Understanding the Concept of Ilah in Hadith

We come to the issue of the defect. The defect, according to the scholars,

is a hidden matter in the chain of

transmission or in the text by which the scholar, memorizer, or

hadith scholar inclines or concludes that the hadith with this

wording or with this chain of transmission is not sound.

Like I told you, for example, regarding the hadith on the expiation of a gathering,

he said,' Except that there is a defect in it.' Muslim said,' Inform me of it.'

The defect is a hidden matter, like a person's

illness in their stomach or body, a hidden thing that affects health.

Likewise, in hadith,

they called it a defect because it is a hidden matter that affects the

authenticity of the hadith, either in the text, the chain of transmission,

or both. Alright.

The scholars said,' No hadith is free from a defect.'

But what matters is the damaging defect, not just any defect.

And so, when the authors of hadith terminology,

from Ibn al- Salah onwards, came, when they defined the defect,

they differed from the predecessors, or rather, they were

more precise, in that Ibn al- Salah said,'

Or without any anomaly or damaging defect.' And if the term' damaging

defect' is used, then you know the defect is damaging. The defect,

which is a weakness or a flaw in the chain of transmission or the text,

is the damaging defect, the damaging defect. As for a defect in general,

no Hadith is free from it.

So, what is the impact of this on al- Bukhari and Muslim? We say: Al-

Bukhari is a more

established book in verifying chains of transmission, texts,

and identifying defects. As for Muslim, he divided his

book into three categories, as he stated in the introduction. Three categories:

in the core chapters, he cites the precise, sound Hadiths which are of the

highest level of accuracy, precision, and soundness. Then, secondly,

he brings those of a lesser, medium level. Then, thirdly, the rejected and discarded

ones to clarify their meaning. But when compiling, he only included the

first and second categories, which scholars call the

core texts and the supporting narrations— the core and supporting narrations.

An example of core and supporting narrations is, for instance, the Hadith of

pollinating palm trees in Sahih Muslim.

Muslim differs greatly from al- Bukhari in how he presents Hadiths. For example,

in presenting the palm tree Hadith, the Prophet( peace

be upon him) passed by them while they were pollinating palm trees,

while they were pollinating palm trees. And he said,' It would not harm

you if you did not do it.'

It means that Allah, the Almighty, creates everything, so why do you pollinate them?

So they stopped, and the fruit turned out to be bad dates. They said,"

O Messenger of Allah, they turned out to be bad dates." Muslim narrated two

narrations, one is preserved and the other is not. One has no defect, and the second

has a defect. In the preserved one, the Prophet( peace be upon him) said: "

I only made a conjecture,

so do not hold me accountable for conjecture." Meaning, this is not revelation;

I just conjectured on my own. And the narration that has a defect is his saying:"

You know best about your worldly affairs."

" You know best about your worldly affairs" is not the preserved one,

even though it is in Sahih Muslim,

and it is not the established one according to the scholars of Hadith.

What is established according to the scholars of Hadith is:"

I only made a conjecture, so do not hold me accountable for conjecture."

And so on in a series

of things that contain a damaging defect,

a defect that distinguishes between one text and another.

This wording is more authentic,

and this wording is preserved while this is not,

and this wording has a defect while this does not, and so on. The Hadith of al-

Jassasah is long and contains wonders because of which many scholars have

criticized it, stating that as a whole, it is not authentic in this context,

as it has a damaging defect in its chain of transmission and its text.

And that is why Al- Bukhari, may Allah have mercy on him, turned away from him.