Shaykh al-Islām, may Allah have mercy on him, said:

Section

Ahmad ibn Hanbal’s statement:

“When reports concern what is lawful and unlawful, we apply strict standards to their chains of transmission; when they concern encouragement and warning, we are more lenient with their chains of transmission.”

This statement, like the scholars’ practice of acting upon weak hadiths concerning the virtues of deeds, does not mean establishing that an act is recommended on the basis of a hadith that cannot serve as evidence. Being recommended is a ruling of Islamic law and can therefore be established only through evidence recognized by that law. Whoever claims that Allah loves a particular deed without such evidence has prescribed in religion something Allah has not authorized, just as if he had declared something obligatory or forbidden. This is why scholars differ over whether acts are recommended, just as they differ over other rulings. Indeed, this is fundamental to the divinely prescribed religion.

What they mean is that the deed must already have been established, through a scriptural text or scholarly consensus, as something Allah loves or dislikes. Examples include reciting the Quran, glorifying Allah, supplication, charity, freeing slaves, kindness to people, and the reprehensibility of lying, betrayal, and the like. Thus, if a hadith is narrated concerning the virtue of certain deeds