I have already laid bare some aspects of this man’s condition and cited examples of the ḥadīths he declared weak in volume two—recently published—of this series. Readers may consult that volume’s introduction and the supplementary notes printed at its end, which, God willing, should soon be within their reach.

Since he has also weakened several ḥadīths found in this first volume of al-Ṣaḥīḥah, I find myself obliged to demonstrate his error and how it runs counter to the principles and rulings of the specialists in this field.

1. Ḥadīth (12 – “Do not take up farmland …”).

This ḥadīth is one of those sound narrations that the aforementioned critic extracted from Riyāḍ al-Ṣāliḥīn—along with dozens of others he likewise declared weak—and published under that very title after excising them. He then gathered the omitted narrations into a special appendix at the end of his edition labelled, “The weak ḥadīths removed from the original work”!!

One of the curiosities here is that his source-referencing (takhrīj) for these narrations is taken, for the most part, from my own books and researches: he lays them out before him, passes judgment on them as he pleases, yet makes no mention of any view that contradicts his.

In this particular ḥadīth, for instance, a host of leading ḥadīth masters have graded it sound: al-Tirmidhī, Ibn Ḥibbān, al-Ḥākim, al-Dhahabī, and before them al-Nawawī and al-Mizzī, followed by Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī. The commentator on the ḥadīth, al-Qurṭubī, also strengthened it, bringing it together with other authentic narrations—for it is well known that reconciliation (jamʿ) presupposes authentication. Yet