Query on "..Ali is its gate.." hadith & sharhs

[Ibn Abbas]

As Salam Alukum.


I heard this hadith quoted by many people and I was wondering what is the authenticity of this hadith it goes something like this " I am the city of knowlodge and Ali is its gate"

If someone could provide me with the info I would greatly appreciate it.


Also I was wondering if there are any books which explain all the hadiths from Sahih Bukhari and Sahih Muslim in great detail and perhaps the other 4 collections as well. I would like to purchase them for my own benefit.


I pray everyone is in the best of health and may our Lord grant us all a place in Paradise.


Amen.

[salman]

Salamu Alaikum

There is disagreement on the Hadith but the relied upon verdict is that it is authentic due to its various chains as stated by Imam Suyuti and Ibn Hajar.

wasalam

[Sad ibn Abu Waqqas]

Salamu Alaikum

There is disagreement on the Hadith but the relied upon verdict is that it is authentic due to its various chains as stated by Imam Suyuti and Ibn Hajar.

wasalam

Salam 'Alaykum Sidi Salman,

Just out of curiosity, for whom exactly is it the relied upon position that it is authentic? For all Muslim scholars, or for some of them? I ask because those who claimed it was baseless or a forgery include Bukhari, Tirmidhi, Ibn Ma'in, Abu Hatim, Yahya ibn Sa'id, Ibn Jawzi (from his book of hadith forgeries), Dhahabi, Ibn Daqiq al-'Eid, and Daraqutni. That's a pretty impressive collection of hadith masters (huffaz) rejecting it.

Hakim said it was sahih, but he was criticized for being very lax in many of his authentications, and The Reliance of the Traveller, from which I am getting all this information, says that Suyuti mentions a report in which Ibn Hajar denied this and said it was hasan (i.e. fair, not sahih).

I have come across instances in which a hadith with multiple chains of transmission is nevertheless agreed upon to be weak.

Could I ask you, or someone else, to check what Imam Suyuti said, since in the quote from Mulla 'Ali Qari in the Reliance, it is only stated that Suyuti mentions an incident in which Imam Ibn Hajar was asked about it and said "hasan", and it does not say anything about what Imam Suyuti thought.

The content of the hadith makes it suspect, to my mind, since the hadith implies an exclusive role for Ali in the transmission of Islamic knowledge, and this is not historically accurate. What exactly does this hadith mean? Should we think that Abu Bakr, and Ibn Masud were dependent for their knowledge on Ali when they learned at the same time as him? May Allah be pleased with them all.

Wa al-Salam,