A Critical Examination of Authoritativeness of Solitary Report according to Wahhabism
The validity of a solitary report (khabar al-wahid) transmitted by a just person is a point of contention and debate among Muslims. Ahl-e Hadith and Wahhabis mostly maintain that not only acting upon a solitary report is permissible in matters of belief; but some contemporary scholars have as far as to say that acting upon a solitary report is obligatory in beliefs. To authenticate their claims, this group has taken recourse to Quranic verses and prophetic traditions. There is no doubt that the arguments presented by these people are deficient and cannot prove their point. Likewise, some Wahhabi scholars have claimed consensus over the authoritativeness of a solitary report but the discrepancies existing among religious scholars over this issue quite well indicate that the alleged consensus does not exist. In fact what is claimed to be authoritative with regards to reports passed on by just single reporters is only a theory. When it comes to practice, they even consider weak reports as authoritative and, therefore, act upon them. This article seeks to study the views of proponents and opponents of the authoritativeness of solitary reports in the area of beliefs focusing on viewpoints of Wahhabism. It concludes that the assertion of some Salafis, especially Wahhabi scholars, on the authoritativeness of solitary reports is not correct and does not prove their claim. Therefore, it is wrong to use solitary and single reports in establishing divine attributes or in matters appertaining to divine decree, seeing God and some other ideological tenets, and such reports cannot lead to formation of beliefs.
- حق عضویت دریافتی صرف حمایت از نشریات عضو و نگهداری، تکمیل و توسعه مگیران میشود.
- پرداخت حق اشتراک و دانلود مقالات اجازه بازنشر آن در سایر رسانههای چاپی و دیجیتال را به کاربر نمیدهد.