The Munkar and its Elucidation

…Then the author—may Allah have mercy on him—said:

30 – The munkar is a lone report borne by a single narrator whose uprightness cannot shoulder such isolation.

This is the thirtieth category of hadith listed in the poem, namely the munkar.

• The hadith critics have disagreed over its definition. One view states that a munkar report is one transmitted by a weak narrator in contradiction to what a reliable narrator relates.

An illustration: a trustworthy transmitter reports the ḥadith in one form, while a weak man reports it in another—even though both might be students of the same teacher.

• Others define the munkar as any report carried solely by one person whose solitary narration cannot be accepted. This is the definition adopted by the versifier.

On this understanding, the munkar is the singular (gharīb) report whose lone transmitter lacks the standing to be accepted; it is rejected even if, hypothetically, similar corroborating chains existed, for its weakness is extreme. The first definition, however, is the one followed by al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Ḥajar, may Allah have mercy on him, in his Nukhbat al-Fikar.