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Fatwa CenterNarrations about performing the prayer of rescue (Istighaathah)
Question
is this sanad of athar sahih? this is narrated by Imam al Bayhaqi and al Targheeb fe ad-Dua by Abdul ghani al Maqdasi no. 61 chapter of dua al hajah Abu Ali al Hasan bin Ahmad bin Ibraheem bin Shazaan--Abdullah bin Jafar bin Darastawiyah--Yaqub bin Sufiyan--Ahmad bin Shabeeb bin Saeed--Shabeeb bin Saeed--Roh bin al Qasim--Abi Jafar al Madeeni--Abi Amama Sahl bin Hunaif--Uthman bin Hunaif and then the story of a man in need who came to Uthman bin Affan ra, who prayed two rakah and a prayer of istigatha. Imam al Bayhaqi authenticated this athar as he said My procedure is that I rely only on “SAHIH REPORTS” from all the books on Usool and Furoh, and I have “REJECTED THOSE WHICH ARE NOT SAHIH” and my way is to “Distinguish sahih from non-Sahih” [Dalail al Nabuwah (1/47)] plus according to Ibn Hajar asqalani also authenticated this chain as he said in his final rulings on shabeeb. “There is no harm in his those ahadeeth when they are narrated from him by his son Ahmad, but not when narrated from him by Ibn Wahb,”[at-Taqreeb 2739] in this chain his son Ahmad is narrating from Shabeeb, plus Ibn Hajar did not say Shabeeb should narrate from Yunas, Imam al-Hakim (rah) also considered chain without Yunus to be “SAHIH ON CRITERIA OF BUKHARI” Note at the chain: Ahmed bin Shabeeb bin Sa‟eed al-Khabti narrated from his father (Shabeeb bin Sa‟eed) who narrated from “RUH BIN QASIM” After narrating this hadith Imam al-Hakim (rah) said: This hadith is “SAHIH ON THE CRITERIA OF BUKHARI” but he has not narrated it… [Mustadrak ala Sahihayn, Hadith # 1930]
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.
Shaykh Al-Albaani 
mentioned this narration in his book At-Tawassul: Anwaa‘uh wa Ahkaamuh, and clarified that it is not Saheeh (authentic), explaining the reasons for that. He commented on the statement of Ibn Hajar that "(t)here is no harm in those Ahaadeeth when they are narrated from him (Shabeeb) by his son Ahmad, but not when narrated from him by Ibn Wahb," saying:
"The authenticity of this statement is questioned because it suggests that there is no harm in his Ahaadeeth if narrated from him by Ahmad (his son) in an absolute sense, which is not the case because this is restricted to Ahaadeeth narrated by him from Yoonus because of what have stated before. This view is supported by the fact that Ibn Hajar himself referred to this restriction; he listed Shabeeb in the reporters approved by Al-Bukhari but they were criticized (by the scholars of Hadeeth) as mentioned in the introduction to his book Fat-h Al-Baari. He then refuted the criticism regarding the authenticity of his Ahaadeeth after citing the scholars who labelled him as a trustworthy narrator and the statement of Ibn ‘Adiyy about him. He said: 'I say: Al-Bukhari narrated Ahaadeeth from him on the authority of his son (Ahmad) on the authority of Yoonus. Al-Bukhari did not narrate the Ahaadeeth from Shabeeb except the version reported on the authority of Yoonus. He did not accept the version reported from him by Ibn Wahb.' He indicated with this statement that the criticism of Shabeeb holds if he is reporting on the authority of other than Yoonus, even if it is reported by his son Ahmad. This is the correct view as I explained earlier, and his statement in the Taqreeb should be interpreted accordingly in order to reconcile his two different statements and to eliminate contradiction between them." [End quote]
Please refer to Fatwa 87264 for further benefit.
As for the statement quoted from Al-Bayhaqi, it means that the version of the narrations cited in his books are considered Saheeh (authentic) according to his own criteria. This does not necessarily mean that the narrations are Saheeh in general; the author may have adopted a special approach in judging the authenticity of reports that is different from other authors such as the case with Ibn Hibbaan, who accepted the accounts of unknown reporters. Another possibility is that the compiler may miss something pertaining to a narration which another compiler corrects it for him, like what Shaykh Al-Albaani did in his commentary on Al-Haafith Ibn Hajar's statement, and for other reasons.
Finally, the Saheeh Hadeeth cited in Fatwa 4413 is sufficient in this regard; we have underlined in that Fatwa the guidelines for the sound understanding of the Hadeeth.
Allaah Knows best.
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