The Authentic Ḥadīth and Its Conditions

The author—may Allah have mercy on him—said:

3 – The foremost category is the ṣaḥīḥ: that whose chain of transmission is continuous … and that is neither irregular nor defective.

His statement, “the foremost category is the ṣaḥīḥ,” opens the discussion on the kinds of ḥadīth. He placed the ṣaḥīḥ first because it is the most eminent of them. He then defined it, saying, “it is that whose isnād is connected,” meaning that every narrator received the report from the one immediately above him. For example—let us label them with numbers—narrator 1 says, “Narrated to me by narrator 2,” who says, “Narrated to me by narrator 3,” who says, “Narrated to me by narrator 4.” Such a chain is connected because each narrator explicitly says, “He narrated to me,” thereby taking directly from the person he names.

If, however, narrator 1 were to say, “Narrated to me by narrator 3,” the chain would no longer be connected, for narrator 2 has been omitted, and the report becomes munqaṭiʿ (broken).

His words, “and it is neither irregular nor defective,” stipulate that the ṣaḥīḥ must be free of both shudhūdh (irregularity) and ʿillah (hidden defect).

Shādh (irregular) refers to a report conveyed by a reliable narrator that contradicts someone stronger than him—whether that superiority lies in number, precision, or uprightness.

Thus, if a ḥadīth reaches us with a continuous chain yet is shādh—meaning it conflicts with another report that is stronger in number, accuracy, or integrity—it is not accepted, even though its narrator is upright and its chain connected, because of that irregularity.

Irregularity may occur within a single report or between two distinct reports; in other words, shudhūdh does not require that the narrators have differed over