Usool al Hadith - Forever Islam

Afterwards, al-Bukhaaree narrated many hadeeths to support the acceptanceaahaad reports. He wanted to prove that aahaad reports must be adhered to andaccepted with certainty. The following are some of these hadeeths followed bymy explanation:1. Maalik ibn al-Huwayrith said: “Some young men of around the same agecame to the Prophet (r) and stayed with him for about twenty days. TheMessenger of Allaah (r) was very merciful and kind [to us]. When he felt that wemissed our families and felt homesick, he asked us about those [of our families]whom we left behind, and we told him about them. He then said: Go back to yourfamilies and stay with them, teach them, instruct them [to do good] and pray asyou saw me pray.” 12The Messenger (r) ordered each one of these young men to teach his family.Teaching contains matters of belief The first of what is contained in the meaningof teaching must be about ‘Aqeedah. If aahaad report was not accepted, then thisorder of the Prophet (r) would have been empty of any meaning.2. Anas ibn Maalik said that people of Yemen came to the Messenger ofAllaah (r), saying: “Send someone with us to teach us Islaam and the Sunnah.”The Messenger (r) took hold of Aboo ‘Ubaydah’s hand and said: “This is thetrusted man of this Ummah.” 13If aahaad reports were not accepted with certainty, then the Prophet (r)would not have sent Aboo Ubaydah by himself to Yemen. The same can be saidabout other occasions when the Prophet (r) sent other companions, like ‘Alee,Mu‘aath and Aboo Moosaa al-Ash‘aree, to Yemen and other provinces. There isno doubt that these emissaries of the Prophet (r) taught those who received them‘aqeedah along with other matters of the religion. If their reports were notaccepted and were not a proof against those who received these Companions, theProphet (r) would not have sent them one after another, as this would have beena wasted effort. The Messenger of Allaah (r) would never fall into such asituation as this. And this is what Imaam ash-Shafi‘ee meant when he said, in hisbook, ar-Risaalah: “The Prophet (r) would not send anyone carrying hisinstructions, unless the report of the one carrying the message was certain proof,either for or against those who received it. He could have sent for them andaddressed them directly. Or he could have sent many Companions. Instead, hesent to them a single Companion who was known to be trustworthy.12 Sahih Al-Bukhari, vol. 1, p. 345, no. 604.13 Saheeh Muslim and Saheeh Al-Bukhaaree