Is this hadith authentic "Whoever performs ablution on Friday, then it is good and enough, and whoever takes a bath, that is better"

Question

I watched a video regarding the obligation of taking a bath on Fridays where mufti Muneer stated that there was a long discussion regarding the authenticity of this hadith and whether it could overrule the other authentic hadiths where it is clearly stated that taking a bath on Fridays is obligatory.

Answer 1

First of all the hadith in question is:

Samura b. Jundub reported God’s messenger as saying, “If anyone performs ablution on Friday, well and good; but if anyone bathes, bathing is more excellent.” (Source)

Which was reported by imam Ahmad and a-Darimi in their al-Musnad, and by imam an-Nasa-i and abu Dawod in their Sunan and by imam at-Tirmidhi in his Jami' and by many other scholars such as at-Tabarni in his al-Kabeer and al-Bayhaqi.

The main issue with this hadith is what the imams an-Nasa-i and at-Tirmidhi described commenting it:

‏ قَالَ أَبُو عَبْدِ الرَّحْمَنِ ... وَلَمْ يَسْمَعِ الْحَسَنُ مِنْ سَمُرَةَ إِلاَّ حَدِيثَ الْعَقِيقَةِ وَاللَّهُ تَعَالَى أَعْلَمُ ‏.‏ (Sunan an-Nasa-i)
Abu Abd al-Rahman ^(an-Nasa-i) ... al-Hasan did nor hear from Samura anything except the hadith of the ‘aqeeqah, and Allah the Almighty knows best.

So this hadith is a kind of mursal as al-Hassan al-Basri didn't hear this hadith from Samura directly, but via an unknown intermediate, which makes its chain disconnected. Imam at-Tirmidhi also pointed at other mursal versions in which al-Hassan left out Samura and the intermediate too. As a matter of fact al-Hassan al-Basri had a strong tendency to apply "Irsaal" (narrating hadith which is mursal), as he narrated the hadith as if he heard it himself from the prophet(), but as a tabi'y he has never met him.

The hadith however was narrated via the root: Qatadah -> al-Hasan -> Samura

by a whole lot of narrators and also on the authority of other sahabah like Anas ibn Malik (see for example in Sunan ibn Majah), ibn 'Abbas, Jabir ibn 'Abdillah and the son of Samura which give the hadith a certain backup (even if none of these versions is free from discussions -see the footnotes here) and as its meaning is in clear alignment with both the qur'an which requires taharah in form of wudu' for each prayer and the sunnah which highly recommends performing ghusl on the day of Jumua'h or for its prayer (depending on the interpretations of scholars). It can safely be regarded as hassan (not for itself, but for its backups) as the majority of scholars did.