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Fatwa CenterThe Hadeeth that there is no blame in narrating traditions from the Children of Israa’eel (Israel)
Question
What is the interpretation of the Hadeeth, "Narrate traditions from the Children of Israa’eel and there is no blame upon you"?
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.
Imaam Ahmad and Abu-Daawood 
narrated this Hadeeth on the authority of Abu Hurayrah 
. Al-Bukhari 
also narrated it on the authority of ‘Abdullaah Ibn ‘Amr Ibn Al-‘Aas .
This Hadeeth tells us that it is permissible to narrate from the Children of Israa’eel or to quote from their books without verifying the authenticity of the chain of narrators, since their traditions are narrated for the sole purpose of extracting lessons. However, this does not apply to their traditions that are known to be false:
- Al-Khattaabi mentioned that this Hadeeth means that it is permissible to narrate their traditions even if we are unable to verify them, unless we know they are false.
- Imaams Ash-Shaafi‘i and Maalik considered that this Hadeeth only applies to good traditions, not the ones that we know for certain are false. Ash-Shaafi‘i added that this Hadeeth bears the same meaning as the Hadeeth in which the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam commanded us to neither believe nor disbelieve what the Children of Israa’eel narrate to us.
- At-Teebi mentioned that this Hadeeth applies to their past stories such as killing themselves for repentance. He also pointed out that there is no contradiction between this Hadeeth and others in which the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, forbade reading their books. The latter Hadeeths date back to the early days of Islam and were meant to prohibit the Companions 
from applying the Sharee‘ah of the Children of Israa’eel. Later, when the Islamic Sharee‘ah was established and that risk no longer existed, the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, allowed the Companions to narrate from them.
Allaah Knows best.
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