Verifying the Chain of Transmission | Mufti Abdul Wahab Waheed | Hadith Intensive 2022

The Role of the Sanad in Accepting and Rejecting Narrations

The sanad allows scholars to pretty much understand which narration we should accept and which narration we should not accept. Because if the sanad was strong enough, that means that the text was also accepted. What happened when the sanad was weak? They would look for other chains that established the same meaning.

So if a hadith was weak from one chain and other chains were established, this would bring it up to the level of hasan. Because now there are enough chains to give support to one another, and that is enough for us to accept that this hadith is correct.

The Strongest Sanads

What is the strongest sanad? Scholars speak about what is the strongest sanad. One of the strongest sanads is the sanad of Nafi' — so al-Malik, al-Nafi', and Salim. So just for the sake of understanding, al-Malik, al-Nafi', and Salim, they say, is the strongest sanad. Others say the sanad of Shihab al-Zuhri is the strongest sanad.

Ibn Hajar and al-Saleh say that there is no name that is used more in Sahih al-Bukhari as a narrator, more so than the name of Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri — who we spoke about in the first session. He was the person that Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz asked to compile a book that could become the constitution of hadith. And he did so, but he passed away. So Ibn Malik, his student, went ahead and completed that book in his own form, known as the Muwatta' of Imam Malik.

So his name is used the most often in Sahih al-Bukhari, and they say that his sanad is the strongest sanad — just for the sake of understanding.

Warning Against Falsely Attributing Narrations to the Prophet ﷺ

There are several narrations in which the Prophet ﷺ warns us against falsely lying about him. We already spoke about that. And when was this idea formed, and when was it strengthened? By the end of the first century — which I mentioned in the narration of Sufyan ibn 'Uyaynah — that prior to that, we did not need to ask about the sanad because everyone was speaking the truth.

How about today's sanad? We have to ask about every chain in every way possible, just to be sure.

The Expansion of the Isnad: Al-Ruwat and Sifat al-Ruwat

So right here is an example of what we call the expansion of the isnad. There's something called al-ruwat and the other is called sifat al-ruwat. A compiler of a book of hadith will look at both. They will look at: how can I get a text, a matn, with the least people between me and the Prophet ﷺ? So you have the least number of people between me and the source.

In today's time as well, you always want to cut down in business. Unfortunately, you want to get rid of the middleman. The less middlemen you have, the better it is for your profit, because there are too many people in between. There are too many cooks in the kitchen. So you want to get rid of the middlemen so you can work directly with your source.

Similarly, when it came to hadith, the goal of these compilers of books and these scholars of hadith was to find a chain that was the shortest to the Prophet ﷺ. The shorter it was, that meant there were fewer people in between. And fewer people — if they were strong — creates a stronger sanad.

Now rather than having to cross-reference five people, I only have to cross-reference three people. And those three people are already well-known. And if they were well-known, who would even need to cross-reference them?

The Qassasun: Storytellers vs. Scholars of Hadith

If a narrator of hadith was not known within the circles of scholars, that was considered to be a flaw within them. If you are a narrator of hadith, why are you not known in your own circles? It wasn't about being known in public spaces. That was the job of what we call the qassasun — the storytellers.

The storytellers at that time were very dominant. They were well-known. They were the ones that would have the biggest audience in front of them. But no — it was a fact that no one would ever accept a hadith from them. Because they were storytellers. What do storytellers do? Exaggerate. They sometimes even, as we say, add masala — add spice — and they can even lie. There's no such thing as exaggeration in hadith.

So they would have the biggest gatherings, but the hadith was never accepted from them.

The Story of Imam Abu Hanifa's Student

So one day, one of the students walked into a masjid. In the masjid, there was Imam Abu Hanifa rahimullah teaching fiqh and hadith. And in the same masjid, there was this man — in a different part of the masjid — who was a qassas, a storyteller. And he was telling a story; he was really into it, and he was really enthusiastic and excited.

So this youngster was like: where should I go? That seems like it's good, but this — well, it's really popping here. So he went ahead and joined the storyteller's gathering. The next student that walked in was Imam Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Shaybani rahimullah. He walked in and saw — of course — I'm going to my class. So he went straight to Imam Abu Hanifa.

Later on, Imam Abu Hanifa said to the other student: why did you go there? He said: you know, because I wanted to see what was going on, and everyone was sitting there — it was a big crowd — so I went there. He said: okay, that's fine. You will perhaps get masses of people to follow you, but you will never have masses of people to learn from you. Because you went for masses of people to listen to you, but not people that will learn from you.

We have that man's name recorded — but he doesn't have many students. Now Imam Muhammad became one of the strongest students of Imam Abu Hanifa rahimullah.

So the qassasun — the speakers, for the sake of the example — were well known in the area, but they were never accepted within the circles of hadith. And the scholars of hadith were actually not as well known amongst the public, because they were not coming out giving lectures every day. Their classes were very specific to a niche audience, but they were well known within their circles.

So if you didn't know a person's name, it was either because he's not a strong narrator, or because he has not entered within the circle of the scholars of hadith.

Al-Jarh wa al-Ta'dil: Scrutinizing the Narrators

So they would cross-reference narrators. They would actually have delegations — we'll talk about al-jarh wa al-ta'dil. They would have groups of people that would go to a community and ask: do you know so-and-so person? His name is Abdullah ibn Hamid. And they would say: yeah, of course we know him. How is he? Do you do business with him? They would say: yeah, I do. How is he? He has never lied to me. Does he come for salat on time?

Imagine someone asking your neighbors whether you come for salat on time. They'd say: worry about yourself, man. But because the treasure of deen was bigger than any individual, there were no sensitivities attached to it. It wasn't like: how can they ask about me? They actually don't care about you — that's just the reality of the fact. They don't care about you. They care about the deen that you're trying to spread.

So if you are not accepted, if you're someone that is compromised, you are compromising our shari'ah. That's why they care about you. We are not people that are known, or people that care about us, because of where we came from and who we are. They care about us because of what we hold. And if we're not able to uphold it correctly, then they have the right to criticize — correctly.

So this is how deep they would go. They would literally go to the extent of asking about a person's salat. There was one narration that Imam al-Hajj rahimullah mentions: regarding one of the narrators of Bukhari, whom he was unsure about, he found out whether or not that narrator would miss the Fajr sunnah — to make sure his dabt was established. Okay, first of all — you know what? That means it must be a truthful person.