others?! How many of his hadiths in the Sunan collections and elsewhere have been graded authentic by the scholars! For example: “Allah does not look at a man who has intercourse with his wife in her anus.” Al-Tirmidhi graded it good; Ibn al-Jarud regarded it as strong (729); Ibn Hibban graded it authentic (1302); and before him, Imam Ishaq ibn Rahawayh did so in Masāʾil al-Marwazi (p. 221), as did Ibn Hazm (10/70) and Ibn Daqiq al-ʿId in al-Ilmām (1127).

Shaykh Muqbil al-Wadiʿi himself did not declare this hadith weak—namely, the hadith concerning anal intercourse with one’s wife—in his annotations to Ibn Kathir’s Exegesis (1/485). Rather, he endorsed al-Tirmidhi’s grading of it as good and supported this by saying: “Its narrators are those found in the Sahih collections.”

All of this makes clear to the researcher that this critic has made criticism an end in itself, rather than the defense of the Prophet’s hadith. Otherwise, how could he venture to oppose the hadith masters in their declaring this man trustworthy and grading his hadith authentic, merely on account of criticism of him that he found from some of them—criticism for which, owing to his inexperience in this field, he is unable to find an explanation consistent with the aforementioned declarations of reliability and authenticity, in the manner we have explained?!

Indeed, my amazement at our virtuous brother, Shaykh Muqbil ibn Hadi, scarcely comes to an end: how can he urge this man and other beginners like him—such as al-ʿAdawi, al-Muʾadhdhin, and others—to climb the ladder of criticism in this field while they are still at the very beginning of the road?! And how can he have them distract us from what we are engaged in—serving the books of the Sunnah—by responding to the likes of them, even if only for a small amount of time?!

Nor can he be excused by what he says in his introduction to the treatise (p. 9):

“Brother ʿAdil—may Allah preserve him—though he is not of the rank of the hadith scholar of the age, Shaykh Nasir al-Din ...”

This is true and accurate. Indeed, I myself testify that I fall far short of that. Nevertheless, I believe that it is Shaykh Muqbil’s duty to advise those beginners to