—so refer to it.
- Regarding the eleventh hadith, he quoted Ibn al-Qayyim as saying: “Ibn Battah narrated it with a good chain of transmission, of the kind that al-Tirmidhī would grade authentic.”
I say: I myself quoted it from Ibn Taymiyyah, but I challenged his assessment of its chain as good and demonstrated its weakness, as you will see, Allah Most High willing.
- He attributed hadith (15) to both al-Bukhārī and Muslim, whereas I explained there that Muslim alone narrated it, not al-Bukhārī. The same applies to the hadith prohibiting the eating of beasts of prey, number (33). He attributed another hadith to al-Bukhārī, although Muslim alone narrated it (145). He attributed the hadith on seeking medical treatment to al-Bukhārī in one wording, whereas al-Bukhārī records it in different words (292). The same applies to the hadith about peering into someone’s home (421). He attributed the hadith, “Practice archery and ride,” to Muslim, but this is an error. It appears immediately after hadith (387) and is among the reports whose documentation I inadvertently omitted in its proper place, together with several other hadiths that may, Allah willing, be added in a later edition. Similarly, he attributed the hadith, “For the world to pass away…” to Muslim (439), although it is not found in Muslim’s collection. There are many other examples that will become evident to the reader upon comparing the two sets of documentation.
Sufficient proof of this is that, among the author’s many hadiths—which number nearly five hundred—not a single one is expressly declared weak in his documentation. Yet approximately one hundred of them are weak. One of them, hadith (72), is very weak; another is fabricated (110); and a third he declared sound, although it has no basis whatsoever—he merely confused it with another weak hadith! (469) You will see all of this explained in detail, Allah Most High willing.
Nevertheless, through my own investigation of the transmission routes of the book’s hadiths, I rescued many of them from the judgement of weakness that a scholarly examination of the chains found in the sources to which the doctor attributed them would otherwise require, owing to evident flaws in those chains. I strengthened them by citing other routes and corroborating reports, most of which are found in references the author did not mention. Examples include the hadith on tanning hides, number (26); the hadith concerning whatever is cut from an animal while it is alive (41); the hadith concerning intoxicants (60); the hadith on displaying Allah’s blessing (75); the hadith concerning silk and gold (77); the hadith on changing grey hair (107); and the hadith concerning courtyards (113), regarding which there is further detail that you will find there; as well as the hadith, “Do not make my grave a place of festivity” (125), the one following it, and likewise hadith (127),