the leading scholars of Medina narrated from him, and his hadith are good; I know of no harm in him.” He then related something similar from Ibn Ma‘in, who said of him: “Trustworthy. He became senile before he died; whoever heard from him before his memory deteriorated is a reliable authority. He is Salih ibn Nabhan.”

Once you know this distinction, and that the hadith was narrated from him by Ibn Abi Dhi’b, it becomes clear that it is firmly established. Therefore, no weight should be given to those who declared it weak on the basis of the general criticism made of him, as al-Bayhaqi did. Something similar is reported from Imam Ahmad. His son Abd Allah said in his Masa’il (p. 125): “I asked my father about this hadith of Abu Hurayrah, and he replied: ‘The hadith of Aishah: “The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, offered the funeral prayer over Suhail ibn Baida in the mosque.”’ Then he said: ‘Until the hadith of Salih, the freedman of al-Taw’amah, is established.’ It seemed that, in his view, it was not firmly established, or not authentic.”

I say: Perhaps Imam Ahmad, may Allah have mercy on him, withheld judgment on the authenticity of this hadith because, at that time, the distinction I cited from him above had not become clear to him; or perhaps he thought that it conflicted with the aforementioned hadith of Aishah, which is undoubtedly more authentic than it.

In my view, when evaluating a hadith, a critic should not take into account legal considerations which he supposes conflict with the hadith and then use them as grounds for impugning it. Besides not being one of the principles of hadith scholarship, if this approach were relied upon in criticism, it would necessitate rejecting many authentic hadiths transmitted through strong chains.

Accordingly, the fact that Salih’s hadith conflicts with the hadith of Aishah should not be a reason to impugn it. Rather, the two should be reconciled after each has been established from the standpoint of hadith scholarship, as al-Hafiz explained in his commentary on al-Nukhbah and elsewhere. For this reason, Imam Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah said in Zad al-Ma‘ad (1/198–199), after mentioning some of what had been said about this Salih: “This hadith is good, for it is narrated by Ibn Abi Dhi’b from him, and he heard from him early on, before