Al-Muʾammal ibn Muḥammad informed us; Abū al-Yaman al-Kindī informed us; al-Shaybānī informed us; Abū Bakr al-Khaṭīb informed us. ʿAbd al-Wāḥid ibn ʿAlī al-Asadī related to me, saying: Abū al-Fatḥ ibn Abī al-Fawāris said to me, “Ibn Batta transmitted—from al-Baghawī, from Muṣʿab ibn ʿAbd Allah, from Mālik, from al-Zuhrī, from Anas—that the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said: ‘Seeking knowledge is an obligation upon every Muslim.’ (1)”
Al-Khaṭīb remarked, “This report is spurious, and the responsibility for it rests with Ibn Batta.”
I say: His expression is unduly harsh, and far be it from the man to have done so intentionally; rather, he slipped, and one chain of transmission became intermingled with another.
With this same chain al-Khaṭīb also said: al-ʿAtīqī informed us; Ibn Batta informed us; al-Baghawī narrated to us; Muṣʿab narrated to us, from Mālik, from Hishām ibn ʿUrwah, the ḥadith: “Allah does not take away knowledge by snatching it away…” Al-Khaṭīb declared, “It is likewise spurious with this isnād.” (2)
Al-Khaṭīb also said: ʿAbd al-Wāḥid ibn ʿAlī informed us; he told me that al-Ḥasan ibn
(1) Although some have questioned it, the wording of the hadith is supported by numerous chains and corroborative reports, which show it has an authentic basis; accordingly it is judged hasan (sound). See Fayd al-Qadir, 4/267.
(2) The narration is also authentic through another lineage: al-Bukhari, 1/174–175, records it in the Book of Knowledge (chapter: How knowledge is taken away) and in the Book of Holding Fast to the Sunnah (chapter: The censure of personal opinion); Muslim transmits it as 2673 in the Book of Knowledge (chapter: The disappearance of knowledge), all through the chain of Hisham ibn Urwa, from his father, from Abd Allah ibn Amr ibn al-As. He relates that he heard the Messenger of Allah say: “Allah does not remove knowledge by stripping it from His servants; rather, He removes knowledge by taking away the scholars. When no scholar remains, the people will appoint ignorant leaders; they will be asked and will issue rulings without knowledge, thereby going astray and leading others astray.” The Prophet proclaimed this during the Farewell Pilgrimage, as reported by Ahmad, 5/266, and by al-Tabarani from Abu Umama: on the Farewell Pilgrimage, while the Prophet was riding behind al-Fadl ibn Abbas on a tawny camel, he declared, “People, take hold of knowledge before it is taken away and raised.” A Bedouin asked, “How will it be raised?” He replied, “The disappearance of knowledge is the disappearance of its bearers,” repeating the phrase three times.