11 April 2013

Ahmad ibn Hanbal and Yahya ibn Mu'een and the Hadith fabricator


On one occasion, Ahmad ibn Hanbal and Yahya ibn Mu'een prayed in the Ar-Rassafah Mosque. A storyteller stood among the people gathered in the Mosque and said,

"Ahmad ibn Hanbal and Yahya ibn Mu'een related to me from 'Abdur-Razzaq from Qatadah from Anas that the Messenger of Allah (Sallallahu Alahi Wasallam) said…..”

He continued to relate twenty or so pages worth of narrations, while Ahmad stared in amazement at Yahya and Yahya stared in amazement at Ahmad. Each asked the other, "Did you relate this?"

And each of them answered, "By Allah, until this hour, I had not heard this." When the storyteller was finished, Yahya asked, "And who related this to you?" He said,"Ahmad ibn Hanbal and Yahya ibn Mu'een."

Yahya said, "I am Yahya and this is Ahmad, and we have never heard of this to be among the sayings of the Messenger of Allah (Sallallahu Alahi Wasallam)"

The storyteller said, "I used to always hear that Yahya ibn Mu'een was an imbecile, but that fact has not dawned upon me until now." Yahya asked, "And how is that?" He said, "Is there not any Yahya ibn Mu'een and Ahmad ibn Hanbal in the world other than you two? I have indeed written from seventeen Ahmad ibn Hanbals and Yahya ibn Mu'eens”.

Tahdheer al-Khawas min Akadheeb al-Qussas by As-Suyootee

Source: The Sunnah and its role in Islamic legislation by Dr. Mustafa as-Siba'ee / Translated by Faisal ibn Muhammad Shafeeq / P122


No comments: