Why Scholars Created Simplified Hadith Collections

It's important for us to take a synopsis on the book itself. How did he structure this book? Who did he gear it towards? And what is this book comprised of? This book as it is titled meaning the gardens of the righteous. The gardens here meaning the verbial guardians in this world and the literal guardians in the hereafter. And it's a compilation of predominantly the most relevant words and times of the prophet Muhammad sallall.aii wasallam when we look at the original books of hadith. So when we mean the original books, we're talking about the references. The books which all other books that come after and quote narrations will use as a reference for their narrations. We look at a book like Muslim. We look at a book that comes even before that Ahmed. These books are written with a very particular with a very particular set of conditions in order that this book will will list certain narrations gathered by this in this way set up in a very particular way in order to articulate and add to a particular subject whether it's in the area of f or whether it's in the area of chains of narration or whether it's in the area of but these books are extensive they're very complex you have to study a lot and have become very familiar with the author his time the particular field that the author is compiling his book for in order to properly understand what the author intends with the way that he has structured his book. Sah Bkari is a book that yes it is the ultimate resource and the first of resources with regards to the prophet Sam's in Islam after which is Muslim. However, these books are very complex and they are not for the average person to just crack open and start reading at any point or at any place. And so the scholars of Islam the later scholars of Islam after the fifth and sixth century, after the seventh century, all the way until today have always sought to compile narrations of the prophet sallall.aii Wasam and make these narrations accessible and understandable to anyone who reads their book. Whatever their level of knowledge is, whatever their whatever their level is with regards to introduction to the subject or the prophet sallall.aii alaihi wasallam's words trying to make it as easy as possible for anyone to be able to pick the book up and read it and understand exactly what the author intended by it. And so the scholars worked very diligently to do things summarize summarize summarize or take select narrations even from Ahmed and many many many books have been written in this field with this goal in mind. writing a book that is accessible, making these narrations accessible to every person, every Muslim who picks up the book, regardless of his level of knowledge, to be able to understand for the most part without a teacher. This is the idea behind it. And so there have been many attempts, some of them were , you know, hit the mark, some of them missed the mark. They were either too complex or too simple. Right? However, the book of did this in one of the most perfect ways and it is compiled of a a little bit short just just shy of 2,000 narrations. Just shy of 2,000 narrations. And that's actually a lot of narrations, right? And Muslim without repetition all together collectively without repetition is a little bit less than 3,000 narrations. Some scholars mention it to be a little bit more or a little bit less. The point is is that 2,000 narrations, these narrations are what you will find to be the most common place narration amongst the Muslims, the most the most commonly cited the most well-known narrations of the prophet Sam where did these narrations come from about 85% of these narrations are from Bkari Muslim and mainly Muslim why because has a very special relationship with Muslim and so you'll find that the majority of the narrations that he cites are fromahk and so they're agreed upon then he quotes a lot from also rarely he quotes from even more rarely he quot and extremely scarcely he will quote other books such as or books I'm getting to it. Let me finish or he's given to or from books like this is very rare extremely rare that you'll find a narration from or a narration from or a narration from Ahmed. These are extremely rare. However, the majority of narrations are from these three books and activity. These are where the majority of the narrations of come from. One of the important things about is that there is not a narration mentioned in that the scholars of Islam have agreed upon as being weak that doesn't exist. So are there weak narrations in it's debatable. However, there's not a narration in where all the scholars agree this is a weak narration. He didn't quote any narrations that. Another point is there are no fabricated narrations. Also there are no extremely weak narrations. So if you look at narrations they're on different levels, right? There's that which is most authentic and then there is that which is most rejected right that which we are absolutely positive the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said and then that which we are absolutely positive he did not say and between those two points there is a multitude of levels multitude of levels with respect to the authenticity of narrations. Now he mentions most of his narrations from Bkari Muslim and those are authentic narrations which the Muslims after the scholars of Islam have agreed upon accepting the narrations of Muslim. These are narrations that are above reproach. However, however, there are other narrations which the scholars differ on. Some of them may say this narration is acceptable whilst others may say this narration is too weak to be acceptable. Therefore, we will consider this narration to not meet the minimum threshold of acceptability. that gray area where the scholars differ. Some narrations might be in from there. But a narration that is agreed upon to be rejected, no doesn't exist. A narration that is agreed upon to be fabricated or extremely weak, it doesn't exist. Alhamdulillah. Any narration that he mentions that maybe perhaps other scholars will quote as being weak, they are narrations which are differed upon. And as we mentioned before, one of his specialties is the science of hadith. And what that means is that if says an narration is authentic, it is acceptable to make of his opinion. If you're unable to search and understand the science of hadith enough to make your own opinion and choose, if you hear authenticated this narration, that's enough. That's enough for you to accept the narration. And so he is a in this field of the science of hadith. This is very very important for us because again just like you know the the scholars they have a a saying and we'll end with this they have a saying that you know when you're if you look at kids or people that they come across a tree that has a lot lot of fruits on it. When they can't climb the tree to the top to get these fruits down, they'll take stones and start to pelt the stones at these fruits to try to knock them down. I'm sure most of us grew up in that kind of environment, right? And so the scholars say only the trees with the most fruits hanging on them are the ones that get pelted with the most stones, right? Half of the Noah is who has a lot of fruits in his life. His life and his works were very fruitful, extremely influential to the point that if I were to try or if a scholar were to try to completely avoid the Noah in all research, in all matters, it would be almost impossible. He has been so influential and his work so intrusive into all fields of Islamic sciences or most fields. And so any person who rises to this kind of prominence, you're going to find that he'll have a lot of haters, a lot of enemies, a lot of people that will slander him. Why? Because they're trying to ride his coattails. any kids that come out today on the internet or and they make a YouTube channel and their YouTube channel is all about how alafi is a terrible person. We shouldn't accept anything from him. And yes, those channels exist unfortunately. Why? This man died 800 years ago. Why why is this a relevant topic for Muslims today? Because if you're unable to become to to rise to prominence, usually not always, but if you're unable to rise to prominence in an orthodox way, a shocking unorthodox way will usually do it right. And so if you mention Noah, it will ruffle feathers very quickly and it will be very controversial and then your name will start to be mentioned alongside of his. This is the idea. So is considered to be an authority in the science of hadith. There are some that disagree with him. Sure. However, disagreement amongst the scholars is something that comes with knowledge and comes without ulterior motives. And so when we look at we can safely say that narrations that are looked at as being weak. They are a difference of opinion and we will mention some examples of that. There's about 74 or 73 narrations in that have been mentioned that. When I reach any of those narrations, I'll mention them to you and discuss the correct opinion with regards to those narrations. And none of those narrations alhamdulillah are rejected in meaning the meaning of these narrations are accepted even if the chain of narration itself might be weak. So we will begin with starting tomorrow inshallah and as we mentioned before these are very these are to be very concise statements after starting tomorrow inshallah just about five or seven minutes or eight minutes to read a narration translated and if there's any misunderstanding or anything that needs to be explained but alhamdulillah most of them are pretty self-explanatory we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to teach us of that which will benefit us to benefit us from that which he teaches us.

[Arabic recitation]