Source: This excerpt is taken from the book Nūr al-ʿAynayn fī Ithbāt Rafʿ al-Yadayn ʿinda al-Rukūʿ wa Baʿdahu fī al-Ṣalāh by the Muḥaddith of the era, Ḥāfiẓ Zubayr ʿAlī Za’ī رحمه الله.④ Fourth Doubt: The Ḥadīth of Muḥammad bin Jābir al-Suḥaymī
محمد بن جابر عن حماد عن إبراهيم عن علقمة عن عبدالله قال: صلى الله صليت مع النبى صلى الله عليه وسلم ومع أبى بكر و مع عمر رضي الله عنهما فلم يرفعوا أيديهم إلا عند التكبيرة الأولى فى افتتاح الصلوةMuḥammad bin Jābir narrated (with his fabricated chain) from Sayyidunā ʿAbdullāh bin Masʿūd رضي الله عنه that he said:
“I prayed with the Prophet ﷺ, and with Abū Bakr and ʿUmar رضي الله عنهما, and they did not raise their hands except at the first takbīr at the beginning of the prayer.”
Imām al-Dāraquṭnī said:
تفرد به محمد بن جابر وكان ضعيفاً
“This ḥadīth was narrated solely by Muḥammad bin Jābir, and he was weak.”
(
Reference: Sunan al-Dāraquṭnī 1/295
)① First Answer
This ḥadīth is fabricated (mawḍūʿ).
No Imām declared it ṣaḥīḥ. Rather, numerous Imāms explicitly declared it weak or fabricated:➊ Imām Aḥmad bin Ḥanbal said: This ḥadīth is munkar, and he strongly rejected it.
(
Reference: Kitāb al-ʿIlal 1/144, no. 701
)➋ Imām al-Ḥākim said:
هذا إسناد ضعيف
“This chain is weak,” and he also declared it reversed (maqlūb) and unpreserved (ghayr maḥfūẓ).
(
Reference: Maʿrifat al-Sunan wa al-Āthār by al-Bayhaqī 1/220
;
Reference: al-Khilāfiyyāt by al-Bayhaqī, cited in al-Badr al-Munīr 3/494
)➌ al-Dāraquṭnī
➍ al-Bayhaqī (
Reference: al-Sunan al-Kubrā 2/80
)➎ Ibn al-Jawzī – declared it fabricated
(
Reference: al-Mawḍūʿāt 2/96
)➏ Ibn al-Qaysarānī (
Reference: Tadhkirat al-Mawḍūʿāt, p. 78
)➐ al-Shawkānī (
Reference: al-Fawā’id al-Majmūʿah, p. 29
)➑ Ibn al-Qayyim (
Reference: al-Manār al-Munīf, p. 138
)➒ Ibn ʿIrāq (
Reference: Tanzīh al-Sharīʿah 2/101
)② Second Answer
Its narrator Muḥammad bin Jābir is weak.
Against this overwhelming majority and decisive consensus, only two individuals declared him reliable:◈ al-Dhahabī, who said: lā ba’sa bihi
(
Reference: Tahdhīb al-Tahdhīb
)◈ Isḥāq bin Abī Isrā’īl
(
Reference: Naṣb al-Rāyah, citing Ibn ʿAdī
)From this detailed discussion, it is clear that the vast majority of the Imāms of Islam declared him weak and abandoned, due to his poor memory, ikhtilāṭ, acceptance of prompting, and insertion into books.
The extremely moderate Imām Abū Zurʿah al-Rāzī said:
محمد بن جابر ساقط الحديث عند أهل العلم
“Muḥammad bin Jābir is discarded in ḥadīth according to the scholars.”
(
Reference: al-Jarḥ wa al-Taʿdīl 7/220
)Ḥāfiẓ Nūr al-Dīn al-Haythamī said:
وفيه محمد بن جابر اليمامي وهو ضعيف عند الجمهور وقد وثق
“In this chain is Muḥammad bin Jābir al-Yamāmī; he is weak according to the majority, although he has been declared trustworthy.”
(
Reference: Majmaʿ al-Zawā’id 5/191
)(This alleged authentication is rejected; perhaps for this reason Ḥāfiẓ al-Haythamī used wording of uncertainty.)
③ Third Answer
Muḥammad bin Jābir suffered from ikhtilāṭ in his later life.
See:[الکواکب النیرات لابن الکیال، ص 495]
[الجرح والتعدیل]
[سیر أعلام النبلاء 8/238]
This ḥadīth is not narrated by his early students. Rather, it is narrated by a later narrator, Isḥāq bin Abī Isrā’īl, who was born in 151 AH.
(
Reference: Tahdhīb al-Tahdhīb 1/196
)Muḥammad bin Jābir died a few years after 170 AH.
(
Reference: Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalā’ 8/238
)This means that at the time of Muḥammad bin Jābir’s death, Isḥāq was only about twenty years old or slightly older, indicating that he heard this narration after Muḥammad bin Jābir’s ikhtilāṭ.
④ Fourth Answer
Ḥammād bin Abī Sulaymān also suffered from ikhtilāṭ in his later life.
Ibn Saʿd said:اختلط فى آخر أمره
“He suffered from confusion in the latter part of his life.”
(
Reference: Tahdhīb al-Tahdhīb 3/15
)Ḥāfiẓ Nūr al-Dīn al-Haythamī said:
ولا يقبل من حديث حماد إلا ما رواه عنه القدماء شعبة وسفيان الثوري والدستوائي ومن عدا هؤلاء رووا عنه بعد الاختلاط
“No narration of Ḥammād is accepted except those narrated by his early students—Shuʿbah, Sufyān al-Thawrī, and al-Dustuwā’ī. All others narrated from him after ikhtilāṭ.”
(
Reference: Majmaʿ al-Zawā’id 1/119–120
)Thus, it becomes evident that Muḥammad bin Jābir heard from Ḥammād after ikhtilāṭ.
Conclusion