devotion in worship. These ascetics and Sufis were thinking well of people considering sarcasm as a forbidden backbiting. Therefore they were deceived by the lies circulated here and there, reporting traditions without any knowledge or verification. So no trust should be put to the traditions filling the books of preaching, exorcization and maysticism without indicating their sources and degree of authenticity. This judgement is not related only to the books whose authors have precedence in knowledge, like the book Nuzhat al-Majalis, which is replete with falsities on hadith and other fields. Rather, even some books of the leaders (imams) of ulama', such as al-Ihya' of al-Ghazzali, can never be free from numerous fabricated traditions. Fourth: The intention of seeking favoritism near the kings' sovereigns and emirs, as stated by several memorizers. And as the hireling ulama' fabricated many of the Messenger's traditions for gaining the pleasure of the monarchs and rulers, they also falsified many fiqhi rules and branches of religion for this purpose. Among the traditions composed in this regard are those containing flattery and extolling for the rulers, through which the ignorant cajole the kings presently as they used to do in the past. Fifth: Error and inadvertence, that befell some of the narrators who, despite recognizing the truth, abstained from forsaking their viewpoints, out of disdain and to evade any error be ascribed to them. Frailty in faith and dishonesty in the task of narrating the hadith could not be realized until experiencing those events that are known for all. Sixth: Reporting the hadith by memorizing from those having reliable books, with being inaccurate in memorization, entailing consequently the loss of books and occurrence of mistakes and errors.201 Seventh: Mental confusion inflicting people at the end of life, as in the case of a group of trustworthy narrators, who were excused for this reason, except those who were free from all the faults ascribed to them, with no distinction between what is reported from them in the state of maturity and sanity and that which is reported in the state of insanity and decrepitude. Eighth: Trying to overcome the opponent in debate and controversy
201. These people, as said by Ibn Asakir in his Ta'rikh, used to: "make of the mursal as marfu' once, give sanad for the mawquf another time, and approve of the isnad once and insert a hadith into another one, another time." (Vol.II, p.10).
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