Virtues of  Memorizing Forty Hadeeths
Question

                Could you tell me if the hadeeths (prophetic narration) about memorizing 40 of the Prophet’s (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) Sunnah (traditions) and being admitted to Paradise or raised with the scholars are authentic.
Praise be to Allah.
    1 – This 
    hadeeth is da’eef (weak). Despite its large number of isnads (chains of 
    transmission) they do not support one another, and there are many different 
    versions with different wordings, such as, “…Allah will resurrect him on the 
    Day of Resurrection among the fuqaha (jurists) and scholars,” and “… Allah 
    will resurrect him a scholar and a faqeeh (jurist),” and “I will be an 
    intercessor and a witness for him on the Day of Resurrection,” etc. 

    (a)     
    al-Hafiz ibn Hajar said: 

    It was 
    narrated by al-Hasan ibn Sufyan in his Musnad and in his Arba’een, from the 
    hadeeth of Ibn ‘Abbas (may Allah be pleased with him), and he narrated it 
    from thirteen of the Sahabah/Companions (may Allah be pleased with them). It 
    was narrated by Ibn al-Jawzi in al-‘Ilal al-Mutanahiyah, and he explained 
    that all of these hadeeths are da’eef.  Ibn al-Mundhir discussed it in a 
    separate volume, and I discussed it in the sixteenth chapter of al-Imla. I 
    mentioned all of its isnads in one volume but there is not one isnad that is 
    free of faults. 

    
    Al-Talkhees al-Habeer, 3/93,94. 

    (b)    Ibn 
    al-Mulaqqin said: 

    The 
    hadeeth “Whoever preserves forty hadeeth for my ummah (followers) will be 
    recorded as a faqeeh” was narrated via approximately twenty isnads, all of 
    which are da’eef (weak). Al-Daraqutni said: All its isnads are da’eef and 
    none of them are proven. Al-Bayhaqi said: Its isnads are weak. 

    Khalasat 
    al-Badr al-Muneer, 2/145 

    Al-Bayhaqi 
    said: 

    This text 
    is well known among the people but it has no saheeh (authentic) isnad. 

    Shu’ab 
    al-Eeman, 2/270 

    Al-Nawawi 
    said: 

    The 
    scholars of hadeeth are agreed that it is a weak hadeeth, although it has 
    many narrations. 

    Muqaddimat 
    al-Arba’een al-Nawawiyyah.  

    2 – We 
    should note here that there are reports in the Sunnah which mention the 
    virtue of listening to the hadeeth of the Prophet (peace and blessings of 
    Allah be upon him) and conveying it, even if it is just one hadeeth. 

    It was 
    narrated that Zayd ibn Thabit (may Allah be pleased with him) said: I heard 
    the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) say, “May 
    Allah bless a man who hears a hadeeth from us and memorizes it so that he 
    can convey it to others, for perhaps he is conveying it to one who will 
    understand it better than him, and perhaps the one who conveys knowledge 
    does not understand it himself.”

    (Narrated 
    and classed as hasan (sound) by al-Tirmidhi, 2656; also narrated by Abu 
    Dawood. 3660; Ibn Majah, 230). 

    
    Al-Mubarakfoori said: 

    What is 
    meant is that Allah has singled him out for happiness and joy because of the 
    knowledge with which He has blessed him and the status among people in this 
    world and blessings in the Hereafter that he attains thereby, so that the 
    joy and blessings are seen on his face. And it was suggested that the 
    hadeeth indicates what happens to the person of joy and blessing that 
    appears on his face. 

    Tuhfat 
    al-Ahwadhi, 7/347, 348 

    And Allah 
    knows best.