Al-shādhdh is that which a single narrator has transmitted alone, and which raises doubt in the mind of the critic. This is also the definition of al-munkar.
The grounds of this doubt are: (1) the weakness of the sole transmitter; (2) his contradiction of one more trustworthy than himself; (3) the matn being of a kind that would normally have circulated widely (yet the report has not); (4) the teacher narrated from is one of the imāms whose ḥadīth is collected, while the sole transmitter from him is not among that teacher's well-known close students, even if he is himself a thiqah. There are further grounds besides these that give rise to such misgiving.1
On this basis, what Imām al-Shāfiʿī said, that al-shādhdh is what a thiqah narrates in contradiction to the narration of the people, not what one narrates that no other does, and what al-Khalīlī said, that "the position adopted by the ḥuffāẓ of ḥadīth is that al-shādhdh is that which has but a single isnād, in which a thiqah or someone else stands alone: what comes from other than a thiqah is discarded, and what comes from a thiqah is suspended upon and not used as proof"; and what ʿAllāmah al-Ḥākim said, that it is what a thiqah alone transmits, having no basis in a corroborating narration: all of it is close together and not divergent. Except that al-Shāfiʿī's statement is particular while the statement of the other two is general, and the general is the more evident and the closer to the practice of the ḥadīth scholars.2
According to the Ḥanafīs, al-shādhdh is that which contradicts the Book, the established Sunnah, the consensus of the umma or a report on a matter of widespread practical concern. This is more general than the Shāfiʿī definition.3
Al-shādhdh and al-munkar are one and the same, as ʿAllāmah Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ stated in his Muqaddima.4 Ṣāliḥ Jazara said: "The shādhdh ḥadīth is the munkar ḥadīth that is not known." Shuʿbah said: "The shādhdh ḥadīth comes to you only from the shādhdh man."5 Statements such as these from the muḥaddithūn show that the two are one, with no distinction between them, and that al-shādhdh is not restricted to what a thiqah narrates, nor al-munkar to what a weak transmitter narrates.6
We shall give for each of these grounds two or more examples, which will make clear that there is no real distinction between al-shādhdh and al-munkar, and that each is applied to the narrations of both the trustworthy and the weak. An example of the first, that is, the application of al-shādhdh and al-munkar to what a weak narrator alone has transmitted: that which al-Tirmidhī narrated (1/29) by way of al-Ḥārith ibn Wajīh, from Mālik ibn Dīnār, from Muḥammad ibn Sīrīn, from Abū Hurayra, from the Prophet ﷺ, who said: "Beneath every hair there is janāba, so wash the hair and cleanse the skin." Abū Ḥātim said, as his son transmits in his ʿIlal (no. 53): this is a munkar ḥadīth, and al-Ḥārith is weak in ḥadīth. And that which Ibn ʿAsākir narrated in Tārīkh Dimashq (7/112): "Whoever wishes to look upon Ibrāhīm in his friendship with Allāh, let him look upon Abū Bakr in his generosity," the ḥadīth. He said: this is an utterly shādhdh ḥadīth, and in its isnād there is more than one unknown narrator. Ibn al-Qaṭṭān said in Bayān al-Wahm wa-l-Īhām (3/154), on the ḥadīth forbidding al-butayrāʾ: this ḥadīth is among the shādhdh aḥādīth, whose narrators are not to be relied upon so long as their ʿadāla is not known. End of quotation. ʿAllāmah al-Dhahabī said in Mīzān al-Iʿtidāl (3/53): Ibn al-Qaṭṭān said: this is a shādhdh ḥadīth, whose narrators are not to be relied upon. End of quotation. An example of the second, that is, the application of al-shādhdh and al-munkar to that in which a thiqah or a weak narrator has contradicted one more trustworthy than himself: that which ʿAtthām ibn ʿAlī narrated from Hishām ibn ʿUrwa, from his father, from ʿĀʾishah (raḍ. ʿanhā), that the Prophet ﷺ, when he awoke in the night, would say: "There is no god but Allāh, the One, the Subduer, Lord of the heavens and the earth and what is between them, the Mighty, the Ever-Forgiving." Abū Ḥātim and Abū Zurʿa said: this is an error; it is rather from Hishām, from his father, that he himself used to say this, and Jarīr narrated it thus. Abū Zurʿa said: the ḥadīth of ʿAtthām is munkar. End of quotation. Al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Ḥajar said: ʿAtthām's ḥadīth is brought out in the Ṣaḥīḥ, but Jarīr is of stronger retention than he; and the question of the conflict between raising a report and stopping it is well known, the majority giving precedence to the raised form. End of quotation. The point at issue here is Abū Zurʿa's words. See: ʿIlal Ibn Abī Ḥātim, p. 197; Natāʾij al-Afkār, 3/104. And that which al-Athram narrated in Kitāb al-Nāsikh wa-l-Mansūkh by way of Mūsā ibn ʿUlayy, from his father, from ʿUqba ibn ʿĀmir, that the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ said: "The day of ʿArafa and the days of tashrīq are days of eating and drinking." He said: this is a ḥadīth in which Mūsā ibn ʿUlayy stands alone; those who narrated this ḥadīth did not mention ʿArafa. The ḥāfiẓ may err at times, and aḥādīth, when they are many, are more firmly established than the single shādhdh report. End of quotation. Nukat al-Zarkashī, p. 199. And that which Ḥubayyib ibn Ḥabīb narrated from Abū Isḥāq, from al-ʿAyzār ibn Ḥurayth, from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ said: "Whoever establishes the prayer, gives the zakat, performs the ḥajj of the House, fasts Ramaḍān and shows hospitality to the guest, enters Paradise." Abū Zurʿa said: this ḥadīth is only from Ibn ʿAbbās as a mawqūf report. Abū Ḥātim said: it is munkar, because others among the thiqah narrators narrated it from Abū Isḥāq as mawqūf, and that is what is known. Ibn ʿAdī said, after mentioning this narration and another: these two are the most objectionable narrations of his that I have seen. Know that Ḥubayyib ibn Ḥabīb was deemed weak by Abū Zurʿa, Ibn ʿAdī and others. See: ʿIlal Ibn Abī Ḥātim (no. 2034); Sharḥ al-Nukhba, p. 40; al-Kāmil by Ibn ʿAdī (no. 532); Mīzān al-Iʿtidāl (no. 1722); Lisān al-Mīzān (no. 2324). An example of the third, that is, the application of al-shādhdh and al-munkar to what a thiqah or a weak narrator has transmitted alone with a matn that calls for wide circulation: that which al-Ḥākim narrated in al-Mustadrak (no. 3822) from Ibn ʿAbbās, that he said: there are seven earths, and in every earth a prophet like your prophet, an Ādam like Ādam, a Nūḥ like Nūḥ, an Ibrāhīm like Ibrāhīm and an ʿĪsā like ʿĪsā. He said: this is a ḥadīth with a sound isnād. ʿAllāmah al-Bayhaqī said in al-Asmāʾ wa-l-Ṣifāt (no. 493): the isnād of this is sound, but it is utterly shādhdh. End of quotation. ʿAllāmah al-Suyūṭī said in al-Tadrīb (1/233): I never ceased to wonder at al-Ḥākim's declaring it sound, until I saw that al-Bayhaqī had said this. And that which ʿUbayd ibn Isḥāq narrated from ʿĀṣim ibn Muḥammad ibn Zayd, from Zayd ibn Aslam, from his father, in the story of a man who went out on an expedition and left his wife pregnant, saying as he left: I entrust to Allāh what is in your womb. She died, and he went to her grave, and in the report: the grave lay open, and she was sitting up with the child crawling about her, and a caller called out to him: O you who entrusted your deposit to his Lord, take your deposit; by Allāh, had you entrusted his mother too, you would have found her. Abū Ḥātim said: this ḥadīth, which they held against ʿUbayd, I do not know of anyone who narrated it besides ʿUbayd; ʿĀṣim is thiqah and Zayd ibn Aslam is thiqah. End of quotation. ʿIlal Ibn Abī Ḥātim, no. 2422. An example of the fourth, that is, the application of al-shādhdh and al-munkar to what a thiqah or a weak narrator has transmitted alone from one of the imāms of ḥadīth, neither of the two being among that imām's well-known ḥuffāẓ companions: that which Manṣūr ibn Zādhān, who is thiqah and firm, narrated from al-Zuhrī, from Abū Salama, from ʿĀʾishah: the Prophet ﷺ would kiss and go out to the prayer without renewing his wuḍūʾ. Abū Ḥātim said: this is a munkar ḥadīth with no basis in the ḥadīth of al-Zuhrī, and I do not know that Manṣūr ibn Zādhān heard from al-Zuhrī or narrated from him. ʿIlal Ibn Abī Ḥātim (no. 108). And that which Muḥammad ibn ʿUthmān ibn Rabīʿa narrated from Mālik, from Nāfiʿ, from Ibn ʿUmar, raising it to the Prophet: "Whoever incites a slave against his master is not one of us." ʿAllāmah al-Dāraquṭnī said: munkar with this isnād, and Muḥammad ibn ʿUthmān is weak. Al-Dhahabī said: a shādhdh report. See: Mīzān al-Iʿtidāl, 3/643; Lisān al-Mīzān, nos. 5603 and 7820. An example of the fifth, that is, of the further grounds besides these: that which Abū Usāma Ḥammād ibn Usāma, who is thiqah and firm, narrated from ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar, from Nāfiʿ, from Ibn ʿUmar, from the Prophet ﷺ in the story of Dhū al-Yadayn. Abū Ḥātim said: this is a munkar ḥadīth; I fear that Abū Usāma erred in it. ʿIlal Ibn Abī Ḥātim, no. 267. And al-Dāraquṭnī said: gharīb from the ḥadīth of ʿUbayd Allāh from Nāfiʿ. Aṭrāf al-Gharāʾib, 3/477. And that which Abū Dāwūd narrated (1/172) and al-Tirmidhī (1/123 to 124) from Qutayba ibn Saʿīd, from al-Layth ibn Saʿd, from Yazīd ibn Abī Ḥabīb, from Abū al-Ṭufayl, from Muʿādh ibn Jabal, as a marfūʿ report, on the combining of two prayers. ʿAllāmah al-Ḥākim said in Maʿrifat ʿUlūm al-Ḥadīth (p. 120): "This is a ḥadīth whose narrators are trustworthy imāms, and it is shādhdh in its isnād and its matn; we know of no defect by which to fault it … The imāms of ḥadīth heard it from Qutayba only out of astonishment at its isnād and its matn, and it has not reached us that any one of them mentioned a defect in the ḥadīth … So we looked, and behold, the ḥadīth is fabricated, while Qutayba ibn Saʿīd is trustworthy and reliable." End of quotation. ↩
Muqaddimat al-Kāmil, 1/207; Maʿrifat ʿUlūm al-Ḥadīth, pp. 119 to 122; al-Irshād of al-Khalīlī, 1/176; al-Nukat al-Wafiyya, 1/455 to 456; Fatḥ al-Mughīth, 2/10; Sharḥ al-Taqrīb by al-Sakhāwī, p. 138; Tadrīb al-Rāwī, 1/233. ↩
See: al-Dirāsāt, pp. 34 to 36; al-Muḥarrar, 1/273. An example of contradicting the Book and the established Sunnah: that which al-Ṭaḥāwī narrated by way of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Yaḥyā al-Anṣārī, from his father, from his grandfather, that his grandmother came to the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ with some jewellery of hers and said: I have given this in charity. The Messenger of Allāh ﷺ said: "It is not permissible for a woman to dispose of her property save with her husband's permission," the ḥadīth. Al-Ṭaḥāwī said, after citing two verses and the āthār: how can it be permissible for anyone to abandon two verses of the Book of Allāh, Mighty and Majestic, and established sunnahs from the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ, whose transmission is agreed to be sound, in favour of a shādhdh ḥadīth? End of quotation. Sharḥ Maʿānī al-Āthār, 2/374 to 375. An example of contradicting ijmāʿ: what al-Jaṣṣāṣ said: it has been narrated that the child of fornication is the worst of the three; that the child of fornication does not enter Paradise; that there is no wuḍūʾ for one who does not mention the name of Allāh over it; and that whoever washes a corpse should perform ghusl, and whoever carries it should perform wuḍūʾ. All of these are shādhdh reports, upon whose outward sense the fuqahāʾ are agreed in not acting. End of quotation. Aḥkām al-Qurʾān by al-Jaṣṣāṣ, 5/169. An example of solitary transmission in a matter of general affliction: the ḥadīth of Busra on the breaking of wuḍūʾ by touching the penis. Al-Jaṣṣāṣ said: we have already explained that our condition for accepting reports transmitted by way of āḥād is that the people have no general need of the matter, and that what afflicts everyone generally is not left by the Prophet ﷺ for its knowledge to rest with a few and with shādhdh reports; solitary narrations are accepted only in a particular matter with which particular people are afflicted, so that the Prophet ﷺ answers concerning it as the incident arises. End of quotation. Sharḥ Mukhtaṣar al-Ṭaḥāwī, 1/399. And ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn al-Bukhārī said: an instance is the ḥadīth of touching the penis which Busra narrated: it is shādhdh, since she alone narrated it while the need to know it is general, and that indicates that it is spurious; for to say that the Prophet ﷺ singled her out for the teaching of this ruling, when she has no need of it, and did not teach it to the rest of the ṣaḥābah, despite their pressing need of it, is next to impossible. So Shams al-Aʾimmah, may Allāh have mercy on him, stated. Kashf al-Asrār, 3/26. ↩
Muqaddimat Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ, p. 64. And as has become plain from the foregoing examples. ↩
al-Kifāya, in the chapter on ceasing to take as proof one whose narration is dominated by anomalies and manākir, p. 187. ↩
What Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Ḥajar held, namely, that al-shādhdh is what the accepted narrator transmits in opposition to one more worthy than himself, and al-munkar is what the weak narrator transmits in opposition to the accepted, I have found no precedent for. It may be so in most cases; yet making it a universal rule is problematic. And Allāh knows best. ↩
The science of jarḥ and taʿdīl: its two grounds, ʿadāla and ḍabṭ, when jarḥ must be explained, when it overrides taʿdīl and who needs tazkiya.
When the addition of a thiqah narrator is accepted: positions of al-Tirmidhī, Ibn Ḥibbān, Muslim, al-Ḥākim and the Ḥanafīs, with the majlis distinction.
Al-mursal in its broad sense was not rejected by anyone until Imām al-Shāfiʿī; the Ḥanafīs differ over the mursal of the first three generations.
The Ḥanafīs classify narrators by ʿadāla, ḍabṭ and fiqh, with the mastūr as a disputed third category and the majhūl, whose narration falls into five cases
