Farhana bint Ali Shuwayta
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Farhana bint Ali Shuwayta is an Islamic scholar and author known for her treatise Hujjiyyat Khabar al-Ahad fi al-Aqaid wa al-Ahkam (The Probative Authority of Solitary Reports in Creed and Rulings), which examines the epistemological and legal validity of solitary hadith transmissions (khabar al-ahad) .
Scholarly Contributions and Legal Thought
In her scholarship on the foundations of Islamic law and hadith methodology, Shuwayta emphasizes that the Prophetic Sunnah constitutes the second foundational source of Islamic legislation after the Quran, encompassing the Prophet's ﷺ verbal statements, actions, and tacit approvals, and functioning as unrecited revelation (wahy ghayr matluw) .
In Hujjiyyat Khabar al-Ahad fi al-Aqaid wa al-Ahkam, she structures her inquiry into an introduction, two central chapters, and a conclusion . She analyzes whether solitary reports convey definitive knowledge (ilm) or probabilistic conjecture (zann), noting that the majority of legal theorists and hadith scholars hold that solitary transmissions received by the community with acceptance yield knowledge . She further demonstrates that the obligation to rely on solitary reports in practical legal rulings (ahkam) is the established position of the early generations (salaf) and later scholars (khalaf), including the four legal schools and the Zahiris .
Shuwayta concludes that the theoretical disagreement over whether solitary reports yield knowledge or probability is primarily verbal (lafzi), as both sides agree on the obligation to act upon them, and action is an offshoot of knowledge . She maintains that restricting the authority of solitary reports to legal rulings while excluding doctrinal beliefs (aqaid) is an arbitrary distinction lacking textual basis, and that an authentic solitary report transmitted by an upright narrator cannot be overridden by personal opinions or extraneous conditions .
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List of Works
Hujjiyyat Khabar al-Ahad fi al-Aqaid wa al-Ahkam (The Probative Authority of Solitary Reports in Creed and Rulings) is a treatise examining the legal and theological validity of relying on solitary hadith transmissions (khabar al-ahad). It investigates their application in establishing both doctrinal beliefs (aqaid) and practical legal rulings (ahkam), addressing the epistemological status of such reports and the arguments surrounding their authority across Islamic jurisprudence and theology.