along with al-Shāfiʿī, Ahmad, and others, upon his report from the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace:

“Whoever eats or drinks forgetfully should complete his fast, for it is Allah who has fed him and given him drink.”

Yet analogical reasoning, according to Abū Hanīfah, would mean that his fast is broken. He therefore set aside analogical reasoning in favour of Abū Hurayrah’s hadith. Similar examples are too numerous to recount. Mālik, together with al-Shāfiʿī and Ahmad, acted upon Abū Hurayrah’s hadith requiring a vessel to be washed seven times after a dog laps from it, even though analogical reasoning, according to Mālik, would require no washing, since he considers it ritually pure. Indeed, the imams set aside analogical reasoning for reports less firmly established than Abū Hurayrah’s hadith. Thus, Abū Hanīfah set it aside in the question of “loud laughter” on the strength of a report lacking the Companion link, whose Companion narrator is unknown. By the consensus of the Muslim community, Abū Hurayrah’s hadith is more firmly established than that report.

(Third: This objector should be told that when a hadith narrator accurately retains the wording he has heard, it does not matter that he is not a jurist. The same applies to those who teach the words of the Quran, the tashahhud (testimony recited in prayer), the call to prayer, and the like. The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“May Allah brighten the face of a person who hears a hadith and conveys it to someone who has not heard it. For many a bearer of legal knowledge is not a jurist, and many a bearer of legal knowledge conveys it to someone more learned in jurisprudence than himself.”

This clearly shows that his hadith containing legal knowledge is accepted from a transmitter who is not a jurist, and that one may receive it from someone less learned in jurisprudence than oneself. Legal understanding is needed in transmission only when a report is conveyed by meaning and there is concern that a non-jurist might unwittingly alter its meaning. “Abū Hurayrah” was among those in the Muslim community with the strongest memories, and the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, prayed that he be granted “a retentive memory.” He said: “After that, I never forgot anything I heard.” Thus, he narrated the hadith concerning the animal whose milk had been allowed to accumulate in its udder, and other hadith, in the very words of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace.