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A Mentioning of the Devils Deception on the Scholars of Hadeeth & Criticism and Backbiting

From this is that some people have engrossed their whole lives in the learning of hadeeth and traveling for this purpose, and to collect many different chains (FN: to merely collect a great amount, not to increase in benefit, and this is important), and they sought after the highest chains (meaning whose number of narrators were few between then and the Prophet), and the strangest of texts, and these types of people can be divided into to categories:

1. A category whose objective was to preserve the legislation through the knowledge of the authentic hadeeth from the diseased, and they are to be thanked for their objectives, except that Iblees deceives then to over work them with this and draw them away from the fard ‘ayn ( that which is obligatory on every sane Muslim), that being what is obligatory upon them, and in striving to fulfill

the obligatory, and from seeking the understanding of the hadeeth.

So even if someone says: This has certainly been done by a large number of the salaf, such as Yahyaa ibn Ma`een and Ibnul Madeenee and al-Bukhaaree and Muslim.

Then the answer to this is: Those (great scholars) combined between the knowledge of what is important from the fundamentals of the deen and they gained fiqh in it (ie the fundamentals), and between what they had sought from the hadeeth, and they were helped through this by the shortness of the chains of the narration, and the small amount of talk (concerning the narrations and their understanding), therefore their time allowed for expansiveness in both fields.

As far as the present: then the chains of narration have lengthened, and the works authored in the field have expanded, so little chance is there for someone to combine between the two fields, so you will see the muhaddith, writing and listening to the hadeeth for 50 years, and collecting books, all the while not knowing what they contain, so if something was to happen to him in his salaah, then he would be in need of some of the same scholars of fiqh who refer back to him for the narration of the hadeeth!

So because of such people, then those who discredit the scholars of hadeeth were able to gain the ability to say: (They are the) companions of books (asfaar) (FN: the same terms used for the Jews, see Sooratul Jumu’ah), Not knowing what is in them!”

And even if one of them were to become successful, and actually look in his hadeeth, then it may just be that he goes and acts according to an abrogated hadeeth, or he would understand from the hadeeth what the ignorant common man would, and then work accordingly, while in fact it is contrary to the hadeeth.

[An example of this]

Al-Khataabee said: Some of our scholars used to narrate to us the hadeeth that the Prophet (Sallallaahu ‘Alayhi Wa Sallam) prohibited the making of circles [ar: Hilaq](of knowledge and dhikr) before the prayer on the day of Jumu’ah (FN: narrated by Abu Daawood and it is hasan) , with sukoon on the L, meaning then: he prohibited shaving!

He then said: and he informed me that he had spent 40 years of his life never having shaved his head before the salaah. So I said: to him: This (word ) is circles [Hilaq], the plural of halaqah, and this is only talking about the undesirability of gathering before prayer for knowledge and remembrance, and it is an order to busy ones’ self with prayer, and to be quiet for the khutbah. So he said: “You have shown me and liberated me!” And he was from the righteous.

And we have seen in our time, those that gather books, and listen much, and don’t understand what they have attained.

From among them are those who do not memorize the Qur`aan, and do not know the pillars of salaah, they became busy - through their delusion - with the kifaayah obligations ( those obligations which only need to be fulfilled by a few to take the blame off the whole of the Muslim community) over those obligatory on all, and the predilection of what is not important for that which is, is from the deceptions of the devil.

2. And the second category:

A people who increased greatly in listening to hadeeth, yet their goal was not truthful, and they did not desire to know the authentic from other than it through joining together the narrations. They only had as their goal high chains and strange narrations, so they traveled the land; so that one of them could say “ I met so and so” and “ I have chains which no other has” and “ I know ahaadeeth which others don’t”

And some of the students of hadeeth had came to us here in Baghdaad, they used to take the shaykh, and sit with him at ar-Riqqah - which is a garden on the beach of Dijlah- and read to him, and then go and say in their gatherings “ it was narrated to me by so and so at ar-Riqqah”. The people presuming that they mean a certain city in the direction of Syria ( which is also called ar-Riqqah), so that the people think that they exhausted themselves in travel for the seeking of hadeeth.

And they used to take a shaykh and sit with him between the Tigris and the Euphrates, and say “ it was narrated to me by so and so from beyond the river” making it seem he had gone to Khurasaan in the search for hadeeth. (For everything beyond the Tigris was called “beyond the river” and Khurasaan was beyond the river and contained many great scholars of hadeeth)

And some used to say: it was narrated to me by so and so in my second journey, and in my third. So that people will know the extent that he tired himself in seeking hadeeth. So he was not blessed in this, even having died in the time of seeking hadeeth.

The author says:

These actions are just extractors of sincerity, and their (these people) only goals were leadership and competition, and because of such they follow the odd and peculiar of hadeeth.

And occasionally one of them will hide a collection of knowledge from his brother Muslim, so it therefore passes him by, so that the first can be singular in his narration of it, so he dies and he hasn’t narrated it, so it misses both.

And occasionally one of them will travel to a shaykh whose first name is Qaaf or Kaaf ( his name being a letter of the Arabic language, and therefore peculiar) so that he can merely write his name down as one of his shaykhs.

And from the deceptions of the devil on the scholars of hadeeth, is the criticism of some of them to the others, seeking to fulfill their thirst for revenge. They state this as the articulation of “Jarh wa Ta’adeel” ( the science of validation and justification of narrators), which was used by the early scholars of this Ummah for the defense of Islaam, and Allaah knows best the objectives (of these people in question).

So what gives evidence of their malicious objectives, is their silence about those whom they have taken from, while the early scholars were not like this. If we look we can see that Alee Ibn al-Madeenee would narrate from his father, who was weak in hadeeth, then say: “And the Hadeeth of the Shaykh contains what is in it.”

Yoosuf Ibn al-Husayn said: I asked al-Muhaasibee about backbiting, so he said:
Beware of it, because it is the worst quality. What would you think of a thing that can negate your good deeds, and please your antagonists? So those who you hate in this life, how could you be pleased with them as your opponents on the day of judgement, taking from you your good deeds, or you carrying their sins?
On that day there will be no dirham nor dinaar, so beware of it and know its origin.

The origin of backbiting from the riffraff and the ignorant, is their venting of anger, zealotry, jealousy, and evil suspicions. And all of this is bright and clear, hidden from no one.

And as far as the scholars, then the origin of their backbiting is the soul’s deception upon the commencement of advice being given, and through false interpretations of untrue reports. Even if they (these false reports) were true, this gives no assistance to any person to backbite, like someone saying; (Are you making it a point not to mention him? Mention to him these things about him, so the people will be warned.)

If the report had been true and preserved, then there would be no commencement of slander or defamation of your brother Muslim, without you having asked about him. You would only need to do so if someone came to you seeking consul, and said to you:
“I want to marry off my beloved (daughter) to so and so.”
Now you’ve come to know some innovation from such person, or that he can not be trusted concerning the rights of the Muslims, so you would move him away from that choice in the best way.

Or lets say another person comes to you, and says:
“I want to leave my wealth with so and so”.
Yet that man is not one to be trusted, so you guide the man away form that person in the best way possible.
Or another example, a man says to you:
“I want to pray behind so an so, or I want to make so an so my leader in knowledge”

You then guide him away from such a person in the best way possible, and you do not vent your anger by backbiting him.
As for the source of backbiting from the reciters (of the Qur`aan) and the reclusive pious people, then it occurs by way of self-amazement. They uncover the imperfections of a brother, all the while faking du’aa for him in his apparent absence, thereby eating from the flesh of his brother Muslim, while pretending to make beautiful his du’aa for him (after that).
And as for the source of backbiting for the head-honchos and professorly types, then it is by way of acting out of mercy and kindness to a brother, until one of them says:
“So and so, what a poor man, he has been afflicted by such and such, and tested with this and that, we seek Allaah’s refuge from forsakement.”

He then pretends to begin being merciful and kind to and for the brother, pretending to make du’aa for him in the presence of his brothers, saying:
“The only reason I mentioned it to you was so you can make much du’aa for him.”
So we seek refuge in Allaah from backbiting, either by insinuation or elucidation. So beware of backbiting, because the Qur’aan has spoken of its prohibition when Allaah the most high says:
(Would one of you like to eat the flesh of his dead brother? This would disgust you.)
And many reports are authentic back to the Prophet (Sallallaahu ‘Alayhi Wa Sallam) concerning this.
And from the devils deception of the scholars of hadeeth, is the narration of the fabricated hadeeth without clarifying that it is fabricated. This is a capital offense committed against the legislation of Islam., their objective being to circulate their hadeeth (i.e. the ones THEY narrate) and the great number of their narrations.

And the messenger of Allaah has said:
(He who narrates a hadeeth from me, and sees that it is a lie, then he is one of the liars)
{collected by Muslim in his introduction, and Ahmad, by way of Samoorah}
(And here the section ends with the author mentioning some of the actions of those who narrate the hadeeth in regards to technical terms in the science of hadeeth and the benefit of the article has been delivered in full, so with this we will conclude.)

From troid.org