A muʿallaq1 ḥadīth has a drop at the beginning of the sanad.
For example, if Imām al-Bukhārī dropped his teacher, that narration would be considered muʿallaq. It does not matter whether one, two, three or more narrators are dropped, such as the aḥādīth in Mishkāt al-Maṣābīḥ;2 all such narrations are considered muʿallaq.
A muḍal narration is one with a drop of two or more continuous narrators from anywhere in the sanad.
If a narrator is dropped from the sanad with the intention of deceit the ḥadīth is mudallas; without that intent it is mursal.
A mursal narration is one with a drop at the end of the sanad, after the tābiʿī.
Scholars differ on the precise definition of munqaṭiʿ; the muḥaddithūn of the earlier generations treated it as identical to mursal.
