The Prophet's (sallallaahu alaihi wasallam) Giving Tidings To His Companions Of the Seekers of Hadeeth After Him And the Connected Isnaad Between Them And Him
From Thaabit Bin Qais that Allaah's Messenger (sallallaahu alaihi wasallam) said, "Your will hear (from me), and then it will be heard from you, and then it will be heard from those who hear from you..."
From Ibn Abbaas who said that Allaah's Messenger (sallallaahu alaihi wasallam) said, "You will hear (from me) and it will be heard from you, and then it will be heard from those who hear from you".
Takhreej: Lisaan ul-Meezaan of Ibn Hajar (1/3), as-Saheehah (1784), Saheeh Jaami' us-Sagheer (2944), Saheeh Sunan Abu Dawud (3107), Mukhtasir Jaami' Bayaan ul-Ilm (12), and Jaami' ut-Tahseel of al-Alaa'ee (p.52).
Ishaaq bin Raahawaih said, "Every matter that is narrated via three people is an athar (narration), due to the saying of the Prophet (sallallaahu alaihi wasallam), "You will hear (from me) and it will be heard from you, and then it will be heard from those who hear from you".
Shaqee al-Asbahee said, "The treasures of everything will be opened up for this Ummah until the treasures of hadeeth are opened up for them."
A Mention Of The Excellence of The Isnaad And That Allaah Has Singled Out This Ummah With It
Abu Bakr Muhammad bin Ahmad said, "It has reached me that Allaah has singled out this Ummah with three matters and which were not given to those before it: The Isnaad (chain of narration), the Ansaab (genealogy), the I'raab (inflection in grammar).
Muhammad bin Haatim bin al-Mudhaffar said, "Verily Allaah ennobled this Ummah and diginified it and gave it preference by way of the Isnaad. And there is no one in any of the nations, past or contemporary that has Isnaad. Rather, they only have scrolls in their hands, and their learned ones have caused confusion in their books. They do not have any way of distinguishing between what has been revealed of the Tawraat and the Injeel from that which was brought by their Prophets, and between that which they have appended to their books of reports and narrations that they have received through untrustworthy people. And this Ummah writes hadeeth from a trustworthy person known in his time, famous for his truthfulness and integrity, from someone who is just like him (in trustworthiness). Then they research in the most severe manner until they come to know the best memorisers, then those after them; and those who are most precise and exact, then those after them; and those who accompanied for the longest time, those whom they narrate from, then those who spent lesser time. Then after all this, they write down ahaadeeth from at least twenty different angles (i.e. chains) such that they remove from this hadeeth all the errors and mistakes, and they exact its wording."
[Al-Khateeb]: So this is from the greatest of the blessings of Allaah the Most High to this Ummah, we give abundant thanks to Him for this blessing and we ask Him for firmness, and success in that which brings us closer to him, and which binds us to His obedience, indeed He is al-Wali (the Protector), al-Hameed (the Praiseworthy).
