The Ḥanafīs classify narrators into several categories:
First: one known for ʿadāla, ḍabṭ, and fiqh; his ḥadīth is accepted unconditionally.
Second: one known for ʿadāla and ḍabṭ but not for fiqh; his ḥadīth too is accepted unconditionally, except in cases of necessity and where there is no room for independent reasoning. This is the position of ʿĪsā ibn Abān, followed by many of the later scholars.
Our preferred view is that the report of every narrator who is ʿadl and ḍābiṭ is accepted, whether he is a faqīh or not, so long as it does not contradict the Book, the well-known Sunnah, or ijmāʿ; and it is given precedence over qiyās. This is the view of al-Karkhī and those who followed him.
There is a third category mentioned by some Ḥanafīs but not others: al-mastūr, which some describe as ʿadl al-ẓāhir, khafī al-bāṭin (outwardly upright, inwardly unknown). Some have considered the report of a narrator whose outward state is upright worth considering, even if his inward state is not known; and a mastūr known to have a substantial body of narrations may be reckoned, on that basis, as ʿadl al-ẓāhir.1 The Ḥanafīs, however, do not stop at outward ʿadāla alone; they take account of the inward as well.
As for the ruling on him: some Ḥanafīs hold that he is accepted in the first three generations but not thereafter; others hold that his ḥadīth is not a ḥujja in itself, and that the matter is settled by ijtihād (here, independent juristic reasoning) in accepting or rejecting it.
Fourth: a narrator not known for ʿadāla or ḍabṭ, nor known for carrying knowledge, for example, he has narrated only one or two ḥadīths. This is al-majhūl. His narration falls into one of five cases:
These, then, are five cases for majhūl al-ʿayn and majhūl al-ḥāl, arranged from highest to lowest: the first is the strongest and the last the weakest, with intermediate gradations between them.
These are narrators described as ʿadl al-ẓāhir, khafī al-bāṭin: outwardly upright but inwardly unknown. Visible markers of uprightness, such as keeping a beard or praying in the mosque, may be enough to consider someone ʿadl outwardly; the Aḥnāf, however, do not stop at outward ʿadāla and also weigh inward conduct that is not visible. [tr.] ↩
Four positions on whether jarḥ and taʿdīl follow the rules of khabar or of testimony, with the additional requirement that the evaluator be ʿadl and unbiased.
The science of jarḥ and taʿdīl, the two grounds of evaluation, when criticism overrides praise, and who needs tazkiya.
Al-shādhdh is that which a single narrator has transmitted alone, raising doubt in the mind of the critic; this is also the definition of al-munkar. Statements of the early imāms show the two are one.
When the addition of a thiqa narrator is accepted: positions of al-Tirmidhī, Ibn Ḥibbān, Muslim, al-Ḥākim and the Ḥanafīs, with the majlis distinction.
