. JI ದ : ; (cont.)

They all recorded this hadith through the chain of Dawood ibn Abu Hind on the authority of Makhool from Abu Thalaba. The narrators in these chains are, in general, of sahih quality. The problem, however, with this chain is the link between Makhool and Abu Thalaba. The majority of the scholars, including Abu Zura and Abu Haatim, state that Makhool did not hear hadith from Abu Thalaba.1 But, as al­ Haitami points out, ibn Maeen disagreed with them. He said that Makhool did hear hadith from Abu Thalaba. 2 The general rule in a case like this is that the claim of affirmation takes precedence over the negation. This is because the scholar who affirms the narration must have access to some knowledge that affirms that the one scholar heard from the other. The information that he is relying upon was probably unknown to the other scholars. This is why they deny the connection between the two. This, though, does not solve the problem with the chain at that point. If Makhool did hear from Abu Thalaba, there is a new problem. This problem is that Makhool was known for committing tadlees.3 He has been classified by ibn Hajr and others as being from the third category of those who commit tadlees.4 This means that his hadith will not be accepted on their own unless he uses an unequivocal term showing that he heard the hadith directly from the 1 See ibn Rajab, Jaami, vol. 2, p. 1 50. Ibn Rajab points out a second defect with this hadith. Sometimes it is narrated as a statement of Abu Thalaba rather than a hadith of the Prophet (peace be upon him). However, that problem is inconsequential since the scholars of hadith have determined that the correct narration is that going back to the Prophet (peace be upon him) and not stopping at Abu Thalaba. 2 Al-Haitami, Fath, p. 230. 3 Tadlees is where a person narrates a hadith from one of his teachers but the particular hadith he is narrating he did not hear directly from his teacher but through an intermediate source. The narrator uses the ambiguous word an (UC, "on the authority of'). This term is ambiguous because, lexically, it does not deny or confirm that he heard it directly from his teacher. Technically speaking, the person is not lying but he is doing something that is very bad in the eyes of the scholars of hadith, since it makes it unclear if the chain is missing any narrators or not. If a person is accused of committing tadlees, then, in general, his hadith will not be accepted unless he uses a term that explicitly demonstrates that he heard the hadith directly from his teacher and not possibly from an intermediate source. 4 Cf., Misfur al-Dumaini, al-Tadlees fl al-hadith (Published by its author, 1 992), pp. 352-355. Hadith #30: "Allah has obligated the Obligatory Deeds . . . " source he stated. In this particular chain, he used the word an ("on the authority of'). I I I I Nahshal alI Khurasaani I I Al-Daraqutni The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) I Abu alI Darda Taawoos I al-Dhuhaak I ibn Muzaahim I Qurrah ibn Khalid Asram ibn Haushab al-Tabaraani, ibn Adi I I I Abu Thalaba I I I I Makhool I Dawud ibn l Abu Hind ' Al-Oaraqutni, al-Baihaqi, al-Haakim, ibn Battah, Abu Nuaim and others Figure 30.1 The chains for Hadith Number 30 Key: Heavy black connecting line indicates problem at that link; heavy box indicates problem with that narrator; dotted line with arrow means narrators intentionally left out for presentation purposes only Therefore, either this chain is broken between Makhool and Abu Thalaba or, if that is not the case, there is a problem with Makhool's tadlees Commentary on the Forty Hadith of al-Nawawi and his use of the word an here. 1 Hence, this particular chain is not acceptable on its own. It is in need of corroborating evidence to be considered an acceptable hadith. There is another possible problem with this chain that seems to have gone unnoticed by those who commented on this hadith. The hadith is narrated through Dawood ibn Abu Hind. There is no doubt that he is a trustworthy narrator. Ibn Hibban noted that he used to make a few mistakes but not enough to reject his hadith. However, according to ibn Hajr and al-Dhahabi, toward the end of his life he became somewhat senile or lost some of his proficiency and began to make mistakes in his narration of hadith.2 Dawood died in the year 139 or 140 A.H. and it is said that he was 75 years old.3 In Sunan al-Daaraqutni, for example, the narrator who narrated this hadith from Dawood was Ishaaq al-Azraq. Ishaaq was born in the year 1 17.4 Assuming he started recording hadith at the young age of 15, Dawood must have been at least in his late sixties before Ishaaq could have studied and heard hadith from him.