Contraindications to wound acceptance

Abstract

Praise be to God, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate. I praise Him, glory be to Him, for He has provided scholars for the Shariah who protect it from additions and omissions, and who distinguish between the hadith of the Prophet (peace and blessings of God be upon him) and idle talk. I bear witness that there is no god but God, the Sovereign, the Judge, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and Messenger, the master of the descendants of Adnan. May God’s prayers and peace be upon him and his family and companions as long as new revelations succeed one another, and may He grant them abundant peace until people stand for judgment, both old and young.

Now then:
God Almighty has bestowed upon the Islamic Ummah many countless blessings. Among those blessings is that He made it the best of nations brought forth for mankind, its religion the final and most perfect of religions, and its Prophet the final and master of the prophets. He, peace and blessings of God be upon him, has also undertaken to protect its revelation from distortion and alteration. He, peace and blessings be upon him, said: “Indeed, it is We who sent down the Qur’an and indeed, We will be its guardian.” (10:17), and the remembrance here includes the Qur’an and the Sunnah, because the Sunnah is also a revelation sent down from Allah, peace and blessings be upon him. He, peace and blessings be upon him, said: “Nor does he speak from [his own] inclination. It is not but a revelation revealed.” (10:17), and it is the clarification of the Qur’an. Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, called it a remembrance, as He, peace and blessings be upon him, said: “And We have sent down to you the Reminder that you may make clear to the people what was sent down to them and that they might give thought.” (10:17). However, the Qur'an cannot be acted upon in isolation from the Sunnah. This is what led Makhul (may Allah be pleased with him) to say: "The Qur'an is more in need of the Sunnah than the Sunnah is of the Qur'an." The Sunnah is what clarifies the intent of Allah (may Allah be pleased with him) from the generalities of His Book, indicates His limits, makes things easy for him, and guides to the straight path, the path of Allah. Whoever follows it will be guided, while whoever takes a path other than its path will go astray and stray, and Allah will appoint him to whatever he appoints. One of the most important tools for establishing the Sunnah and preserving it is the science of citation and attribution.
The science of citation and attribution is one of the noble Islamic sciences with which God Almighty has blessed this nation. It is one of the most precise, most exalted, and most important sciences, because it is the basis for accepting or rejecting a Sunnah. Through it, the circumstances of narrators are determined, and whose hadiths are accepted and used as evidence, and whose hadiths are rejected and not used as evidence.
This acceptance or rejection was not without rules and regulations. Rather, the scholars of this art traced the histories of the narrators and meticulously examined their reports. They were dedicated to the truth and were not concerned with the blame of anyone for the sake of God. Those they found to be trustworthy, they accepted them, and those they established to be discredited, they discredited them. In all of this, they did not take into account any personal considerations, except for sincerity to God Almighty and caution to preserve the Sunnah of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). It is not surprising that the scholars, may God bless them, frequently explained the conditions of the narrators, exposed the veils of the liars, and denied the hadith of the Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace, the fabrications of the falsifiers, the distortions of the extremists, and the slander of the slanderers. They, may God bless them, undertook the greatest struggle, especially during the time when corruption was beginning to appear. They were truly the just men of this nation in carrying and conveying knowledge, and they are among those whose efforts are referred to in authenticating and weakening, correcting and falsifying. The truth is more deserving of being followed, so may God reward them for this religion and its people with all good. Criticizing narrators is not an easy matter, for people’s honor is a pit of Hellfire, at the threshold of which the hadith scholars ( ) have stood, not out of spite - God forbid - but to reveal the conditions of the narrators, and to know their truthfulness from their lies, in defense of the Sunnah of our Prophet (peace and blessings of God be upon him), in reviving his method, and in preservation of his Sharia. Therefore, the scholars have issued a fatwa prohibiting the defamation of a narrator beyond what is necessary. Al-Sakhawi (may God be pleased with him) said: “It is not permissible to defame a narrator for two things if it is caused by one thing” ( ). Al-Suyuti (may God be pleased with him) said: "Disparagement is permitted to protect the religion... and beware of disparagement for the sake of its defect." ( )
Therefore, the critic must be well-versed in the transmitted reports, knowledgeable about the circumstances of previous narrators and their methods of narration, and knowledgeable about the narrators' customs, intentions, and purposes, as well as the reasons for leniency and lying, and the reasons for error and mistake. He must also know the narrator's circumstances: when was he born? In which country? How is he in terms of religion, trustworthiness, intelligence, chivalry, and caution? When did he begin seeking knowledge? When did he hear it? How did he hear it? With whom did he hear it? What is his book? He must also know the circumstances of the sheikhs from whom he narrates, their countries and deaths, the times of their narrations, and their customs in narrating them. Then he learns what people have narrated about them, and compares this narrator's narrations to them and considers them accordingly, and other things whose explanation would take too long. He must also be alert, sensitive, perceptive, and self-controlled, not swayed by whims, nor provoked by anger, nor be fooled by a sudden suspicion, until he has fully considered and reached the conclusion. Then he must apply his judgment carefully, neither going beyond what is stated nor falling short. Since these judgments regarding narrators are issued by human beings, they are undoubtedly susceptible to oversight, error, and forgetfulness, which has occurred, albeit in small amounts. However, scholars of criticism and authentication have also tracked the judgments issued regarding narrators, clarifying any oversight or forgetfulness in them, and pointing out those who are severe in criticism or lax in authentication. They have even devoted discussions and chapters to knowing when criticism or authentication is acceptable and when it is rejected. This research deals with a part of an important section of the science of hadith. Indeed, the acceptance of hadiths and the authenticity of the Sunnah depend on this section, which is “the science of criticism and authentication.” The research deals with the section “obstacles to accepting criticism” from the science of criticism and authentication.