Should every rigorously authenticated Hadith be acted upon?

Should every rigorously authenticated Hadith be acted upon?

 

There is no doubt that rigorously authenticated Hadith ought to be acted upon and acting on fabricated Hadith is not correct.  However, this does not mean that every Hadith which is rigorously authenticated ought to be acted upon.  Thus, we learn from the actions of Hadhrat Abu Bakr Siddiq (May Allah be well pleased with him) and others that acting on reasoning (Ijtihaad) was given more preference to acting on Hadith.

 

If every rigorously authenticated Hadith was to be acted upon, then Imam Bukhari (May Allah shower His Mercy on him) would surely have gathered thousands and thousands of Hadith which he remembered so that people could act on them.

 

If it is said that Imam Bukhari (May Allah shower His Mercy on him) considered only those Hadith, which related in Sahih Bukhari, as being worthy of being acted upon, then we would say that it is the reasoning of Imam Bukhari and is not binding on other jurists.  The way he has considered some Hadith as worthy of being acted upon, other jurists have considered other Hadith to be so worthy.  Then even in Sahih Bukhari, all Hadith cannot to be acted upon.

 

There are various contradictory Hadith present in Sahih Bukhari and other compilations of rigorously authenticated Hadith, which clearly shows that Imam Bukhari did not make it a point to compile only those Hadith which ought to be acted upon.  For e.g., this Hadith is present in Sahih Bukhari:

 

Translation:  How would ‘Abdullah bin Mas’ud (May Allah be well pleased with him) recite Wallaili Idhaa Yaghshaa?  It was answered:  Wadh Dhakari Wal Unthaa.  Then he said:  These people are putting me in doubt although I have heard this from the Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam). (Sahih Bukhari, Kitaab Ul Istidhaan, Hadith No. 6278)

 

If every Hadith of Sahih Bukhari had to be acted upon, then at least those who call themselves Ahle Hadith would have recited as related in Sahih Bukhari, although they don’t.

 

This shows that even Sahih Bukhari has all kinds of Hadith – those which can be acted upon and those which cannot be.

 

[Excerpted from Haqeeqatul Fiqh, Vol. 2]