Salatu Tasbih Isnad Study
Taken from the Works Al-Hafith Al-Aala’I (761H)
Close to a year ago I added an interesting topic about Salatu Tasbih which mainly came from the discussions of Imam Al-Albani. At the beginning of its release , I received numerous concerns about the authenticity of the hadith, while others said Imam Muqbil graded the hadith as weak and when I replied that Imam Al-Albani graded it as authentic along with Ibn Salah, the following response was, “ You aren’t accepting the evidence “. Moreover others, hit Google and were redirected to the Islamqa website. Islamqa has become the quick search and find site for many laymen in the World. I went the link sent to me and found a few arguments about the hadith none which were really convincing other than Isnad is weak, therefore, we need to look at it and find out why its weak and are there any other chains that support it, and have other Imams in the past graded it as being Sahih or Hasan?
The arguments from from Islam Q/A
1.Ibn Quddamah didn’t mention what Al-Khalal mentioned in Ilal about the dialogue between Imam Ahmed and Ali ibn Sa’eed.
2.Imam An-Nawawi’s mention that involves changing the regular format then the same goes for Eid prayer and the Eclipse prayer.
3.Ibn Tayimiyyah’s speech that none of the four Imams spoke about, then we can say knowledge isn’t restricted to these 4 great Imams;therefore what the practiced or mentioned is accepted or reject worship. Furthermore, Imam Ibn Mubarak acted by it an taught it to others.
4.Imam Al-Uthaymeen mentioned the Isnad had some weakness and was shaky, so lets look at it.
حَدَّثَنَا عَبْدُ الرَّحْمَنِ بْنُ بِشْرِ بْنِ الْحَكَمِ النَّيْسَابُورِىُّ حَدَّثَنَا مُوسَى بْنُ عَبْدِ الْعَزِيزِ حَدَّثَنَا الْحَكَمُ بْنُ أَبَانَ عَنْ عِكْرِمَةَ عَنِ ابْنِ عَبَّاسٍ أَنَّ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ -صلى الله عليه وسلم- قَالَ لِلْعَبَّاسِ بْنِ عَبْدِ الْمُطَّلِبِ « يَا عَبَّاسُ يَا عَمَّاهُ أَلاَ أُعْطِيكَ أَلاَ أَمْنَحُكَ أَلاَ أَحْبُوكَ أَلاَ أَفْعَلُ بِكَ عَشْرَ خِصَالٍ …..
Collected by Abu Dawud(1297) and Ibn Majah (1387)
The Isnad for this hadith is :
Ibn Abbass-
Ikramah- Al-Quraysah He is Abu Abdullah Al-Madani – Imam Al-Bukhari narrated on him
Al-Hakim ibn Aban — Yahya ibn Ma’een , Ahmed Al-Ajli graded him as being Thiqah
Musa ibn Abdil Aziz—Yahya ibn Ma’een and An-Nisa’I both said: لا بأس به
Abdur Rahman ibn Bashir ibn Al-Hakam—-Narrator in the 6 six books of hadith.
On the surface here the Isnad appears Sahih . Al-Hafith Al-Alaa’I mentioned all the narrators above and their status.
After mentioning the isnad of this hadith Al-Haftih Al-Alaa’I said Ibn Al-Khuzaymah mentioned it in his Sahih. It’s mentioned there # 1216. However Imam Al-‘’Alaa’e failed to mention that Ibn Khuzaymah pointed to the hadith as being weak by saying, “ If it is Sahih, there is an issue in its isnad.”
There is another chain to this hadith and its narrators are;
Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Dawud ibn Sulayman—-
Ja’far ibn Al-Hussain ibn UbaidAllah—-
Bashr ibn Al-Hakam—-
Then
Abu Bakr Ahmed ibn Ishaq—-
Ibrahim ibn Ishaq ibn Yusef—-
Abdur Rahman ibn Bashir ibn Al-Hakam—-
Both of these chains connect to Musa ibn Abdil Aziz
Stopping here one issue with this isnad is Musa ibn Abdil Aziz. When we return to the books to check his status we find that some said he was , Trustworthy, weak and even trustworthy with a weak memory. Imam Al-Albani graded him as being honest,but with a weak memory.(saheehah/5/58)and Al-Hafith ibn Hajr said the same thing in Taqreeb #6988
Al-Hafith Al-Alaa’e mentioned Yahya ibn Ma’een said : La Bas bihi- and this is considered a Ta’dil
Imam Al-Mughlatayee in Ikmal Tahtheebil Kamal mentioned that Ibn Shaheen and Ibn Hibban both mentioned him in their books [ Al-Thiqat:The trustworthy narrators] # 4809
On the other side Al-Hafith ibn Hajr mentioned that Ibn Madeeni said Musa ibn Abdil Aziz was weak, while As-Sulaymani said he was Munkar, nonetheless, in returning to Taqreeb he wrote- Trust worthy with a weak memory.
So returning to a few books of weak narrators his name wasn’t mentioned or any reason as to why he might be considered as weak.
The scholars’ speech about this hadith:
Imam Muslim said this isnad is the best for this topic.
Imam Abu Dawud said: There isn’t any hadith for the prayer of Tasbih more authentic than the one from Ikramah on Ibn Abbass.
Imam Ad-Daraqutni said : It’s the most authentic hadith about the virtue of a prayer.
Continuing on Al-Hafith Al-Alaa’I mentioned another hadith and relied on Al-Hakim’s judgement.
The isnad is:
Abu Ali Al-Hussain ibn Ali
Ahmed ibn Dawud ibn Abdil Ghaffar
Ishaq ibn Kamil
Idriss ibn Yahya
Haywah ibn Shurah
Yazid ibn Abi Habeeb
Naf’I
Ibn Umar.
Al-Hafith Al-Hakim and Al-Alaa’I both missed that Imam Ad-Darqutni considered Ahmed ibn Dawud ibn Abdil Ghaffar as a liar as Imam Ath-Thahabbi mentioned on his comments for Al-Hakim’s Al-Mustaddarak. #1197.
Al-Hafith Al’Alaa’s reply to Ibn Al-Jawzi
Based on the fact that scholars like Imam Muslim and Abu Dawud graded this hadith Sahih it shows a clear contradiction of Imam Ibn Al-Jawzi’s opinion. He mentioned this hadith in his fabricated reports (vol2-pg 146-243).
Ibn Al-Jawzi’ also had a problem with Musa ibn Abdil Aziz as he said he was Unknown. Al-Hafith Al-‘Alaa’I refuted this by saying this wasn’t true; as a numerous amount of trustworthy narrators narrated from him and Ibn Ma’een and An-Nisa’I both graded him as being trustworthy. Moreover there are other isnads for this hadith that weren’t mentioned.
Imam Ahmed’s opinion that changed about the hadith.
Ali Ibn Sa’eed Al-Nisa’I asked Imam Ahmed about Salatu Tasbih and Imam Ahmed said : “I don’t have any authentic reports”
Ali replied: There is a chain from Abdullah ibn Amr ibn Al-Aws
Ahmed replied : all of those chains are reported by way of Amr ibn Malik An-Nakiree
Ali replied: Also there is a narration of Mustamar ibn Ar-Rayyan on ibn Amr
Ahmed replied: Who narrated that to you
Ali said: Muslim ibn Ibrahim
Ahmed replied : Muslim is a trust worthy sheikh and it was evident that he accepted and liked that narration. [ Masa’il Ahmed from his son/pg 89]
Imam Abdullah ibn Mubark view about Salatu Tasbih
In concluding his discussion about this hadith Al-Hafith Al’Alaa’I mentioned that Imam At-Tirmithi mentioned that Ibn Mubarak used to act by this hadith and for that reason supports the other narrations.
Al-Hanabala who considered it a recommended act were:
1: Abul Wafa ibn Aqeel
2: Muwaffiqudeen Ibn Quddamah [ Al-Mughni,2/98]
In conclusion and Allah knows best the issue of the isnad appears to be authentic as Al-Hafith Al’Alaa’broke down and if we take there is weakness in the chain due to Musa ibn Abdil Aziz then there are other reports that strengthen its status to at least Hasan;as Imam At-Tirmthi concluded in his Jami’ # 481. Imam Ibn Al-Wazir in Al-Awsim mentions that there are others chains which add to this hadith’s authenticity and Abdul Ghani authored a book collecting all of its chains and graded as being Sahih himself and Allah knows best.
Taken from
النقد الصريح لما اعترض عليه من أحاديث المصابيح
Page 76-79 , Al-Hafith Al-Alaa’I [761H]
Prepared and arranged by Abu Aaliyah Abdullah ibn Dwight Battle
Doha,Qatar 1438©
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