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Fatwa CenterHadeeth of Masrooq about visiting ‘Aa’ishah on day of Arafah
Question
Assalaamu alaykum wa rahmatullaahi wa barakaatuh. Please, can you inform me of the grade of authenticity of the following hadith:
It is mentioned in Baihaqi and Musannaf Ibn ‘Abd Ar-Razzaaq that Masrooq, may Allah be pleased with him, went to ‘Aa’ishah, may Allah be pleased with her, on the day of Arafah. ‘Aa’ishah, may Allah be pleased with her, requested that Masrooq, may Allah be pleased with him, be served Saweeq (dish made of wheat and date). Masrooq, may Allah be pleased with him, did not fast on that day out of precaution in case that day would be the Eid in Makkah. ‘Aa’ishah, may Allah be pleased with her, however, was fasting. Masrooq, may Allah be pleased with him, asked ‘Aa’ishah, may Allah be pleased with her, “O Mother of the Believers, are you fasting today? Who knows, it may be Eid in Makkah today?” ‘Aa’ishah, may Allah be pleased with her, replied, “The day of Eid is the day celebrated by the head of the state and the grand majority.”
May Allah reward you.
Answer
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.
The hadeeth which you mentioned was reported by ‘Abd Ar-Razzaaq in his Musannaf from Ma‘mar, from Ja‘far ibn Burqan, from Al-Hakam or another, that he, along with another man, entered upon ‘Aa’ishah on the day of ‘Arafah. So ‘Aa'ishah said to her servant girl, “Serve them Saweeq, and sweeten it for them. Were I not fasting, I would have tasted it.” They said, “O Mother of the Believers! Are you fasting today while it may be the Day of Nahr ('Eed Al-Adhha)!” She said, “The Day of Nahr is when the Imaam slaughters and the grand majority of people slaughter, and the Day of Fitr is when the Imaam breaks his fast and the grand majority of people break their fast.”
We did not find any scholar who ruled whether this hadeeth is authentic or weak; however, its narrators are trustworthy except for a doubt in the Shaykh of Ja‘far ibn Burqaan, as the chain of narrators reads, “from Al-Hakam or another". The doubt in specifying the narrator of a hadeeth, whether it is so-and-so or so-and-so, is a deficiency in the hadeeth which entails not using it as evidence if one of the two narrators in doubt is trustworthy and the other is weak. In this chain of narrators, the other narrator is unknown, as he said “or another”, and Al-Hakam is Ibn ‘Utaybah, who is confirmed to be trustworthy, but he may be a Mudallis (one who practices Tadlees [i.e. reporting from his Shaykh whom he met, what he did not hear from him in such a way as to create the impression that he heard the hadeeth in person. A Mudallis usually uses the mode "on the authority of" or "he said" to conceal the truth about the chain of narration). However, Ibn Hajar classified him as a second-degree Mudallis, meaning that he is one of those regarding whom the scholars said that it might be probable that they did Tadlees, and they reported their narrations in the Saheeh due to them being Imaams (prominent scholars), and their Tadlees was only slight.
The hadeeth was also narrated by Al-Bayhaqi in As-Sunan with a chain of narrators that includes Imaam Abu Haneefah An-Nu‘maan ibn Thaabit. Although Abu Haneefah was an Imaam in Fiqh, scholars considered him weak in narrating hadeeth. An-Nasaa’i and Ibn ‘Uday classified him as weak, and Al-Bukhaari said, “There is much error in his narrations.” Imaam Ahmad said, “His narration is not precise, and he narrated objectionable ahaadeeth.” Ibn Ma‘een, Abu Daawood and An-Nasaa’i said, “He is weak.” Al-Albaani said, “Despite his prominence in Fiqh, his memorization was described as weak by Al-Bukhaari, Muslim, An-Nasaa’i, Ibn ‘Adiyy, and other leading Hadeeth scholars. It is for this reason that the only thing which Ibn Hajar said about him in At-Taqreeb was, ‘He is a renowned scholar of Fiqh.’”
This hadeeth was also narrated by At-Tabaraani with another wording from Masrooq; it says that he entered upon ‘Aa’ishah on the day of ‘Arafah and said, “Give me something to drink.” So ‘Aa’ishah said to her servant boy, “Serve him honey.” Then she said, “Are you not fasting Masrooq?” He replied, “No. I fear that it might be the Day of Adhha (the Day of Sacrifice).” Thereupon, ‘Aa’ishah said, “It is not so; the day of ‘Arafah is the day when the Imaam stands in ‘Arafah (and delivers the sermon of the Day of ‘Arafah), and the Day of Nahr (sacrifice) is when the Imaam slaughters his sacrifice. O Masrooq, did you not hear that the Messenger of Allah considers it (this day) to be equal to fasting one thousand days?”
Al-Albaani said in As-Silsilah Adh-Dha‘eefah about the chain of narrators of this hadeeth cited by At-Tabaraani, “This is a weak chain of narrators, and its wording is objectionable; it is full of deficiencies.”
Allah knows best.
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