Corroboration (mutaba'a), supporting report (shahid) and the search for them (i'tibar)

In [[work/nuzhat-al-nazar|Nuzhat al-Nazar]], Ibn Hajar deals with what strengthens a report thought to be solitary: if, after it was thought relatively solitary, someone is found who agrees with its narrator, that is corroboration (mutaba'a); if a text from another Companion resembling it is found, that is a supporting report (shahid); and the search for them is i'tibar. ¹

Corroboration has degrees: if it is for the narrator himself it is complete, and if it is for his teacher or someone higher it is partial; it serves to strengthen the report. ²

An example is what al-Shafi'i transmits in al-Umm from Malik, from 'Abd Allah ibn Dinar, from Ibn 'Umar, that the Prophet ﷺ said: "The month is twenty-nine days; do not fast until you see the new moon and do not break the fast until you see it, and if it is clouded over, complete the count as thirty." Some thought al-Shafi'i alone transmitted this wording from Malik, since Malik's other students gave it as "then estimate for it"; but a corroborator was found, 'Abd Allah ibn Maslama al-Qa'nabi, through whom al-Bukhari gives it from Malik: this is complete corroboration. ²

Partial corroboration was also found: in the Sahih of Ibn Khuzayma through 'Asim ibn Muhammad, from his father, from his grandfather Ibn 'Umar, worded "complete thirty", and in the Sahih of Muslim through 'Ubayd Allah ibn 'Umar, from Nafi', from Ibn 'Umar, worded "estimate thirty". ² Corroboration is not limited to the same wording: agreement in meaning suffices, but it must come through that same Companion. ³

If a text is found transmitted from another Companion that resembles it in wording and meaning, or in meaning alone, that is a supporting report. For the same hadith, an example in wording is al-Nasa'i's report through Muhammad ibn Hunayn from Ibn 'Abbas, exactly like Ibn 'Umar's; an example in meaning is al-Bukhari's report through Muhammad ibn Ziyad from Abu Hurayra, "complete the count of Sha'ban as thirty". ³

Ibn Hajar mentions that some restricted corroboration to agreement in wording, whether through the same Companion or not, and the supporting report to agreement in meaning; and that each term is sometimes used for the other, "and the matter is easy". ³

Tracing the routes of a report thought to be solitary through the collections, musnads and booklets, to learn whether it has a corroborator, is i'tibar. Ibn Hajar observes that Ibn al-Salah's heading "knowing i'tibar, corroborations and supporting reports" may suggest that i'tibar is a third category beside them; it is not, but the way of arriving at them. ⁴

Overview

"Knowing examination (i'tibar), corroborations (mutaba'at) and supporting reports (shawahid)" is the fifteenth type in Ibn al-Salah; he describes these as tools hadith scholars use in judging a hadith — whether its narrator is alone in it or not, and whether it is known or not. ⁵

How examination works

Ibn al-Salah quotes an example from Ibn Hibban: suppose Hammad ibn Salama relates, uncorroborated, a hadith from Ayyub from Ibn Sirin from Abu Hurayra from the Prophet. One checks whether a trustworthy narrator other than Ayyub relates it from Ibn Sirin; if so, the report is known to have a source; if not, whether a trustworthy narrator other than Ibn Sirin relates it from Abu Hurayra; if not, whether a Companion other than Abu Hurayra relates it from the Prophet. Whichever is found shows the hadith has a source; otherwise it does not. ^{5 6}

Corroboration and supporting report

A complete corroboration, says Ibn al-Salah, is when someone other than Hammad relates the same hadith from Ayyub; if no one else relates it from Ayyub but someone relates it from Ibn Sirin or Abu Hurayra, or another Companion from the Prophet, this too may be called corroboration, though it falls short of the first in proportion to its distance, and it may also be called a supporting report. ⁶ If the hadith is not related by any of these routes, but another hadith with the same meaning is, that is a supporting report without corroboration; and if no other hadith carries its meaning, its solitariness is absolute, and it then divides into rejected and objectionable (munkar) and not rejected. ^{6 7} When critics say "Abu Hurayra alone has it, Ibn Sirin alone from him, Ayyub alone from Ibn Sirin, Hammad alone from Ayyub", this signals that no corroborations exist. ⁷

Who can serve

Corroborations and supporting reports may include narrators not relied on alone, even counted among the weak; the books of al-Bukhari and Muslim cite a number of weak narrators in corroborations and supporting reports. Yet not every weak narrator qualifies, which is why al-Daraqutni and others say of weak narrators: "so-and-so may be considered", "so-and-so may not be considered". ⁷

A worked example

Ibn al-Salah cites Sufyan ibn Uyayna's hadith from Amr ibn Dinar from Ata from Ibn Abbas on using the hide of a dead animal once tanned, which Ibn Jurayj relates from Amr from Ata without mentioning tanning; al-Bayhaqi supplied for Ibn Uyayna's version a corroboration — Usama ibn Zayd (may God be pleased with him)'s narration from Ata from Ibn Abbas in similar words — and a supporting report, the hadith of Abd al-Rahman ibn Wa'la from Ibn Abbas. ^{7 8}