ʿUluww (elevation in isnād) is of five kinds:1
Within the third type fall muwāfaqah, badal, musāwāh and muṣāfaḥah.5
Muwāfaqah (agreement): reaching the teacher of one of the compilers.
Badal (substitution): reaching the teacher's teacher, or someone higher up.6
Musāwāh (parity): when the number of intermediaries between you and the Prophet ﷺ, or a Companion, or one of the imāms after them, equals the number between one of the compilers and the same person.
Muṣāfaḥah (handshake): like musāwāh, except that the count is taken with reference to the compiler's pupil, not the compiler himself.7
As ʿAllāmah Anwar Shāh al-Kashmīrī notes in the muqaddima of Fayḍ al-Bārī, in our age the seeking of shorter chains (ʿuluww al-isnād) serves the purposes of tabarruk and ittiṣāl rather than offering substantive benefit in taḥqīq. [tr.] ↩
Such as the thunāʾī (chains of two narrators) of Imām Mālik, the thulāthī (chains of three) of Imām al-Bukhārī, and the subāʿī (chains of seven) of ʿAllāmah Ibn Daqīq al-ʿĪd. Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Ḥajar terms this category al-ʿuluww al-muṭlaq (absolute elevation) in his Sharḥ Nukhbat al-Fikr. ↩
The highest isnād attained by ʿAllāmah Ibn Daqīq al-ʿĪd is one in which there are six men between him and Imām Mālik or Ibn ʿUyayna, and five men between him and Imām al-Bukhārī or Imām Abū Dāwūd. Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Ḥajar terms this category al-ʿuluww al-nisbī (relative elevation) in his Sharḥ Nukhbat al-Fikr; he combines this third type with the second under the same heading. ↩
Thus our transmission from Shaykh Iẓhār al-Ḥasan al-Kāndhlawī, from Shaykh Muḥammad Zakariyyā, is higher than our transmission from Shaykh Muḥammad Yūnus, from Shaykh Muḥammad Zakariyyā (may Allāh have mercy on them all), since the death and hearing of Shaykh Iẓhār al-Ḥasan are both earlier. I say: Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Ḥajar conflated the second and third types, treating them as a single category which he called al-ʿuluww al-nisbī (relative elevation), and placing within it muwāfaqah, badal, musāwāh and muṣāfaḥah. This is an error, and it does not accord with what the other imāms say, for muwāfaqah and the rest have no bearing on the second type at all; they belong to the third type alone, as Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ, al-ʿIrāqī, al-Sakhāwī and others have stated expressly. It was because of this error that the commentators on Sharḥ al-Nukhba were left perplexed: their statements grew inconsistent as they tried to fend off the difficulties raised against it, and they did not find their way to setting most of them right. All praise belongs to Allāh for what He has bestowed and inspired. See: Muqaddimat Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ, pp. 155 to 160; al-Iqtirāḥ, pp. 268 to 269; al-Tabṣira, 2/257; Fatḥ al-Mughīth, 3/359; Sharḥ al-Nukhba, pp. 87 to 90; al-Qawl al-Mubtakar and its ḥāshiya, pp. 163 to 164; Sharḥ Sharḥ Nukhbat al-Fikr by Mullā ʿAlī al-Qārī, pp. 626 and 628; Imʿān al-Naẓar, p. 220; Qafw al-Athar, pp. 100 to 102. ↩
The fivefold division of ʿuluww, and the placing of muwāfaqah, badal, musāwāh and muṣāfaḥah within the third kind, follow Muqaddimat Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ, the chapter on maʿrifat al-isnād al-ʿālī wa-l-nāzil (nawʿ 29): ed. Nūr al-Dīn ʿItr, Dār al-Fikr, 1406 AH, pp. 255 to 262, the four falling at pp. 258 to 259. The short definitions of muwāfaqah and badal given here are Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Ḥajar's own wording in Nuzhat al-Naẓar. [tr.] ↩
An example: Imām al-Bukhārī narrates a ḥadīth from al-Ḥumaydī, from Ibn ʿUyayna, from al-Zuhrī. If we transmit it through another route to al-Ḥumaydī, that is muwāfaqah; if we transmit it through Ibn ʿUyayna or al-Zuhrī directly, that is badal. ↩
An example: suppose Imām al-Nasāʾī transmits a ḥadīth in which there are ten men between him and the Prophet ﷺ. If ʿAllāmah al-Ḥākim transmits it with ten intermediaries, this is musāwāh (parity) between him and al-Nasāʾī; if al-Ḥākim transmits it with eleven intermediaries, this is musāwāh with al-Nasāʾī's student, and is therefore muṣāfaḥah with al-Nasāʾī, as if al-Ḥākim had met him and shaken his hand. ↩
When a narrator's solitary transmission is suspected, others' parallel narrations are mutābaʿa or shāhid; the pursuit of these is al-iʿtibār.
When a body of narrators take a ḥadīth from a prominent imām, it is called mashhūr (literally, well-known, publicised).
When a single narrator takes a ḥadīth in solitary fashion from a prominent imām, it is called gharīb (literally, strange, or one who is alone).
Al-mudraj is the mixing of what belongs to one speaker with what belongs to another without indication. It falls into mudraj al-matn (more common) and mudraj al-sanad.
