As for the last two categories—namely the mawqūf and the maqṭūʿ—they are likewise referred to as an athar (1).

[The Musnad]
When the hadith scholars say, “This is a musnad ḥadīth,” they mean: a Companion’s marfūʿ report transmitted through a chain whose outward appearance (2) is uninterrupted.

My use of the word “marfūʿ” provides the generic class, while “Companion” supplies the distinguishing feature, thereby excluding (3) any report raised by a Successor, for that is mursal, and anything raised by someone below him, for that is either muʿḍal or muʿallaq.

The phrase “whose outward appearance is uninterrupted” excludes (4) a chain that is plainly broken, yet it includes one where a break is only possible, and all the more so one that is truly continuous (5).

From restricting the definition to what is “outwardly” continuous, we also understand that a hidden break—such as a muʿanʿan narration from a mudallis, or from a contemporary narrator whose meeting with his shaykh is unproven—does not remove the report from the musnad category, for the leading authorities who compiled the various masānīd (6) unanimously follow this practice.

This definition agrees with al-Ḥākim’s statement: “A musnad (7) is that which is narrated…"