Journal of Islamic Studies > Volume 27, No. 3, 2015

Al-Khallaal's Explanation of Weaknesses in Reporting Ibn-Hanbal's Jurisprudential Views / Abdulrahman Ibn-Ali Ibn-Sulaiman Al-Turaiqy

This research is concerned with Abu-Bakr Al-Kallaal's views on what he considers weaknesses in conveying Imam Ahmad Ibn-Hanbal's jurisprudential works. It attempts to bring together those views for the benefit of researchers. It aims to gather the causes put forward by Al-Khallaal, explaining the weaknesses in reporting Imam Ibn-Hanbal's jurisprudential views. It also aims to explain the terms used by Al-Khallaal in ranking some narratives on Ibn-Hanbal as dha'eef (weak,. Thus, Al-Khallaal's great contribution to clarifying Ibn- Hanbal's jurisprudential views can be acknowledged. The research starts with an inductive approach in tracing the basic parts, then it moves on to a deductive approach to infer the causes of narrative weaknesses. Among the important findings of the research are the following: Al- Khallaal attributes weaknesses in reporting about Imam Ibn-Hanbal to Ibn-Hanbal himself and to narrators; on the imam's side are change of view, piety, varied strength of evidences and his rejection of evidence reliability; on the narrators' side are lone narrator, inconsistency with collective narratives, oldness of hearing narrative, and narrators' errors.