An Intelligent Response from Shaykh Al-Albaanee to A Question About Reports of Trustworthy People

Wednesday 20-Jan-2021, 9:22PM / 1219

A questioner asked Al-Imaam Al-Muhaddith Muhammad Naasirudeen Al-Albaanee - rahimahullaah - if what Al-Imaam Al-Muhaddith Ahmad Shaakir - rahimahullaah - said about the rejection of reports of thiqaat (trustworthy people) in a particular way (mentioned in the audio but not clear), that such will have a semblance with the way of the Mu'tazilah (the rationalists). Al-Imaam Al-Albaanee - rahimahullaah - was asked about that alleged statement from Al-Imaam Ahmad Shaakir - rahimahullaah.

Al-Imaam Al-Albaanee answered: 'This is question is about reports of thiqaat, right?'

The questioner answered in the affirmative and explained further.

Al-Imaam Al-Albaanee - rahimahullaah - said: I can't recall that statement of Ahmad Shaakir but let's assume he said it, the two comparisons brought do not go because the bulk of Ulamaa of hadeeth especially the forerunners among them such as  al-Bukhaaree, Muslim, Abu Haatim and Ad-Daaruqutnee (in fact) the book of Ad-Daaruqutnee is on this basis (I want to mention). You can go over a hadeeth, look at its chain from the beginning to the end and conclude that it is authentic whereby if you look up the hadeeth via another chain of trustworthy people you will rule that it is shaadh (that is, conflicting with the earlier one).

What therefore is shaadh - if we say when a report is rejected due to some factors - that it is the way of the Mu'tazilah? This kind of position is defeating what the people of hadeeth are unanimously upon that a saheeh hadeeth (is defined as) what a thiqah reports from a thiqah like him till the end of the chain but without a conflict in it and hidden defect.

So if this definition (of a saheeh report) is not accepted - due to the analogy mentioned (by you) before then there is no...(statement not clear here).

Al-Imaam Ash-Shaafi'ee (rahimahullaah) said: 
'A shaadh report is not when a thiqah reports what another thiqah does not report rather it is when a thiqah reports what conflicts with what another thiqah reports.'

End of qoute from Al-Imaam Al-Albaanee - rahimahullaah. 

Note: Here Al-Imaam Al-Albaanee - rahimahullaah - was establishing the fact that not all the reports of thiqaat (trustworthy people in narrations and otherwise) are acceptable otherwise some Ahadeeth would not have been graded as Shaadh. He said that in a Shaadh report, it is the report of a thiqah that is being rejected because it conflicts with another thiqah that is more reliable. 

May Allaah be merciful to Al-Imaam Al-Albaanee.

Click here for the Shaykh's audio. 

Click here for the synopsis to the series and other articles in the series. 

Transcription by Aboo Aamir Ishaaq Abdurraheem Al-Atharee