(1) Commendation is accepted only from someone who understands the grounds on which it rests, not from one who is ignorant of them, lest he approve a narrator merely on the basis of what first strikes the eye (2), without prior practice and examination. Even when the commendation proceeds from a single evaluator (3)—and this, on the stronger opinion, is sufficient—it is still upheld, in opposition to those who require the concurrence of two evaluators, having likened it to legal testimony (4); they, too, regard that analogy as the sounder view (5).
The difference between the two is that commendation is treated as a judicial ruling (6); hence no plurality is stipulated for it. Testimony, however, is delivered by the witness before the judge (7), and so the two diverge (8).
Were it said that a distinction should be drawn (9) between a case in which the evaluator’s commendation of a transmitter is founded on his own considered judgment and one in which it relies on information transmitted from another, such a position would be defensible; for when the first scenario obtains, no plurality is required whatsoever (10), because (11)
(1) In K the word appears as tuqbal (it is accepted) and may be read with either an initial tā or yā; in A and H the letters are left unpointed. Al-Qari, Sharh Sharh al-Nukhba, p. 731, writes: “tuqbal may be parsed in both the masculine and feminine forms.”
(2) H, W, and Z read ma zahara (what has become evident).
(3) H and W read muzakki (the endorser).
(4) This view is attributed to most jurists of Madina as well as others; see al-Kifaya by al-Khatib, p. 96; Ibn al-Salah, Muqaddima, p. 109; al-Zarkashi, al-Bahr al-Muhit, 6/166.
(5) The word aydan (also) is absent from H.
(6) A, D, T, Y, K, and L read tatanzil (is applied).
(7) In J and L the phrase reads “wa tazkiyat al-shahid taqaʿu ʿinda al-hakim” (the verification of the witness takes place before the judge) instead of “wa al-shahada taqaʿu mina al-shahid ʿinda al-hakim” (the testimony is given by the witness before the judge).
(8) The word faftarqa (the two therefore diverge) is missing in K.
(9) D reads yufsalu, with a silent fā and an un-geminated sad; the adopted reading from H, L, and M is yufassalu. Al-Qari, Sharh Sharh al-Nukhba, p. 733, notes: “yufassalu may be read either lightly or with gemination, meaning ‘to distinguish and differentiate.’”
(10) A reads li-annahu law (because if), whereas H, W, and Z have fa-innahu in (for, if).
(11) From the word khatimah (conclusion) up to this point is missing in B.