Fatwa ID: 04555

Answered by: Alimah Sabrina Al-Faarsiyyah

Question:

Asalamualaikum.

I wanted to ask if the Fuqahah have accredited a particular Hadith and used it for a specific ruling, does that mean the Hadith must or is regarded as authentic even the source and chain of the Hadith are not traceable?

Someone told me if a particular Hadith pertaining to any topic (fadhail or fiqh) and is found in a secondary book of a noble/esteemed faqeeh, then that is automatically regarded as sahih and is not subjected to the Hadith criteria i.e. sanad

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

Answer:

The Fuqaha are the ones who specialize in Islamic jurisprudence and are experts in deriving Islamic rulings based on the two primary sources of Shari’ah namely, the Qur’an and Hadith, as well as Ijma’ and Qiyas. In order for one to reach the level of a faqih (pl. fuqaha), one must be well-versed with the sciences of Hadith, the authenticity of their chains, the conditions of their narrators, etc. Therefore, where one is recognized as a faqih, he is automatically recognized to be well skilled in Hadith. This means that whenever a faqih utilizes a hadith in order to declare a certain religious ruling, he does it after studying the hadith and its authenticity and thereafter using it accordingly.

Therefore, it is not correct to say that ahadith are graded according to whether a faqih uses it or not even if the hadith is untraceable, rather it is the faqih that uses the ahadith in their respective places according to the authenticity level they hold, which have been labeled and studied by the Muhaddithun.

Only Allah Ta'ala knows best.

Written by Alimah Sabrina Al-Faarsiyyah

Checked and approved by Mufti Mohammed Tosir Miah

Darul Ifta Birmingham