that the number required for tawātur be present in a single report; rather, once numerous reports dealing with the same point are conveyed through multiple chains, each confirming the other, and nothing arises to falsify or undermine them until the matter becomes firmly rooted in the hearts and is accepted with conviction (1), tawātur has been achieved and definitive, certain knowledge established. For indeed (2) we are sure of Ḥātim’s generosity, even though not a single report with an impeccable chain has reached us concerning it—because of the very principle just mentioned. The same is true of ʿUmar’s justice, ʿAlī’s courage and learning, ʿĀʾishah’s scholarship and the fact that she was the wife of the Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—and the daughter of Abū Bakr. Matters of this sort are beyond dispute, and tawātur is seldom realized except in this fashion.

Accordingly, tawātur and certitude with regard to our present question are established even more strongly: the chains are sound, the narrators are upright and trustworthy, the reports themselves are so numerous and widely recorded (3) that they cannot be counted or contained in the compilations of the imams and ḥuffāẓ; the Muslim community has received them with acceptance and transmitted them (4) without any report opposing them, nor any reliable person who, having heard them, has denied a single one of them (5). This is all the more compelling because they conform to what is found in the Noble Qur’an, to which falsehood cannot come from before it nor from behind it—a revelation from the All-Wise, the Praiseworthy.

Allah the Exalted says, “Then He rose over the Throne” (6) in several places in His Book; He also says, “Do you feel secure against Him who is in the heaven?” (7) in two verses; He says as well, “Unto Him ascend the good words” (8); and He, glorified is He, says, “He directs the affair from the heaven to the earth; then it ascends…”