[The Divisions of the ḥadith According to Its Routes of Transmission]
In this context the author has chosen (1) here (2) to use the term khabar so that the discussion will be more comprehensive. From the angle of how such a khabar reaches us, it either (3) has many ṭuruq (chains of transmission)—ṭuruq being the plural of ṭarīq; and a word on the morphological pattern “Faʿīl,” when indicating abundance, is pluralized as “Fuʿul,” with two ḍammas, whereas when indicating paucity it is pluralized as “Afʿilah (5).”
What is meant by the ṭuruq are the asānīd (4) (chains of authority), and an isnād is the recounting (6) of the path that leads to the matn (text of the report).
[Mutawātir]
That numerical abundance constitutes one of the conditions of tawātur, provided it appears without (7) limiting it to any fixed number (8). Rather, what matters is that customary norms (9) deem their mutual collusion (10) upon a falsehood impossible, and likewise (11) the occurrence (12) of their agreement arises from them (13) coincidentally, without prior design.
(1) Copies B, J, K, and M read wa'abbara, vocalised with a fatha on both the ayn and the ba; the text adopted here follows D, the manuscript labelled h (the letter ha, هـ), the one labelled H (the guttural ha, ح), and T.
(2) The word huna ("here") is absent from A and T.
(3) Copies h and T read takun ("it is").
(4) The word asanid ("chains of transmission") is missing from T.
(5) W and Z give af'alin, whereas T has af'alatan. Al-Qari, Sharh Sharh al-Nukhba, p. 159, explains: "af'ila is pronounced with fatha on the hamza, sukun on the fa, and kasra on the ayn, as in atriqa and raghif / arghifa."
(6) J adds the preposition 'an ("from").
(7) The word hasr ("restriction") is not found in A, D, h, or Z.
(8) In T a blank stands where the phrase bila hasr ʿadad mu'ayyan ("without fixing a specific number") should be.
(9) J reads yakun ("it is").
(10) H, T, and K give tawati'uhum ("their mutual concurrence").
(11) A, T, Y, and K have aw ("or") in place of wa kadhā ("and likewise").
(12) B, W, and Z vocalise wuqu'uhu ("its occurrence") in the nominative; the text here follows J, Y, K, and M.
(13) D, h, W, and Z insert the preposition min ("from").