such a multitude that customary experience rules out any possibility of their colluding to fabricate the report.
The solitary (āḥād) report is the ḥadīth that has reached us through a finite, specified number of chains; once those chains are verified, it conveys knowledge.
Categories of āḥād reports
• Singular: narrated by a single transmitter, even if that singularity appears in only one layer of the chain.
• Rare: one whose narrators are never fewer than two in every layer of the chain.
• Famous or widespread: synonymous terms for a report transmitted by three or more narrators in every layer, provided it still falls short of tawātur.
Classification of ḥadīth in terms of acceptance
From this perspective, ḥadīth divides into four categories:
- Intrinsically sound: a report with an unbroken chain, narrated by transmitters of upright character and complete precision—each from the like of himself—until the end of the chain, free from irregularity and hidden defect.
- Sound by corroboration: a report that meets the conditions of intrinsic goodness—its transmitters possess slightly less precision, and that deficiency is remedied through multiple chains.
- Intrinsically good: a report that fulfills the conditions of intrinsic soundness except that its narrator’s precision is light, with nothing to offset that shortcoming.
- Good by corroboration: a weak report whose weakness is overcome by a plurality of chains until acceptance becomes weightier.
Types of rejected reports
Opposite the accepted narrations are the rejected ones—reports that fall short of the rank of good because one or more of its conditions is missing. The degree of weakness varies in severity, and weak ḥadīth appears in many forms; we shall mention the most well-known of them: