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Weak ahaadeeth differ in degree of weakness

Question

Can a hadith be questioned or challenged if its authenticity is weak or the hadith chain of narrators is weak or missing?

Answer

All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah and that Muhammad  sallallaahu  `alayhi  wa  sallam ( may  Allaah exalt his mention ) is His slave and Messenger.

The word challenging or questioning is a loose term that can be understood to mean denying the hadeeth and that this hadeeth is a lie against the Prophet  sallallaahu  `alayhi  wa  sallam ( may  Allaah exalt his mention ) and it can be understood to mean that it is a mere ruling that the hadeeth is weak.

It is known that the ahaadeeth whose chains of narrators are weak differ in their degrees of weakness; some of them are very weak, such as when it includes a narrator who is a liar, and so on. So challenging or questioning this hadeeth means attracting the attention of the people to the fact that such a hadeeth is a lie against the Prophet  sallallaahu  `alayhi  wa  sallam ( may  Allaah exalt his mention ) so it is a form of advice.

However, if the weakness of the hadeeth is simple, such as the reason for its weakness being that it includes a narrator who is slightly criticized or about whom the scholars differed in opinion, and it may be that his hadeeth is strengthened by other ahaadeeth of the same meaning, then it is enough to clarify that such a hadeeth is weak. But as for challenging or questioning it, like by saying that it is a lie, then this is not correct.

Allah knows best.

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