Question:
In a compelling thought experiment, Qur’anic scholar Nouman Ali Khan poses the following scenario: Suppose I had a private conversation with Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq (ra), and he told me something he heard directly from the Prophet ﷺ. Now only he and I know it. Am I religiously obligated to act on it? And if so, does that mean my version of Islam now differs from the rest of the ummah? The subsequent questions raise critical concerns, not about the reliability of solitary reports (khabar al-wāḥid), but about their applicability in defining religious practice and belief. Why, if a report was meant for all, was it not disseminated more broadly by the Prophet ﷺ or his closest companions? And what implications does this have for our understanding of what is core or sacred in Islam?
Answer:
To address these questions, we must first examine the nature of the ḥadīth corpus. The hadith literature, unlike the Qur’an, is a historical collection of reports that claim to preserve the sayings, actions, tacit approvals, and personal characteristics of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. The authenticity of these reports is assessed not on the basis of textual immutability, but through the historical reliability of their transmission chains (isnād) and their coherence with known prophetic teachings. The science of hadith criticism (ʿilm al-ḥadīth) emerged precisely to navigate these complex variables of probability, memory, trustworthiness, and textual analysis.
While the Qur’an was preserved through mass transmission, with epistemic certainty, the majority of hadith reports fall into the category of āḥād—narrations transmitted by a single or limited number of individuals in each generation. The assessment of such reports rests on a balance of probabilities rather than certainty. Therefore, while solitary reports can be accepted as reliable if transmitted by trustworthy, precise narrators with uninterrupted chains, their authority remains probabilistic, not definitive.
This does not render khabar al-wāḥid insignificant. Classical Islamic legal theory generally holds that an authentic solitary report can establish legal and moral obligation (ḥujjiyyah), provided it does not contradict stronger evidence, such as the Qur’an, mass-transmitted reports, or rational necessity. In the hypothetical scenario presented, if Abū Bakr (ra), whose integrity and reliability are beyond question, conveyed to a trusted recipient a report directly from the Prophet ﷺ, that recipient would be bound to act upon it. However, such a report would remain personal in its authority until it enters broader circulation and is subjected to scholarly scrutiny and transmission.
This leads to a deeper consideration: why would a report of universal significance be conveyed in such a limited manner? Is this not an argument against its applicability for the broader ummah? Here, it is crucial to understand the historical and human realities of hadith transmission. The Prophet ﷺ taught extensively, and his teachings reached different individuals in different ways, some in private, others in public; some formally, others informally. However, not everyone who received knowledge was equally qualified to preserve or transmit it. Many companions were not scholars, and even among those who were, only a subset had the circumstances, longevity, and recognition to establish viable chains of transmission. In every generation, the survival of a report often depended on whether a student lived long enough, gained prominence, and attracted capable students of their own.
Furthermore, the nature of hadith preservation was not systematic in the modern archival sense. The early Muslim community did not aim to compile a second scripture, but to preserve the life-example (sunnah) of the Prophet ﷺ as it was lived and remembered in diverse circumstances. This necessarily resulted in variation—in wording, length, emphasis, and even content, reflecting the range of human experience and memory. If the Sunnah had been preserved with the same uniformity as the Qur’an, it would have amounted to a second revelation, eliminating the space for interpretive flexibility, legal diversity, and contextual adaptation.
The scholars of hadith, such as al-Bukhārī, Muslim, Ibn Ḥanbal, and others, undertook the monumental task of collecting, verifying, and classifying the hadith reports available to them. Yet even their collections are the product of human endeavor—limited by geography, access, and time. Some authentic reports were undoubtedly lost, others survived in partial form, and a few were perhaps misattributed. But this is not a weakness in the Islamic tradition—it is a reflection of its organic, lived nature.
Consequently, the hypothetical scenario does not suggest a flaw in the tradition but rather illustrates its epistemological boundaries. A solitary report known only to two individuals—however reliable—cannot claim universality until it is integrated into the wider communal memory through transmission, verification, and application. The foundations of Islam—its core beliefs and legal obligations—are built upon what was taught broadly, preserved widely, and transmitted through multiple, reinforcing channels. Solitary reports serve to supplement, not redefine, this core.
In conclusion, khabar al-wāḥid carries a valid place within the Islamic epistemological framework. It can obligate action for the one who receives it reliably, but its broader applicability is constrained by the mechanisms of scholarly scrutiny and communal transmission. The Prophet ﷺ fulfilled his responsibility to convey the message comprehensively; the companions transmitted what they could; and the scholars preserved what was accessible to them. The necessary variation in the hadith corpus reflects both the humanity of its transmitters and the divine wisdom in allowing space for interpretive diversity. Islam, as a revealed religion and a lived tradition, has always balanced certainty with probability, universality with specificity, and textual preservation with human memory.
FOLLOW THE الشيخ محمد أكرم الندوي CHANNEL ON WHATSAPP:
https://WhatsApp.com/channel/0029VbAxp2qGpLHHqQ3LoY0w
