If a man whose religion and moral conduct are pleasing to you....
Fatwa No: 194923

Question

Asslam O Alaikum, I want to check the authenticity of the hadith in Tirmidhi Book of marriage, hadith No 1085 which states dont reject a proposal of a man who is pious otherwise this will call tribulation in the land. In this respect please mention 1) Who are the narrators of this hadith (the whole chain of transmission) 2) How people in that chain are viewed by scholars of hadiths 3) Do mention me the books wherein comments on the chain of this hadith is found

Answer

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, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is His Slave and Messenger.

The chain of narrators of this Hadeeth as quoted by At-Tirmithi is as follows: Muhammad ibn ‘Amr As-Sawwaaq Al-Balkhi narrated from Haatim ibn Ismaa’eel from ‘Abdullaah ibn Muslim Ibn Hurmuz, from Muhammad ibn ‘Ubayd and Sa’eed ibn ‘Ubayd, from Abu Haatim Al-Muzani that he said: “The Prophet said: “If a man whose religion and moral conduct are pleasing to you proposes to you, then let him marry; otherwise there will be great mischief and corruption on earth. They [the Companions] asked: “What if he has something to be criticized about?” He said: “If a man whose religion and moral conduct are pleasing to you proposes to you, then let him marry (and he repeated this thrice)." [At-Tirmithi]

Shaykh Al-Albaani classified this Hadeeth as Hasan by virtue of all its multiple routes of transmission, because this narration in principle is weak.

Shaykh Al-Albaani said in his book entitled Irwaa’ Al-Ghaleel: “…Because Muhammad ibn ‘Ubayd and Sa’eed ibn ‘Ubayd are unknown, and the narrator who narrated from them Ibn Hurmuz is weak, as in At-Taqreeb.”

However, At-Taqreeb also reads: “Muhammad ibn ‘Amr As-Sawwaaq Al-Balkhi is truthful. As regards Haatim ibn Ismaa’eel, then Ath-Thahabi said about him in his book Al-Kaashif that he is trustworthy.”

The Takhreej (referring each Hadeeth to its sources) of this Hadeeth is mentioned in the book entitled Al-Mughni ‘An Haml Al-Asfaar by Al-'Iraaqi in the context of referring the Ahaadeeth of  Al-Ghazali's Ihyaa’ ‘Uloom Ad-Deen to their sources. It is also mentioned in the book Al-Badr Al-Muneer by Ibn Al-Mulaqqin; and in some books of Shaykh Al-Albaani like Irwaa’ Al-Ghaleel.

Allaah Knows best.

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