Is the Shaykh al-Shanqiti’s (may Allah have mercy on him) argument that the minimum number for mass transmission is five, as he stated in his memorandum, correct?

The questioner : Our Shaykh, in discussing the mass-transmitted hadith, Imam al-Shanqiti (may Allah have mercy on him) mentioned in his book *Memorandum on the Principles of Jurisprudence* that, when speaking about the number, after stating that the correct view regarding mass-transmitted reports is that no specific number is fixed—meaning that the number suitable for one hadith may not be suitable for another—he said, however, that four are certainly not included in the number for mass transmission. This is because four came as witnesses in the case of zina, and the judge needed to verify their integrity. If the report of four had conveyed certainty, there would have been no need to verify their integrity. So is five and above the correct argument?

The Shaykh : Not at all, not at all. I do not think he says this in such an absolute sense. If four of the Rightly Guided Caliphas narrated a hadith from the Messenger of Allah, does that convey mass transmission?

The questioner : As for the Rightly Guided Caliphas, that is the case.

The questioner : We return to the contextual indicators.

The Shaykh : So, the number four has no absolute implication here in any case.