Nineteenth Category: al-muḍṭarib (the conflicted report)

This is a ḥadīth transmitted in two or more divergent, though closely resembling, forms. If one of the versions proves weightier—owing to the narrator’s superior retention, his longer companionship with the authority from whom he reports, or some comparable consideration—judgement goes to the stronger version, and the report is no longer deemed muḍṭarib. When no such preference is possible, the very fluctuation renders the ḥadīth weak, for it signals a lack of precision. Such inconsistency may appear at times in the isnād, at others in the matn, or in both together, whether traceable to a single narrator or to several. And Allah knows best.