Hadith 55

Sahih Muslim

Book 0: Introduction

Chapter 5

That Which is Related to the Statements ‘The Chain of Narration is from the Religion’; ‘Transmissions are not Taken Except from Trustworthy Narrators’; and ‘Criticism of the Narrators With What is Permissible Regarding Them, Even Obligatory and That It is not the Prohibited Kind of Backbiting, Rather it is the Defense of the Noble Sharī’ah’

باب فِي أَنَّ الإِسْنَادَ مِنَ الدِّينِ وَأَنَّ الرِّوَايَةَ لَا تَكُونُ إِلَّا عَنْ الثِّقَاتِ وَأَنَّ جَرْحَ الرُّوَاةِ بِمَا هُوَ فِيهِمْ جَائِزٌ بَلْ وَاجِبٌ وَأَنَّهُ لَيْسَ مِنْ الْغِيبَةِ الْمُحَرَّمَةِ بَلْ مِنْ الذَّبِّ عَنْ الشَّرِيعَةِ الْمُكَرَّمَةِ

Sahih Muslim Introduction 56
وَحَدَّثَنِي حَجَّاجُ بْنُ الشَّاعِرِ، حَدَّثَنَا أَحْمَدُ بْنُ يُونُسَ، قَالَ سَمِعْتُ زُهَيْرًا، يَقُولُ قَالَ جَابِرٌ - أَوْ سَمِعْتُ جَابِرًا، يَقُولُ - إِنَّ عِنْدِي لَخَمْسِينَ أَلْفَ حَدِيثٍ مَا حَدَّثْتُ مِنْهَا بِشَىْءٍ ‏.‏ قَالَ ثُمَّ حَدَّثَ يَوْمًا بِحَدِيثٍ فَقَالَ هَذَا مِنَ الْخَمْسِينَ أَلْفًا ‏.‏
Hajjāj bin ash-Shā’ir narrated to me, Ahmad bin Yūnus narrated to us, he said, I heard Zuhayr saying, Jābir said, or, I heard Jābir saying:

‘Indeed I have fifty thousand Ḥadīth that I have not narrated from at all’. [Zuhayr] said: ‘Then that day he related a Ḥadīth and said, ‘This is from the fifty thousand’.