by a ḥadīth scholar who heard it directly from a teacher whose audition is clearly established, and that teacher from his own teacher in like manner, in a continuous chain reaching a Companion (1) and, through him, the Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him.” (2)

As for al-Khaṭīb, he said, “The musnad is the connected report.” (3)

On that definition, a mawqūf narration that comes with an unbroken isnād would, in his view, be called a musnad (4); yet he added, “Such a case does occur, but only rarely.” (5)

Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr went even further, declaring, “The musnad is the marfūʿ report,” (6) without addressing the isnād at all; this would in principle include a mursal, a muʿḍal, or a munqaṭiʿ report so long as the text is marfūʿ—yet no scholar actually espouses that view. (7)

(If the number is small)—that is, the number of transmitters in the chain (8)—then either the chain terminates with that small number at the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), in contrast to another chain that conveys the very same ḥadīth (9) with many more narrators (10); or it terminates with an eminent imām among the ḥadīth masters—someone marked by outstanding qualities such as prodigious memory, jurisprudential insight, and precise retention,