Riyadh al-Saliheen Fatwa No: 84684
- Fatwa Date:19-8-2002
Are there any weaked Hadith in the book named Riyadh al-Saliheen?
Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the World; and may His blessings and peace be upon our Prophet Muhammad and upon all his Family and Companions.
The book 'Riyadh al-Saliheen' (garden of devotees) is a very useful book. Allah made people to accept it, scholars and common people, all of them benefit from it due to its distinguished style of chapters and the way they are arranged and due to the good selection of Hadith. Probably, this is blessed by Allah due to the sincerity of the author, may Allah have Mercy upon him. No doubt, what is for Allah will remain forever and what is for other purpose soon will come to an end. Despite this high quality and standard of this book, it is not free from some weak Hadith. Sheik Nasiruddeen al-Albani listed the forty weak Hadith in his preface of this book. He stated the reason for such Hadith is the author relied on the ruling issued by al-Tirmizi grading the Hadith good or sound, or he relied on the Hadith that Abu Dawood kept silent without giving any grading. The Imams of this specialization say that all the in which Hadith Abu Dawood kept silent without grading or all the Hadith graded good or sound by al-Tirmizi are not sound, but both kinds contain weak and Munkar Hadith.
Here are some examples of weak Hadith:
1) The Hadith: "A wise person is one who checks his deeds and strives for that which will benefit him after death; and a foolish person is one who subordinates himself to his cravings and desires and expects from Allah the fulfillment of his futile desires" . al-Tirmizi transmitted and regarded it good while its chain is weak due to the narrator Abu Bakr Ibn Abi Maryam . He became confused after his house was robbed.
2) The Hadith: "The Apostle of Allah (peace be upon him) said: The first defect that permeated Banu Isra'il was that a man (of them) met another man and said: O so-and-so, fear Allah, and abandon what you are doing, for it is not lawful for you. He then met him the next day and that did not prevent him from eating with him, drinking with him and sitting with him. When they did so. Allah mingled their hearts with each other. He then recited the verse: "curses were pronounced on those among the children of Isra'il who rejected Faith, by the tongue of David and of Jesus the son of Mary"...up to "wrongdoers". He then said: By no means, I swear by Allah, you must enjoin what is good and prohibit what is evil, prevent the wrongdoer, bend him into conformity with what is right, and restrict him to what is right" . Reported by Abu Dawood and al-Tirmizi and he said: 'good Hadith' . Sheikh al-Albani said: 'the ruling of al-Tirmizi is uncertain since the Hadith depends on the narrator Ali bin Abu Ubaidah bin Abdullah bin Masud , he did not take from his father as confirmed by al-Tirmizi many times, thus the chain of Hadith is not connected .
For more details, you may refer to the preface written by Sheikh al-Albani .
Allah knows best.