0/5.1. Chapter:
Sahih Muslim 43 — Careful Hadith Sources
Unveiling Defects of the Transmitters of Ḥadīth and Relaters of Reports and the Statements of the A’immah Regarding That
Careful Hadith Sources: Why Narrator Selection Matters
Sahih Muslim : 43
Sahih MuslimHadith Number 43
حَدَّثَنِي ابْنُ قُهْزَاذَ، قَالَ سَمِعْتُ وَهْبًا، يَقُولُ عَنْ سُفْيَانَ، عَنِ ابْنِ الْمُبَارَكِ، قَالَ بَقِيَّةُ صَدُوقُ اللِّسَانِ وَلَكِنَّهُ يَأْخُذُ عَمَّنْ أَقْبَلَ وَأَدْبَرَ .
Ibn Quhzādh Narrated from:
Ibn Quhzādh narrated to me, he said, I heard Wahb [bin Zam’ah] saying, on authority of Sufyān [bin Abd il-Mālik], on authority of Ibn al-Mubārak, he said: ‘Baqiyyah [bin al-Walīd] is truthful of tongue however he transmits [Ḥadīth] from those who approach [the Muhaddithīn, i.e. are trustworthy] and from those who turn their backs on [the Muhaddithīn, i.e. and are weak]’.
Reference : Sahih Muslim Introduction 43In-book reference : Introduction, Narration 42
Summary of Sahih Muslim Hadith 43
This report focuses on careful hadith sources and narrator selection. Ibn al-Mubarak describes Baqiyyah as truthful in speech, but he adds an important warning: Baqiyyah transmitted from those who were accepted and from those who were weak. The point is not that every report from him is rejected in this text. Rather, the report teaches caution. A person may be truthful, yet still pass on material from mixed sources. In hadith narrator reliability, the source of a report is part of the trust. The listener needs to ask not only, “Is this person honest?” but also, “Who did he take from?” This makes the report useful for anyone learning how hadith scholars guarded religious knowledge from careless transmission.
What we learn from this hadith
- Truthfulness is important, but source selection also matters.
- A narrator may be honest yet still transmit from mixed-quality sources.
- Reports need careful checking before being accepted.
- Religious knowledge should not be taken from every source without review.
