The Ruling on a Tābiʿī’s Mursal Narration

Source: Fatāwā Amunpuri by Shaykh Ghulam Mustafa Zaheer Amunpuri

◈ Question:​

What is the ruling on the narration of a Tābiʿī who transmits hadith in irsāl (omitting the Companion)?

◈ Answer:​

• If a Tābiʿī is proven to have met a Companion — whether in this narration or another — then his narration is considered connected (muttasil), even if he narrates with ʿanʿanah (عن).
• If the Tābiʿī is not proven to have met a Companion, then his narration will not be accepted, due to the possibility of disconnection (inqiṭāʿ).
• If a reliable Imam explicitly negates the meeting of the Tābiʿī with a particular Companion, or if there is strong evidence showing lack of hearing (samāʿ), then the narration will be definitively considered munqaṭiʿ (disconnected) — even if in some reports he explicitly states hearing. In such cases, the claim of hearing will be attributed to an error (wahm) of a later narrator.

❀ Statement of the Scholars​

✔ Imam Ibn Saʿd رحمه الله:
“Abū al-Bakhtarī narrated many hadith and often made irsāl. He narrated from the Companions of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, but did not hear from most of them. Thus, the hadith in which his hearing is established are ḥasan, while those he narrates with ʿan (without proof of hearing) are weak.”
(طبقات ابن سعد: 6/293)


Conclusion:

• If a Tābiʿī is known to have met a Companion, then his narration is accepted, even if he narrates with ʿan.
• If no proof of meeting exists, the narration is weak due to possible disconnection.
• If scholars explicitly negate meeting, then even if the narration contains an explicit claim of hearing, it will still be considered disconnected, as the explicit mention is taken as a narrator’s error.