Response to: Reputation of Abu Huraira in his Era (2)

The following is a response to SlaveOfAhlubait’s article titled: “Reputation of Abu Huraira in his Era.” The article was published on Wilayat.net on the 23rd of March, 2011, and can be found here.

SoA argues:

we find that abu huraira was charged with lie by another sahabi; ibn umar
let us see that
ibn abdul bar mentioned in his book jami bayan ul ilm wa fadlaho

ومثله قول المروزي حدثنا اسحاق بن راهوية وأحمد بن عمرو قالا حدثنا جرير عن منصور عن حبيب ابن أبي ثابت عن طاوس قال كنت جالسا جالسا عند ابن عمر فأتاه رجل فقال أن أبا هريرة يقول أن الوتر ليس بحتم فخذوا منه ودعوا فقال ابن عمر كذب أبو هريرة جاء رجل إلى رسول الله فسأله عن صلاة اليل فقال مثنى مثنى فإذا خشيت الصبح فواحدة )

taoos said that we were sitting with ibn umar when a man came, and he said
“abu huraira said that witr is not compulsory/final; if u wish go for it or leave it”
so ibn umar said:
” abu huraira lied; a man came to holy prophet asws and asked him about the night prayer; so he asws said: two two rakat; but if you fear morning, then one rakat”
researcher of the book; abu al ashbaal al zahairi, termed it
ISNAAD SAHIH

[jami bayan ul ilm wa fadlaho, ibn abdul bar, tehqeeq by zahiri, vol 1, page 1101, narration 2148, printed dar ibn joozi]

The narration does not suggest that Abu Huraira lied since he is simply stating his own personal opinion, and personal opinions are not like narrating narrations. It is not logical for Ibn Omar to accuse Abu Huraira of lying simply because he had an opinion that disagreed with his own. This is why scholars understand the word “Kadhaba” in this context, to mean: He erred.

Ibn Al-Atheer in Al-Nihaya (p. 795-796) provides several examples in which a person uses the word Kadhaba and means erred. He then said: Arabs used the word Kadhaba in place of erring. Ibn Al-Atheer then started quoting several narrations along with the ancient poetry of Al-Akhtal and Dhu Al-Rumma in which the word Kadhaba is used in this context.

Of course, it is only natural to understand that this is what Ibn Omar meant, since he himself has clearly stated in an authentic narration (Sunan Abi Dawud #1070) that he does not reject anything narrated by Abi Huraira.