This category, like the one before it, is not accepted unless the narrator describes the shaykh he obscured with an identifying feature, so that the latter’s reliability can be examined.

Is tadlīs permissible or forbidden?

In principle it is forbidden, because it constitutes deception. The Prophet ﷺ said, “Whoever deceives us is not of us.”1 Deception is especially grave when it involves something ascribed to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ; it is far more serious than cheating in a sale. If the Prophet ﷺ said to the owner of grain who concealed the damp kernels, “Whoever deceives us is not of us,” then what of someone who deceives people in the chain of a hadith? That is even graver and more severe.

Yet some of the Successors, and others as well, did on occasion employ tadlīs for laudable ends. They did not intend to disparage the Prophet’s sunnah or to mislead the people; rather, they sought certain praiseworthy objectives. Still, this does not in reality justify their action. We say: they exercised ijtihād and will be rewarded for their effort, but had they reached the correct view and clarified the matter, that would have been more fitting, better, and preferable.