Meaning of al-Shādh and al-Munkar
بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
They said: What is the meaning of al-shādh and al-munkar?
I said: Which kind of shādh and munkar do you ask me about?
They said: Are there more than one kind?
I said: Yes.
They said: What are they?
I said: There is shādh al-khabar and munkar al-khabar (that is, the shādh and munkar in reports), and there is shādh al-raʾy and munkar al-raʾy (the shādh and munkar in opinions). Many people fall into confusion and error because they mix up these two kinds.
They said: Explain to us the meaning of what occurs in reports as shudhūdh (anomalousness) and nakārah (deniability).
I said: People have differed in defining al-shādh in a report (and ḥadīth falls under the same category). The most correct definition is perhaps that of Imām al-Shāfiʿī (may Allah have mercy on him):
> “A shādh ḥadīth is not that which a trustworthy narrator alone transmits, with none else narrating it; rather, the shādh is that in which trustworthy narrators report a ḥadīth on a particular wording, then another trustworthy narrator transmits it in contradiction to their transmission — this is the one that is said to have departed (shadhdha) from them. Its opposite is al-maḥfūẓ (the preserved).”
Likewise, they differed in defining al-munkar. What is common among them is that it is the report of a weak narrator which contradicts the reports of those who are trustworthy or more trustworthy than him. Its opposite is al-maʿrūf (the well-known).
They said: Explain to us the meaning of shudhūdh in opinion and nakārah in it.
I said: A shādh opinion is an opinion that contradicts another opinion stronger than it in evidence; the criterion here is not the number of people who hold it, but the strength or weakness of the proof.
The munkar opinion is that which contradicts the fiṭrah (the natural disposition upon which Allah created people) and also contradicts sound reason. Again, number is of no consequence here. For example, even if the majority of humankind were to agree upon accepting a munkar opinion, their agreement would not diminish its repugnance.
This type of shādh and munkar includes both speech and action.
They said: Which type do fiqh and kalām (theology) belong to?
I said: To the second type.
They said: What did you mean by mixing between the two kinds?
I said: It is often seen among the people of kalām and fiqh that they declare the statement of others to be corrupt merely because it differs from the majority, sometimes even accusing it of opposing the community. They forget that differing from the majority or even the masses does not harm an opinion nor diminish its worth, for opinions are judged by their proofs.
If numerical majority were the arbiter of truth, then Abū Ḥanīfah (may Allah have mercy on him) would not have chosen the view that the time for ẓuhr ends when an object’s shadow becomes twice its length, while the majority of the jurists of the cities — including his two companions Abū Yūsuf and Muḥammad (may Allah have mercy on them both) — held that ẓuhr ends when the shadow equals the object’s length.
And this is not unique to Abū Ḥanīfah; we find Mālik, al-Awzāʿī, al-Shāfiʿī and others among the jurists also choosing opinions that were not the majority view. Many theologians, jurists, and philosophers have held opinions in which they were solitary, yet such opinions are not to be counted as shawādh (aberrations).
They said: What do the jurists mean when they say, “This is a shādh opinion”?
I said: That depends on the context in which they use it. Sometimes they mean shādh al-khabar — for instance, if Abū Ḥanīfah (may Allah have mercy on him) is reported to have held two positions on an issue, one being well-known and widespread, the other rarely transmitted — then the latter would be called shādh (anomalous). At other times, they mean shādh al-raʾy — that is, the jurist has chosen a weak view in terms of evidence, and they therefore describe his opinion as shādh.
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Example of shudhūdh in a report
I present here an example that clarifies shudhūdh in both the text and the chain of transmission:
Al-Bukhārī narrates:
> Ḥaddathanā Ismāʿīl, ḥaddathanī Mālik, ʿan Ibn Shihāb al-Zuhrī, ʿan ʿUbayd Allāh ibn ʿAbd Allāh, ʿan Ibn ʿAbbās, ʿan Maymūnah, that the Messenger of Allah صلى الله عليه وسلم was asked about a mouse that fell into clarified butter (saman). He said: “Remove it and what is around it, and throw them away, and eat your butter.”
This was also narrated by Abū Dāwūd in his Sunan, Aḥmad in his Musnad, and others through the route of ʿAbd al-Razzāq, from Maʿmar, from al-Zuhrī, from Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyib, from Abū Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him):
> The Messenger of Allah صلى الله عليه وسلم said: “If a mouse falls into butter, and it is solid, remove it and what is around it; but if it is liquid, do not go near it.”
Maʿmar’s narration contradicts the group — Mālik, Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah, Yūnus ibn Yazīd (Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī), al-Awzāʿī (Musnad Aḥmad), ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Isḥāq (Ibn Abī ʿĀṣim in al-Āḥād wa-l-mathānī), and ʿAqīl ibn Khālid (al-Ḍuʿafāʾ of al-ʿUqaylī) — all of whom narrated from al-Zuhrī, from ʿUbayd Allāh ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUtbah, from Ibn ʿAbbās, from Maymūnah, and they said:
> “A mouse fell into butter and died. The Messenger of Allah صلى الله عليه وسلم was asked about it, and he said: ‘Remove it and what is around it, and eat (the rest).’”
Thus, Maʿmar opposed the group in both the chain and the text.
Al-Bukhārī said, after narrating the report through Sufyān:
> It was said to Sufyān, “But Maʿmar narrates it from al-Zuhrī, from Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyib, from Abū Hurayrah.”
He replied: “I never heard al-Zuhrī mention it except from ʿUbayd Allāh, from Ibn ʿAbbās, from Maymūnah, from the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم — and I heard it from him many times.”
Al-Bukhārī also narrated from ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī, from Maʿn, from Mālik, from Ibn Shihāb, from ʿUbayd Allāh, from Ibn ʿAbbās, from Maymūnah:
> Maʿn said: “Mālik narrated to us countless times, saying: from Ibn ʿAbbās, from Maymūnah.”
Al-Bukhārī (in ʿIlal al-Tirmidhī al-Kabīr) said:
> “The ḥadīth of Maʿmar from al-Zuhrī, from Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyib, from Abū Hurayrah — Maʿmar erred in it; it has no basis.”
Al-Tirmidhī narrated it and said:
> “In this regard there is also a narration from Abū Hurayrah. This ḥadīth is ḥasan ṣaḥīḥ. And the report of Ibn ʿAbbās from Maymūnah is more sound. The report of Maʿmar from al-Zuhrī, from Saʿīd, from Abū Hurayrah, is ghayr maḥfūẓ (not preserved).”
Al-Tirmidhī further quoted Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl (al-Bukhārī) as saying:
> “The ḥadīth of Maʿmar from al-Zuhrī, from Saʿīd, from Abū Hurayrah — in which he says, ‘If it is solid, remove it and what is around it; if it is liquid, do not go near it’ — is mistaken. The correct version is from al-Zuhrī, from ʿUbayd Allāh, from Ibn ʿAbbās, from Maymūnah.”
Ibn Abī Ḥātim said:
> I asked my father and Abū Zurʿah about the narration of al-Qaʿnabi from Mālik, from al-Zuhrī, from ʿUbayd Allāh, from Ibn ʿAbbās — that the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم was asked about solid butter into which a mouse had fallen, and he said, “Take it and what is around it, and throw it away.”
Abū Zurʿah said: “This ḥadīth in al-Muwaṭṭaʾ is mursal: Mālik from al-Zuhrī, from ʿUbayd Allāh — that the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم … (without Ibn ʿAbbās).”
My father said: “The correct version from al-Zuhrī is from ʿUbayd Allāh, from Ibn ʿAbbās, from Maymūnah, from the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم.”
And so on, through the critical analysis of al-Dāraqutnī, al-Bazzār, Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr, and Ibn Ḥajar — all of whom concluded that the correct narration is:
> al-Zuhrī, from ʿUbayd Allāh, from Ibn ʿAbbās, from Maymūnah (may Allah be pleased with them), that she sought a ruling from the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم about a mouse that fell into butter, and he ordered that the part around it be removed and thrown away.
This detailed example demonstrates how shudhūdh (anomaly) is identified — through the contradiction of a trustworthy narrator with those more numerous and established in preservation, both in chain and in text.
Disclaimer: This article was translated by AI. Original post: https://t.me/DrAkramNadwi/7053
