أَخْبَرَنَا عَبْدُ السَّلَامِ بْنُ عَبْدِ الْقَيُّومِ، قَالَ: سَأَلْتُ الْمَنْصُورَ الْهَاشِمِيَّ الْخُرَاسَانِيَّ عَنِ الْأَخْذِ بِالرِّوَايَةِ، فَكَرِهَهُ وَقَالَ: مَا أَنْزَلَ اللَّهُ مِنْ رِوَايَةٍ إِلَّا مَا تَوَاتَرَ عَلَيْهَا الْأَلْسُنُ، وَذَلِكَ لِأَنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يُعْبَدُ بِالظَّنِّ وَإِنَّمَا يُعْبَدُ بِالْيَقِينِ! قُلْتُ: وَمَا حَدُّ التَّوَاتُرِ؟ قَالَ: مَا يَسْتَيْقِنُ بِهِ عُقَلَاءُ النَّاسِ، قُلْتُ: وَكَمْ ذَا؟ قَالَ: أَرْبَعَةُ رِجَالٍ ذَوِي عَدْلٍ إِذَا لَمْ يَخْتَلِفُوا، كَمَا قَالَ اللَّهُ عَزَّ وَجَلَّ: ﴿لَوْلَا جَاءُوا عَلَيْهِ بِأَرْبَعَةِ شُهَدَاءَ ۚ فَإِذْ لَمْ يَأْتُوا بِالشُّهَدَاءِ فَأُولَئِكَ عِنْدَ اللَّهِ هُمُ الْكَاذِبُونَ﴾![1] قُلْتُ: رُبَّمَا يَخْتَلِفُونَ فِي أَلْفَاظِهِمْ وَالْمَعْنَى وَاحِدٌ، قَالَ: لَا بَأْسَ بِهِ، وَلَا يَكُونَ بَعْضُهُمْ قُرَنَاءَ بَعْضٍ فَيُتَّهَمُوا فِي رِوَايَتِهِمْ! ثُمَّ مَكَثَ هُنَيَّةً، ثُمَّ قَالَ: إِنَّ السَّلَفِيَّةَ تَرَكُوا الْعَقْلَ فَشَاهَتْ وُجُوهُهُمْ!
Translation of the saying:
Abdul Salaam bin Abdul Qayoum Balkhi informed us, he said: I asked Mansoor Hashemi Khorasani about acting upon narration, so he deemed it non-acceptable and said: God has not sent down any narration except for that which has become Mutawatir[2] and that is because God is not worshipped based on conjecture, rather He is worshipped only based on certitude! I asked: what is the range of Tawatur? He said: what the intellectuals of people find certainty with that! I said: how many is that? He said: four just men who are not in discord with one another; as God Almighty has said: “Why they did not bring four witnesses to prove it?! And since they did not bring four witnesses, they are liars in the sight of God” I said: It is possible that they have disagreement on the words, but their concepts are the same! He said: there is no problem and some of them should not be companions to the others so that they get accused (of collusions with or receptions from one another) in their narration! In this moment he went into silence for a short moment and then said: Indeed the Salafists set intellect aside, so their faces became ugly!
Explanation of the saying:
From this saying and other sayings of his Honor, it is understood that “Tawatur” is narrating the hadith by a number of narrators whose occurrence of lie or mistake is not rational due to their abundance and dispersion, and therefore, it causes the certainty of the issuance of the hadith for the intellectuals, and of course, there is no specified limit to the number of narrators; because his Honor did not set a limit for it at first, but said: «مَا يَسْتَيْقِنُ بِهِ عُقَلَاءُ النَّاسِ»; “what the intellectuals of people find certainty with that”, but after the questioner repeated his question, he set a limit for it and it is four men; because this is the number that God has set for the most important testimonies before Himself and has deemed less than that as lie, and has said: ﴿لَوْلَا جَاءُوا عَلَيْهِ بِأَرْبَعَةِ شُهَدَاءَ ۚ فَإِذْ لَمْ يَأْتُوا بِالشُّهَدَاءِ فَأُولَئِكَ عِنْدَ اللَّهِ هُمُ الْكَاذِبُونَ﴾; “Why they did not bring four witnesses to prove it?! And since they did not bring four witnesses, they are liars in the sight of God” and the sense also agrees with this limit, when four men are just and do not have a significant disagreement with each other, and some of them are not accompanied by some others, so that in their narration they are accused of taking from each other or colluding with each other. Therefore, a mutawatir hadith has four conditions:
1. Its narrators in each class are not less than four men.
2. Its narrators are just, if there are not more than four men in each class, but if there are more, this condition is removed.
3. Its narrators have no disagreement in its meaning, although they have disagreement in its words.
4. Its narrators are not accused of colluding with each other, if there are not more than four men in each class, but if there are more, this condition is removed; because considering their abundance and dispersion, they cannot collude with each other.
But his Honor’s saying about the Salafis who do not use the intellect to know God and His religion, can have two meanings: one is to curse them for this great shortcoming that has led to their many deviations in beliefs and deeds; as the Messenger of God peace and blessings of God be upon him and his family, in the battle of Badr, took a handful of soil and struck at the polytheists’ faces and said: «شَاهَتِ الْوُجُوهُ»; “May their faces become ugly”, and the other is to report the thing that has made the faces of many of their muftis and elders ugly, and this is something that is not hidden from observers, and in this sense, it is the abandonment of the intellect that has made them like this; as one of our companions informed us, he said:
«قُلْتُ لِلْمَنْصُورِ: إِنِّي رَأَيْتُ فِي الْمَسْجِدِ رَجُلًا كَأَنَّ رَأْسَهُ رَأْسُ حِمَارٍ، فَكَلَّمْتُهُ فَإِذَا هُوَ مِنْ أَصْحَابِ الْحَدِيثِ! قَالَ: أَعَجِبْتَ مِنْ ذَلِكَ؟! أَلَا وَاللَّهِ إِنِّي لَأَظُنُّ أَنَّهُ لَوْ كَانَ فِي هَذِهِ الْأُمَّةِ مَسْخٌ لَكَانَ فِي أَصْحَابِ الْحَدِيثِ! قُلْتُ: لِمَ ذَلِكَ؟! قَالَ: لِأَنَّهُمْ فُتِنُوا بِالْحَدِيثِ، فَتَرَكُوا كِتَابَ اللَّهِ وَتَرَكُوا عُقُولَهُمْ، وَلَوْ أَنَّ عُمَرَ بْنَ الْخَطَّابِ أَدْرَكَهُمْ لَأَلْحَقَهُمْ بِجَزَائِرِ الْبَحْرِ!»; “I said to Mansoor: I saw a man in the mosque as if his head was the head of a donkey, so I talked to him and realized that he is from Ahl al-Hadith! He said: Are you surprised by it?! Know that I swear to God, I think that if a Maskh[3] happens in this nation, it will happen in Ahl al-Hadith! I said: For what?! He said: Because they are fascinated by hadith, so they have abandoned the book of God and have abandoned their intellects, and if Umar ibn al-Khattab had been with them at the same time, he would have exiled them to the islands of the sea!”.
