The Authoritativeness of a Solitary Report according to Ibn Taymiyyhah

The authority of a "tradition with a single transmitter" (better known as khabar-e wahid) is one of the contentious issues among scholars from various sects and denominations. Some scholars do not generally consider it as valid in jurisprudence and beliefs; some others consider such a report valid in both of them while a third group has adopted a middle approach saying it is valid in jurisprudence and invalid in beliefs. The reason for this difference is that a tradition with a single transmitter sometimes leads to knowledge and other times to a strong probability (dhan). Those who believe that such a tradition leads to knowledge maintain that it also valid in beliefs. Ibn Taymiyyah, however, believes that all traditions transmitted with a single transmitter (except for two kinds of them i.e. a report accepted by the Ummah and the report which is surrounded by evidenced) lead to probability. In other words, it can be said that a solitary report is not valid in practices and beliefs. Any type of report which leads to knowledge can also be authoritative in beliefs and any type of report which leads to probability can be invalid in beliefs as well. Ibn Taymiyya has expanded the title 'receiving the news through public acceptance' saying that all the reports in the books authored by Bukhari and Muslim are mutawatir (frequently reported). The reason he has mentioned is consensus of the traditionists. Objections have been raised to Ibn Taymiyya's opinions and those objections have been studied in this article.