and the ḥadith, “Whoever deliberately lies about me, let him take his seat in the Fire,” is mutawātir, whereas the ḥadith, “Actions are judged only by intentions,” is not. Allah knows best.

The Thirty-First Category
Al-Gharīb and Al-ʿAzīz
If a single narrator—such as one transmitting from al-Zuhrī or the like of those whose narrations have been thoroughly collected—reports a ḥadith on his own, it is called gharīb (solitary). Should two or three narrators transmit it independently, it is termed ʿazīz (rare); if it is related by a larger body, it becomes mashhūr (well-known).

Classed under gharīb is any report in which a lone transmitter is unique either to the entire narration or to an additional wording in its text or isnād, but the so-called afrād al-buldan (isolated reports confined to particular regions) are excluded. A gharīb report may be sound or otherwise, and that is the usual state of affairs. It is further divided into:

1. gharīb in both text and chain, as when one person alone preserves its wording; and
2. gharīb in chain only, exemplified by a ḥadith whose text is conveyed by several Companions while only one Companion relates it from another Companion. About such cases al-Tirmidhī remarks: “gharīb from this route.”

A ḥadith will not be gharīb in text yet not in isnād unless the solitary report gains currency and many transmit it from that lone narrator; it then becomes a “mashhūr gharīb,” gharīb in text but not in chain with respect to one end of the isnād—such as the ḥadith, “Actions are judged only by intentions.” Allah knows best.