of mind and mounting worries, while I am but a humble, inexperienced student of knowledge. I read, compile, and convey from Allah and His Messenger—even if only a single verse—to the best of my ability. I possess neither the critical insight of the hadith scholars nor their many years of dedicated study.

Let no one suppose that, by criticizing certain hadiths, venturing to pass judgment upon them, and disagreeing with some of our earlier scholars, I intend to disparage them or diminish their rightful standing. By Allah, nothing prompted me to do so except sincere counsel. Whatever conclusions I have reached were attained through the principles those scholars established and those after them refined. The later scholar continues to learn from the earlier one while reaching some conclusions independently of him. This is the very essence of following them. Agreeing with every single conclusion, however, is taqlīd, and those scholars never advocated that. It does not discredit an earlier scholar when someone who comes after him supplements or corrects his work. Count the matters in which we have differed from them alongside those in which we have agreed with them, and you will recognize the extent of their excellence and the vastness of their knowledge.

Indeed, the scholars of the Jews and Christians were the worst among them, whereas Allah bestowed His favor upon us by making our scholars the best among us. We ask Allah Most High to join us with them and make us among those who followed them with excellence. How greatly we need to recognize that we are, as Abū Amr ibn al-Alā said, “Compared with those who came before us, we are no more than lowly plants growing at the roots of towering palm trees.” (1)

In criticizing and grading hadiths, I follow the scholarly methodology familiar to everyone engaged in hadith studies, both transmission and critical analysis. I must be one of two things, with no third possibility: either correct or mistaken. If I am correct, why should my conclusion not be accepted? If I am mistaken, may Allah reward whoever points out the error into which I have slipped and demonstrates it to me with evidence. He will find me entirely receptive to accepting this from him. We ask Allah for beneficial knowledge.

Judging hadiths to be authentic or weak is among the matters subject to ijtihād, in which a person may be right or wrong. What matters is that one’s errors be rare in comparison with one’s correct judgments. May Allah have mercy upon anyone who alerts me to an error so that I may rectify it—particularly since I neither advocate leniency in citing weak reports nor accept mere experience as a basis for treatment. I seek refuge in Allah from saying one thing while pursuing another course. It is enough for me to speak only upon proof and to make no assertion without evidence, for the matter is grave, the critic is discerning, and this matter is religion.