Ruling on mu’allaq hadeeth

Firstly: 

A mu’aallaq
(lit. suspended) hadeeth is one in which one or more narrators are omitted
from the beginning of its isnaad by the muhaddith who compiled the book. 

Al-Haafiz
ibn Hajar (may Allaah have mercy on him) said in Nuzhat al-Nazr
(108-109): 

Among the
forms of mu’allaq hadeeths are: 

·       
Where the entire isnaad is
omitted, so it says for example: The Messenger of Allaah (peace and
blessings of Allaah be upon him) said… 

·       
Where the entire isnaad is
omitted and only the name of the Sahaabi or the names of the Sahaabi and
Taabi’i are left. 

·       
Where the name of the one who
narrated it is omitted and it is attributed to someone who came above him
(in the isnaad). End quote. 

Secondly: 

Every
hadeeth which is mentioned in the books with the isnaad omitted and which is
attributed to the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him),
without being attributed to any of the books of Sunnah, is a mu’allaq
hadeeth. If the hadeeth has an uninterrupted isnaad (mawsool, lit.
connected) in the books of Sunnah, or the compiler who narrated it as a
mu’allaq report has given the uninterrupted isnaad elsewhere in his books,
then it seems that the one who quoted it as a mu’allaaq report did so only
for the sake of brevity, and describing it as mu’allaq does not mean that it
is regarded as da’eef (weak). There is no dispute on this point among the
scholars.  

You will
come across this a great deal in Saheeh al-Bukhaari. 

Al-Haafiz
Ibn Hajar (may Allaah have mercy on him) said in al-Nukat (1/325): 

If the
hadeeth has only one isnaad, or it includes a number of rulings and needs to
be repeated, then in that case he may quote only the text of the hadeeth, or
may shorten the isnaad. End quote. 

Al-Suyooti
said in Tadreeb al-Raawi (1/117): 

Most of the
reports of this type in al-Bukhaari appear with the full isnaad (mawsool)
elsewhere in his book, but he narrated them in mu’allaq form for the sake of
brevity and so as to avoid repetition. End quote. 

Thirdly: 

The ruling
on a mu’allaq hadeeth is – as in the case of any other hadeeth – that it is
essential to collect and examine all its isnaads. After that, the ruling
must be one of the following: 

1 – If we
cannot find an isnaad for it in any book, then in that case the ruling is
that the hadeeth is da’eef (weak), because nothing is known about the
narrators who have been omitted from the isnaad; some of them may be weak or
liars. 

For example:
al-Haafiz Ibn ‘Abd al-Barr narrated in a mu’allaq report that the Prophet
(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “There is no Muslim
who passes by the grave of his brother whom he knew in this world, and
greets him with salaam, but Allaah restores his soul to him so that he may
return the greeting.” 

The scholars
researched this mu’allaq report but they could not find an isnaad for it in
any book. Everyone who mentioned it quoted it from the mu’allaq report of
Ibn ‘Abd al-Barr, so basically it is a da’eef hadeeth, but some scholars
regarded it as saheeh, following Ibn ‘Abd al-Barr who narrated it as a
mu’allaq report but classed it as saheeh. 

2 – If we
find the hadeeth with an uninterrupted (mawsool) isnaad in another book of
hadeeth, then in that case we have to examine the isnaad, and we judge it on
the basis of the principles that the scholars have set out for examination
of hadeeth. In judging the status of a mu’allaq report we may also the
methodology which is stated in the books of Sunnah, as follows: 

Fourthly: 

Some of the
scholars have their own methodologies of quoting mu’allaq hadeeth, which
were either stated by the scholar himself or defined after him by other
scholars who studied his books and examined his methods. 

From what
the scholars have said about the methodology of Imam al-Bukhaari in
narrating mu’allaq reports, we can divide his mu’allaq reports (of which
there are one hundred and sixty) into two categories: 

1-    
Those which were narrated in a
decisive form, such as saying “He narrated…” and so on. 

The ruling
on these mu’allaq reports is that they are saheeh or hasan, because it is
not possible for him to state that in a decisive form unless it was saheeh
in his view. Rather there are some reports which meet his conditions but he
reported them in mu’allaq form. 

The scholars
made an exception from this principle in the case of just one hadeeth, which
is reported in mu’allaq form in the Book of Zakaah (2/525): 

Tawoos said:
Mu’aadh (may Allaah be pleased with him) said to the people of Yemen: Bring
an item of clothing, a shirt or other garment as zakaah instead of barley
and corn; it will be easier for you, and better for the companions of the
Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) in Madeenah. 

They said:
The isnaad as far as Tawoos is saheeh, but Tawoos did not hear it from
Mu’aadh.  

2-    
Those which are narrated as
mu’allaq in a “defective” form, such as saying “It was narrated,” “it was
said” etc. 

Some such
reports may be saheeh or hasan, and they may be reported as mu’allaq because
he did not narrated them word for word, rather he narrated the meaning. 

They may
also be slightly weak (da’eef), and the narrator may point out the weakness
by saying “it is not saheeh.” 

(Summarized
from al-Nukat by al-Haafiz Ibn Hajar (1/343-345); Tadreeb al-Raawi
by al-Suyooti (1/117-121) 

With regard
to Saheeh Muslim: 

There are
only five mu’allaq reports in this book, which Imam Muslim narrates with one
full isnaad, then after that he narrates them as mu’allaq reports with an
isnaad other than the one that he gave in full, for an academic purpose that
Imam Muslim wanted to achieve. They have been compiled by Shaykh Rasheed
al-Deen al-‘Attaar in an essay that has been published, in which he explains
their sources and saheeh isnaads. 

After the
Introduction, there is no mu’allaq report in Saheeh Muslim for which
he does not give a different isnaad elsewhere, except for one hadeeth.
Muslim said in hadeeth no. 369: 

Al-Layth ibn
Sa’d narrated from Ja’far ibn Rabee’ah from ‘Abd al-Rahmaan ibn Hormuz from
‘Umayr the freed slave of Ibn ‘Abbaas that he heard him say: ‘Abd al-Rahmaan
ibn Yasaar, the freed slave of Maymoonah, the wife of the Prophet (S), and I
came to Abu’l-Jahm ibn al-Haarith ibn al-Simmah al-Ansaari. Abu’l-Jahm said:
The Messenger of Allaah (S) came from the direction of Bi’r Jamal and was
met by a man who greeted him with salaam. The Messenger of Allaah (S) did
not return the greeting until he went to a wall and wiped his face and
hands, then he returned the greeting. 

See:
al-Nukat by al-Haafiz Ibn Hajar (1/346-353) 

This hadeeth
is found with the uninterrupted isnaad via al-Layth ibn Sa’d in Saheeh
al-Bukhaari (337) and Abu Dawood (329), and elsewhere. 

And Allaah
knows best.