3.6. THE CONTINUOUS HADITH:THE MUTAWATIR
Literally, Mutawatir means ‘continuously recurrent’. In the present context, it means a report by an indefinite number of people related in such a way as to preclude the possibility of their agreement to perpetuate a lie. Such a possibility is inconceivable owing to their large number, diversity of residence, and reliability. A report would not be called Mutawatir if its contents were believed on other grounds, such as the rationality of its content, or that it is deemed to be a matter of axiomatic knowledge. report is classified as Mutawatir only when it fulfills the following conditions:
a. The number of reporters in every period or generation must be large enough to preclude their collusion in propagating falsehood. Should the number of reporters in any period fall short of a reliable multitude, their report does not establish positive knowledge and is therefore not Mutawatir. Some ulema have attempted to specify a minimum, varying from as low as four to as many as twenty, forty and seventy up into the hundreds. All of these figures are based on analogies: the requirement of four is based on the similar number of witnesses which constitute legal proof; twenty is analogous to the Quranic ayah in sura al- Anfal (8:65) which reads: ‘If there are twenty steadfast men among you, they will overcome two hundred [fighters].’ The next number, that is seventy, represents an analogy to another Quranic passage where we read that ‘Moses chose seventy men among his people for an appointment with Us’ (al-A’raf, 7:155). Some have drawn an analogy from the number of participants in the battle of Badr. However, al-Ghazali is representative of the majority opinion when he observes that all of these analogies are arbitrary and have no bearing on the point. For certainty is not necessarily a question of numbers; it is corroborative evidence, the knowledge and trustworthiness of reporters, that must be credited even in cases where the actual number of reporters is not very large. Thus when a reasonable number of persons report something which is supported by other evidence, their report may amount to positive knowledge.
b. The reporters must base their report on sense perception. If, therefore, a large number of people report that the universe is created, their report would not be Mutawatir. The report must also be based on certain knowledge, not mere speculation. If, for example, the people of Islam a bad inform us of a person they thought was Zayd, or a bird they thought was a pigeon, neither would amount to certainty.
c. Some ulema have advanced the view that the reporters must be upright persons (‘udul), which means that they must neither be infidels nor profligates (kuffar wa-fussaq). The correct view, however, is that neither of these conditions are necessary. What is essential in Mutawatir is the attainment of certainty, and this can be obtained through the reports of non-Muslims, profligates and even children who have reached the age of discernment, that is, between seven and fifteen. The position is, of course, entirely different with regard to solitary Hadith, which will be discussed later.
d. That the reporters are not biased in their cause and are not associated with one another through a political or sectarian movement. And finally, all of these conditions must be met from the origin of the report to the very end.
What is the value (hukm) of the Mutawatir? According to the majority of ulema, the authority of a Mutawatir Hadith is equivalent to that of the Qur’an. Universal continuous testimony (tawatur) engenders certainty (yaqin) and the knowledge that it creates is equivalent to knowledge that is acquired through sense-perception. Most people, it is said, know their forefathers by means of Mutawatir reports just as they know their children through sense-perception. Similarly, no one is likely to deny that Baghdad was the seat of the caliphate for centuries, despite their lack of direct knowledge to that effect.
When the reports of a large number of the transmitters of Hadith concur in their purport but differ in wording or in form, only their common meaning is considered Mutawatir. This is called Mutawatir bi’l-ma’na, or conceptual Mutawatir. Examples of this kind of Mutawatir are numerous in the Hadith. Thus the verbal and actual Sunnah which explain the manner of performing the obligatory prayers, the rituals of hajj, fasting, the quantities of zakah, rules relating to retaliation (qiyas) and the implementation of hudud, etc., all constitute conceptual Mutawatir. For a large number of the Companions witnessed the acts and sayings of the Prophet on these matters, and their reports have been transmitted by multitudes of people throughout the ages. The other variety of Mutawatir, which is of rare occurrence compared to the conceptual Mutawatir, is called Mutawatir bi’l-lafz, or verbal Mutawatir. In this type of Mutawatir, all the reports must be identical on the exact wording of the Hadith as they were uttered by the Prophet himself. For example the Hadith which reads: ‘Whoever lies about me deliberately must prepare himself for a place in Hell-fire.’
The exact number of the verbal mutawatir is a subject of disagreement, but it is suggested that it does not exceed ten ahadith.
by M. H. Kamali
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