Dear Sir, i was told by a brother muslim that i am not allowed to narrate a hadeeth to him if i am not a "maulana" and i should know 15 types of Arabic. Please clarify whether this is correct.

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.

If you refer to narrating the Hadeeth of the Prophet with its exact wording, then this depends on the strength of the memory of a person. Whoever memorizes the Hadeeth with its exact wording is permitted to narrate it with its exact wording. However, the problem is narrating the meaning of the Hadeeth, as this requires one to master the Arabic language and the different possible meanings of the words in this language.

The same thing applies to a person who wants to translate the Hadeeth from the Arabic language into English (or any other language); he must know the meaning of the words in both languages (i.e. the Arabic language and the language to which it is being translated).

For more benefit, please refer to Fatwa 86610.

Allaah Knows best.