conditions of the two Shaykhs. Al-Dhahabi countered: “Although Yahya is trustworthy, he has been deemed weak, and the hadith is not sound in any respect.”
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Al-Hakim also recorded in his Mustadrak, p. (44/4), a hadith of his which he said met the conditions of the two Shaykhs. Al-Dhahabi replied: “It is a rejected report, and Yahya is not strong.”
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Al-Hakim also recorded in his Mustadrak, p. (243/4), a hadith of his which he said met the conditions of the two Shaykhs. Al-Dhahabi replied: “I say: This is one of Yahya’s rejected narrations.”
8, 9, and 10. The distinguished writer referred to hadiths of Yahya in al-Jawhar al-Naqi which its author and al-Manawi criticized in a manner similar to that mentioned above.
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Al-Hafiz said in al-Talkhis al-Habir (p. 118): “There is criticism concerning him”—that is, Yahya—“but he is truthful.” He said likewise in al-Taqrib: “Truthful; he may at times err.” I say: Perhaps he followed his shaykh, al-Hafiz al-Iraqi, who said in Takhrij Ahadith al-Ihya’, p. (355/3): “Yahya ibn Ayyub alone narrated it, and there is criticism concerning him, but he is truthful.”
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I had no need to cite the statements of the scholars concerning Ibn Lahi‘ah, or the leniency of Ibn Hibban and al-Tirmidhi in declaring hadiths authentic, for this is well known to those engaged in this field.
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Since this hadith revolves around these two Ghafiqi men—Ibn Lahi‘ah and Ibn Ayyub—and the statements of the imams of this discipline concerning them have already preceded, how then can it be authentic? And Allah knows best.
In reply to him, I say, following his arrangement:
- This paragraph is not free of an exaggeration contrary to the facts—namely, his statement: “The imams of narrator criticism and accreditation have continued to declare [his reports] weak ...” How can this be correct when al-Hafiz al-Iraqi and al-‘Asqalani both regarded his hadith as strong, as the distinguished writer himself previously quoted from them? The correct statement, then, is that the imams differ over adducing his hadith as evidence. When that is the case, resolving this disagreement can only be done by referring back to the principles of this discipline