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Is it permissible to challenge the narrators of Hadith who were musicians or consumed intoxicants, with examples?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

For a narrator to be considered trustworthy ('adil), it is stipulated that he be a Muslim, an adult, sane, free from transgression (fisq) and things that blemish chivalry (khawārim al-murū’ah), and precise in what he narrates. Among the things that negate trustworthiness and discredit the narrator is committing a major sin for which testimony would be rejected, such as intoxication. Scholars do not differ that it compromises trustworthiness and invalidates narration. It has not been established that any trustworthy narrator whose hadith was accepted by scholars ever became intoxicated from an alcoholic drink.

As for sins that are open to interpretation or are a matter of scholarly disagreement, they do not discredit the narrator. Examples include leniency regarding musical instruments or drinking certain types of wine that do not reach the point of intoxication. This was practiced by some trustworthy narrators because these were matters of disagreement among the Tabi'un. This becomes even clearer in the precise methodology of the Muhaddithin (hadith scholars) in accepting or rejecting narrations.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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