a fierce, indiscriminate attack prompted by his aforementioned misconception, and devoted two pages to it (2/414–415), without any noteworthy benefit concerning the text of the hadith. For he remained silent regarding Ibn Lahīʿah and al-ʿIrāqī’s—followed by al-Haythamī’s—declaring the hadith defective on his account. Thus, after reading those two pages, the reader does not know his position on the hadith or on Ibn Lahīʿah’s narrations: does he regard them as unconditionally weak because of Ibn Lahīʿah’s poor memory? Or does he distinguish between what the majority of narrators report from him, which remains weak, and what is reported by the ʿAbādilah and others who heard from him early on—such as Qutaybah ibn Saʿīd, who narrates from him here—as the critical hadith masters maintain?
This is what matters in evaluating narrators, whether they are transmitters of the hadith or those who cite it. But Shaykh al-Ghumārī—may Allah forgive him—was so preoccupied with criticizing al-Manāwī and tracking down his slips that it distracted him from the purpose of evaluating narrators, as I mentioned in the hadith immediately preceding this one. Along with this came a sharp tongue and excessive language, reminding me of what was said about Ibn Ḥazm—may Allah have mercy on him: “The tongue of Ibn Ḥazm and the sword of al-Ḥajjāj are twins.” Nothing better demonstrates this than his statement amid the aforementioned attack:
“Most of the narrators of the Ṣaḥīḥ—indeed, all of them—have been criticized!”*
- “They are not hurled on account of anyone’s death or life. Rather, when our Lord—glorious is His Name—decrees a matter, the bearers of the Throne glorify Him. Then the inhabitants of the heaven nearest to them glorify Him, until the glorification reaches the inhabitants of this lowest heaven. Then those nearest to the bearers of the Throne ask the bearers of the Throne, ‘What has your Lord said?’ They inform them of what He said. Then the inhabitants of the heavens ask one another, until the report reaches the inhabitants of this lowest heaven. The jinn snatch what they hear and cast it to their allies, and they are pelted with it. Whatever they convey exactly as it was is true, but they distort it and add to it.”
Muslim narrated it (7/36) through Ibrāhīm ibn Saʿd, from Ṣāliḥ, from Ibn Shihāb, from