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Fatwa CenterMethodology of Al-Khateeb Al-Baghdaadi, may Allaah have mercy upon him
Question
I would like to know if khateeb baghdadi was influenced by kalam. did he accept akhbar e ahaad?> I heard that whoever distinguishes between mutwatir hadith and akhbar e ahaad is from ahlul bidah. please explain
Answer
All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad 
is His slave and Messenger.
Al-Khateeb Al-Baghdaadi is a great figure of Islam [a prominent scholar], and a Muhaddith (a scholar of Hadeeth) among other scholars of Hadeeth. In his methodology, he follows the Book of Allaah and the Sunnah of the Prophet and follows the guidance of the righteous predecessors 
. He affirms the Names and Attributes of Allaah according to the manner that befits His Majesty and he has nothing to do with theology. Indeed, Shaykh ‘Abdur-Rahmaan Al-Mu’allimi 
from Yemen, refuted in his book “At-Tankeel” those who attributed Al-Khateeb Al-Baghdaadi to the Ash’ariyyah.
It is quoted that, in his book “Tathkiratul Huffaath”, Ath-Thahabi wrote a chapter about the statements of Al-Khateeb in regard to belief denying that he [Al-Khateeb] adopted Ta’weel and Ta’teel [Ta’weel means interpreting Allaah’s Names and Attributes in a manner that changes their words from their true context, and Ta’teel means to deny any of Allaah’s Attributes that have been established to be His Attributes] and he quoted Al-Khateeb as saying: “With regards the Names and Attributes of Allaah, then what is reported about it in the authentic Sunnah is the methodology of As-Salaf (righteous predecessors) which is affirming it and understanding it according to the apparent meaning of the word, without Takyeef (i.e. explaining how the Attributes are) and without Tashbeeh (i.e. believing that they resemble the attributes of the creation). Indeed, some people denied the Attributes of Allaah (to avoid Takyeef and Tashbeeh), and by doing so, they denied what Allaah has confirmed for Himself, and some other people affirmed them [Names and Attributes of Allaah] but they fell into some sort of Takyeef and Tashbeeh. However, the correct procedure is to be moderate between these two matters.”
As regards the Aahaad Ahaadeeth [a Hadeeth that is not Mutawaatir, (i.e. any stage of its chain of narrators has less than ten narrators) and accordingly requires to be checked by Hadeeth scholars to decide its acceptability or rejection], then Al-Khateeb’s statements are clear that it is an obligation to act according to it and he said in his book “Al-Kifaayah fi‘ilm Ar-Riwaayah” in the chapter entitled “Some evidence on the validity of acting according to an Aahaad Hadeeth and the obligation of acting according to it”: and we have allocated a whole book in this regard [on the obligation of acting according to it], and we will refer to some of it in this regard as it is necessary to do so. Then he said: “All the Tabi’een (the followers of the companions) are of the view that it is an obligation to act according to the Aahaad Hadeeth, and this is the view of the succeeding jurists who came after them in all Muslim countries until today. And it has not been reported to us that anyone of them denied this or objected to it. Therefore, it is confirmed that all of them believed that it was an obligation to act according to it because if any one of them was of the view that it was not an obligation to act according to it, his view on it would have been reported to us…” Then he stated some evidence about the obligation of acting according to it.
With regard to rejecting the Aahaad Hadeeth just because it is Aahaad, then this is the position of innovators as we clarified in Fatwa 83766.
Also, for more benefit, please refer to Fatwa 97262.
Allaah Knows best.
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