Hujjiyyat Khabar al-Ahad fi al-Aqaid wa al-Ahkam - Farhana bint Ali Shuwayta
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Hujjiyyat Khabar al-Ahad fi al-Aqaid wa al-Ahkam (The Probative Authority of Solitary Reports in Creed and Rulings) is a treatise by Farhana bint Ali Shuwayta examining the legal and theological validity of relying on solitary hadith transmissions (khabar al-ahad) in establishing both doctrinal beliefs (aqaid) and practical legal rulings (ahkam) .
Scope and Structure
The book is structured into an introduction, a preliminary section, two main chapters, and a conclusion :
- Preliminary Section (al-Tamhid): Covers the status of the Sunnah in Islamic legislation as the second source of law after the Quran, as well as the linguistic and technical definitions of key terms in the study, including probative authority (hujjiyyah), transmission (khabar), solitary reports (ahad), creed (aqaid), and practical jurisprudence (ahkam) . It highlights that the formal division of reports into mass-transmitted (mutawatir) and solitary was not part of the early practice of the Companions and Successors, who accepted authentic reports universally across all domains of the religion .
- Chapter One: Invoking Solitary Reports in Creed (al-Ihtijaj bi-Khabar al-Ahad fi al-Aqaid): Examines the epistemological question of whether solitary reports yield certainty/knowledge (ilm) or probable belief (zann) . It addresses the views of legal theorists (usuliyyun) and hadith scholars, noting the majority position that solitary reports accompanied by corroborating contextual indicators (qara'in) or accepted by the consensus of the Muslim community convey certainty . It also critiques arguments raised by classical theological figures, such as al-Qadi Abd al-Jabbar and al-Bazdawi, as well as modern figures including Muhammad Abduh, Mahmud Shaltut, and Muhammad Farid Wajdi, who rejected the use of solitary reports in creed .
- Chapter Two: Invoking Solitary Reports in Practical Rulings (al-Ihtijaj bi-Khabar al-Ahad fi al-Ahkam): Sets out the proofs establishing the obligation to act upon solitary reports in legal matters according to the four Sunni schools of jurisprudence, the Zahiris, and the majority of scholars . It reviews and responds to the counterarguments of figures who opposed their authority in law, such as Muhammad ibn Dawud al-Zahiri, Muhammad ibn Ishaq al-Kasani, and groups from the Qadariyyah, Rafidah, and Mu'tazilah .
Key Conclusions
In the conclusion, Shuwayta articulates several primary findings of the study :
- The scholarly disagreement regarding whether solitary reports yield knowledge (ilm) or probable opinion (zann) is largely verbal (lafzi), because scholars asserting that it yields zann nonetheless mandate acting upon it, and action inherently presupposes knowledge .
- Differentiating between practical legal rulings and doctrinal beliefs regarding the acceptability of solitary reports is an unfounded distinction unsupported by evidence .
- Accepting solitary reports in creedal matters preserves the unified authority of the Sunnah and aligns with the historical methodology of the early generations (al-Salaf) .
- Authentic reports transmitted by upright narrators cannot be invalidated by extraneous conditions or speculative reasoning not derived from the Quran, the Sunnah, or scholarly consensus .
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