Ibn Hajar’s Critique of Lenient in Hadith upon the Muslim Transmitters: A Study on ‘Abdullah b. Abi Salih (d. 130/744)

Abstract

The narrator ‘Abdullah b. Abi Salih al-Samman is one of the Muslim transmitters (rijal Muslim) that has been criticized by the scholars of hadith from the time of al-‘Uqaily (d. 323/934) until Ibn Hajar’s (d. 852/1449) period. ‘Abdullah narrated two hadiths in Sahih Muslim and since Muslim b. al-Hajjaj (d. 261/875) placed his narration as the argumentation hadith (usul alhadith), it has invited criticism among scholars. Many debates among scholars of hadith in determining ‘Abdullah b. Abi Salih’s stance and status originated from al-Bukhari’s critique of munkar al-hadith towards him and concluded by Ibn Hajar’s critique of layyin al-hadith or lenient in hadith against him. The polemic degraded the canonical status that has been achieved by the Sahihayn and has continuously been the subject of much criticism and debate among scholars during the 14th century until the present time.

Keywords

• Lenient in hadith
• Narrator
• Hadith
• Critique
• Abdullah