Quote:
...Yet the following evidence suggests that al-Zuhri did not always conform to acceptable standards of accuracy and objectivity:
Rabi‘ah would say to Ibn Shihab: My situation is totally different from you. Whatever I say, I say it from my own self and you say it on the authority of the Prophet and so you must be careful, and it is not befitting for a person to waste himself [like this]. (Bukhari, Tarikh al-Kabir, vol. 3, Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-‘Ilmiyyah, pp. 286-7)
Rabi‘ah would say to Ibn Shihab: When you narrate something according to your own opinion, always inform the people that this is your own view. And when you narrate something from the Prophet, always inform them that it is from the Prophet so that they do not consider it to be your opinion. (Khatib Baghdadi, Al-Faqih wa Al-Mutafaqqih, vol. 1, Lahore: Dar al-Ahya al-Sunnah, p. 148).
Imam Bukhari had the following opinion:
Zuhri would narrate ahadith and on most occasions would insert sentences from his own self. Some of these would be mursal and some of them would be his own. (Ibn Rajab, Fath al-Bari, 1st ed., vol. 5, Jaddah: Dar Ibn al-Jawzi, 1996, p. 286)
In a letter to Imam Malik, Imam Layth Ibn Sa‘ad writes:
When we would meet Ibn Shihab, there would arise a difference of opinion in many issues. When any one of us would ask him in writing about some issue, he, in spite of being so learned, would give three very different answers, and he would not even be aware of what he had already said. It is because of this that I have left him – something that you did not like (Ibn Qayyim, I’lam al- Muwaqqi‘in, vol. 3, Beirut: Dar al-Jayl, p. 85).
Imam Shaf‘i, Darqutni and many others have attributed Tadlis to Zuhri. (Ibn Hajar, Tabaqat al-Mudallisin, Cairo: Maktabah Kulliyyat al-Azhar, p. 32-3)
Salaam broth,
All I could say about the above is, Dr Shafaat does have a verry peculiar and abnormally suspecting approach to judging the authenticity of hadiths, as we've seen, thus allthuogh the above does SEEM like evidence of possible unreliability of one of the claimed hadith narrators of a few bukhari hadiths concerning the second coming of jesus [pbuh], yet br, this is just one side of the story looked through the prism of a not so reliable man himself in such matters [i.e, there could be a different context to such statements [subject to verification of course] and it could have no bearing whatsoever to reliability on the relevent isnads, thus it is imperative that we here the 'other side of the story too' broth to get a more objective and contextual [and verified] explanation, and for that we need to contact an ahlus Sunnah Scholar that can shed more light on this issue;
for now, given the extremely cautious and meticulous and rigourous approach to isnad verifications in the traditional science of hadiths, and given that the consesus? regard the general hadiths in Sahih Bukhari as sahih, I am more inclined to believe the consensus on this issue rather than Dr Shafaat; infact, I believe the consensus wholeheartedly...
Aquaint yourself with the generally impeccable science of hadith br in sister Friends thread:
The Science of Hadith
Here are the Sahih hadiths:
By Him Whose Hand is my life, the son of Mary (Jesus) will certainly invoke the name of God for Hajj or for Umrah, or for both, in the valley of Rawha. (Sahih Muslim)
"It [the Day of Judgment] will not come until you see ten signs," and [in this connection] he mentioned the smoke, the Dajjal, the Beast, the rising of the Sun from the west, the descent of Jesus son of Mary… (Sahih Muslim)
By Him in Whose Hands my soul is, son of Mary [Jesus] will shortly descend amongst you people as a just ruler. (Sahih al-Bukhari)
Jesus son of Mary would then descend and their [Muslims'] commander will invite him to come and lead them in prayer, but he would say: No, some amongst you are commanders over some [amongst you]. This is the honor from God for this Ummah [nation]. (Sahih Muslim)
How will you be when the some of Mary (i.e. Jesus) descends amongst you and he will judge people by the Law of the Qur'an? (Sahih al-Bukhari)
And Dr Shafaat has left out a verry important bit of evidence which the certainty of this view is based on br, and this is another reckless approach of Dr Shafaat to the issue [sorry br, I dont mean to attack or denigrate Dr Shafaat for being your source, but these major flaws do bear on wether the whole approach and line of thought of Dr Shafaat to this issue is sound, thus it is important that they are pointed out] if i may say br, for there is no doubt that if he had asked the mainstream Scholars, or even done a simple search on the net, that he'd probably get to know about this ..., but yet he totally leaves out this inextricable bit of evidence, and rejects sahih hadiths, consensus and an Aqeedah point, and advocates doing the same while not even adressing or considering [or finding out?] the crucial evidence which this view is based on, which are the mutawatir chains.
He treats a few sahih chains to his personal opinions [which are rather eccentric
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], but yet fails to consider the huge number of other hadiths and narrators of them hadiths which gives this view the same level of authenticity of the Quran; here is a basic run down of the impeccable proof:
(1) Mutawâtir: It is a
hadîth narrated in each era, from the days of the Holy Prophet (
) up to this day by such a large number of narrators that it is impossible to reasonably accept that all of them have colluded to tell a lie.
This kind is further classified into two sub-divisions:
(a) Mutawâtir in words: It is a
hadîth whose words are narrated by such a large number as is required for a
mutawâtir, in a manner that all the narrators are unanimous in reporting it with the same words without any substantial discrepancy.
(b) Mutawâtir in meaning: It is a
mutawâtir hadîth which is not reported by the narrators in the same words. The words of the narrators are different. Sometimes even the reported events are not the same. But all the narrators are unanimous in reporting a basic concept which is common in all the reports. This common concept is also ranked as a
mutawâtir concept.
As for the
mutawâtir, nobody can question its authenticity. The fact narrated by a
mutawâtir chain is always accepted as an absolute truth even if pertaining to our daily life. Any statement based on a
mutawâtir narration must be accepted by everyone without any hesitation. I have never seen the city of Moscow, but the fact that Moscow is a large city and is the capital of U.S.S.R. is an absolute truth which cannot be denied. This fact is proved, to me, by a large number of narrators who have seen the city. This is a continuously narrated, or a
mutawâtir, fact which cannot be denied or questioned.
In the same way the
mutawâtir reports about the
sunnah of the Holy Prophet (
) are to be held as absolutely true without any iota of doubt in their authenticity. The authenticity of the Holy Qur’ân being the same Book as that revealed to the Holy Prophet (
) is of the same nature. Thus, the
mutawâtir ahâdîth, whether they be
mutawâtir in words or in meaning, are as authentic as the Holy Qur’ân, and there is no difference between the two in as far as the reliability of their source of narration is concerned.
The Authority of Sunnah - Chapter 3
The hadiths relating Jesus' second coming are reliable
[tawatur]. Research shows that scholars share this view.
Tawatur is defined as "a tradition which has been handed down by a number of different channels of transmitters or authorities, hence supposedly ruling out the possibility of its having been forged."
1
Sayyid Sharif al-Jurjani, an Islamic scholar, explains the concept of
tawatur hadith as follows:
News of
mutawatir, are the news upon which so many transmitters agree; to such an extent that, according to the tradition, it is unlikely for so many transmitters to reach to a consensus on a lie. This being the situation, if statements and meanings agree with one another, then this is called
mutawatir lafzi [verbal mutawatir]. If there is common meaning yet contradiction between statements [words], then it is called
mutewatir-i manawi [mutawatir by meaning].
2
In his
Al-Tasrih fi ma Tawatara fi Nuzul al-Masih, the great hadith scholar Muhammad Anwar Shah Kashmiri writes that the hadiths about Jesus' second coming are all reliable, and quotes 75 hadiths and 25 works by companions of the Prophet and their disciples (
tabi'un).
The
tawatur in the hadiths regarding Prophet Jesus' (pbuh) second coming is
mutawatir-i manawi. Aside from the fact that each one of the
sahih and
hasan hadiths may indicate different meanings, they all agree upon Prophet Jesus' (pbuh) second coming. This is actually a fact which is impossible to deny for a person who is well acquainted with the knowledge of hadith...
Muhammad al-Shawkani said that he had collected 29 hadiths and, when he had recorded them all, he said: "Our hadiths have reached the level of
tawatur (reliable), as you can see. With this, we reach the conclusion that the hadiths on the anticipated Mahdi, the Dajjal, and Jesus' second coming are
mutawatir (genuine)."
8
At-Tirmidhi, Abu Dawud, al-Bazzaz, Ibn Majah, al-Hakim, al-Tabarani, and al-Musuli recorded many hadiths narrated by the Companions, such as `Ali, Ibn `Abbas, Ibn `Umar, Talha, Abu Hurayra, Anas, Abu Sa`id al-Khudri, Umm Habiba, Umm Salama, `Ali al-Hilali, and `Abd Allah ibn al-Harith ibn Jaz, upon whose narrations they based their collection on.
9
...Such books show the great number of hadiths that exist on this subject.
Jesus Will Return - by Harun Yahya
Salaam
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