise matter that requires deep knowledge and encompassing the sciences of hadith, the subtleties of narrations, and the science of "Discrediting and Attesting" (Al-Jarh wa al-Ta'dil). Not every corroboration or witness is considered sufficient to strengthen a hadith; rather, certain conditions must be met for them to be valid and suitable to mend the defect and to judge the hadith as acceptable.
I hope this subject has become clear, by the will of Allah.
Your brother,
Ata bin Khalil Abu al-Rashta
23 Shawwal 1437 AH
28/07/2016 CE
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