Among the muḥaddithūn, al-majhūl (literally, the unknown or unidentified) is a narrator whose condition is not known,1 and who is not known for his own pursuit of knowledge. If more than one transmits from him, he is majhūl al-ḥāl, which is the same as al-mastūr.2 If only one transmits from him, he is majhūl al-ʿayn. But if his condition is known,3 or he is known for the pursuit of knowledge, he is not termed majhūl, whether one or more transmit from him.4
That is, his condition may be unknown either with respect to his ʿadāla or his ḍabṭ: we may know, for example, that he prays, but be uncertain about his memory and precision in transmission. [tr.] ↩
Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ holds that majhūl al-ḥāl and mastūr are distinct: mastūr in his usage is one whose inward state (his characteristics, bāṭin) is unknown, but whose outward state (his ẓāhir, such as appearance and conduct) is not. [tr.] ↩
A narrator may be shown not to be majhūl in several ways: by an explicit statement to that effect; by being included in a register of thiqa narrators; by being narrated from in either of the two Ṣaḥīḥs; by being narrated from by those who stipulate ṣaḥīḥ-grade isnāds in their works; by a scholar's having based a ruling or fatwā on his ḥadīth; or by being narrated from by thiqa narrators. [tr.] ↩
See: Maʿrifat ʿUlūm al-Ḥadīth, pp. 27–28; al-Burhān, 1/222; Muqaddimat Ikmāl al-Muʿlim, p. 314; Sharḥ al-Mishkāt by al-Ṭībī, 6/231; Tadrīb al-Rāwī, 1/197; al-Tārīkh al-Kabīr by al-Bukhārī, 1/409 (no. 1306); Marāsīl Abī Dāwūd, p. 16. ↩
A ḥadīth in which a narrator has been replaced with another, whether one narrator, several, or even the entire chain, is al-maqlūb (literally, that which has been inverted).
If a narrator transmits from one of two persons who share the same name, without giving anything to distinguish him from the other, this is al-muhmal.
Al-Shāfiʿī accepts the mursal under three conditions; some Shāfiʿīs treat the third as one of the four corroborating supports, leaving two conditions.
When a body of narrators take a ḥadīth from a prominent imām, it is called mashhūr (literally, well-known, publicised).
