Ibn Hibban

Sayyiduna Anas bin Malik (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates: The last prayer that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) performed with the people, he performed it in a single garment which he had draped as a shawl. He prayed sitting behind Sayyiduna Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him). (Imam Ibn Hibban, may Allah have mercy on him, says) This narration removes doubt from the hearts that there appears to be any contradiction in these narrations, and no one should fall into the misunderstanding that the reconciliation we have made between these narrations is contrary to the statement of Imam Shafi’i. The reason is that every fundamental principle about which we have discussed in our books, and every subsidiary issue about which we have deduced from the hadiths and mentioned all of them in our writings, all of them will be the statements of Imam Shafi’i. And they will return to that which is mentioned in their books, even if it is as their well-known statement. The reason is that I heard Imam Ibn Khuzaymah saying that I heard Imam Muzani saying that he said: I heard Imam Shafi’i saying: “When an authentic hadith of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) is established before you, then accept it and leave my statement.” Imam Shafi’i (may Allah be pleased with him) made great efforts regarding the hadiths, collected them, and understood them, and he strongly opposed anyone who presented an opinion contrary to them. He says: If any narration is authentically established, he too will be an adherent of the issue according to that hadith and will be counted among those who retract from what (is contrary to the issue mentioned in the hadith) and which had previously been written in their books. We have already mentioned in the book “Al-Mubeen” that Imam Shafi’i has three statements which no one before him in Islam has stated, nor has anyone after him said them. And if anyone has stated them later, their source will be Imam Shafi’i. One of these statements is the one I have already mentioned. The second statement is the one which Muhammad bin Munzir narrated from Hasan bin Muhammad, who says: I heard Imam Shafi’i saying: Whenever I debated with anyone, I never wished that he would make a mistake. The third statement is the one which Musa bin Muhammad narrated from Rabi’ bin Sulayman, who says: I heard Imam Shafi’i saying: “It is my wish that people acquire the knowledge of these books, but they should not attribute them to me.”