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.1
The muhmal (literally, neglected, overlooked) is clarified either by the narrator's special connection (ikhtiṣāṣ) with one of the two, or by one of the two having a special connection with the shaykh from whom he narrates.2 If it cannot be clarified: if both are thiqah, there is no harm; if one of them is not thiqah, there is.3
I say: by "special connection" is meant either restriction or constant association. By the first, the muhmal is clarified with certainty; by the second, with predominant probability.
Muhmal is, in a sense, a sub-type of majhūl; but in the technical usage of the muḥaddithūn, the term muhmal is reserved for it. Literally: neglected, overlooked, left without specification. [tr.] An example: when Imām al-Bukhārī narrates from "Aḥmad" or "Muḥammad" without further identification, he has many teachers of those names. ↩
That is, one of the two narrators bearing the same name does not narrate from the teacher in question, so he can be excluded. For instance: if there are two Yūnuses, and only one of them narrates from Shaykh Zakariyyā, we can identify the narrator as Shaykh Yūnus Jonpūrī rather than Shaykh Yūnus Pālanpūrī, since the latter does not transmit ḥadīth directly from Shaykh Zakariyyā. [tr.] ↩
Sharḥ al-Nukhba, pp. 93 to 94; al-Kifāya, pp. 495 to 497. ↩
Among the muḥaddithūn, al-majhūl is a narrator whose condition is not known and who is not known for his pursuit of knowledge; he splits into majhūl al-ḥāl (al-mastūr) and majhūl al-ʿayn.
When a narrator's solitary transmission is suspected, others' parallel narrations are mutābaʿa or shāhid; the pursuit of these is al-iʿtibār.
When narrators share the same name and the same father's name (and possibly further up the line), but are different persons, this is al-muttafiq wa-l-muftariq.
Positions on what to do when the teacher (aṣl) denies a narration that the student (farʿ) attributes to him.
