When these four conditions (1) are all fulfilled, namely:
[Shurūṭ al-mutawātir] (conditions for a report to be classed as mutawātir):
• a large number (2) whose collusion (3) or mutual agreement (4) upon falsehood (5) is, according to common experience, impossible;
• each group transmits it from another group of the same standing, continuously, from the beginning of the chain to its end (6);
• the chain ultimately rests on direct sensory perception (7);
• and, in addition, there accompanies (8) their report (9) the imparting (10) of certain knowledge to the hearer—
then such a report is mutawātir.
Should the imparting of knowledge be missing, the report is only mashhūr; thus every mutawātir report is mashhūr, but not every mashhūr report is mutawātir.
It may be said that once these four conditions are met, knowledge necessarily follows, and this is indeed the case in most situations; nevertheless, it can fail to do so (11) in some instances because of a particular impediment.
(1) In A the reading is ijtamaʿ (“they gathered”).
(2) H inserts the particle qad.
(3) A, D, H, T, and Y read tawatiʿuhum (“their collusion”), while K has tawatiʾihim, with a hamza.
(4) B, C, and H read wa-tawāfuqahum (“and their agreement”).
(5) T records the phrase ʿalā al-kadhib aw tawāfuqahum (“upon falsehood or their agreement”) in reversed order.
(6) A copy noted in the margin of L adds: min al-mubtadaʾ ilā al-muntahā (“from the beginning to the end”).
(7) A reads ithbātuhum (“their establishing”), whereas H has inbāʾuhum (“their informing”).
(8) L reads taṣḥab (“accompanies”).
(9) B has khabaruhum in the nominative; the adopted reading—from C, H, and K—puts it in the accusative. Al-Qari, in Sharh Sharh al-Nukhba, p. 173, explains that it should be accusative as the direct object, the subject being his phrase: ifādat al-ʿilmi li-sāmiʿihi (“imparting knowledge to its hearer”).
(10) A, B, and T read ifādata in the accusative; the adopted form follows C and H.
(11) K reads tatakhallaf (“is lacking”), whereas L has yatakhallaf, with ya in place of ta.