Trustworthiness of Mu'ammal ibn Ismaa'eel as hadeeth narrator
26-5-2016 | IslamWeb
Question:
Is it true that in the hadith of Wail Ibn Hujur about placing the hands on the chest in the prayer, which is found in Saheeh Ibn Khuzaimah, the narrator Mu'ammal ibn Isma'eel was declared to be 'munkar al-hadith' by Imam Al-Bukhaari? Was this narrator reliable?
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.
When Shaykh Al-Albaani 
spoke about the method of the prayer, he mentioned the hadeeth by Waa'il ibn Hujr, which includes that he saw the Prophet put his right hand over his left hand and then put them on his chest.
Shaykh Al-Albaani then said, “This hadeeth was cited by Abu Ash-Shaykh in Taareekh Asbahaan (p. 125) and by Al-Bayhaqi from Mu'ammal ibn Ismaa’eel, from Ath-Thawry from ‘Aasim ibn Kulayb, from his father, from Waa'il ibn Hujr. This isnaad (chain of narration) is formed of trustworthy narrators, but Mu'ammal ibn Ismaa’eel was criticized because of his poor memorization. At-Taqreeb reads, 'He is trustworthy but he is weak in memorization.'”
Then Al-Bayhaqi reported it from another source from Waa'il, but its chain of narrators is weak ... the hadeeth was cited by Al-Haafith az-Zayla'i in Nasb ar-Raayah (1/314), and he said, “It was reported by Ibn Khuzaymah in his Saheeh.”
Then Shaykh Al-Albaani mentioned that the hadeeth is strengthened by the second hadeeth reported by Ahmad (5/226), “Yahya ibn Sa’eed reported from Sufyaan, who reported from Simaak, from Qabeesah ibn Hulb from his father who said, 'I saw the Prophet leave after the prayer from his right and from his left, and I saw him put his hands on his chest.' Yahya described, 'He put the right hand over the left hand on his wrist.' This chain of narration was classified by At-Tirmithi as hasan (good).”
Then Shaykh Al-Albaani mentioned several other pieces of evidence that prove that it is confirmed.
As regads Mu'ammal ibn Ismaa’eel, then Shaykh Al-Albaani summarized the scholars' statements about him as follows:
“Firstly, he is not among the men (narrators) who meet the conditions of Al-Bukhari and Muslim; secondly, he commits many errors. Imaam Al-Bukhari said about him, 'His hadeeth is munkar (objectionable).' Moreover, all those who wrote a biography about him – even Ath-Thahabi – acknowledged that he is bad in memorizing, as the latter [Ath-Thahabi] said in Al-Meezaan, 'He is a scholar who commits errors, but Ibn Ma’een considered him as trustworthy.' Abu Haatim said, 'He is truthful, very strict in Sunnah, but he commits many errors.' Al-Bukhari said, 'His hadeeth is munkar.' Abu Zar’ah said, 'He makes so many mistakes in hadeeth.' Al-Haafith said in at-Taqreeb, 'He is trustworthy but he is bad in memorization.' Ath-Thahabi himself relied upon the aforementioned statement of Abu Haatim in Al-Kaashif, then he mentioned the reason for which he commits so many errors and said, 'It was said that he buried his papers and narrated hadeeth from memory, so he made mistakes.' I said, 'Such a person cannot be provided as evidence if he is the only one who narrated the hadeeth, let alone if his hadeeth contradicts what others have narrated.'”
Allaah knows best.