‘Ali: The Best of the Sahabah

1. Hadith Al-Qadha, Investigating Its Authenticity ==================================================

Shaykh Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 728 H) states:

As for his statement, “The Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, said: ‘The best judge among you is ‘Ali’”, and justice dispensation requires knowledge and religious devotion. But, this hadith is not authentic, and it has no chain of transmission which makes it a valid proof ... It is not recorded by anyone in the famous Sunan books, and not (by anyone) in the well-known Musnad books – not with a sahih chain, nor with a dha’if chain**. It is only narrated through the route of notorious liars**.[^1]

Meanwhile, Imam Ibn Majah (d. 273 H) records in his Sunan:

Muhammad b. al-Muthanna – ‘Abd al-Wahhab b. ‘Abd al-Majid – Khalid al-Haza – Abi Qilabah – Anas b. Malik:

The Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, said, “The most merciful of my Ummah to my Ummah is Abu Bakr. The most severe of them in the religion of Allah is ‘Umar. The most shy of them is ‘Uthman. And the best judge among them is ‘Ali b. Abi Talib.”[^2]

This report cancels out the first leg of our Shaykh’s claims: that the hadith is not documented in any of the authoritative Sunan and Musnad books – whether with a sahih chain or even a dha’if one!

So, the next question is: has the hadith truly been narrated by a liar or liars?

The first narrator, Muhammad b. al-Muthanna is thiqah (trustworthy) without absolutely any doubt. Al-Hafiz (d. 852 H) for instance says about him:

Muhammad b. al-Muthanna b. ‘Ubayd al-‘Unaza, Abu Musa al-Basri.... Thiqah (trustworthy), thabt (accurate).[^3]

Elsewhere, he adds about him:

Al-Bukhari narrated 103 ahadith from him (in his Sahih), and Muslim also narrated 772 ahadith (from him in his Sahih).[^4]

Apparently, he was a super-weight in Sunni ahadith.

Al-Hafiz also says about the second narrator:

‘Abd al-Wahhab b. ‘Abd al-Majid b. al-Salt al-Thaqafi, Abu Muhammad al-Basri: Thiqah (trustworthy). He changed (i.e. his memory weakened) 3 years before his death.[^5]

In his Lisan, he gives further, crucial information about him:

But, his change (in memory) does not harm his ahadith, for he never narrated a single hadith during the period of the change.[^6]

So, what about the remaining narrators? Shaykh al-Arnauṭ saves us a lot of time with this tahqiq:

‘Abd Allah (b. Ahmad) – my father (Ahmad b. Hanbal) – ‘Affan – Wuhayb – Khalid al-Haza – Abu Qilabah – Anas b. Malik – the Prophet, peace be upon him .... Its chain is sahih UPON THE STANDARD OF THE TWO SHAYKHS.[^7]

We understand from this that both Khalid al-Haza and Abu Qilabah are thiqah (trustworthy) narrators of both Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim, like Muhammad b. al-Muthanna.

Interestingly, Imam al-Hakim (d. 403 H), Imam al-Dhahabi (d. 748 H) and ‘Allamah al-Albani (d. 1420 H) also confirm that the second narrator is like the others too in this regard. The ‘Allamah writes:

أخرجه الترمذي (2 / 309) وابن ماجه (154) وابن حبان (2218) و (2219) والحاكم (3 / 422) من طريق عبد الوهاب بن عبد المجيد الثقفي حدثنا خالد

Al-Tirmidhi (2/309), Ibn Majah (154), Ibn Hibban (2218) and al-Hakim (3/422) narrated it through the route of ‘ABD AL-WAHHAB B. ‘ABD AL-MAJID AL-THAQAFI – Khalid al-Haza – Abu Qilabah – Anas – the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him. Al-Tirmidhi said: “The hadith is hasan sahih”. Al-Hakim (also) said, “This chain is sahih UPON THE STANDARD OF THE TWO SHAYKHS”. Al-Dhahabi concurred with him, and it is (indeed) as they both have stated.[^8]

In a simple summary, Hadith al-Qadha – as documented by Imam Ibn Majah – has a chain of transmission that is sahih upon the standard of al-Bukhari (d. 256 H) and Muslim (d. 261 H). All its narrators are relied upon in both Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim, and there is no disconnection anywhere in the chain. Apparently, Shaykh Ibn Taymiyyah’s weird, unfounded claim that the hadith is narrated only by notorious liars is itself a sickening rape of the truth!

There is equally a mutaba’ah for Muhammad b. al-Muthanna copied by Imam al-Haythami (d. 807 H):

Ahmad b. Makram b. Khalid al-Birti – ‘Ali b. al-Madini – ‘Abd al-Wahhab al-Thaqafi – Khalid al-Haza – Abu Qilabah – Anas b. Malik:

The Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, said: “The most merciful of my Ummah to my Ummah is Abu Bakr. The most severe of them concerning the Command of Allah is ‘Umar. The most shy of them is ‘Uthman. And the best judge among them is ‘Ali.[^9]

We already know that the last four narrators – including Anas – are thiqah narrators of both Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim. So, we only have to find out the status of the first two narrators. Once again, Shaykh al-Arnauṭ saves us time. Imam Ibn Hibban (d. 354 H) records this chain in his Sahih:

Ahmad b. Makram b. Khalid al-Birti –‘Ali b. al-Madini – Ma’n b. ‘Isa – Malik b. Anas – Safwan b. Sulaym – ‘Aṭa b. Yasar – Abu Sa’id al-Khudri[^10]

Al-Arnauṭ says:

Its chain is sahih upon the standard of al-Bukhari. Its narrators are thiqah (trustworthy), narrators of the Sahih, except ‘Ali b. al-Madini because he is from the narrators of (Sahih) al-Bukhari (only).^11

So, both al-Birti and ‘Ali b. al-Madini are thiqah (trustworthy) narrators of Sahih al-Bukhari too. As such, the mutaba’ah of ‘Ali b. al-Madini to Muhammad b. al-Muthanna in Hadith al-Qadha is sahih as well, upon the standard of Sahih al-Bukhari!

The hadith has equally been transmitted from other Sahabah, apart from Anas. Imam al-Haythami for instance records:

Narrated Jabir b. ‘Abd Allah al-Ansari:

The Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, said: “The most merciful of my Ummah to my Ummah is Abu Bakr. The kindest of my Ummah to my Ummah is ‘Umar. The most shy of my Ummah is ‘Uthman. The best judge of my Ummah is ‘Ali b. Abi Talib”.[^12]

He comments:

Al-Tabarani narrated it in al-Awsaṭ, and its chain is hasan.^13

In modern prints of Mu’jam al-Awsaṭ of Imam al-Tabarani (d. 360 H), this hadith, unfortunately, is no longer present! The previous existence of this report in al-Awsat is further confirmed by Imam al-Haytami (d. 974 H):

و في رواية الطبراني في الأوسط أرحم أمتي بأمتي أبو بكر وأرفق أمتي لأمتي عمر وأصدق أمتي حياء عثمان وأقضى أمتي علي بن أبي طالب

In the report of al-Tabarani in al-Awsat, it is recorded: “The most merciful of my Ummah to my Ummah is Abu Bakr. The kindest of my Ummah to my Ummah is ‘Umar. The most shy of my Ummah is ‘Uthman. The best judge of my Ummah is ‘Ali b. Abi Talib”[^14]

It has gone missing in the same al-Awsat after the time of al-Haytami.

Finally, ‘Allamah al-Albani has copied Hadith al-Qadha from yet another Sahabi, namely Ibn ‘Umar:

The most compassionate of my Ummah to my Ummah is Abu Bakr, and the most severe of them in the religion of Allah is ‘Umar. The most shy of them is ‘Uthman and the best judge among them is ‘Ali.[^15]

The ‘Allamah says:

Sahih ... (Narrated) by Ibn ‘Umar^16

[^1]: Abu al-‘Abbas Ahmad b. ‘Abd al-Halim b. Taymiyyah al-Harrani, Minhaj al-Sunnah al-Nabawiyyah (Muasassat Qurtubah; 1st edition, 1406 H) [annotator: Dr. Muhammad Rashad Salim], vol. 7, pp. 512-513

[^2]: Ibn Majah Abu ‘Abd Allah Muhammad b. Yazid al-Qazwini, Sunan (Dar al-Fikr) [annotator: Muhammad Fuad ‘Abd al-Baqi], vol. 1, p. 55, # 154

[^3]: Ahmad b. ‘Ali b. Hajar al-‘Asqalani, Taqrib al-Tahdhib (Beirut: Dar al-Maktabah al-‘Ilmiyyah; 2nd edition, 1415 H) [annotator: Mustafa ‘Abd al-Qadir ‘Ata], vol. 2, p. 129, # 6283

[^4]: Shihab al-Din Ahmad b. ‘Ali b. Hajar al-‘Asqalani, Tahdhib al-Tahdhib (Dar al-Fikr; 1st edition, 1404 H), vol. 9, p. 378, # 698

[^5]: Ahmad b. ‘Ali b. Hajar al-‘Asqalani, Taqrib al-Tahdhib (Beirut: Dar al-Maktabah al-‘Ilmiyyah; 2nd edition, 1415 H) [annotator: Mustafa ‘Abd al-Qadir ‘Ata], vol. 1, p. 626, # 4275

[^6]: Shihab al-Din Abu al-Fadhl Ahmad b. ‘Ali b. Hajar al-‘Asqalani, Lisan al-Mizan (Beirut: Manshurat Muasassat al-A’lami li al-Matbu’at; 2nd edition, 1390 H), vol. 4, p. 88, # 168

[^7]: Abu ‘Abd Allah Ahmad b. Hanbal al-Shaybani, Musnad (Cairo: Muasassat Qurtubah) [annotator: Shu’ayb al-Arnaut], vol. 3, p. 281, # 14022

[^8]: Abu ‘Abd al-Rahman Muhammad Nasir al-Din b. al-Hajj Nuh b. Tajati b. Ādam al-Ashqudri al-Albani, Silsilah al-Ahadith al-Ṣahihah wa Shayhun min Fiqhihah wa Fawaidihah (Riyadh: Maktabah al-Ma’arif li al-Nashr wa al-Tawzi’; 1st edition, 1415 H), vol. 3, p. 223, # 1224

[^9]: Nur al-Din ‘Ali b. Abi Bakr al-Haythami, Mawarid al-Zaman ila Zawaid Ibn Hibban (Damascus: Dar al-Thaqafah al-‘Arabiyyah; 1st edition, 1412 H) [annotators: Husayn Salim Asad al-Darani and ‘Abd ‘Ali al-Kushk], vol. 7, pp. 161-162, # 2218

[^10]: Abu Hatim Muhammad b. Hibban b. Ahmad b. Hibban b. Mu’adh b. Ma’bad al-Tamimi al-Darimi al-Busti, Ṣahih Ibn Hibban bi Tartib Ibn Balban (Beirut: Muasassat al-Risalah; 2nd edition, 1414 H) [annotators: Muhammad Nasir al-Din al-Albani and Shu’ayb al-Arnaut], vol. 16, p. 404, # 7393

[^12]: Nur al-Din ‘Ali b. Abi Bakr al-Haythami, Majma’ al-Zawaid (Beirut: Dar al-Fikr; 1412 H), vol. 9, p. 235, # 14918

[^14]: Abu al-‘Abbas Ahmad b. Muhammad b. Muhammad b. ‘Ali b. Hajar al-Haytami, al-Ṣawaiq al-Muhriqah ‘ala Ahl al-Rafdh wa al-Ḍalal wa al-Zindiqah (Beirut: Muasassat al-Risalah; 1st edition, 1997 CE) [annotators: ‘Abd al-Rahman b. ‘Abd Allah al-Turki and Kamil Muhammad Khurat], vol. 1, p. 226

[^15]: Abu ‘Abd al-Rahman Muhammad Nasir al-Din b. al-Hajj Nuh b. Tajati b. Ādam al-Ashqudri al-Albani, Ṣahih al-Jami’ al-Ṣaghir wa Ziyadatuhu (Al-Maktab al-Islami), vol. 1, p. 211, # 868