Is a Sahih Hadith True? (Part II)

Al hamdulillah, today we will complete the aforementioned topic. May Allah reward those who have been following this blog over the summer. With other chores taking precedence, I would discontinue the blog until Eid (at least) insha'Allah unless there is a topic someone out there would like help with specifically. Jazakumullahu khairen wassalamu alaikum.

The hadith that only some consider sahih (cont'd)

...And so the most just word pertaining to the recitation behind the Imam has been that when the follower of the Imam can hear his recitation, he should attentively listen to it and remain silent. He should not recite the fatihah nor anything other than it.¹

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1. There are other ahadith, such as one recorded by Tirmidhi who graded it Hasan, which indicate that the Messenger of Allah (sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) specifically allowed the recitation of Fatihah but not other than that. I am personally not clear with ibn Taymiyah makes this statement after considering that hadith not sufficiently authentic; or due to be being unaware of that hadith. But this is not the main subject of the discussion in any case - the point is reconciliation of hadith that only some declare sahih.

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And when he does not hear his recitation, he recites the Fatihah and what is extra over that. This is the statement of the majority of the early (Salaf) and latter generations (Khalaf). It is the chosen opinion of [Imam] Malik and his companions and Ahmed bin Hanbal and the majority of his companions; and it is one of the two opinions of ash-Shafi'i and it has been chosen by those of his companions who conducted thorough research. And it is the opinion of Muhammad bin al-Hasan and others from the companions of Abu Hanifah.

As for the statement of a group amongst the people of knowledge, like Abu Hanifah and Abu Yusuf: that there is no recitation behind the Imam - neither of the Fatihah nor any other; neither in the silent prayer nor in the loud one - then this is opposed by the statement of those who make the recitation of al-Fatihah obligatory, even if he hears the Imam reciting it ... and the explanation of this in detail is left to another occasion [I have skipped quite a lot of the translation in the elipses as our concern is with the status of a sahih hadith].

The primary objective here was to provide examples of hadith that are narrated in the Sahih but there is a difference over its being authentic with respect to some scholars. So sometimes one scholar has the stronger opinion and another time he has the weaker opinion. And the occasions of juristic exertion (ijtihad) in the authentication of a hadith are similar to the occasions of juristic exertion in the legal rulings. As for what the scholars agree upon to be sound - then that is like the scholars agreeing upon a legal ruling. This is not but the truth.

And the majority of the authenticated texts are of this nature. And the generality of these texts have thus in fact been narrated from the Prophet (may Allah pray for him and grant peace) from a number of perspectives from such-and-such narrator and such-and-such narrator; but without any collusion. Thus such narrations lead to knowledge that is definite.

Length of a sahih hadith as an indicator

Then indeed, when the hadith scholar narrates a long hadith that he heard and another narrates it also mentioning that he heard it, and it is known that the two did not collude in composing it - then it is learnt that this is the truth. That is because had it not been the truth, then it would have been falsehood - whether intentionally or unintentionally. For, indeed, when the hadith scholar narrates against the truth: he is either lying intentionally or unintentionally making a mistake. So when it is ascertained that he is not relying on something that is false and neither has he made a mistake, his hadith becomes correct. And the long narration, usually preculudes that two narrations should agree with each other in terms of their composition - when there has been no explicity collaboration.

And this is found to occur abundantly in the case where a hadith has been narrated by both Abu Hurairah and Abu Sa'eed [al-Khudri] or both Abu Hurairah and 'Aishah or Abu Hurairah and ibn 'Umar or ibn Abbas [may Allah be pleased with all of them]. And, of course, it is known that one of them did not take from the other. For example, the hadith of the Allah manifesting Himself on the Day of Judgement is quite long: Abu Hurairah and Abu Sa'eed narrate it without a single letter being out of place. In fact, Abu Hurairah['s version] agrees with it completely, save a word towards the end. Thus, of course, it is the case that the Prophet (sallallahu 'alaihi wasallam) narrated it while in a single sitting and both of them heard it in that sitting - so he says this is what he heard from him in a sitting, and this is what I heard from him at another place. And the whole of it is gathered together in the Hadith of the Ziyaadah² and Allah knows best.

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2. The Ziyaadah (i.e. the extra) is a term used in the ayat 10:26 as a reward for the doers of good. It seems ibn Taymiyah is referring to the hadith that explain that this ziyaadah is actually the believers seeing Allah on the day of judgement.
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