All Praise is due to Allah, Lord of the Universe, and may prayers of Allah be upon Muhammad the seal of the prophets to proceed.
When we look at what has been attributed to the messenger of Allah from the narrations, we divide them into three categories of Narrators.
The First Category of Narrators – Are narrations of people who are more free and pure from defects than others. The narrators are from the people of uprightness and precision in narrating hadith.
The Second Category of Narrators – These are narrations of people not known for their good memory and reliability, unlike those in the first category. Even though they are of a lower status than the first they are still known to be truthful and knowledgeable.
As an example the difference between Ibn Awn (d.152H) and Ayoob Sakhtiyaanee (d.131h) with Awf ibn Abi Jamilah and Ashath Al-Humrani who were all the companions (students) of Hassan Al-Basri and Ibn Seeren. Although Awf and Ashath are not dismissed from truthfulness and reliability, the situation is that Ibn Awn and Ayoob Sakhtiyaanee are distant in the completeness of virtue and soundness in transmission.
This example is only used to explain to the common people the path of the people of knowledge in the classification of its people. The intent had been not to diminish the person of high esteem from their position, and to avoid increasing the stature of others above their place. Everyone is given their rightful and proper place. It was narrated on the authority of Aisha – Radiyallahu anhaa –
“That the Messenger of Allah commanded us to put the people in their (proper) Place. With what was mentioned in the Quran from the statement of Allah,
نَرۡفَعُ دَرَجَٰتٖ مَّن نَّشَآءُۗ وَفَوۡقَ كُلِّ ذِي عِلۡمٍ عَلِيمٞ
“And over all those endowed with knowledge is the All-Knowing.” (Surah Yusuf 12:76)
The Third Category of Narrators – These are narrations of people who are accused by the people of Hadith of Fabricating or have been Mistaken in Narrating. Such as Abdullah ibn Miswar, Abi Jafar Al-Madaini, Abu Dawood Nakhai, and others of their Ilk.
This is a short explanation of the way of the people of Hadith for those who want to follow them.
The Obligation of Narrating From the Trustworthy and Abandoning the Liars.
It is an obligation on the one that can distinguish between authentic and unauthentic reports that he doesn’t narrate reports unless he is sure of the correctness of narration. He is also to avoid the accused and those who are stubborn among the people of innovation.
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا إِنْ جَاءَكُمْ فَاسِقٌ بِنَبَإٍ فَتَبَيَّنُوا أَنْ تُصِيبُوا قَوْمًا بِجَهَالَةٍ فَتُصْبِحُوا عَلَى مَا فَعَلْتُمْ نَادِمِينَ
Allah the Most High Said: “O you who believe! If a Fasiq (liar – Evil Person) comes to you with any news, verify it, lest you should harm people in Ignorance, and afterward you become regretful for what you have done.” (Hujurat 46:6)
وَأَشْهِدُوا ذَوَيْ عَدْلٍ مِنْكُمْ
Also Allah the Most High Said: “And take as witness two just persons amongst you” (At-Talaq 65:2)
The Seriousness of Telling Lies upon the Messenger of Allah
The Messenger of Allah said:
“Do not tell lies about me, for whoever tells lies about me will enter the Fire.”
The Prohibition of speaking of everything that one hears.
The Prohibition of Narrating Everything One Hears
The Messenger of Allah Said:
“It is sufficient lying for a man to speak of everything that he hears”’
‘Indeed Satan will appear in the form of a man and he will come to the people, narrating to them false Ḥadīth, and they will then depart. Then a man among them will say: ‘I heard a man whose face I recognize but I do not know his name narrating [such and such]…’
The Prohibition of Narrating from Weak Narrators and being cautious with them.
The Messenger of Allah Said
“At the end of my Ummah, there will be people who will narrate to you things that neither you nor your forefathers ever heard. Beware of them and stay away from them.”
It is narrated that Mujahid said
“Bushair bin Ka’b Al-Adawi came to Ibn Abbas and started narrating to him ‘The messenger of Allah said …’ ‘The messenger of Allah said…’ Ibn Abbas did not approve of his reports and did not even look at him. He said. ‘O Ibn Abbas, why is it that I do not see you listening to what I tell you? I am narrating to you from the messenger of Allah and you are not paying attention.’ Ibn Abbas said: ‘At one time if we heard a man say: “the Messenger of Allah said,” we would all turn to look at him and listen to him. But when the people started to ride high and low (to narrate a great deal) we did not accept from the people anything but that which we are familiar with.”
Isnaad (Chain Of Narration) is from the religion, and reports should only be narrated from those who are trustworthy, and that critical assessment and evaluation of narrators for things that are true is permissible and is in Fact Obligatory; and that doing so is not backbiting that is forbidden, rather it is defending the honorable Shariah.
Muhammed Ibn Seeren Said:
“This knowledge is the (foundation of) religion, so watch from whom you learn your religion.”
“They used not to ask about chains (of narration), but when the Fitnah occurred, they said ‘Tell us about your men.’ They would look for the people of Sunnah to accept their Hadith, and they would look for the people of Bid’ah to reject their Hadith.”
Unveiling Defects of the Transmitters of Hadith and Relaters of Reports and the Statements of the A’immah Regarding That
Ali bin Shaqiq said;
‘I heard Abdullah Bin Mubarak say, in front of the people: “Ignore the Ahadith of Amr Bin Thabit, for he used to abuse the Salaf verbally.”
Yahya Bin Saeed said:
“I asked Sufyan Ath-Thawri, Shu’bah, Malik, and Ibn Uyaynah about a man who was unreliable in the narration of Hadith and another man came and asked me about him. They said: ‘Tell them that he is not reliable“’
Abdullah bin Mubarak said:
“I said to Sufyan Ath-Thawri: ‘Abbad Bin Kathir is one whose situation you know about. When he narrates a report he makes serious mistakes. Do you think that I should tell the people not to accept reports from him?’ Sufyan said: ‘Yes.’ ‘Abdullah said: ‘If I was in a gathering where mention was made of Abbad, I would praise him for his religion, but I would say: ‘Do not accept reports from him.”’
Abdullah bin Mubarak said:
“I went to Shu’bah and he said: ‘This is Abbad bin Kathir – beware of him.”’
Abdullah bin Mubarak said:
“Baqiyyah is truthful in speech, but he accepts (reports) from (anyone).”
To ask the people of Knowledge regarding Individuals isn’t from the detested form of backbiting. (Chapter heading from publisher)
Yahya Bin Ya’mar said:
“The first one who spoke about Al-Qadar in Al-Basra was Ma’bad Al-Juhani. Humaid bin Abdur Rahman Al-Himyari and I went for Hajj or Umrah and we said: ‘If we meet any of the companions of the messenger of Allah, we will ask them about what these people are saying about Al-Qadar. We came across Abdullah Bin Umar bin Al-Khattab, entering the Masjid so my companion and I came alongside him, one on his right and the other on his left. I thought that my companion would leave me to speak, so I said: O Abu Abdur Rahman! There are people who have appeared in our land that read the Quran and seek knowledge’ – and he spoke about them they claim that there is no Qadar and that nothing is predestined. He said ‘if you meet those people tell them that I have nothing to do with them and they have nothing to do with me. By the one by whom Abdullah bin Umar swears! If one of them had Gold like Uhud, and he spent it (in Charity), Allah would not accept it from him unless he believed in Al-Qadar. Then he said….. (Hadith of Jibrael)
Abridged from the Introduction of Sahih Muslim by Imam Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj, for the Full version please refer to https://sunnah.com/muslim/introduction
Ahlul-Hadith 