The Strength Of Weak Hadiths

Hadith – a form of revelation

Revelation (Wahy) is of two types:

The Quran – The Quran is the word of Allah Almighty which was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. It is that unchanged, perfect book which contains guidance and has no doubt in it.

The Sunnah/Hadith¹ – The words of the Prophet ﷺ are also a form of revelation revealed by Allah. The meanings were revealed by Allah and the Prophet ﷺ was inspired to put them in his own words.

Allah Most High says about His beloved Prophet ﷺ:

وَمَا يَنْطِقُ عَنِ الْهَوَىٰ
إِنْ هُوَ إِلَّا وَحْيٌ يُوحَىٰ
He does not speak out of desire. It is only a revelation revealed.
Surah al-Najm:3-4

Abdullah ibn Amr reported:

I would write down everything I heard from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ wanting to memorize it, but the Quraysh told me not to do it. They said, “Do you write down everything you hear from him? The Prophet ﷺ is a human being; he speaks when he is angry and pleased.”

So I stopped writing things down. I mentioned it to the Prophet ﷺ and he pointed to his mouth and he said:

“Write, for by the one in whose hand is my soul, nothing comes out of it but the truth.” (and he indicated his mouth).
Abu Dawud

The development of Hadith Sciences

A Hadith is that which is attributed to the Prophet ﷺ in terms of:

His words
His actions
His tacit approvals
His description

At the time of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, the Sahaba would hear Hadith directly from him ﷺ, and they would narrate these blessed sayings to others who were not present. When the Prophet ﷺ passed away, the Hadiths continued to be narrated. They would be memorised, written down, narrated, studied, interpreted, and implemented.

As time went on and more people started to narrate Hadiths, a need arose to establish which statements and actions could be soundly attributed to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and which could not. This need was fulfilled by the rightly guided scholars (Ulema) and the science of Hadith methodology developed. Amongst other benefits, this science allowed the scholars to scrutinise chains of transmission (sanad) and rank Hadiths according to soundness.²

Categories of Hadith

A Hadith can be divided into various categories. One of the ways of categorising Hadith is based upon the strength or weakness of its chain of transmission (sanad). Based upon this classification, a Hadith can be:³

Saheeh (Sound) – a narration which is safe from criticism in its chain of transmission and in the text.
Hasan (Fair) – a narration which has narrators that are lesser than the category of Saheeh in terms of accuracy and exactness.
Daeef (Weak) – a narration which does not meet the condition of Saheeh or Hasan

The above categories have various subcategories. For example, some of the Hadith scholars have said there are eighty-one types of weak Hadith.⁴

Weak Hadiths

With regards to weak Hadiths, Dr Mostafa al-Badawi makes an incredible observation:

“…the weakest hadith in our possession is incomparably stronger than all the sacred texts of all other religions put together, as well as all pre-modern historical sources for that matter, since for them the technique of authenticating texts by requiring a reliable Isnad or chain of transmission had not been invented yet.” ⁵

The above statement should be enough to cause the heart of every Muslim to be filled with gratitude and love for Allah Most High. How great is the religion of Islam which has not only preserved the Quran, the word of Allah, but also preserved the sayings of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, to the extent that we know what he surely said, what he may have said, and what he definitely did not say!

Now, whilst the fact that the weakest Hadith in Islam is stronger than all the sacred texts of the other religions combined is quite impressive, we must determine how significant weak Hadiths are within the Islamic framework. The question is; do weak Hadith have a place in the midst of Mutawatir, Saheeh and Hasan narrations?

Can weak Hadiths be used?

Sheikh Nur al-Din Itr says that there are three opinions amongst the Ulema in this regard:

1. Weak Hadiths can be used unrestrictedly i.e. in declaring something to be halal, haram, fard, wajib etc. This is with the condition that there are no other (stronger) Hadiths on the topic. Some of the honourable Ulema went with this opinion such as Imam Ahmed (bin Hanbal), Abu Dawud and others.

2. It is recommended to act upon weak Hadiths related to good deeds (fada’il al-a’maal) in terms of (performing the) recommended and (leaving the) disliked. This is the school of the majority of the Hadith scholars, Fiqh scholars, and others. The agreement of the Ulema on this point is narrated by Imam al-Nawawi, Sheikh Mulla Ali al-Qari, and Ibn Hajr al-Haytami.

3. Weak Hadiths cannot be acted upon at all. This includes in virtuous actions or regarding the halal and haram. This position has been attributed to Al-Qadi Abu Bakr ibn al-Arabi. Shihab al-Khafaji and Halal al-Dawani also said it. Some of the contemporary writers also inclined towards this using as a proof the claim that it is just like the Fard and Haram i.e. it is all Sharia and that the Saheeh and Hasan Hadiths mean we are not in need of weak Hadiths.
Sheikh Nur al-Din Itr, Hukm al-Hadith al-Da’eef (Manhaj al-Naqd inda al-Muhadithin)

Upon further inspection and research it becomes clear that very few scholars took the third opinion. Even those whom this opinion is ascribed to (like Qadi Abu Bakr ibn al-Arabi) have statements which suggest otherwise⁶. It would not therefore be farfetched to say that no Sunni scholar unrestrictedly forbade the use of weak Hadiths.

The consensus (Ijma) of the scholars is that weak Hadiths can be narrated and acted upon, with certain conditions. This consensus is mentioned by Imam al-Nawawi and others, and is what is transmitted from the Imams of the Salaf (early Muslims)⁷. This was also the methodology of Imam Bukhari, the pioneer of the Saheeh compilation, who had books other than his Saheeh in which he used weak Hadiths and encouraged acting upon them (like in al-Adab al-Mufrad).

Historically this was always understood. However, in recent years some people took it upon themselves to vilify and attack weak Hadiths to the extent that statements like ‘brother the Hadith is weak’ are casually used to prevent other Muslims from carrying out good deeds. Additionally, people are prevented from mentioning beneficial Hadiths because they read on google or twitter that the Hadith is weak. It is therefore necessary to shed light on the following:

The difference between weak and fabricated Hadiths
How weak Hadiths can be used according to the consensus of scholars
How weak Hadiths cannot be used
The conditions for narrating weak Hadith
Establishing whether a Hadith is actually weak or not

The difference between weak and fabricated Hadiths

Unfortunately, it has become a habit amongst some modern groups to speak about weak hadiths and fabricated (mawdu) hadiths as if they are the same thing. Daeef and mawdu are not synonyms. A fabricated Hadith is a narration falsely attributed to the Prophet ﷺ. If a Hadith is declared fabricated, it has been established that he ﷺ did not say this statement. A weak Hadith however is not fabricated. If a Hadith is weak, it does not mean the Messenger of Allah ﷺ did not say it. Rather, he may have said it but we are not certain (as we are with a Saheeh Hadith for example).

Sheikh Gibril Haddad explains:

Godfearing precaution toward the Prophet ﷺ goes both ways: not only with respect to steering clear from attributing to him what he never said or did, but also with respect to steering clear from belying what he might have said or done.⁸

It is therefore incorrect for anyone to make blanket statements about weak Hadiths and say with certainty that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ did not utter those words. Nonetheless, out of caution, weak Hadiths have limits on how they may or may not be used.

How weak Hadiths can be used according to the consensus of scholars

As mentioned above, according to the consensus of scholars, weak Hadiths can be used when in relation to good deeds (fada’il al-a’maal). This means that when an action is known in the religion to be good and virtuous, a weak Hadith encouraging that action can be acted upon. Examples of this are weak Hadiths which encourage the recitation of a particular Surah or a particular formula of remembrance (dhikr). Reciting the Quran and performing dhikr are established beyond doubt to be excellent actions. Using weak Hadiths to further encourage these is therefore permissible and praiseworthy.

In addition to virtuous actions, weak Hadiths can also be used for:

Encouraging good acts and warning against sins (targeeb wa tarheeb)
Mentioning of good traits (dhikr al-manaqib)⁹

How weak Hadiths cannot be used

It is not permissible to use weak Hadiths in matters of:

Beliefs (Aqidah)
Legal rulings (Ahkaam) (i.e. declaring something to be Fard, Wajib, Haram etc. based upon weak Hadith)

As mentioned before however, some of the early Imams (like Imam Ahmed bin Hanbal) even allowed weak Hadiths to be used in legal rulings.¹⁰

The conditions for narrating weak Hadith

Whilst it has been established clearly that weak Hadiths can be used, there are certain conditions set by the Imams. Some of the Imams set very few conditions¹¹, such as:

The Hadith be related to good deeds and not to beliefs (Aqidah) and legal rulings.
The Hadith not be forged

Some added further conditions. Sayyid Alawi al-Maliki mentions that the agreed upon conditions are¹²:

It is used for good deeds and not beliefs, legal rulings, or Tafsir (Quranic commentary)
The Hadith should not be very weak or fabricated
It should have an existing basis in the religion
He should not act upon it believing it is firmly established. He acts upon it out of caution.

He says that some added a fifth condition which was:

There is no sound Hadith which contradicts it

As we can see, none of the Imams unrestrictedly forbade the use of weak Hadiths. Rather, some merely set more stringent conditions than others for their usage.

Establishing whether a Hadith is actually weak or not

Another issue which branches from this discussion is the is the issue of grading Hadiths. The science of Hadith grading is more complex and sophisticated than one may imagine and this article is not the place to do justice to this noble science.

What we want to clarify here is that it is possible for one Hadith scholar to consider a Hadith to have a particular grading whilst another Hadith scholar will disagree. It is not therefore uncommon to find that some considered a Hadith to be weak whilst others considered it fair (hasan) and others may have said it was sound (saheeh). There may be a number of reasons for this including that one of the Hadiths scholars was simply mistaken. Another reason may be that one scholar was only aware of one chain of transmission for a Hadith and unaware of other supporting chains which strengthened the grade of the Hadith. Also, it may be that there was a disagreement regarding a particular narrator; some considered him reliable and others believed he was not.

It must be noted also that there is no single methodology of grading Hadith which all scholars stick to. Rather, there are various methods of grading Hadith, which whilst similar, are not the same and therefore hold the possibility of producing different results.

The upshot of all of this is that it is not sufficient for a Hadith to be declared weak simply because somebody on social media or youtube said it is. Declaring Hadiths to be weak or even fabricated when in fact they are not, is not uncommon. It is therefore necessary to check with a reliable source before making a judgement. ¹³

What has been mentioned above is perfectly summed up in what occurred between the great Hadith master Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani and the Iraqi Hadith scholar al-Qazniwi. Al-Qazniwi declared that eighteen Hadith in the famous collection Mishkat al-Masabih were fabricated. Ibn Hajar replied in the form of a treatise in which he made clear that five to seven of the supposed fabrications were weak (daeef), nine to eleven of them were fair (hasan), two of them sound (saheeh) and none of them actually forged! ¹⁴

Summary

Weak Hadiths and fabricated Hadiths are not the same. A Hadith being weak does not entail that the Prophet ﷺ did not utter those words.
Weak Hadiths according to the consensus of scholars can be utilised. The conditions are that they be in relation to good deeds (fada’il al a’maal) and that the Hadith not be fabricated. Some scholars added further conditions.
They cannot be used for Aqidah or legal rulings
The Hadith scholars differed in their methodologies for grading Hadiths. It is therefore possible that some scholars considered a Hadith weak and others considered it fair or sound.
Some may have even wrongly considered a Hadith to be weak due to being unaware of other chains of transmission or simply being mistaken in their grading.

Footnotes

The word ‘Hadith’ can sometimes be used interchangeably with ‘Sunnah’.
A branch of this science is known as ‘ilm ar-rijal’ or ‘the biographies of Hadith narrators’. Scholars of this science compiled biographies of almost every person to ever narrate Hadith. In total we have over half a million biographies which tell us the important details about the lives of these men and women.
Hadiths can be classified in various ways such as; wether it is accepted or rejected, according to whom it is attributed, the number of narrators who narrate it etc.
Muhammad ibn Alawi al-Maliki, Manhaj al-Lateef fi usul al-Hadith al-Sharif, page 66
Dr Mostafa Badawi – Ancient Prophets of Arabia, page 5
Gibril Fouad Haddad, Sunna Notes Volume 1 – Hadith History & Principles, page 104
The permissibility of using weak Hadiths in fada’il al-amal is also narrated by Hafiz al-Iraqi in his sharh al-Alfiyya, Ibn Hajr al-Asqalani in his sharh al-Nukhba, Sheikh Zakariya al-Ansari in his sharh al-Alfiya al-Iraqi, Hafiz as-Suyuti in Tadrib, Ibn Hajr al-Makki in sharh -al-Arbaeen, Allamah al-Laknawi in his Risala called al-Ajwiba al-Fadila and Sayyid Alawi al-Maliki in his treatise on the rulings of the weak Hadith. (Sayyid Muhammad ibn Alawi al-Maliki, al-Manhal al-Latif fi Usul al-Hadith al-Latif, page 67). These are just some of the major Ulema who explicitly stated this.
Gibril Fouad Haddad, Sunna Notes Volume 1 – Hadith History & Principles, page 53
For example Hadiths which mention the good traits of specific Sahaba.
Some claimed that Imam Ahmed was referring to hasan Hadiths when he made his famous statement about weak Hadiths being more beloved to him than the opinion of men. They say that by da’eef he actually meant hasan, because hasan hadiths are weak compared to saheeh Hadith. However Sheikh Nur al-Din refutes this interpretation. He says regarding the interpreting of Imam Ahmed’s usage of da’eef to mean hasan, “…there would be no meaning to those Imams specifying acting upon it (a hasan Hadith) and it’s being preferred to qiyas since this is the madhab of the majority of the Ulema.” In other words, the majority of the Ulema allow acting on hasan Hadiths and place it before qiyas. So what would be the point of Imam Ahmed specifying that he does this? Clearly then, he was referring to weak Hadiths. (Sheikh Nur al-Din Itr, Hukm al-Hadith al-Da’eef, from the work Manhaj al-Naqd inda al-Muhadithin, accessed on the Naseem al-Sham website)
Gibril Fouad Haddad, Sunna Notes Volume 1 – Hadith History & Principles, page 100
Sayyid Alawi al-Maliki, al-Manhal al-Lateef Fi Ahkaam al-Hadith al-Da’eef, page 64 (Majmua al-Rasail al-Ilmiyah, DKI)
For example the Hadith “Whoever Visits My Grave, My Intercession Is Guaranteed For Him”. The internet is full of people parroting the claim that the Hadith is weak even though it is actually Hasan. See: https://sunnah.org/2012/06/03/the-hadith-“whoever-visits-my-grave-my-intercession-is-guaranteed-for-him”/
Gibril Fouad Haddad, Sunna Notes Volume 1 – Hadith History & Principles, page 53