Tuesday, 26 May 2026 (10 Dhuʻl-Hijjah 1447 AH)
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The Ruling on Leniency Regarding Ḥadīths of Virtues

Question: We found problematic the statement of the author of al-Fuṣūl: “It is forbidden to be lenient regarding ḥadīths of virtues and the like without clarifying their weakness or falsity,” etc.

Answer: What has appeared to me regarding the ḥadīths you mentioned is that if a ḥadīth is as described—narrated by our ḥadīth scholars without objection, and not opposed by a decisive proof, nor by the apparent meaning of a verse or an authentic ḥadīth—then there is no harm in mentioning it for encouragement and warning, while saying: “So-and-so narrated from the Prophet (May Allah bless him and his family and grant them peace),” or “It is narrated from the Prophet (May Allah bless him and his family and grant them peace),” without asserting certainty.
What is such among the ḥadīths is closer to authenticity than to non-authenticity. Imām Aḥmad ibn Hāshim (Peace be Upon Him) defended the authenticity of the ḥadīths concerning the virtues of the Qur’anic sūrahs, sūrah by sūrah, in the book al-Safīnah.
Even if the chain is weak and its transmitters are not trusted regarding integrity, the ḥadīth may have corroborating indications that distance it from fabrication and weakness—such as what you mentioned of it being from the narrations of the People of the Household and their ḥadīth scholars, like what appears in the Amālī, and of it being free from contradiction with a decisive proof, and so on. In such a case, there is no cause for concern.

Source: Min Thimār al-ʿIlm wa al-Ḥikmah vol.3