Albani said in ‘Tahreemu Aalatil Tarb’ (تحريم الات الطرب):
“As for the narrator from Ibrahim, (Hammad), then he is Ibn Abi Sulaiman al-Kufi. He is as Zahabi said in ‘Al-Kaashaif’:
“Reliable, Imam, Mujtahid, Noble and Generous.”
This is why he [Zahabi] said in ‘Al-Mizaan’:
“He was criticized due to Irjaa. If Ibn A’di had not mentioned him in his ‘Al-Kaamil’ I would not have placed him here.”[i]
Hafiz [Ibn Hajr] said in ‘At-Taqreeb’:
“Truthful, he has some mistakes.”
I [Albani] say: ‘Such a person is used as evidence unless his mistake becomes clear by him contradicting he who is more reliable than him etc.[ii] There is no such issue here. Therefore those contemporaries who have disparaged him totally have not been just.”
[See Tahreemu Aalatil Tarb Pg.146-147]
Albani has also said concerning Hammad:
“Reliable, from the narrators of Muslim, the Faqeeh. There is a slight criticism about him that does not harm.”
[See Albani’s ‘As-Saheehah’ Vol.1 Pg.370]
[i] Mizaan is a book in which Zahabi mentions any narrator who has been criticized, regardless of whether the criticism is correct or not. Zahabi understood that any criticism that was levied at Hammad was due to those muhadditheen accusing him of having the Aqeedah of Irjaa. Even if it was true, that he held this aqeedah, it is against the principles of Jarh and Ta’deel to use that as a reason to consider a narrator weak. Another invalid reason some of them use to criticise him was his Fiqhi stance. This is also an incorrect reason to consider a narrator weak. This is why Zahabi ignored all such baseless criticism and adopted the view of the giants like Ibn Ma’een, Nasai, E’jli, Yahya ibn Saeed and others, who all considered him reliable without any reservations. Rather, Zahabi added, he was a Mujtahid and Imam. This is the highest rank any muhaddith can achieve. [See Tahzeebul Kamaal Vol.7 Pg.269-279]
[ii] This is the case with any reliable narrator, whether he be Malik, Shu’bah or Bukhari, as is discussed in the books of Usulul Hadith under the chapter ‘Shuzooz’. This is why Albani has said in another place explaining Ibn Hajr’s above mentioned statement: “Even though there is a criticism concerning his memory, but it is slight. It does not drop his hadith below the status of using as evidence. Ibn Hajr has expressed this in the following manner …” [See Albani’s ‘Irwaa’ Vol.2 Pg.5]
