namely, his attempt to impugn the hadith by means of the hadith on intercession:

“Imam al-Bukhari said in al-Tarikh al-Saghir, after citing the routes of transmission for this hadith and identifying their hidden defects: ‘The reports from the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, concerning intercession are more numerous and clearer.’”

I say: This is undoubtedly true in the view of the scholars. As for their being more numerous, this is well known from the books of the sunnah; I had already traced a number of them in Zilal al-Jannah (2/401–404).

As for their being clearer, it is sufficient proof of this that the person in question found the hadith under discussion problematic and did not understand its import, whereas he adopted the hadith on intercession and used it against the hadith under discussion—even though there is no contradiction between them, as has already been explained.

But this person’s claim that al-Bukhari identified the hidden defects in the routes of transmission that he cited is a lie against al-Bukhari. In al-Saghir, al-Bukhari did no more than document the hadith in the abbreviated wording which I had documented there, at the end of its source-documentation, through Abu Burdah from Abdullah ibn Yazid. Al-Bukhari recorded it in al-Saghir (p. 118, Indian edition) through four routes from Abu Burdah. In three of them he said, “from a man among the Ansar,” without naming him; in the second of them he added, “from his father.” In the fourth, he said: “From Abdullah ibn Yazid: I heard the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him,” thus naming him and explicitly stating that he heard it from the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him. I had documented it there as a supporting witness for Abu Musa’s hadith.

Abdullah ibn Yazid was the Ansari of the Khatm clan; both he and his father were Companions.

Al-Bukhari then commented on these four routes as follows:

“It is also narrated through Talhah ibn Yahya and ... Sa'id ibn Abi Burdah and ... al-Bukhtari ibn al-Mukhtar ... from Abu Burdah, from his father, from the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him. There is reason for scrutiny in their chains of transmission. The first is more likely to be correct, and the reports from the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, concerning intercession are more numerous and clearer.”

I say: You can see that al-Bukhari did not identify the hidden defect in these routes to which he referred; rather, he merely