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The question

What is the difference between the Hadith of musical instruments in Sahih al-Bukhari and other suspended hadiths, if a suspended hadith is weak?

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Source: FtawySummarized from the full answer at Ftawy · imported Sep 2, 20261 min readAlso available in العربية
The answer

The soundest books after the Book of Allah the Almighty are Sahih al-Bukhari, but what is meant are the hadiths narrated by Al-Bukhari with an uninterrupted chain of transmission from himself to the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him. Therefore, every hadith that Al-Bukhari included in his Sahih which was not continuously transmitted with an isnad should not be simply stated as "narrated by Al-Bukhari" and left at that, because this contains a type of tadlis (deception), and this includes the mu'allaq (suspended) hadiths, which are those from whose initial isnad one or more narrators have been omitted.

Scholars have differed regarding the mu'allaq hadiths, and the most authoritative view is what Al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar meticulously elaborated, dividing them into two categories:

1. Those narrated with a definitive (juristic) صيغة (form): These are sound up to the one from whom Al-Bukhari suspended the narration, and then the rest of its narrators are examined. It may or may not be according to his conditions (of authenticity), and it may be hasan (good) or da'if (weak). 2. Those narrated with a non-definitive (weakening) صيغة (form): Very few of these meet his conditions, and they include sahih (sound), hasan (good), and da'if (weak) narrations.

As for the hadith about musical instruments (ma'azif), Al-Bukhari narrated it in his Sahih as a mu'allaq narration with a definitive form from Hisham ibn Ammar. This hadith is sound and has no defect. Al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar connected its chain of transmission in Taghliq al-Ta'liq, and Ibn al-Qayyim refuted those who weakened it, clarifying that Al-Bukhari met Hisham ibn Ammar and heard from him, and that he included it in his Sahih as evidence with a definitive form. If it had not met his conditions, he would have mentioned it with a non-definitive form.

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