Ihyaaud Deen An Effort to Revive Deen in Totality
On one occasion, a man by the name of Bushair bin Ka’b al-Adawi came to meet Hazrat Abdullah bin Abbaas (radhiyallahu ‘anhuma). They began to speak, and during the course of the discussion, Bushair narrated certain Ahaadeeth of Rasulullah (sallallahu alaihi wasallam) to Hazrat Abdullah bin Abbaas (radhiyallahu ‘anhuma). Hazrat Abdullah bin Abbaas (radhiyallahu ‘anhuma) did not show any attention to certain Ahaadith which he narrated from certain narrators, but showed interest in other Ahaadith which he narrated from other narrators.
Bushair bin Ka’b was quite surprised by the conduct of Hazrat Abdullah bin Abbaas (radhiyallahu ‘anhuma) conduct and thus asked him why he showed interest in certain Ahaadith which he narrated from some narrators but he did not show interest in the other Ahaadith which he narrated from other narrators
Hazrat Abdullah bin Abbaas (radhiyallahu ‘anhuma) explained to him, “There was a time when, if we heard someone narrating Ahaadeeth from Rasulullah (sallallahu alaihi wasallam), we would rush to listen to him and we would pay full attention to him (because we did not doubt its authenticity based on the person narrating it being a reliable narrator). However, nowadays, the situation has changed and we find that people have begun riding every kind of mount – the mount which is difficult to ride as well as the mount which is easy to ride (i.e. some people are narrating Ahaadith from reliable narrators and others are narrating from unreliable narrators). It is for this reason that we no longer accept everything we hear from every person. We only accept the narration after we ascertain that the narration is an authentic narration.” (Saheeh Muslim 1/13)
In other words, Hazrat Abdullah bin Abbaas (radhiyallahu ‘anhuma) explained to Bushair that one should only take his deen from people who are reliable and who follow the deen of Allah Ta’ala according to the sunnah of Rasulullah (sallallahu ‘alaihi wasallam). People who are unreliable and whose life opposes the deen and the sunnah of Rasulullah (sallallahu ‘alaihi wasallam) cannot be taken as guides as they themselves lack guidance.
