that possess multiple transmission routes numbering more than two; this is what the hadith scholars call the mashhūr. It received that designation because of its manifest clarity. A number of leading jurists, however, refer to it as the mustafīḍ (1), a name given (2) on account of its wide diffusion, from the verb fāḍa – “water overflowed.”
Some scholars nevertheless differentiate between the mustafīḍ and the mashhūr, holding that the mustafīḍ maintains the same degree of multiplicity at both the beginning (3) and the end (4) of its chain, whereas the mashhūr is broader than that (5). Others draw the line of distinction in another manner (6), but that lies outside the scope of this discipline (7).
[Usages of mashhūr]
The term mashhūr is applied not only to the technical sense just defined but also to anything that has become famous on people’s tongues; in that broader usage it covers reports that have a single chain or more, and even those for which no chain at all can be found (8).
(1) Among those who hold this view is al-Amidi; see al-Amidi, al-Ihkam, 2:31; al-Zarkashi, al-Bahr al-Muhit, 6:119; al-Mardawi, al-Tahbir Sharh al-Tahrir, 4:1804.
(2) Manuscript H reads "yusamma" (is called).
(3) Manuscripts A and T read "min" (of).
(4) Manuscript H has "sawa'un" (in the nominative, with tanwin), whereas the reading we adopt follows manuscript W. In W's margin the author notes: "The word (sawa'an) in the accusative is the predicate; its subject is implicit—namely 'it' (i.e., the restriction of the multiplicity of its chains), which refers back to the mustafid (widely circulated report), as is obvious. Some people misunderstood this, so I clarified it."
(5) This definition therefore includes reports that initially came through a single transmitter, such as the hadith "Actions are judged only by intentions …," because their fame is relative; see al-Qari, Sharh Sharh al-Nukhba, p. 193; al-Liqani, Qada al-Watar, p. 553; al-Munawi, al-Yawaqit wa'l-Durar, 1:151.
(6) See al-Zarkashi, al-Bahr al-Muhit, 6:119; al-Subki, Tashnif al-Masamiʿ bi-Jamʿ al-Jawamiʿ, 2:959.
(7) Manuscript A reads "wa-laysat" (and is not). Al-Qari remarks in Sharh Sharh al-Nukhba, p. 194: "Wa laysa—that is, the mustafid is not among the topics of this discipline."
(8) In the margin of A, in the author’s own hand: "Then it likewise reached."