I am currently reading a book Faza-e-a A’mal written by Muhammad Zakariya Kandhaldi, and can you please inform me if this book is based on weak Ahadith? Does this book create Bid’a as it mostly used by the Tablighe? Can you shed some light on their teaching as well?

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

Dear brother, all the Muftis in Islamweb are Arabs.  They do not know the Urdu language, thus we issued this Fatwa only on the basis of the Arabic text we found in Fadhaa-il al-A’mal.  As for The matters that are only in Urdu language, we suggest you to refer to a trustworthy person who knows Urdu.

However, we found in the Arabic text that the author of this book quotes many verses from Quran in a given subject and then cites many sound, acceptable and weak Ahadeeth on the subject.  Most probably, he depends on the Ahadeeth reported by al-Bukhaari and Muslim, as-Sunan, Mu’jam al-Tabarani, at-Targheeb wat-Tarheeb by al-Munthiri, al-Jaami’ as-Sagheer by as-Sayooti, Majma’ a-Zawaa-id by al-Haithami, Tafseer at-Tabari, Tafseer Ibn Katheer, ad-Dur al-Manthur by al-Suyooti and Mishkaat al-Masaabeeh. He rarely mentioned Ahadeeth from other sources. He often quotes the rulings of scholars on the Ahadeeth.  Therefore, we perceive that the book is based on the Quran, the Saheeh (authentic), Hasan and weak Ahadeeth.

However, there are some remarks on the book.

1) The book is not free from fabricated Ahadeeth since some sources of this book are not free from fabricated Ahadeeth such as al-Targheeb, al-Jaami’ as-Sagheer and Majma’ a-Zawaa-id.

2) Depending on as-Suyooti, al-Munthiri, and al-Haithami is an act of negligence since they are indulgent in their rulings on the Ahadeeth, thus many known scholars disagree with their rulings in classifying Ahadeeth.  As for the rulings of as-Suyooti in al-Jaami’ as-Sagheer, he wrote them in the form of abbreviations which were changed by the copiers, scriptures, etc. as confirmed by Imam al-Manawi and al-Albaani.  Therefore, they disagree with as-Suyooti in many rulings about the Ahadeeth.

3) The author of the book sometimes quotes the comments of Imam ath-thahabi on the ruling of al-Hakim and sometimes omits them.

4) The author permitted acceptance of weak Ahadeeth in the matters of virtues while Muslim scholars do not have the same opinion over this issue.

Those who permitted acting according to weak Ahadeeth in the matter of virtues only, have set some conditions for that. For example, the Hadeeth should not be very weak and should not establish any new ruling. Rather the general rulings of the Sharee’ah should basically approve of the rulings that are mentioned in the weak Ahadeeth, and at the time of acting according to the weak Ahadeeth, the person should not believe that it is a proved Sunnah. These conditions are set by many trustworthy scholars of Hadeeth, such as Ibn as-Salah, Ibn Hajar, Ibn Taymiyyah, Ibn Daqeeq al-‘Eed and Ibn Abdus Salaam all.

Know that there are some other books in this subject which are more authentic than this one, such as Fadha-il Al-a’maal by al-Maqdisi, Riyadh as-Saaliheen by an-Nawawi, Saheeh al-Targheeb wat-Tarheeb, al-Matjar ar-Rabih by ad-Dimyati, Saheeh al-Jaami’ as-Sagheer, as-Saheeh al-Musnad min Athkaar al-Yawm wal-Laylah by al-Adawi, and Muntakhab al-Ahadeeth written by Muhammad Yusuf al-Kandahlawy.

However, we would like to draw your attention to the fact that it is permissible to use this book despite the weak Ahadeeth that it contains just as we read the books that consist of weak Ahadeeth, such as Kinzul ‘Ummaal, Majma’ az-Zawaa-id, etc.

We may know the authenticity of the Ahadeeth through the rulings of Shaykh Al-Albaani, Shaykh al-Arna’oot, Shaykh al-Wadai, Hussein, Asad and Ahmad Shaakir and others who research Ahadeeth and mention their degree of correctness.

For more benefit, please refer to Fatwa 291031.

Allah knows best.