[Categories of Anonymity]

If the narrator is actually named (1), yet only a single transmitter (2) relates from him, he is considered “unknown by person” (majhool al-ʿayn), equivalent to an unnamed narrator—unless someone other than that lone transmitter attests to his reliability (3)(4), which is the sounder opinion. The attestation of the solitary transmitter himself (5) is likewise acceptable, provided he is qualified for that task.

Should two or more people narrate from him, yet no explicit endorsement is recorded (6), he is “unknown in status” (majhool al-haal, also called al-mastoor) (7). Some scholars (8) accepted his narrations without restriction, whereas the majority (9) rejected them.

The correct assessment is that the report of an al-mastoor narrator and the like (10)—cases that still admit the possibility of reliability—should be neither categorically accepted nor outright rejected. Rather, one should suspend judgment until his condition becomes clear, as affirmed by Imam al-Haramayn (11). Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ expressed a similar view (12) regarding a narrator who has been criticized with an unspecified flaw (13).