The acceptable Hadeeth of ibn Laheey`ah

[Hani]

al-Salamu `Aleykum,


`Abdullah bin Laheey`ah al-Hadrami (97-174) is one of the biggest of the scholars of Hadith, what is known about him is his weakness and thus we usually reject his Hadith, in this study found on "Multaqa Ahlul-Hadith" they differentiate between what is acceptable and what is rejected from the narrations of ibn Laheey`ah.


LINK:
http://www.ahlalhdeeth.com/vb/showthread.php?t=333662


Abu `Abdul-Rahman `Abdullah ibn Laheey`ah is al-Qadi, al-Imam, Muhaddith of the lands of Egypt alongside al-Layth, he met seventy two from the Tabi`een.


The main two opinions on him are summed up as followed:


The popular opinion: He is Da`eef and Mutasahil when it comes to narrating Hadith, his books were burned in 169 AH and all his narrations are weak but the ones they heard from him before his books burned are of a higher quality than the others, they can be written and taken into consideration.


The unpopular opinion: He is Saduq and does not intend to lie, when his books were burned he narrated from his memory and became Mukhtalit, whoever heard him before his books were burned then his Hadith is Hasan.


In this case as al-Dhahabi said in al-Siyar, one can write down what he narrates especially in matters of Zuhd and Malahim and Fada'il and such, as well as Shawahid to strengthen other Hadith chains.


We will write down who are the men who narrate the best narrations from ibn Laheey`ah for the benefit:


The best narrators from him are the `Abaadilah:


1st `Abdullah ibn Wahb.
2nd `Abdullah ibn al-Mubarak.
3rd `Abdullah bin Yazid al-Muqri'.
4th `Abdullah bin Maslamah al-Qa`nabi.


Good narrators who heard him before his books were destroyed:


1st Ahmad bin Hanbal.
2nd Abu Hafs al-Fallas.
3rd `Abdul-Ghanee bin Sa`eed al-Azdi.
4th Al-Waleed bin Mazeed al-Bayrouti.
5th `Abdul-Rahman bin Mahdi.
6th `Abdul-Rahman al-Awza`ee.
7th Suffiyan al-Thawri.
8th Shu`bah bin al-Hajjaj.
9th `Amro bin al-Harith.
10th Ishaaq bin `Isa al-Tabba`.
11th Qutaybah bin Sa`eed.
12th Khalid bin Yazid al-San`ani.
13th Al-Layth bin Sa`d.
14th Bishr bin Sa`d.




NOTE: Ibn Laheey`ah had much more than 200 students.




What were the main issues with ibn Laheey`ah's narrations?


A- His books were burned and he narrated from memory and he became confused.
B- He his students were many and they did not narrate from him with precision and accuracy, so when his books were lost the people went to copy from their books and they copied many mistakes.
C- He would read in his Majlis from the books of other people that fell under his hand, the students would copy this knowledge and attribute it to him, although it was not his Hadith. Many fabrications were attributed to him in this way, and this is why the narration of the `Abaadilah is better because they made sure to narrate from the Usoul of ibn Laheey`ah.
D- He was lenient in terms of who he narrated from, he would narrate from some folks who are weak but he considered them reliable.


When narrating from the first four men, one can be safe from the issues A, B and C. However, issue D remains and this is why his Hadith at best cannot reach the level of Sahih. His narrations can never be relied upon in matters of Usoul and `Aqaa'id, as for his Tafarrud it is not viewed in a positive light generally. Should his narration conflict with that of the Thiqaat even with the above conditions, then it is discarded as is the case with any "Hasan vs Sahih" scenario.


In the link above, the author went through the man's narrations that fit into the above condition, I did not spot any Hadith which was odd in Matn. This could have been the reason as to why al-Albani and his student al-Huwayni accepted his narrations with the condition.

[Farid]

Here are some quotes from early scholars that suggest his weakness in all cases. All from Mizan Al-I'itidal:

Yahya bin Ma'een said: He is weak, before and after the burning of his books.
Abu Zur'ah said: The narrations from the early and late (students) are the same... he is not to be relied upon.
Ibn Hibban: I saw what has no foundation in many of the early (students') narrations.

The last quote by Ibn Hibban may be understood to be a bad case of tadlees.

[Moin]

Something similar I wrote years ago: http://alsonnah.wordpress.com/2010/07/22/hadith-my-ahlul-bayt-are-like-ark-of-noah/

[Hani]

Jazak-Allahu Khayr, I'll definitly check it out.


What caught my eye mostly was that al-Albani and his student abu Ishaq al-Huwayni treated ibn Lahee`ah as a "Hasan" narrator if certain conditions were met.