and those who are not, then the ruling is to withhold judgement by unanimous agreement—so it has been stated. A fuller treatment of the question is provided by al-Sakhawi in his commentary on the Alfiyyah.

The Muʿḍal

If the break occurs within the chain of transmission and the number of missing transmitters is two in succession, the report is termed muʿḍal (with an open ḍād).

The Munqaṭiʿ

If a single transmitter—or more than one, but not all from the same point in the chain—is missing, it is called munqaṭiʿ (broken). On this definition, the munqaṭiʿ is one branch of the broader category of non-continuous reports. At times, however, the word munqaṭiʿ is used in the unrestricted sense of “non-continuous,” thereby encompassing every sub-type of interruption; in that broader usage it becomes an overarching category rather than a single subdivision, comprising all the various forms of discontinuity.