The necessity of understanding hadith

We found that many of the authors of Islamic magazines mention ahadith and attribute it to the prophet -

prayers and peace of Allah be upon him- without mentioning its sources from the books of Sunan. In

addition to that, they confirm its attribution to the prophet -prayers and peace of Allah be upon him-, and it

could be in fact weak or fabricated. There are among them (i.e the writers) who write pages in its

explanation. And among them who use what the hadith scholars agreed upon its fabrication; as evidence.

As what happened in some of the last issues of the magazine.

So to those honorable men and their likes from the preachers and the dawah givers, I present you this

word as an advice and a reminder:
It is not allowed for a Muslim to attribute a hadith for the prophet -prayers and peace of Allah be upon him-

except after he makes sure of its authenticity based on the rules founded by the hadith scholars. And the

evidence on that is the prophet -prayers and peace of Allah be upon him- saying: “Fear attributing a saying

to me unless you know it, for he who lies on my behalf (attribute a false hadith to me) while he knows, he

shall find his place in hellfire.” [Reported by Ibn Aby shaybah with an authentic chain] as mentioned in

(Fayd al-Qadeer)

And verifying has two ways:
First: That the student look in the chain of transmission and its men and then judge on it by what the rules

of hadith science indicates; whether it is authentic or weak, without following a certain Imam in his

authentication or weakening for the hadith. And that is a very rare thing in this age, and only a few people

do it unfortunately.
The second: That he rely on a book that its author only wrote authentic hadiths in, such as the two

authentic books of hadith and their like. Or he could rely upon the opinion of the hadith scholars like Imam

Ahmad, Ibn Ma’een, Aby Hatem Ar-Razy and others from the earlier scholars. Or An-Nawawy, Az-

Zahby,Az-zyl’y, Al-Asqalany and the like of the recent scholars.

And this method is easy for the one who desire the truth, but he will need some effort in revising and

looking up for the hadith. And this is a must do act, that everyone one who is jealous on his religion and

keen on his shari’ah should do, so as not to ascribe to it what is not from it. And that’s why the Jurist Ibn

Hajr Al-Haythamy said in this book (Al-Fatawy Al-Madiniyah p.32):

And he was asked -may Allah be pleased with him- about the preacher going up the Menbar (platform)

each Friday, and narrating many ahadith without mentioning its sources or narrators, what should he do?

So he answered with his saying: “what he mentioned in his preach of ahadith without mentioning their

narrator is allowed, with the condition that he be among the people of knowledge in hadith. Or that he

copied them from a book that was written by a hadith scholar. But if he copied them from books that were

not written by hadith scholars then it is not allowed! And who did that should be blamed. And that is the

condition with most of the preachers now, once they find a preach, they study its ahadith by heart and use

it without verifying whether it has an origin or not. So the rulers of every country must prevent its

preachers from doing so.”

And then he said: “So every preacher must mention his chain of transmission for his narration, and if it

was an authentic one then there is no objection on it, else, it is permissible to object on his saying, and the

one in charge is allowed to isolate him from his position as a preacher so as not to dare cross the lines

with the exalted Sunnah with no right.”

Muhammad Nasr Ad-Deen Al-Albani
The source: At-Tamdun Al-Islamy magazine