Al-muʿḍal and al-mudallas

Accordingly, the author—may Allah have mercy on him—said:

18 – “The muʿḍal is that from which two transmitters are missing …”

This is the nineteenth category among the hadith types mentioned in the poem, namely the muʿḍal.

In his phrasing, “al-muʿḍal” is the mubtadaʾ (subject) and “al-sāqiṭ” is its khabar (predicate). The expression “from which two are missing” refers to two consecutive narrators, not ones separated from each other.

For example, if a chain consists of the first, second, third, and fourth narrators, and the second and third are omitted, the report is called muʿḍal because two narrators in a row have been dropped. The same applies when three or more consecutive narrators are omitted.

If the second and the fourth narrators are missing, the report is classified as munqaṭiʿ (interrupted), for while two transmitters are absent, they are not consecutive.

If both the first and the last narrators are missing, the report is simultaneously muʿallaq (suspended) and mursal (truncated): muʿallaq with respect to the beginning of the chain and mursal with respect to its end.

All of these categories are counted among the weak types of hadith.

Thus, when we are presented with two narrations—one muʿḍal and the other either munqaṭiʿ, muʿallaq, or mursal—the muʿḍal is regarded as the weaker, because two consecutive transmitters have been dropped.