In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. Blessings and peace be upon the noblest of the Prophets and Messengers, our Prophet Muhammad, and upon all his family and Companions.
This is a detailed summary of what was covered in this part of the explanation of Imam al-Shafi’i’s al-Risalah, focusing on the important points and clarifications, and supplemented with some additions and explanations that help in understanding the issue more deeply.
Paragraph 1235 onward: continuing the discussion of the authority of the solitary report, the conditions for accepting it, and excusing the imams:
In this part, Imam al-Shafi’i continues to lay the foundations of the authority of the solitary report, presenting examples from the practice of the Salaf, explaining the conditions for accepting and rejecting a report, and offering an excuse for the imams in some of their statements that may contradict certain hadiths.
- Renewed emphasis on the importance of the chapter on the solitary report: Imam al-Shafi’i reaffirms the importance of the chapter on establishing the solitary report, noting that many people discard this kind of report, or accept it in subsidiary rulings but not in foundations and creed, and that this is not correct.
- Examples from the practice of the Salaf in accepting the solitary report: Al-Shafi’i mentions examples from the practice of the Salaf in accepting the solitary report, among them:
- The narration of Sa’id ibn Yasar from Abu Sa’id al-Khudri on currency exchange (sarf).
- The narration of Sa’id ibn Yasar from Abu Hurayrah on “a dinar for a dinar and a dirham for a dirham.”
- The narration of ‘Urwah ibn al-Zubayr from ‘A’ishah on the Prophet’s ﷺ ruling that “profit follows liability.”
- The narration of Usamah ibn Zayd and ‘Abdullah ibn ‘Umar from the Prophet ﷺ.
- The narration of ‘Abd al-Rahman ibn ‘Abd al-Qari and Yahya ibn ‘Abd al-Rahman ibn Hatib from ‘Umar.
- The narration of al-Qasim ibn Muhammad from ‘A’ishah, Ibn ‘Umar, and Khansa’ bint Khidham.
- The narration of ‘Ali ibn Husayn from Usamah ibn Zayd: “A Muslim does not inherit from a disbeliever.”
- The narration of Muhammad ibn ‘Ali ibn Husayn from Jabir and Abu Hurayrah.
- The narrations of Muhammad ibn Jubayr ibn Mut’im, Nafi’, Yazid ibn Talhah, and other hadith narrators of Madinah.
- The narrations of ‘Ata’, Tawus, Mujahid, and other hadith narrators of Makkah.
- The narrations of Wahb ibn Munabbih in Yemen, Makhul in Syria, and other hadith narrators of the various cities.
- The settled status of the solitary report in the Ummah: Al-Shafi’i stresses that the issue of the solitary report is settled in every city and among all the imams: they establish the report, defer to it, and give fatwas by it, and each of them accepts it from those above him and those below him accept it from him.
- Affirming that no disagreement is known among the jurists over establishing the solitary report: Al-Shafi’i states explicitly that he knows of no disagreement among the jurists of the Muslims over establishing the solitary report, and that this is found among all of them.
- The ways in which a scholar may depart from an authentic hadith: Al-Shafi’i sets out the ways in which a scholar may depart from an authentic hadith:
- That he has a hadith contradicting it.
- That what he heard, and the one from whom he heard it, are more reliable in his view than the one who narrated the contrary to him (that is, he has a narrator more reliable than the narrator of the hadith that contradicts it).
- That he has suspicion about someone above his informant in the chain (that is, he suspects the narrator’s shaykh).
- That the hadith bears two meanings and he interprets it accordingly.
- Explaining the phrase “or what he heard, and the one from whom he heard it, are more reliable in his view than the one who narrated the contrary to him”: He explains that what is meant is that a scholar may hear a hadith and then hear another that contradicts it, or hear a hadith from a trustworthy narrator and then hear another contradicting it from someone more trustworthy, so he rejects the first hadith and accepts the second.
- It is not permissible to reject a solitary report without one of these reasons: Al-Shafi’i insists that it is not permissible for a sensible scholar to establish a Sunnah by a solitary report and then abandon it for a report like it, or a more reliable one, without one of these reasons.
- Al-Shafi’i excusing the imams in their contradiction of texts: He points out that al-Shafi’i was perhaps the first to offer excuses for the imams where they contradicted texts, and that more than one scholar took this idea from him, among them Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah in his treatise Raf’ al-Malam ‘an al-A’immah al-A’lam.
- Rebutting the claim that “there is hardly a jurist in any land who has not narrated much that he adopts and a little that he leaves”: He shows that the jurists left nothing of the Sunnah except for the reason he described, such as the hadith having a hidden defect, coming through a weak route, bearing two meanings, or the like.
- The meaning of narrating a statement to make it known rather than because it is a proof: He explains that a scholar may narrate a statement of the Successors or of those after them in order to make it known, not because it is a proof binding on him with which he agrees or disagrees, and that later scholars call this “corroboration” (istishhad) or “supporting reference” (isti’nas).
- A scholar has no excuse for contradicting the Sunnah for other reasons: He stresses that if a scholar contradicts the Sunnah for reasons other than these, he has no excuse. He rebuts the statement of some later Malikis that “adhering to the apparent meaning of the Sunnah leads to disbelief,” and shows that this is a statement for which they have no excuse.
Some additional benefits:
- Clarifying the conditions for accepting and rejecting the solitary report.
- Explaining Imam al-Shafi’i’s standing in defending the imams.
- Clarifying the meaning of istishhad and isti’nas.
- Refuting some mistaken statements on the issue of acting on the Sunnah.
We ask Allah the Exalted to grant us success in understanding His Book and the Sunnah of His Prophet ﷺ, and to make us among those who follow them.
All parts of Summary of the Explanation of al-Risala by Shaykh Dr. Ahmad al-Naqeeb