Establishing the Authority of the Report of a Single Narrator

The Shaykh : One example of this is that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), when he sent, for instance, Mu'adh ibn Jabal to Yemen and commanded him to call them to Islam, arranged for him (peace and blessings be upon him) to begin by calling them to the testimony that there is no god but Allah. He said: to the end of the hadith. So when Mu'adh ibn Jabal wanted to explain to them the meaning of "there is no god but Allah" and apply it to their reality, that necessitated his clarifying to them many of the rulings he had heard from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him).
These rulings, naturally, if they are not explicitly stated in the Qur'an, as is the case with most rulings, are then Prophetic hadiths. So when Mu'adh ibn Jabal was reciting those hadiths to those he was sent to, namely the people of Yemen, his report, according to the previous philosophy, is a report of a single narrator (khabar al-ahad). The logic of those people who made that distinction, both in the past and the present, is that those being called by Mu'adh are not obligated to accept those hadiths because they are reports of a single narrator, since the one transmitting them from the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) is only one man, namely Mu'adh. This means that they made the Shari'ah change from what it was in the time of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). So if Mu'adh ibn Jabal (may Allah be pleased with him) heard a hadith from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) containing a certain belief, it was obligatory for him to believe in it. But if he transmitted that hadith to someone else, that other person, if we may express it thus, is not obligated to believe in that hadith because the transmitter is an individual. This distinction is the first step that some of the misguided sects began with in the past in deviating from the correct Islamic creed. From here came the rejection of many authentic Prophetic hadiths that relate to the unseen, relating to the resurrection and rising, and the establishment of the Hour, and even relating to the attributes of Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He). These hadiths were rejected on the grounds that... a report of a single narrator does not establish a creed. As for the Salaf, they do not know this distinction. The many verses that are evidence against the first and second groups of the Quranists and the Qadiyyan are also evidence against these people who distinguish between the report of a single narrator and the mass-transmitted report (mutawatir), saying that the report of a single narrator is not accepted in creed, but only the mass-transmitted report. Those proofs are also evidence against them. For example, when Allah (Mighty and Majestic) said: , they did not distinguish between obeying the Messenger in what reached us by way of mass transmission in creed, and what reached us by way of a single narrator in rulings only. The text is general. As soon as a report reaches the Muslim of a command given by the Messenger (peace be upon him), or a report of what the Messenger (peace be upon him) informed about, it is obligatory to believe in it. Similarly, His saying (Blessed and Exalted is He) regarding gaining knowledge of the religion: . Here is a very important observation: the verse encourages that a group (ta'ifah) from every faction (firqa) should set out. And "ta'ifah" in the language of the Qur'an, the language of the Arabs, means one person and above. So the verse encourages that a person or more from every faction should come to the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) to gain knowledge of the religion, and then return to transmit their knowledge to their people, so that they may return to the right path, so that they may be guided. If the report of a single narrator were not evidence in the Islamic Shari'ah, without distinguishing between what relates to creed and what relates to rulings, Allah (Mighty and Majestic) would not have made this Qur'anic text general, and He would have distinguished between one religion and another, and said (Exalted is He): . Do you see that the first thing a Muslim gains knowledge of in his religion, whether in the past or the present, is he to begin with creedal issues or with the branch rulings of the Shari'ah? There is no doubt that the obligatory thing for the Muslim before all else is to correct his creed. And so the Companions of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) received tawhid (the oneness of Allah) from him (peace and blessings be upon him), and that includes details in various aspects. Then they transmitted this tawhid and these creeds, along with the rulings they received from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), to their people or others beyond them. The point is that all the noble verses came encouraging adherence to the text issued by the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), an absolute text not restricted. So this detail became the cause of the overthrow of many Prophetic texts on the pretext that they are reports of a single narrator and that they relate to creed. Then confusion occurred among these people because the wisdom of Allah's (Mighty and Majestic) legislation necessitated that He inspired His Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) to speak with some hadiths that contain both rulings and creed, such as His saying (peace and blessings be upon him): . In this hadith, there is a clear legal ruling, which is the command of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) for every person praying to seek refuge with Allah from these four things. This is the legal ruling. But within this hadith is information about an unseen matter, which is, for example, what concerns us now: the punishment of the grave. He seeks refuge from the punishment of the grave. So the punishment of the grave is unseen, meaning it is a creed. Those who say that the report of a single narrator is not accepted in creed should not accept this hadith because it is a report of a single narrator. But they are surprised from another angle that this hadith contains a legal ruling, which is to seek refuge with Allah from four things. What do they do? If they accept it on the basis that it contains a legal ruling, they accept it, and it contains a creed, and it is not permissible to accept a report of a single narrator in creed. And if they turn away from accepting this hadith because it contains a creed and it is not permissible to accept a report of a single narrator in creed, they turn away from it, and it contains a legal ruling. That is the consequence for one who brings legal rulings that Allah did not bring and the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) did not clarify.