Narrating Israiliyaat

The Prophet said:
‎وَحَدِّثُوا عَنْ بَنِي إِسْرَائِيلَ وَلاَ حَرَجَ
“Narrate from the people of the Book, there is no harm in it.”
[Sahih Bukhari, 3461].

Imam al-Khattabi explained:
‎قال الخطابي في “معالم السنن” (4/187) :” ليس معناه إباحة الكذب في أخبار بني إسرائيل ورفع الحرج عمن نقل عنهم الكذب ، ولكن معناه الرخصة في الحديث عنهم ، على معنى البلاغ، وإن لم يتحقق صحة ذلك بنقل الإسناد ، وذلك لأنه أمر قد تعذر في اخبارهم لبعد المسافة ، وطول المدة ، ووقوع الفترة بين زماني النبوة “. اهـ
“This does not mean that it is permissible to narrate from the Children of Israel what contains lies, nor does it mean that the one who narrates such lies is excused.
It means that there is a leniency/permission in narrating from them in order to inform others of those stories even if there is no isnaad (chain of narrators) to verify the authenticity of these stories. The reason being that there is a huge gap of time between the Children of Israel and the time of our Prophet.”
[“Ma’alim as-Sunan”, 4/187].

So it is permissible to narrate stories from the Children of Israel even if they are chainless, as long as they don’t oppose our texts.
The isnaad requirements are not always at the same level of strictness.
We cannot confirm or deny these stories with certainty, but we pass them on if they contain some wisdom (hikmah) or a lesson (‘ibrah).

Allahu A’lam