Hadeeth: 'If death comes to someone as he is seeking knowledge to revive Islam…'

3-1-2015 | IslamWeb

Question:

“He whom death overtakes while he is engaged in acquiring knowledge with a view to reviving Islam with the help of it, there will be one degree between him and the Prophets in Paradise .” [Al-Tirmidhi Hadith no. 249. Narrated by Al-Hasan al-Basri] Is the above hadeeth saheeh? Can you please tell me the correct number in Jami' al Tirmidhi? as I am unable to locate it in Tirmidhi.

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Answer:

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is His Slave and Messenger.

We did not find this Hadeeth in the Sunan of At-Tirmithi and we did not find any of the Hadeeth scholars attributing it to At-Tirmithi. It was reported by Ad-Daarimi on the authority of Al-Hasan Al-Basri. It is a Mursal Hadeeth (i.e. directly quoted by a Taabi‘i). It should be noted that Mursal Ahaadeeth are classified as weak. Shaykh Husayn Asad commented on the chain of narration of this Hadeeth in his revision of the Sunan of Ad-Daarimi saying: “Its Isnaad (chain of narration) has a sequence of unknown narrators (i.e. whose trustworthiness in narration was not verified by the scholars of Hadeeth).”

Al-Albaani commented on the Hadeeth, saying: “It is weak; it is a Mursal Hadeeth narrated on the authority of Al-Hasan.” [Takhreej Al-Mishkaah] He also commented on it in his book As-Silsilah Adh-Dha‘eefah, saying: “Besides being a Mursal Hadeeth, its chain of narration is weak; one of its narrators is Nasr ibn Al-Qaasim…. Ath-Thahabi said that he was hardly known, and only Bishr ibn Thaabit narrated on his authority. It is said that there was a narrator between them. Al-Haafith (Ibn Hajar) classified him as Majhool (unknown).”

At-Tabaraani also presented this Hadeeth in Al-Awsat as a Marfoo‘ narration (i.e. traced back to the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) on the authority of Ibn ‘Abbaas. Al-Albaani commented on its Isnaad saying: “Its chain of narration is weak because it contains Al-‘Abbaas ibn Bakkaar Adh-Dhabbi whom Ad-Daaraqutni labeled as ‘liar’. Ibn ‘Adiyy said about him: ‘His transmission is rejected.’ Ibn Hibbaan said: ‘It cannot be used as evidence;’ this is why Al-Albaani classified it as a ‘very weak Hadeeth’ in his book Dha‘eef At-Targheeb. [As-Silsilah Adh-Dha‘eefah, no. 5156]

You may refer to As-Silsilah Adh-Dha‘eefah, no. 5156, to examine the classification of the Hadeeth. Al-Albaani mentioned a number of the compilers who presented the Hadeeth, but he did not mention At-Tirmithi among them.

Allaah Knows best.