The Mastoor and Majhul-Al-Haal Reporters

Compiled by Abul Layth ibn ‘Ataa

The following is research I compiled while researching the hadith of Maalik-Ad-Daar. The pseudo-salafis claim that the Mastoor/Majhul-Al-Haal reporter is dha’if and his reports can not be accepted. The following shows that many of the scholars of the past disagree with their stance and in fact accepted the narrations of the Mastoor/Majul-Al-Haal. I ask Allah ta’alaa to make this a benefit for the sincere researcher. Amin! 

“As-Sakhāwī said in his Fat-hul Mughīth ‘Ad-Dāraqutnī said,

“Whoever has two thiqah people report from them, that results in the lifting of his not being known (jahālah), and establishes for him ‘Adālah (probity).”

He also quotes Ibn Abdul Barr as sayingin his Istithkār, “Whoever has three, and it is said two, thiqah reporters report from him then he is not Majhūl (unknown).”

Ibn Salāh also mentions in his Muqaddimah,

“The transmitter whose indentity is unknown: Those who do not accept the relation of a transmitter whose identity is unknown DO SOMETIMES accept the RELATION OF A TRANSMITTER WHOSE INTERGRITY IS UKNOWN. Someone whom TWO UPRIGHT NARRATORS relate hadīth from and identify (that is, name) is not considered unknown in this sense. In response to some questions he was asked, Abu Bakr Al Khatīb Al-Baghdādī said, ‘In the view of the scholars of hadīth an unknown transmitter is everyone whom the scholars do not know and whose hadīth are only from the line of a SINGLE student…”

Imām Al-Qastalānī writes in his Irshād As-Sārī,

“And the Jahālah is raised from a transmitter if two thiqah known for knowledge report from him, and all of his Sahābah have ‘adalah”.” He continues to say that Ibn As-Salāh considered the correct opinion to be that he is not Mastūr if two well known narrators take from him.

For easy understanding I shall quote for you Muhammad Hashim Kamalī explaining the Majhūl Al Hāl & Mastūr,

1) “Majhūl Al hāl: Whose integrity is unknown, but there is nothing negative about him. As a general rule , obscurity (jahāla) is over ruled when two upright individuals are known to have accepted the report of one who would otherwise be classified as Majhūl al Hāl. The word mastūr is occasionally employed as an equivalent.”

[Page 89 of “A Textbook of hadīth Studies”.]

Imām An-Nawawī also accepted the utilization of the Mastūr reporter in his Al-Majmu’ Sharh al Muhadhdhab (9/34):

When discussing a narration he states,

“And so Abū Ya’alā al Mawsūlī reported it in his Musnad with a Sahīh isnād, except that one man in [the chain] is Mastūr, and what is correct is that it is permitted (jawāz) to use as proof the narration of the Mastūr.”

Ibn Al Mawwaq said,

“Secondly: There is disagreement amongst ahlul hadīth and the fuquhā, and it is forwarded by the majority of the people of Hadīth accepted the reports and sought proof with them (i.e. from the mastūr). From them Al Bazzār and Ad-Dāraqutnī, and Al Bazzār wrote it in his Kitāb Al Ashrabah and from the benefits ‘That whomever has two thiqah reporters transmit from them, their jahālah is lifted, and the likes of this is also reported by Ad-Dāraqutnī in his Ad-Diyyāt from his Sunan.”

Mullah ‘Alī Al-Qārī states in his Sharh of Nukhbat Al Fikr,

“And a group (of the scholars) accepted the reports of the Mastūr, from the Abū Hanīfah (Radhiya Allāhu ‘Anhu), bi’asr dun al ‘asr, without restriction…this was mentioned by As-Sakhāwī. And Ibn Hibbān chose this opinion, following Imām Al-‘Atham, as long as there is no jarh (criticism) upon them.”

Wa Sallallahu ‘alaa Sayyidunaa Muhammad, Wa ‘Alaa Aalihi wa Sahbihi wa Sallam!