Ahad or Mutawatir Hadith? Which one is more acceptible?

[شمله ور خراساني]

As salaamu aleikoum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu,

Timbaktu claims that we do not have to accept a a hadith that is ahad. And that we only rely on mutawatir ahadith.

I want to know why.

[شمله ور خراساني]

Isnt it because one is more reliable than the other?

How is one less reliable than the other?

[شمله ور خراساني]

Because of its Authenticity and reliability. Just like how when some Hadiths contradict the other, we find out which is more authentic.

Do you even know what a mutawatir and what a ahad hadith is?

[شمله ور خراساني]

I might sound ignorant here. But what are they both?

Ahad hadith is a narration that is only reported once by one incident. Mutawatir narration is when something is narrated by different narrators on different instances.

For example Muaad Ibn Jabbal radiallahu anhu was sent to Yemen to spread the message of Islam. He was there on a mission on his own. So the teachings of Islam he learned from the prophet Muhammad saww were ahad since he was the only narrator in Yemen of ahadith.

But a different case would be one something is narrated about how the prayer was established by the prophet saww. And there are different companions who have narrated the instruction of the prayer. This is can be refered to as mutawatir as it is reported on different instances.

[Mutakhasis]

To explain it simply, an ahad/wahid khabar is a hadeeth that's not mutawaatir

As long as the hadeeth is Saheeh, it's taken as daleel

[شمله ور خراساني]

Can a punishment as severe as death penalty be based on wahid khabar even if it is sahih?

I'm not really sure about this. Some scholars say one thing and others say other things.

Which scholars say that ahad hadith should be rejected as proof? Who is is going to decide what is severe and what not?

WHy did the prophet saww send one man (muad ibn jabal) to convert a whole nation? Why didn't he send a few men? Isn't the message of monotheism not more severe and critical than a single issue as penalty?

[Mutakhasis]

The rejection of khabir wahid hadeeth is a standard Mu'tazili, Ash'ari doctrine and it's found in their textbooks on creed

On the other hand, Ahlul Sunnah accepts these saheeh narrations and believe it's obligatory to use them in both affairs of knowledge and action

[شمله ور خراساني]

I read an article by Jamal Badawi, he is not a hadith scholar but good speaker on comperative religion. I think he mentioned something along the lines, that death penalty is a severe punishment and we have no hadiths that the prophet (PBHU) ever punished anyone with death penalty for apostacy. We have no example from the life of the prophet (SWT) of him carrying out such an action. But there are hadiths where he said to kill the apostates. So he never did it himself but he said it. So should we follow what he did as in action or follow hadiths attributed to him? I will keep an open mind, I am not sure about this issue yet.

Its severe because death is the ultimate punishment from this life. I don't know what is more severe than somebody dying and leaving their families in some cases small kids to live on their own.

Well the prophet (SWT) was alive at that time so he could have sent more messangers if the people of yemen had asked for it. But the hadiths that reach us today can not be verified the same way. We can not ask the prophet (SWT) to confirm the wahid khabar since he is no more. We have to rely on whats available. By the way I do believe in hadiths and don't undermine its importance.

You're ignoring my questions regarding ahad and mutawatir and you bring the apostasy argument in here.

We've already read what you think about apostasy. We want to talk about ahad and mutawatir here.

[inqilab]

Actually there is no precise number on the amount of narrators that has to report a hadith in each time for it to be a tawatur hadith. There is no agreement on that. It is just said that a "large number of people" must report it. The least number of people said was i think four for the hadith to be considered mutawatir. So if you follow four or more to be tawatir, that would mean three is considered as ahad.

Ahad hadith, as mentioned already, is a hadith that does not reach mutawatir. It does not mean that one one narrator in each sequence. You can have a couple also and still consider it ahad depending on how you define mutawatir.

And ahad is further split into three more branches: gharib, aziz and mashur.

Either way, if the hadith is sahih it is accepted.

It is said only your mother can tell you who your father is.

[inqilab]

As for apostates, Allahs Messenger [s] ordered the assassination of the ruler in yemen, aswad al-ansi, who apostated from islam and claimed to be a prophet.

A few sahaba under the command of fayruz a-daylami killed him.