for when neither his name nor his very person is known, we have no way of determining his condition—whether he is trustworthy or otherwise. It is like the narrator who says, “A man related to me,” or, “An elder informed me.”

The unidentified narrator (al-mubham)

A transmitter designated only by such a vague expression is called mubham (unidentified).

Ruling on the mubham

A ḥadīth that comes through an unidentified transmitter is rejected, unless the unnamed person is a Companion, for all of them are upright. If the anonymity is accompanied by an explicit term of commendation—such as, “A just man told me,” or, “A trustworthy person narrated to me”—the scholars differ, but the sounder view is that the report is still not accepted, for the narrator’s assessment might be correct only in his own estimation, not in reality. Should that declaration come from a discerning Imām, however, it is accepted.

5 – Innovation (bidʿa)

By bidʿa here we mean adopting a novel belief contrary to what is already known