How can we tell the saheeh ahaadeeth from the fabricated ones?

Abu Sarah

Allahu Akbar
Staff member
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How can we tell the saheeh ahaadeeth from the fabricated ones?

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Sheikh Muhammed Salih Al-Munajjid saied:

  • Allaah has guaranteed to protect His religion, which includes preserving His miraculous Book, and preserving the Sunnah of His Prophet which helps us to understand the Qur’aan.

    Allaah says (interpretation of the meaning):

    “Verily, We, it is We Who have sent down the Dhikr (i.e. the Qur’ân) and surely, We will guard it (from corruption).”
    [al-Hijr 15:9]

    The word Dhikr here includes both the Qur’aan and the Sunnah.



  • Many people – in the past and at present – have tried to insert weak and fabricated ahaadeeth into the pure sharee’ah and the Prophetic Sunnah. But Allaah has thrown their plots back in their faces and has provided means of protecting His religion. Among these means are the trustworthy and reliable scholars who sifted through the reports and checked their sources, examining the biographies of the narrators and even describing the point at which a narrator began to be confused in his narration, and stating who narrated from him before he became confused and who narrated from him afterwards. They described the journeys of the narrator, which cities he visited and from whom in each city he took reports. They checked many details about each narrator, more than can be listed here. All of this indicates that the religion of this Ummah is protected, no matter how hard our enemies try to plot and play about with the religion and distort it.

    Sufyaan al-Thawri said: the angels are the guardians of the heavens and the scholars of hadeeth are the guardians of this world.

    Al-Haafiz al-Dhahabi mentioned that Haaroon al-Rasheed was about to execute a zindeeq (heretic), and the zindeeq said: “What are you going to do about the one thousand ahaadeeth I have fabricated?” Al-Rasheed said: “What are you going to do, O enemy of Allaah, about Abu Ishaaq al-Fazaari and ‘Abd-Allaah ibn al-Mubaarak, who will sift through those ahaadeeth and examine them letter by letter?”

    The seeker of knowledge can find out about the fabricated (mawdoo’) and weak (da’eef) ahaadeeth very easily, by looking at the isnaads or chains of narrators, and finding out about the people mentioned there in the “books of men” i.e., narrators (kutub al-rijaal) and the books which state which narrators are sound or otherwise (kutab al-jarh wa’l-ta’deel).




  • Many scholars have compiled these fabricated and weak ahaadeeth in books devoted solely to these type of reports, so that it is easy to find out about them – then one can beware of them and warn others about them. These books include al-‘Ilal al-Mutanaahiyah by Ibn al-Jawzi, al-Manaar al-Muneef by Ibn al-Qayyim, al-La’aali’ al-Masnoo’ah fi’l-Ahaadeeth al-Mawdoo’ah by al-Suyooti, al-Fawaa’id al-Majmoo’ah by al-Shawkaani, al-Asraar al-Marfoo’ah fi’l-Ahaadeeth al-Mawdoo’ah by Ibn ‘Arraaq, and Da’eef al-Jaami’ al-Sagheer and Silsilat al-Ahaadeeth al-Da’eefah wa’l-Mawdoo’ah, both by Shaykh al-Albaani, may Allaah have mercy on him.
    .......end Quoted.....
 

Abu Sarah

Allahu Akbar
Staff member
How can we recognize false ahaadeeth i.e fabricated (mawdoo’)?

How can we recognize false ahaadeeth i.e fabricated (mawdoo’)?



Praise be to Allaah.

We can tell if a hadeeth is fabricated firstly by looking as its isnaad (chain of narrators) and text. If there is someone in the isnaad who is a liar, then it is a fabricated hadeeth. With regard to the text, this can also indicate that a hadeeth is fabricated but in most cases the person studying the hadeeth needs to have experience and knowledge of the saheeh (sound) hadeeths of the Prophet :saw: (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him).

Imam Ibn al-Qayyim (may Allaah have mercy on him) said:

I was asked: is it possible to recognize a fabricated hadeeth by following guidelines without looking at its isnaad?

This is a very serious question. That may be known to one who has deep knowledge of the saheeh Sunnahs, for whom it has become second nature and who is extremely specialized in the knowledge of the Sunnah, and reports, and has knowledge of the Seerah (biography) of the Messenger of Allaah :saw: (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) and his teachings, commands and prohibitions, what he told of, what he called people to, what he liked and what he disliked, and what he prescribed for his ummah, so that it is as if he mixed with the Messenger of Allaah:saw:(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) like one of his companions. Such a person will have knowledge of the life, teachings and words of the Messenger of Allaah :saw:(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him), and what he could have said and could not have said, in a way that others will not know. This is the way of every follower and the one whom he follows, because the one who becomes close to the Prophet :saw:(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) and is very keen to find out about what he said and did, becomes more able to distinguish what may correctly be attributed to him from what is not correct, in a way that those who do not have such knowledge cannot do. This is the way of followers with their imams: they know their words, texts and points of view.

And Allaah knows best.

Al-Manaar al-Muneef, p. 43, 44.

Following these words, and until the end of the book mentioned, Imam Ibn al-Qayyim (may Allaah have mercy on him) gives many examples of fabricated ahaadeeth on various topics, with numerous comments. Reference may be made to this book as it is very valuable.


finally:

What is required of every Muslim is to be very careful in what he says and writes, before attributing it to the Prophet :saw:(blessings and peace of Allah be upon him), so that he will not fall into the sin of telling lies about him and attributing to him something that he did not say. Not all words that are correct and true, or have a beautiful meaning or eloquent wording can be attributed to the Prophet :saw:(blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) just because they appear good.

It was narrated from al-Mugheerah ibn Shu’bah (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Messenger of Allah :saw:(blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) said: “Whoever narrates a hadeeth from me knowing that it is false is one of the liars.”

And it was narrated from Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Messenger of Allah :saw:(blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) said:

“Whoever tells a lie about me deliberately, let him take his place in Hell.” Agreed upon.

Al-Nawawi (may Allah have mercy on him) said:

It is haraam to narrate a fabricated hadeeth for one who knows or thinks it most likely that it is fabricated. Whoever narrates the hadeeth, knowing or thinking it most likely that it is fabricated, and does not explain the facts about its narration and that it is weak, is included in this warning and comes under the heading of the liars who tell lies about the Messenger of Allah (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him). This is also indicated by the previous hadeeth, “Whoever tells a lie about me deliberately, let him take his place in Hell.” End quote

<wasalam>
 
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