Monday, 26 Jamadil Akhir 1432
In the name
of Allah most Gracious Most Merciful.
Along with many sahih Ahaadeeth, Fada'il A'mal is also known to contain a
number of weak Ahaadeeth. In fact many of the great Hadeeth collections contain
weak Ahaadeeth. This is the case with Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Ibn Maja, al-Bayhaqi,
al-Mustadrak of Imam Hakim, Mishkat al-Masabih, al-Tarqhib wa al-tarhib, etc.
Besides these, popular works such as the Ihya 'ulum al-din of Imam Ghazali is
one in which Allama 'Iraqi has judged many Ahaadeeth to be weak. However, these
works have been overwhelmingly accepted by the majority of traditional scholars
of Islam throughout the centuries. Furthermore, despite the rigorous
authentication of the Sahih of Imam Bukhari, his other works such as al-Adab
al-Mufrad and Juz' al-qira'a khalf al-imam contains many weak narrations.
What we understand from this is that it is not a crime to relate weak Ahaadeeth,
as some like to advocate. Individuals have risen in the last century who have
attempted to "purify" the books of the pious predecessors by sifting
the weak Ahaadeeth from the authentic (many a time with great injustice) and
have published the classical collection under new titles such as Sahih Sunan
al-Tirmidhi, Sahih Sunan Ibn Maja, etc.
The approach of the classical scholars was not such. It was accepted among them
that works on the subject of virtues and fada'il did not have to meet the same
levels of authenticity as was needed in discussions on the belief system of
Islam or the laws and rulings of the lawful and unlawful.
Last Updated ( Monday, 26 Jamadil Akhir 1432 09:20 )
