Clear omission

An evident omission of a narrator and its conditions. Read the bilingual lesson for Clear omission and test your understanding with a focused quiz.

Lesson

1. In this lesson

Sometimes a narrator's omission from a chain is readily discovered. This lesson explains this clear form and why non-meeting alone is not enough. 1. Sanad: the chain of narrators showing who narrated from whom.

2. Clear omission

In saqṭ wāḍiḥ, a narrator's name is omitted from the chain in a way that is readily discoverable. The definition considers both non-meeting and how the report was received. The following slides explain these conditions.

3. They did not meet

It becomes known that the narrator did not meet the person from whom the report is narrated. That is not the whole condition: the report must also not have been received through ijāzah or wijādah. 1. Marwī ʿanhu: the person from whom a narrator transmits a report.

4. The ijāzah condition

In this form of clear omission, the narrator must not have received the report through ijāzah either. Here ijāzah is not ordinary permission: it is a teacher's authorization to transmit Hadith through the teacher's chain.

5. How is ijāzah given?

A Hadith teacher authorizes a student to transmit a particular Hadith or the Hadiths of a specified book through the teacher's chain. • This authorization may be oral. • It may also be written. That is why authorization must be considered alongside non-meeting.

6. The wijādah condition

In wijādah, one finds a Hadith collection written by a Hadith scholar and is certain that the writing is that scholar's. In the form of clear omission under discussion, the report must not have been obtained in this way either. 1. Muḥaddith: a scholar of Hadith.

7. Finding writing alone is not enough

Certainty about the writer may come from the writing style, signature or testimony. Finding unidentified writing is not equivalent. Likewise, non-meeting alone does not establish clear omission: ijāzah and wijādah must also be considered.

8. Summary

In clear omission: • A narrator's omission from the chain is readily discoverable. • The narrator did not meet the person from whom the report is narrated. • The report was not received through ijāzah or wijādah either. An omission that is not readily detected will be treated separately.

Practice questions

Question 1

Which statement gives the complete conditions of clear omission?

  • The narrator did not meet the source; nothing else matters.
  • Omission is readily known, they did not meet, and the report was not received through ijāzah or wijādah.
  • The chain contains a name unfamiliar to the student.

Question 2

Ijāzah can only be oral, not written.

  • True
  • False

Question 3

Match each description with its term.

Question 4

What is necessary concerning the writing in wijādah?

  • Certainty that the writing is the relevant scholar's.
  • Any writing is found, even with an unknown author.
  • The narrator names in it seem familiar to the student.

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