This was the practice of the Companions—may Allah be pleased with them—and it shows us that each of them regarded an individual report as sufficient in matters of religion, whether doctrinal or practical.

4 — Abdullah ibn Masūd—may Allah be pleased with him—reported: I heard the Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—say: “May Allah brighten the face of a person who hears a hadith from us, preserves it, and then conveys it; for perhaps the one to whom it is conveyed will understand it better than the one who heard it” (1).

This, too, is not restricted to hadiths concerning deeds to the exclusion of all others. Rather, it is general and encompasses hadiths concerning both deeds and doctrinal rulings. If it were not obligatory to believe the doctrines established from him—peace and blessings be upon him—through individually transmitted reports, there would be no point in the Prophet’s—peace and blessings be upon him—unqualified command to convey his hadith. Instead, the Messenger—peace and blessings be upon him—would have clarified that this was restricted to hadiths concerning deeds and excluded all others.

Moreover, the claim that doctrine cannot be established through individually transmitted hadiths is an unprecedented innovation with no basis in the religion. Not one of the righteous early generations—may Allah Most High be pleased with them—ever expressed it, nor has it been reported from any of them; indeed, it never even occurred to them. Had there been definitive evidence that doctrine could not be established through individually transmitted hadiths, the Companions would have known it and stated it explicitly, as would the righteous early generations who came after them.

Furthermore, this innovative claim itself entails a doctrine that necessitates rejecting hundreds of hadiths