The Validity of Weak Ahadits

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ

The following is extracted from “Validity of Weak Ahadits” by Dr. Jibril Fu’ad Haddad. 

Imam Abu Zakariya Yahya ibn Sharaf an-Nawawi (r.a.) wrote, in his al-Adzkar, “The ‘ulama among the experts in ahadits and the experts in law and others, have said, it is permissible and recommended that the religious practice concerning good deeds and good character, and the encouragement to good and discouragement from evil, be based even on weak ahadits as long as it is not forged. 

As for legal rulings, such as what is permitted and what is forbidden, or the modalities of trade, marriage, divorce and other than that, one’s practice is not based upon anything other than sound or fair ahadits, except as a precaution in some matter related to one of the above, for example, if a weak hadits was cited about the reprehensibility of certain kinds of sales or marriages.  In such cases, what is recommended is to avoid such sales and marriages, but it is not obligatory.” 

Disagreeing with this Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn ‘Abdullah ibn al-‘Arabi said, “Absolutely no practice is based on weak hadits.”  Shaykh Taqi’ ad-Din Ahmad ibn ‘Abd al-Halim ibn Taymiyyah (r.a.) was of the opinion that no ruling of mustahabb can ever be based on a weak hadits. 

Abu Bakr ibn al-‘Arabi said, “I have heard my Shaykh,” referring to Imam Shihab ad-Din Abu al-Fadhl Ahmad ibn ‘Ali ibn Hajr al-‘Asqalani (r.a.), “insist on the following, and he put it to me in writing himself, ‘The conditions for religious practice based on weak ahadits are three, and this is unanimously agreed upon.  That the weakness must not be very strong.  This excludes those ahadits singly recorded from liars or those accused of lying, and those who make gross mistakes.  That there be a general legal basis for it.  This excludes what is invented and has no legal basis to begin with, so that one not think, while practicing on the basis of it, that it has been established as true.  This is in order that no words which the Prophet (s.a.w.) did not say be attributed to him.  The last two conditions are from ibn ‘Abd as- Salam and his companion, ibn Daqiq al-‘Iyd; Abu Sa’id al-‘Ala’i reported unanimity over the first one.’ 

I say, it has been reported from Ahmad that one may practice on the basis of the weak hadits if there is no other hadits to that effect and also if there is no hadits that contradicts it.  In one narration he is reported to say, ‘I like weak ahadits better than men’s opinions.’ 

ibn Hazm has similarly mentioned that all Hanafi scholars unanimously agree that the school of Abu Hanifah holds that weak ahadits is preferable to opinion and analogy.  Ahmad was asked about someone finding himself in a country with, on the one hand, a memoriser of hadits who does not know the sound from the unsound, and, on the other, an authority in opinion: who should he consult?  He replied, ‘Let him consult the memoriser of hadits, and not the authority in opinion.’” 

Some question the authenticity of the above opinion of Imam Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Hanbal (r.a.), in the light of Shaykh ibn Taymiyyah’s (r.a.) assertion, as found in Qa’idah Jalilah fi at-Tawassul wa al-Wasilah, “The one who relates from Ahmad that he used to rely upon the weak hadits, which is not swahih or hasan, has erred.”  But this does not contradict the opinions of Imam Ahmad (r.a.) quoted by Imam Shams ad-Din Muhammad ibn ‘Abd ar-Rahman as-Sakhawi (r.a.) above.  Even so, and even in case the above opinions were not recognised by Shaykh ibn Taymiyyah as genuinely representative of Imam Ahmad’s (r.a.) position, it is clear that Imam as-Sakhawi (r.a.) did not question their authenticity. 

Imam Abu ‘Abdullah Muhammad ibn Ishaq ibn Mandah (r.a.) reported from Imam Abu Dawud Sulayman ibn al-Ash’ats as-Sijistani (r.a.), a student of Imam Ahmad (r.a.), that Imam Abu Dawud (r.a.) used to cite the chain of transmission of a weak hadits if he did not find other than it under that particular heading and that he considered it stronger evidence than authorised opinion. 

What emerges from this is that there are three diverging views.  One is no practice is based on weak hadith whatsoever; and the other is practice is categorically based upon it if no other evidence is found under the same heading.  - The majority of the scholars hold that it can be used as basis for practicing good deeds and achieving good character, but not for legal rulings.