In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. All praise is due to Allah. I bear witness that there is no god but Allah, alone, without partner, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and Messenger ﷺ.
Completion of the chapter on the solitary report:
In this section Imam al-Shafi’i continues his discussion of the conditions for accepting the solitary report (khabar al-wahid), responds to some objections that may be raised against accepting it, and explains some questions related to it, focusing on the importance of care and verification in accepting hadith.
The main points Imam al-Shafi’i dealt with in this section:
- A narrator’s uprightness is not established merely by someone narrating from him: Imam al-Shafi’i shows that a trustworthy narrator’s merely narrating from someone does not indicate that this person is declared upright (ta’dil); rather, his uprightness must be explicitly declared by other upright people. He responds to those who hold that a trustworthy narrator’s narrating from someone is a declaration of his uprightness. He shows that a trustworthy narrator may narrate from another for reasons other than declaring him upright, such as finding the hadith objectionable, seeking another trustworthy narrator to support it, or thinking well of the narrator.
- Being stricter in accepting hadith than testimony: Imam al-Shafi’i shows that people are strict in accepting testimony and accept it only from an upright person of known uprightness, whereas they may be lax in accepting hadith and narrate from those whose truthfulness or precision they do not know, out of thinking well of them. He shows that this laxity is unacceptable, and that care and verification in accepting hadith is more fitting than care in accepting testimony, because of the great importance of hadith and its place in the religion.
- The reason precision (dabt) is required in hadith: Imam al-Shafi’i shows the reason precision is required in hadith: a single word may change the meaning of a hadith, and the narrator may utter it in words other than those of the one who narrated it to him, and so alter its meaning without intending to. If the narrator is ignorant of this meaning, or does not convey the hadith in its exact letters, he does not understand the hadith, and his hadith is not accepted.
- Accepting the testimony of one whose hadith is not accepted: Imam al-Shafi’i shows that a person’s testimony may be accepted in court while his hadith is not accepted. This is because testimony concerns a perceptible matter expressed in well-known words, whereas a hadith may be narrated by meaning and so requires a good knowledge of the Arabic language so that the meaning is not altered. A witness may be upright in himself but not precise in hadith, or not convey it in its wording, so his hadith is rejected while his testimony is accepted.
- Concealment is not lying: Imam al-Shafi’i shows that concealment (tadlis) is not lying, but an intermediate degree between truthfulness and lying. The concealer (mudallis) does not lie, but he gives the impression of having heard what he did not hear, narrating with “from” (‘an) or “he said” (qala) in a way that suggests he heard it directly. He shows that a concealer’s narration is not accepted until he states explicitly that he heard it, with the words “I heard,” “he narrated to me,” “he informed me,” or “he told me.”
- Accepting the narration of one who rarely conceals: Imam al-Shafi’i shows that he does not accept the narration of a concealer until he states explicitly that it was narrated to him, even if he rarely conceals, whereas the majority of scholars, such as al-Bukhari and Muslim, hold that the narration of one who rarely conceals is accepted if he did not conceal in the hadith being used as proof. He shows that this question is a matter of independent reasoning (ijtihad) among the scholars.
- The difference between “he narrated to me” and “he informed me”: Imam al-Shafi’i shows that the formulas “he narrated to me” (haddathani), “he informed me” (akhbarani), and “I heard” (sami’tu) all indicate hearing, but that “I heard” is the most explicit of them; that “he narrated to me” indicates that the narrator heard alone; and that “he informed me” admits the possibility of the hadith having been read aloud to the shaykh.
- Knowing the condition of narrators: Imam al-Shafi’i shows that the condition of narrators is known by tracing their various states, such as their memorisation, their writing, their mental deterioration, and their old age; by comparing their narrations with the narrations of trustworthy narrators; and by referring to those with expertise about them among the scholars of criticism and accreditation (al-jarh wa al-ta’dil).
Additional clarifications:
- Uprightness and precision: These are two essential conditions for accepting a narrator. Uprightness (‘adalah) means the soundness of the narrator’s religion and his trustworthiness, and precision (dabt) means his memorisation of the hadith and his understanding of it.
- Criticism and accreditation (al-jarh wa al-ta’dil): This is a science that examines the conditions of narrators in terms of uprightness and precision, and sets out the grades of criticism and accreditation.
- Mental deterioration (ikhtilat): This is a change in the narrator’s mind due to old age, illness, or some other cause, so that he begins to narrate with errors and mistakes.
Final summary:
In this section Imam al-Shafi’i sets out the conditions for accepting the solitary report and discusses some questions related to it, focusing on the importance of care and verification in accepting hadith. He shows that a trustworthy narrator’s merely narrating from someone is not enough for that person’s hadith to be accepted until his uprightness and precision are known; that concealment is not lying, but requires verifying that the narrator heard the hadith; and that caution in accepting hadith is greater than caution in accepting testimony.
All parts of Summary of the Explanation of al-Shafi'i's al-Risala by Dr. Yasir Burhami