Question

Asalamu’alaikum,

Ibn Hajar (rh) mentions in Fath al Bari the following incident:

وروى مسلم – أيضا – في ((كتاب التفصيل)) بإسناد صحيح ، عن بكير بن الأشج ، قال : لنا بسر بن سعيد : أيها الناس ، اتقوا الله ، وتحفظوا في الحديث ، فوالله لقد رأيتنا نجالس أبا هريرة ، فيحدثنا عن رسول الله – صلى الله عليه وسلم – ، ويحدثنا عن كعب ، ثم يقوم ، فأسمع بعض من كان معنا يجعل حديث رسول الله – صلى الله عليه وسلم – عن كعب ، ويجعل حديث كعب عن رسول الله – صلى الله عليه وسلم – . ولو ذكرنا الأحاديث المرفوعة التي أعلت بأنها موقوفة: إما على عبدالله بن سلام، أو على كعب ، واشتبهت على بعض الرواة فرفعها ، لطال الأمر .

1) Is the above narration of Busr ibn Sa’id suggesting that there could be narrations within the hadith corpus that are wrongly attributed to Abu Huraira (ra) and the Prophet (saw), when in actuality they belong to Ka’b al-Ahbar (ra)? If so, is it conceivable that a Sahih collection such as Bukhari or Muslim could have a narration with a wrong attribution as described above?

2) Secondly, what is meant by the final sentence regarding Abdullah ibn Salam (ra) and Ka’b al-Ahbar (ra)?

Your response would be most appreciated. JazakAllahu Khairun!

Answer

The quotation provided in the question is found in the Fath al-Bari of Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali. We have not found this quote in the Fath al-Bari of Ibn Hajar.

The quote mentions that Abu Hurayrah would at times quote narrations from the Prophet (may Allah bless him and give him peace) and at other times quote other individuals such as Ka’b. In the gathering, there would be some individuals who, when quoting Abu Hurayrah, would mix up the narrations and attribute something to the Prophet (may Allah bless him and give him peace) which Ka’b had said and vice versa. This was not an error of Abu Hurayrah, rather, it was an error on the part of those who would narrate from Abu Hurayrah. Also, this was not the case with every person in the gathering, but would be restricted to those who were not able to differentiate accurately.

The scholars of hadith will have identified such narrators and will compare their narrations with those narrators who were more reliable. In this manner they would be able to identify which narrations are actually the Prophet’s and which narrations are of another person. The likes of Imam Bukhari and Muslim had applied strict criteria to ensure that the hadiths incorporated into their sahih works were free from such errors.

The last statement is saying that if we were to gather all those narrations which have been attributed to the Prophet (may Allah bless him and give him peace) but in reality are not narrated by the Prophet, rather they are statements of a sahabi and one of the narrators have mistakenly attributed it to the Prophet, then to gather these narrations would be a long task as there are many narrations like this.

Again, from this statement we understand that the hadith scholars will have identified such narrations and categorised them according to their level of reliability.

فتح الباري لابن رجب (3/ 410)
وروى مسلم – أيضا – في ((كتاب التفصيل)) بإسناد صحيح، عن بكير بن الأشج، قال: لنا بسر بن سعيد: أيها الناس، اتقوا الله، وتحفظوا في الحديث، فوالله لقد رأيتنا نجالس أبا هريرة، فيحدثنا عن رسول الله – صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ -، ويحدثنا عن كعب، ثم يقوم، فأسمع بعض من كان معنا يجعل حديث رسول الله – صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ – عن كعب، ويجعل حديث كعب عن رسول الله – صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ -.
ولو ذكرنا الأحاديث المرفوعة التي أعلت بأنها موقوفة: إما على عبد الله بن سلام، أو على كعب، واشتبهت على بعض الرواة فرفعها، لطال الأمر

Answered by:
Ifta Research Fellow

Checked & Approved by:
Mufti Abdul Rahman Mangera
Mufti Zubair Patel